Samson is a messy character who meshes perfectly with the messy spirituality of the book of Judges. It’s easy to see the book of Judges as nothing more than Israel’s habitual inability to live right and God’s resulting chastisement. That’s certainly part of the story—but it’s not the only part. Why does God bother with them? Why not give up on them?
The answer doesn’t have to do with them, it has to do with Him. He won’t give up on them because He loves them. He won’t give up on them because He wants to bless them and to use them to bless others. There’s too much at stake to quit. Parents understand this. Your child is going through a stormy time in their life. You don’t quit on them—you get out your raincoat and umbrella and help get them through the storm. There’s more to Judges than that, but if we don’t see this, we’ll miss a central part of the story.
Samson is the last of the judges/deliverers we read about in the book of Judges, and he was representative of all that was wrong with Israel and their leaders. Israel had been in bondage to the Philistines—this time for forty years (13:1). We have no record of them calling upon God for relief as we do in previous instances (3:9, 15, 4:3, 6:6-7, 10:10). This could indicate that they had so settled into sin that they were dull to their situation. The good news is that God was sensitive to their situation and wanted better for them than they seemingly wanted for themselves. (Isn’t that just one of the things we love about our Father?).
So, he raised up Samson. Samson’s superpower was his strength—and it really was a superpower. His strength came from God, but it was also conditioned upon Samson’s observance of the Nazarite vow (Numbers 6). This vow involved three things: 1) abstaining from eating or drinking anything from the grapevine, 2) not cutting his hair, and 3) not going near a dead body. Normally, an Israelite man or woman promised to do these things for a certain period of time as a show of their love for God. In Samson’s case however, he didn’t make that choice—they were the guidelines God gave him to live by.
While Samson was remarkably different than anyone else due to his great strength and his responsibility to live by the Nazarite vow, but it’s important for us to see that in principle he was just like us. After all, God gives everyone certain gifts and abilities. We can accept the responsibility that comes with them and use them to His glory, or we can ignore God’s guidelines and waste our abilities and gifts. Sadly, this was, for the most part, what Samson chose. He was a strong man who was weak in character.
He was weak in his orientation. Samson was essentially a person of the flesh who was ruled by his physical desires. The first recorded words of his are, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife” (Judges 14:2). Note that he had “seen” a woman—it was all about appearances, there was nothing about what kind of person she was (also in v. 1). In 16:1 we’re told he’s with a prostitute. Later he falls in love with Delilah, who sells him out, but he doesn’t care, he wants what he wants—even to his own destruction. This impulsiveness Samson displayed shows how he was ruled by his physical desires.
He was weak in taking the counsel of others. From everything we can tell, Samson had great parents. After the angel initially appeared to Samson’s mother to tell her about Samson’s birth, her husband, Manoah, prayed that God would send the angel back so he could “teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born” (13:8).
When Samson presented them with his demand for the Philistine woman, they counseled him to seek someone from among God’s people (14:3). God had forbidden Israel from marrying people outside the covenant in Deuteronomy 7:1-6 and even though the Philistines weren’t one of the seven nations specifically mentioned, the principle that “they will turn your children away from following Me to serve other gods” (v. 4), certainly would have applied.
But Samson didn’t consider their counsel. At this point, the writer lets us know that “His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines” (v. 4). Samson’s parents weren’t aware that God was going to use Samson’s fleshy impetuousness to weaken the Philistines. As He did with the actions of Joseph’s brothers and the people who crucified Jesus, God will use the misdeeds of other to accomplish His purposes. That’s what He was doing with Samson and it’s indicative of the spiritual decline that has taken place in Israel.
He was weak in living outside himself. The main thing for Samson seems to always have been Samson. It wasn’t God. Pride is either thinking too much about yourself or thinking about yourself too much. Samson seems that have been caught up in both aspects. While he was capable of acknowledging God’s role in his life (15:18), he didn’t seem to be able to live that way.
But this isn’t the last word concerning Samson. For that, read this.
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 