E59 - Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions - Samson, Was He Really Strong?
Hope’s Harbor
Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #59
Title: Samson – Was He Really Strong?
Date: June 20, 2022
Contact: info@hopesharbor.net
Key verse(s): Judges 13:5 – “For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."
Judges 13:24 – ‘So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.’
Intro: Samson’s life is recorded in 4 chapters of Judges. Within these chapters is a story of a promising life wasted by selfish immaturity. I’m going to read from a few verses across these 4 chapters to get an idea of the potential good GOD intended for Samson, and then how his life ended bound in chains, the chains of his enemies.
We’ll see a life of tit-for-tat as Samson sported himself at the Philistines’ expense, instead of leading Israel against their rule.
Devotion focus: GOD intends good for our lives –
And this intention of GOD is true even though bad, difficult things may happen to us. But His promise in Jeremiah 29:11, 12, and 13 reveals His great heart of love for each one of us:
Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:12 – “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
Jeremiah 29:13 – “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
From the key verse of Judges 13:5, we read how GOD intended good to come out of Samson’s life. Listen carefully to the promise GOD gave Samson’s mother: “For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."
It is interesting GOD said Samson would ‘begin’ to deliver Israel. This tells me GOD knew Samson would fail to fulfill his destiny.
Samson, as we’ll see from the following verses, squandered his life and began early on as a young man consumed with lust.
Judges 14:2 – ‘And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now, therefore, get her for me to wife.
Judges 14:3 – ‘Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.’
So the Bible reveals that Samson’s attention is elsewhere from being a person responsible for leading Israel, much less delivering Israel.
And, it’s important to note that Samson’s lust is toward women of his nation’s enemies. Is this a type of rebellion on Samson’s part?
Also, his father was complicit in Samson’s descent into a wasted life by giving in to his son’s demands. Is this familiar today, parents giving in to their children’s selfish desires? And where does it lead?
I can tell you from having spent 21 years as a police officer that parents who give in to a child’s temper tantrums and fail to teach self-restraint share blame if that child ends up in a juvenile detention center, charged with criminal behavior.
The next verses in Judges 14:5 &6, and Judges 16:3 give us an idea of how strong physically Samson was.
Judges 14:5 - ‘Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
Judges 14:6 - ‘And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand…’
So Samson was strong enough to rip a lion apart. Hmmm…
And then in Judges 16:3 - ‘And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.’
But then he meets his match: Judges 16:4 - ‘Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.’
The Valley of Sorek is thought to have been on Israel’s border with the Philistines. It makes sense Samson found a Philistine woman on the border, not daring to go deep into an enemy’s country.
Regardless, as soon as Philistine leaders heard about it, they offered Delilah eleven hundred pieces of silver to betray Samson and find out the source of his strength.
(On a side note: Judas betrayed Jesus for only 30 pieces of silver, possibly the going price of a slave at the time.)
So Delilah has her promised payment and gets to work -
Judges 16:16 – ‘And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death;
Judges 16:17 – ‘That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I am shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
Now, wait a minute before condemning Samson for being so foolish. From my own experience with thinking I was stronger than I was and then falling to temptation, I believe Samson thought there was no way Delilah or anyone else could cut his hair without him knowing it. How he slept through that haircut is a mystery. As we know from looking back, Samson’s chance to escape was long before his hair was removed from him, along with his strength
His chance to live a different life was missed when he didn’t listen to his father’s question about taking a wife from the Philistines.
In F. B. Meyer’s commentary he writes concerning Samson’s poor choices in marriage: ‘If only a noblewoman could have influenced him, as Deborah did Barak, how different his record would have been.’
Judges 16:18 - ‘And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand.
Judges 16:19 - ‘And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.’
Judges 16:21 - ‘But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house.
Judges 16:30 – ‘Then Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.’
Summary: In answer to the question in this episode’s title ‘was Samson really strong’ we know he was strong physically, but weak morally and spiritually.
His great physical strength was no match for his sinful nature, a nature each one of us struggles with (if we’re honest).
Although it is easy for us to look at the Biblical record of Samson’s life and find fault with his foolish choices leading to the tragic end of his life, let’s also look at our lives and see if we’re doing anything similar in our relationship to GOD.
Are we playing around and not fulfilling our destiny? If you’re doing this, don’t let regret and depression cause you to give up.
Instead, look forward, those of us with regrets for past mistakes, and make a difference, beginning today. in how our lives will end.
Action to consider: If guilt and regret plague you, go to Jeremiah 29:11, 12, and 13 – read these verses and ask GOD to fulfill these promises to you. Ask in faith, nothing doubting (James 1:6). Pray until GOD chooses to fulfill His Word to you.
Next week’s devotion: A Prayer of Realization