Samson
Judges 13:1-5, 13:24 - 14:4, 14:15 - 15:8, 16:23-31
During another cycle of Israel’s bondage to an external power (this time, the Philistines), Samson is born as a man of God and would become his nation's next judge. His ultimate purpose? To gain some opportunity for God to confront the Philistines for Israel’s eventual release from their rule. Biblical figures of similar purpose may come to mind immediately; Moses and David to name a few. Samson’s life, though fitted by the Lord uniquely with supernatural strength, is a testament to God’s ability to use people who are particularly weak.
Samson was fitted with physical strength, yet displayed incredible moral weakness, especially in his relationships with women. The first relationship Samson has in chapter 14 sets the typical trend: He finds a woman he shouldn’t be with, provokes the Philistines, the woman manipulates Samson in some way, he concedes, his anger grows to vengeance, the spirit empowers him to kill Philistines. In the first relationship, it seems Samson is justified in his killing of the Philistines as they force his wife into manipulating him, in which she is ultimately given away. This would provoke any man to anger, yes. For the Israelites though, they still aren’t to marry outside their nation as it is deemed unclean by God within the present covenant (Deut. 7:3-4). Samson’s oversight of relational and sexual purity continues to spiral down as the story goes on. He sleeps with a prostitute in chapter 16, only to find another Philistine woman to fall in love with some time later; Delilah.
Immediately, the Philistine leaders approach, pressuring Delilah to manipulate Samson into revealing how he might be bound and subdued. Using the same manipulative tactic as the first woman, Samson gives in, telling her exactly how he can be stripped of the blessing God had placed on his life. Spurgeon paints the spiritual picture for us beautifully, “Samson is sound asleep; so clever is the barber that he even lulls him to sleep as his fingers move across the pate, the fool’s pate, which he is making bare. The devil is cleverer far than even the skillful-barber; he can shave the believer’s locks while he scarcely knows it.”
Samson pulls through in the end though, trusting in God so much as to scorn the shame of his shaved head, asking him to give him strength one last time, crushing 3,000 leaders of Philistia. However, this failure to guard his heart and get into relationships with women he had no business being in a relationship with came at an incredible personal cost to Samson. And it is by this means God achieves the work He set out to do in Samson, as he would “begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5b). God is going to do what He wills to achieve His purposes. The question for us then is will it be in spite of us, or in light of us? God can and has worked in spite of His people’s sin and brokenness, and is faithful to His word even with Samson’s shaved head. As great as our sin and shame is, Praise God for His grace abounding all the more. Yet in Christ, we have freedom now to serve Him exclusively, quite literally equipped with power in the midst of temptation to resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7). Let us be people who, in Christ and by His power, but off our sinful ways and serve God alone. Seeking not to put ourselves in situations where we compromise on our faith, but in love, striving to live as Christ lived.
