First Presbyterian Church
647 East Market Street
Akron, Ohio 44304-1684
330-434-5183

Food for Thought: Samson: Don't Squander Your Gifts

From the "Bad Boys of the Bible" series ...

Dr. Mark Ruppert

Judges 13-16

Today we wrap up a mini-series that I have entitled: Bad Boys of Scripture. We have looked at Adam, Cain, Abraham, and today we conclude with Samson.

Let me set the context . The story of Samson takes place during the period of the Judges. The book of Judges is typified by predictable cycles of relative peace, idolatry, judgment, cries to God for help, God’s raising up a savior figure, leadership of the Judge, and a time of peace. (Judges 2:11-19) There were 12 judges in Israel , 11 men and 1 woman, who provided military, spiritual and community leadership during a time of political crisis. Samson was the last and probably most famous of the bunch and when you read the book of Judges you will find that the story of his life stretches over 4 chapters so that we know more about him than any of his predecessors. He is the one Judge who does not deliver Israel in spite of his promising beginning.

Here is a man who possessed unbelievable strength as well as a sharp mind. As a matter of fact he was a master at posing riddles. But this was also a man who was enslaved by his weaknesses for he had an out of control temper that sought revenge, he was captivated by lust that lead to a destructive romance, and his commitment to his nazirite vows was something he reneged on. Reneging on Vows, Romance and Revenge are issues that Samson will be remembered for.

When you think about it, Samson is representative of Israel , for when you look at his life it is indicative of the ways and mindset of the people. It has been said that a nation gets the government that it deserves or better said that the nation often elects or accepts the government that most closely depicts the mood and values of its people. That was the case with Samson. For as Israel declined spiritually so each person who is seen as its deliverer seems to be more flawed than the last. The cycle of sin does not only repeat itself but it intensifies.

The only thing that could save Israel would be God intervening to save them from decaying politically and assimilating into the pagan religions of the Philistines.

Let me set the spiritual climate of the times . We read in Judges 13:1, “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.” The Judge before Samson was Jephthah who sought to deliver the tribes of Israel east of Jordan from the Ammonite invasion but the Philistines were in control for 40 years west of the Jordan right up the seacoast. Jephthah lead for 20 years during the time Samson was growing up. These were years of spiritual decline in Israel where the influence of the younger generation was void of any spiritual fervor. Eli was the high priest and he was ineffective to lead the people spiritually. Eventually the ark of God was captured in a battle and only after 7 months was returned when its captors where plagued with boils and their idol of their god Dagon was smashed to pieces in their temple by the God of Israel. It is at this time that Samson begins his service to the people. The Philistines are in control and it is interesting that this is the one place in the book of Judges wHere we do not find the people crying out to God to be delivered from their enemy. The Philistines were a part of the plan that God had set in motion whereby Israel would be tested to see if they would remain loyal to God. What the Philistines were going to do was mainstream the Israelites into their culture. They were going to conquer them by assimilating them through intermarriage and watching them take up the Philistines’ religious practices until their worship of the one true God became a thing of the past. This is the same thing the church today must work to avoid so that we do not lose our witness and become assimilated in the society around us. The church becomes the transformer of society not the society transforming the church. And so, back to Samson, this is why God intervened and appeared to Samson’s father, Manoah and his wife, who happened to be barren. God tells them that they will have a son who is to deliver Israel from the Philistines. They name their son, Samson. Let’s now take a look at the life of Samson.

First, His vow as a Nazirite and how he reneged. Chapter 13:2-5 tells us that the angel of the Lord comes to Manoah’s wife and tells her that she will bear a son and that he will be a Nazirite to God from birth. If you read the 6 th chapter of the book of Numbers you will find three commitments a Nazirite must keep during the period of his vow: 1) Avoid any contact with grapes or the drinking of wine, 2) Never touch a dead body of any kind, and 3) Let you hair grow and never get it cut. But let me draw your attention to the last part of Judges 13:5 where we read, “It is he [Samson] who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” I want to highlight, “Shall begin….” As we look at the story of Samson we will find out that he never did any delivering. Why?

Because he never delivered himself from some of his fatal flaws and so he only began to deliver Israel . Look at what it says in Judges 13:25. “The spirit of the Lord began to stir in him….” This was a man who was set apart by God. This was a man who had all the tools he ever needed to accomplish the task before him. He had the mind and the brawn. As a mater of fact, the name Samson comes from the Hebrew word “SHIMSHON” which means “strong”. We read in Judges 14:5-6 that he went down with his father and mother to Timnah and suddenly a lion roared against him and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him and he tore the lion apart barehanded as one might tear apart a kid.” We also read in Judges 14:19 that he single-handedly killed 30 Philistines and then in Judges 15:14 -15 with the jawbone of a donkey he killed 1,000 Philistines. Samson was to be God’s instrument of deliverance. But he let it slip away.

He begins down the slippery slopE in Judges 14:7 when he violates the Nazirite vow by touching a dead animal and eats the honey that has been produced by a swarm of bees that is inside the carcass of the dead lion. This was only the beginning.

Second, Romance leads to trouble . Samson had this fatal flaw, this weakness for foreign women. We read in Judges 14:1-2, “Once Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw a Philistine woman. Then he came up, and told his father and mother, ‘I saw a Philistine woman at Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” They tried to talk him out of it, tried to encourage him to marry a woman from their people but he says in verse 3, “Get her for me, because she pleases me.” It was all about Samson. He knew very well that he was in violation of the covenant that God has set forth, forbidding Israelites from marrying those outside of their faith. A side note- Just as in Samson’s day, there is something to be said about believers marrying someone who is not a believer. People being “unequally yoked” has lead to more and more heartache because the unbeliever doesn’t share the same convictions and more times than not, the union has weakened or even drawn the believer down or sadly, away from the faith.

