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Mighty and Misunderstood

Justin Bohner

If you had to sum up Samson in one word, what would that word be?


Failure?


Moron?


Womanizer?


Murderer?


Psychopath?


Misogynist?


All of these words have been used at one point or another to describe Samson, the mighty Israelite judge who was used by God to deliver the nation from the pagan Philistines. Many people look at the story of Samson and read over it quickly, highlighting some of the cool things he does in battle, reeling at the weird things he does with honey and foxes, and cringing at the amount of blood shed by him in his life. Usually by the end of the story people have concluded that Samson is an abject failure who dies alone in a revenge-suicide situation. I want to spend time in this article shattering that myth, showing how Samson was actually the opposite of these things. In fact, he is a vivid image of the ultimate head-crushing deliverer that would one day be born, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ.


 


Samson Set Apart


From the womb, there was a special set of expectations placed on Samson, not the least of which is what is called 'the Nazirite vow.' At first glance this may look like something that has to do with Nazis, but I assure you that is not the case.


The Nazirite vow was a special calling or consecration (setting apart) that was either placed upon individuals for life or taken up by individuals for a specific period of time and for a specific purpose. The basics of this vow were as follows: the man's hair wasn't to be cut, they weren't allowed any alcohol, they had a restricted diet, and they couldn't be around dead people. That may seem simple and somewhat strange, but if you look a little deeper you will find some incredible stuff here.


Lets talk about the hair. It is interesting how prominent Samsons hair is in this story. It talks about his strength coming from his hair; he is ultimately powerless in the end when his hair is cut. What is it about the hair?


Well for one, the hair was never supposed to be the object. The hair simply symbolized the work done for the Lord during the time of the Nazirite vow. In the book of Acts, Paul takes a Nazirite vow on one of his missionary journeys, and at the end of the journey has his head shaved and the hair offered to God as an offering. The hair is a symbol of the work done for the bride, the Church. In the same way, Samsons hair is a symbol of the work that he is doing for the Kingdom of God, fighting and working hard to defend Israel from the Philistines.


Now, the alcohol. The Nazirite vow prohibited the drinking of wine and strong drink, an ancient form of beer. The bible is replete with passages talking about how wine not only makes the heart merry and glad, a sort of celebratory drink, but also symbolizes rest. When the people in the Old Testament rested from their labors, they celebrated with wine and strong drink. They did not get drunk, but they had glad hearts. Part of the aspect of not partaking of wine during the time of the vow was to show a picture of the fact that the work of the person under the vow was incomplete; there was still work to be done. Remember Jesus at the Passover? He said that he wouldn't drink of the vine (wine) until he drank it with his Father in the Kingdom (heaven). In a sense, Jesus took a Nazirite vow on the last day of his life to symbolize his work on behalf of his bride, the Church.


Samson was a man who had a tremendous honor placed upon him from the womb, namely, that he would work and fight for the nation of Israel, God's bride, and live a life devoted to God through strict observance of the Nazirite vow.



Samson the Riddler


Another interesting and oft-neglected aspect of Samsons ministry is his use of a riddle. In chapter 14 of Judges, Samson is at his own wedding (to a Philistine woman) and decides to give a riddle to the groomsmen (also Philistines), offering a bunch of expensive clothes if they get it right. It goes like this:


"Out of the eater came something to eat,

Out of the strong came something sweet."


Now, without some context this won't make much sense. In the previous scene, Samson had killed a lion with his bare hands while in the Philistine countryside. On his way back by the carcass, there was honey inside the dead lion. So he stopped and scooped up a handful to eat on his way to the wedding. Nothing weird, right? Back to the riddle.


So you can see the answer to the riddle now from the details I just gave: the strong eater is the lion and the sweet thing to eat is honey. As the story progresses, these men get angry because they can't figure out the answer, so they decide to go to Samson's wife and threaten to kill her and her family if she doesn't get the answer to the riddle from her husband. She goes to him and asks, and he refuses to answer. Her next strategy is to guilt trip him, claiming that he doesn't love her and begging him for days, until finally he gives up and gives her the answer. When the men return and answer the riddle correctly, Samson knows that she betrayed him and is enraged. He goes out to a neighboring town called Ashkelon and kills thirty men, takes their clothes, and gives them to the men who he owed them to.


