Samson was a strong, mighty man of God! As long as his hair was long, as God commanded it to be, he would stay strong! But, Samson temporarily forgot about God's command and let Delilah cut his hair. Then, he lost his strength, was captured by the Philistines, but remembered God. The Lord then gave him his strength back so he could kill them all, and set things right!
That's the story of Samson in a nutshell. Well, sort of. That's the story most of us were taught at church as children. The real story of Samson, the way the Bible tells it, is much, much different!
For starters, Samson was a man devoid of moral character and decency. Yep, I just wrote that. Samson was not the "mighty man of God" he is often portrayed as. In fact, the biggest lessons that can be taken away from his story are that we should not act like Samson, or mimic his behavior in just about any way.
Samson was called to be set apart by God even before his birth. In fact, an angel was sent to Samson's parents to announce his conception and to give instructions on how the child was to be raised. Many scholars believe this "angel" to be an Old Testament appearance of Christ Himself! There was clearly something different about Samson even from the beginning.
But, just as all of us Christians are called by God, we can still make horrible, sinful decisions. And that's exactly what Samson did.
In one such sinful action, Samson has to pay a gambling debt (he had made a bet with some folks concerning a riddle-they figured out Samson's word puzzle, so he had to pay up). Judges 14:19 states that Samson killed 30 men in Ashkelon, took their belongings, and gave it to those whom he had made the wager with. In the very next verse it implies Samson might have forgotten about his new wife, as he returned to his father's house (he was ticked he'd lost the bet) and his bride was "given to the friend who had attended him (Samson) at his wedding."
So, Samson gets even more ticked when he finds out his wife is no longer actually his wife. Does he cry out to the Lord? No. Does he promise to treat her differently if she'll only come back to him? Hardly. He actually takes his anger out on the Philistines by burning their crops and vineyards, in a fit of rage. They in turn get revenge on Samson by killing his father-in-law and his wife. Samson gets even angrier, as any man would, and kills some of them. While some of his anger and rage is justified, some of it is not, and it all illustrates that he had an extreme propensity towards violence.
Some version of Samson's life, told to children, include the part where he rips the large gates of the city walls of Gaza and carries them up a hill. What these versions leave out is this happens in the middle of the night, right after Samson "sleeps" with a prostitute. Judges 16 tells the story of some in Gaza wanting to kill Samson, with a plan to ambush him in the morning, when he leaves. The problem for them is that Samson doesn't spend the entire night with the woman, but seems to just leave in the night after he's...um...finished his...business transaction with her.
It's fairly soon after this that he shacks up with the woman who will eventually lead to his downfall, Delilah. Several times Samson wakes up to find the Philistines upon him, suspiciously after he's supposedly told Delilah the source of his strength. He stays with the woman, even though she's tried to have him captured, showing that either he's not too bright or Delilah was just that hot.
We all know how the story ends. She cuts his hair, he ends up in captivity, being mocked and put on display. However, in the final moments of his life, he calls upon the Lord.
A lot more could be said about Samson. The story goes far deeper than I've covered on this blog. But the important thing is, for all he did wrong, and the vast majority of his life was wrong, he did something right. He had faith in God. He might not have always shown it, and he had more than his fair share of missteps. But, even a person as wicked as Samson made it into the "Faith Hall of Fame" found in Hebrews 11. If there's hope for Samson, I sort of think there's hope for me!
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