Where is the story of samson in the bible
The story of samson
Samson the strongman of the Bible if
ever there was a character deserving of
Hollywood treatment it was certainly
Samson the story is a familiar one
Israel is once again didn't body turning
away from the Lord and worshipping other
gods God delivers them up to the
Philistines to oppress them but Israel
doesn't learn its lesson this time
there's no repentance no crying out to
the Lord this time Israel has decided to
accept its servitude and let the
Philistines have their way they trade
their freedom for security but God isn't
willing to let Israel surrender he's
giving them a deliverer whether they
want one or not and so we have another
familiar scenario not so much familiar
from judges but when we see elsewhere in
the biblical narrative there's a woman
married to a man named Manoah she has no
children because she's barren but an
angel of the Lord appears to her and he
tells her that she's going to have a
baby
does the scene sound familiar well
obviously there are some similarities to
the story of Sarah and to Hannah the
mother of Samuel
and it's also reminiscent of the story
of Jesus the author of judges in his own
inimical style throws some comedy into
the narrative as manoa thinks that maybe
his wife has gone a little bit loony but
eventually everyone is on the same page
manoah's son is to be a Nazarite
a word which means devoted manoah's wife
is told not to drink wine or fermented
drinks nor to eat any grapes or anything
unclean
you can probably assume that the same
ideas are going to apply to her child
since these are typically requirements
from Nazarites explicitly however the
text only says that no razor is to touch
his hair is there a little ambiguity
here in the text perhaps
anyway Samson is born and when he grows
up he doesn't seem to be set on
delivering the Israelites in fact Samson
seems to be all about his own appetites
first he loves a Philistine girl get her
for my wife he demands well why not
maybe a good Jewish girl asked his
mother his parents didn't know that this
fatal attraction was of the Lord God was
going to stir up trouble between the
Israelites and the Philistines and what
better way to do it than to make Samson
fall in love with one of their daughters
this is going to be a constant theme in
the story of Samson he has got a
weakness for women in fact every major
episode seems to feature a dangerous
liaison between Samson and a lady
so Samson is on his way to Timna to
arrange the wedding and he wanders
through a vineyard what's he doing in a
vineyard he's not supposed to be eating
grapes is he just admiring the
appearance of the fruit perhaps little
to Sampson know there is a lion lurking
there and the lion decides to eat Samson
Samson is immediately filled with the
Spirit of the Lord and he becomes
super-powered he makes quick work of the
lion and he heads on off down to tinda
we should pause here a minute and
contemplate the fact that the Holy
Spirit works a little differently in the
Old Testament than he does in the new
the spirits present doesn't seem to make
people behave better in the Old
Testament instead his primary work seems
to be empowering people for certain
tasks that task might be prophesy it
might be leading the nation it might be
building the tabernacle it varies quite
a bit in the case of Samson the spirit
seems to empower him to break things
so after breaking the lion Sampson
proceeded to did not negotiate the
wedding
but on his way home he passes through
the same vineyard there he finds the
carcass of the lion and these have built
a honeycomb inside samson goes digging
into the carcass and scoops out some
honey apparently he has broken another
Nazarite prohibition the prohibition
against touching dead or unclean things
anyway samson gets married and Eddie's
wedding feast he bets his wedding guests
that they can't answer his riddle out of
the eater comes something to eat out of
the strong came sweetness well the
wedding guests can't figure out the
puzzle admittedly it doesn't seem
specially fair sort of like Bilbo
Baggins ass
golem dude tell him what's in his pocket
but anyway they pressure Samson's new
Brides reveal the secret when the
wedding guests provide the answer that
Samson is seeking he becomes enraged
realizing that his wife had given away a
secret if you had not plowed with my
heifer you would not have guessed my
riddle
so to pay off his debt Samson went out
and he killed three Philistines he took
their garments to give to the wedding
guests and then he went back home to mom
and dad just sulk
Samson's first recorded act of killing
Philistines had nothing to do with
delivering Israel it was all about a
personal vendetta and paying off a debt
a few months later
Samson decides to go get his bride
unaware of the fact that her father has
already given her to another man when
Samson learns that his wife is
unavailable he takes vengeance by
setting fire to the fields of the
Philistines note here that Samson is
punishing many Philistines for the
actions of one man and the Philistines
realized the same thing they took the
father-in-law and the daughter and they
burned them to avenge their loss now
when Samson hears about their deaths he
went out and he killed even more
Philistines the Philistines were
reasonably upset about this about the
fact that they were getting killed all
over the place and so they invaded Judah
and they demanded the Israelites
surrender Samson to their justice so the
Israelites went is a small army to
Samson and they gave their interesting
perspective on things don't you realize
that the Philistines are all rulers
Goethe had reconciled themselves to
slavery they handed Samson over to the
Philistines once in the Philistine camp
Samson easily broke his bonds and he
killed a thousand of his enemies with
the jawbone of a donkey now it seems
Samson has a special weakness for
Philistine women because his next
misadventure takes him into the house of
a prostitute in the Philistine city of
Gaza when the Philistines learned their
enemy is in their midst they barked city
gate so he can't escape but that doesn't
stop our hero he simply cares the gates
out of the wall and carries them off
sixty miles or so to Hebron
does anyone find it disturbing the per
spirit of God and power Samson to get
away with sleeping with Philistine
prostitutes finally there comes the most
famous dangerous liaison the one with
the woman Delilah Delilah lives in the
valley of Sorek which was located
between the lands of the Philistines and
the lands of the Israelites her name
however is Hebrew though there's some
question about its meaning it apparently
comes from the root delao which means to
droop down and it can refer to eyelids
drooping and a languorous or for tatius
manner it also sounds very much like the
Hebrew phrase of the night which would
be a very fitting name for the women who
plunges Samson into darkness by taking
his eyes
we won't recount here the way Delilah
wheedle Samson secret out of him how she
cut his hair and turned him over to the
Philistines it's interesting to consider
how Samson's strength was tied to his
hair however the Bible makes it clear
that Samson's strength came from the
Holy Spirit not from some physical
attribute like his hair why then does
cutting his hair make him weak was his
hair an epitome of his faithfulness to
God but if his hair were only a symbol
then why did his strength return when
his hair grew back get Samson feel that
cutting of his hair had cut him off from
God separating him from the Holy Spirit
or is this as some scholars would
contend merely old folk motif the hero
who receives power from his hair bound
together uneasily with some Hebrew
prayer
in any event Samson's downfall allows
him to be arrested blinded and brought
into the very capital city of the
Philistine territory there he set to
work winding grain while his hair begins
to grow back again
in the final scene of the story Samson
is brought into the temple of Dagon
during the great feast to the Philistine
so that he can be publicly clocked by
now Samson's hair has grown back and
apparently he knows his strength has
returned as well he asks to be placed
between the two great pillars and
support the temple's pavilion and there
he prays to the Lord not for forgiveness
not to deliver his nation from
oppressors rather he prays that he might
have vengeance for the loss of his eyes
Samson's final act of sacrifice the act
that delivers Israel from its oppressors
is actually an act of rage and
selfishness now the story of Samson
might remind us that God can use flawed
vessels to accomplish his goals it might
as well make us wonder if his work is
being carried out in the world today
through tools that we would never
identify as his but on the other hand we
probably shouldn't take this
laia thinking to find the period of the
judges was one of recurring apostasy and
religious
God used what he had available to
accomplish his purposes Samson is
reflection of Israel's spiritual state
of the time driven by desires the things
that God had forbidden attracted by the
foreign delights and ultimately enslaved
by the very things that had so enticed
him