Now, here is the part where most people stumble. You see, it seems at first read that Samson is a whiny fool for giving up the answer to the riddle and then having a hissy fit and killing a bunch of innocent men. The truth, however, is that Samson had a plan all along. You see, Samson was being used as a way for the Philistines to encounter and turn to the true and loving God, the God of Israel. The Lord was being merciful to the Philistines. Allow me to explain.


The nation of Israel was always meant to reach out to neighboring nations and seek to bring them into their way of life, to worship the true God, and receive life and blessing. We have a picture of Israel as a cloistered group of people who were to keep everyone out of their culture and society. That was not the case. The Lord wanted people to come in and learn to worship and love him. With this in mind, we can see Samson taking on a sort of Christ-like image by marrying a Philistine woman and asking her to trust him. He told her that he had killed the lion and gotten the honey from it. That signified that Samson was mighty and powerful and the God that was with him provided life and blessing. When he told her the answer, his hope was that she would trust him and serve the God of Israel, but she chose to follow the paganism of her nation and give into the fear of the men and their threats. On another note, Samson tells the men, "You only figured it out because you plowed with my heifer." This language sounds crass and vulgar, and that's on purpose. The language in Hebrew conveys that what the men did, by threatening Samsons wife, was on par with sexually assaulting her. His act of vengeance, therefore, on the Philistines for what they did was justified under the Old Testament law of 'eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.'


Samson was a calculated and loving deliverer, not a foolish and brash child.



Samson the Avenger


The next scene to be considered is the little incident with the foxes.


You see, Samson, after the previous altercation with the men at his wedding, goes off on his own for a while to cool off. He comes back some months later to be rejoined to his wife, both physically and spiritually, and brings with him a young goat to offer as a sacrifice. He arrives at harvest time, anticipating the hopeful harvest of a child with his wife. When he gets to the house, he discovers that his wife has been given away to the best man from his wedding. So, in anger, Samson captures three hundred foxes, ties them together in pairs with a flaming torch between them, and sets them loose into the local Philistine wheat fields, burning it all to the ground.


I know, I know, it sounds like a soap opera. But for many people, this is interpreted as being another of Samsons hissy fits. But upon further investigation, with the eye for an eye principle in mind, his actions are quite justified. His lawfully wedded wife is taken from him and given to another man, snatching away his hopes of 'being fruitful and multiplying.' So what does he do? In a creative and attention-grabbing way, he takes away the Philistine hopes of fruitfulness and bounty by burning up their wheat and grain.


Samson didn't lash out; he repaid the Philistines for their treachery against him and the Lord.



Samson the Fallen but Faithful


Here we have an instance of genuine foolishness on Samson's part. Twenty years after the events I have spoken about so far, Samson is an older man, scarred by battle and worn down from creating havoc and misery for the Philistines. He meets a woman who is a harlot (prostitute), and falls for her, deciding to marry her. This was not in alignment with his first marriage; this is marriage to an ungodly and impure woman. She ends up selling him out to the Philistines, berating him and guilt-tripping him into giving her the secret of his strength, namely, the fact that he has been devoted to God and not cut his hair, along with following the other rules of the Nazirite vow. In doing this, Samson essentially threw away his faithful relationship with God for the sake of appeasing his unfaithful wife. In doing this, he was turning away from God.


The consequence of this was devastating. His hair was cut, his strength taken, his eyes gouged out, and he was forced to grind grain in a pit. He was left broken and defeated. That is usually how the story ends; Samson is a failure, don't be like Samson.


But that isn't how the bible ends it. God gives a beautiful line in Judges 16:21-22:


"...And he ground mill at the mill in the prison.

But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved."


That's awesome, huh? In the darkness, the utter darkness (no eyes), Samsons favor with God and his own faith began to grow. His strength began to return to him. He remembered the days of his faithfulness and all the mighty ways the Lord had used him. And when the time came, he won the most decisive victory of his entire life. I will end with that scene.


"Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained. Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God , please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life."


 


Samson was not faultless by any means. He was a fallen and sinful man like any one of us. But at the same time, he was a faithful and mighty man of God who was used to deliver the Lord's people from the hands of God-hating pagans. And most importantly, he was a type, a picture, of the perfect and sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, who would one day come and fully and finally deliver his people from their oppression and enslavement to sin. Remember, as Hebrews 13:7 says, "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith."




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