We also read in chapter 16:1 and following, “Once Samson went to Gaza , where he saw a prostitute and went in to her. The Gazites were told, ‘Samson has come here.’ So they circled around and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, ‘Let us wait until the light of the morning; then we will kill him.’ Then at midnight he rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in from of Hebron . After this he fell in love with a woman of the valley of Sorek , whose name was Delilah.”

And we read in the 16 th chapter that it was his weakness for Delilah that she was able to find out the secret to his strength by nagging him to the point that it says in 16:17, “So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, ‘a razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else.’” And we know that the Philistines paid her handsomely for finding out and his hair was cut and he lost his strength. Romance lead to his eventually destruction.

And third, Samson is a man filled with REVENGE. If you read Judges, chapter 15 you will note the activities Samson was involved in during his twenty years as a Judge of Israel. It tells of the revenge that Samson brings down on the Philistines as a result of them killing his wife and father-in-law.

As a matter of fact his own people hand him over to the Philistines. There is more to the story than time allows me to convey but we read in verse 15 that his revenge leads him to kill 1,000 of the Philistines.

When you read the story of Samson you see a cycle of revenge that keeps repeating itself. The Philistines do something and Samson replies with revenge. They then respond and he ratchets it up and does something in reply. With each situation it escalates. He gains victory over the Philistines and, Oh, if only the story stopped in chapter 15:20 where it says that he judged Israel for 20 years. But it doesn’t. God was obviously meeting any need he had and he was ruling Israel and leading them but there was this desire for women.

The story ends in chapter 16 with Samson falling for another Philistine woman, Delilah, and she keeps pestering him until he tells her that his hair is the secret of his strength and she has it cut. He looses his strength and is captured. They gouged out his eyes. One day he is brought out of prison where the lords of the Philistines are having a party and they make sport of him by making him perform for them. They put him between two pillars and he cries out to the Lord and asks God to grant him strength one more time. God does and he pushes the pillars and brings down the house where the party is going on and as a result, those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.

Such a tragic story for a man with so much potential. Where did Samson go wrong? Why did he squander his gifts? He never “go it,” for he never understood the real meaning of his call from the very beginning. He likes to play games with people, using riddles to get the better of them. He is very knowledgeable and uses it as power over people. His emotions and his impulsive ways get the better of him and his anger at times, is out of control.He is downright vengeful and brutal. His ego and his needs get the better of him so that we never see him as the leader he was called to be.

So what can we learn from Samson? The importance of commitment, the importance of a vow. We rarely see Samson in worship or prayer. He pushes the limits all the time and turns his back on the very vow that set him apart. And yet there probably isn’t one of us who hasn’t fallen prey to not honoring our commitment to God. We have told God what we will do; we have made promises before God and others and haven’t always been consistent. God sometimes takes a back seat and other things or activities take priority. There are times we might all need to reevaluate our commitments and ask where is God, Christ’s church and serving Him in our pecking order.

Samson’s life isn’t integrated. He has a sharp mind and it is obvious his intellect is superior.

He can outthink his enemy without any trouble. He is built like a Greek god and has the strength of Hercules. We will not even discuss his sexual stamina. The problem is his morals and values and ethics. His spiritual life is tragic. He has been dedicated to God but he could care less about the vows that should have reflected a special relationship with God. You see God created us to be integrated- body, mind and spirit. Samson would say, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” Is there any of us who are underdeveloped in any one of these areas? Who among us have concentrated on making money or a career that God and/or family has taken a back seat? Who among us might be holier-than-thou but cannot carry on a conversation outside of the religious realm? If we are underdeveloped in one of these areas our lives can be lopsided.

Finally, in the story of Samson we find out something else. We find out about the MERCY of God.

At the end when Samson was standing between the two pillars and asking God for strength God doesn’t leave him to die in humiliation and shame. God provided. And just like we discussed that God provided for Abraham last Sunday, God will provide for us. Sometimes when we think things can’t get any worse and it seems so dark, there is a ray of hope- the unexpected visit or phone call, the turn of events that brings good out of something that was terrible. You see the hair on Samson head began to grow again and his strength returned one more time. “May we be reminded of God’s mercy when we fall, stumble, err. May we too experience God’s love when we think life is over. May we too know God’s presence when we are alone and desolate. May God’s grace hold us when we sink deeper and deeper in despair.” (Bad Boys of the Bible, Essex, p. 114) There is always hope with God. Samson even found that out. Amen.

Key Points

The context: the period of the Judges

The spiritual climate of the times (Judges 13:1)

First, his ____ as a Nazirite and how he Reneged (Judges 13:2-5)

Three commitments (Numbers 6)

1.
2.
3.

Judges 13:5, “…who shall begin…”

Second, Romance leads to trouble (Judges 14:1-2; 16:1f)

And third, Samson is a man filled with Revenge (Judges 15)

The story ends in chapter 16

Where did Samson go wrong?

What can we learn from Samson?

The importance of __________ , the importance of a vow

Samson’s life isn’t ___________

Conclusion: In the story of Samson we find out something else. We find out about the Mercy of God.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)