His parents were believers - Samson's mom was approached by an angel of God and immediately went to Manoah (husband/father) who did not act out of any kind of disbelief, but instead straight to God, entreating Him to "let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us". How many in the scriptures were this forthright in their dealings with God? Where would we be today if Adam had been this reverential?
When Manoah finally saw the angel himself, his first response is for clarification and guidance. After hearing the same thing from the angel as from his wife, thus verifying it was in fact from God, Manoah immediately wants to treat the angel as an honored guest. The angel indicated that he won't break bread with them, and if they give a burnt offering, to give it to God. Manoah offers a baby goat for a meat offering upon a rock and the angel "did wondrously" - how many in scripture have seen an angel do anything except sing, kill, or counsel? To see an angel do wonderously must be amazing indeed. Also note that Samson's mother is never mentioned by name.
Samson's whole life was anointed. We know that he was a Nazarite from the womb, which is something special too - Nazarites were a special sub-class of Judah and were holy unto the Lord. And we know that early in Samson's training that the Spirit of the Lord moved Samson. Note the distinction, the Spirit didn't move upon Samson, as it had so many times, but MOVED Samson. This suggests to me that Samson's very character was shaped by God - something that is amazing.
In the fourteenth chapter of Judges, we have Samson choosing a woman from the enemy camp, because "she pleased him well". We know that Samson was a Nazarite, as well as from the camp of Judah, so we must assume his virtue was intact, so this likely related to some ability to dance, to speak well, or possibly she had some other talent that was plainly obvious. Or it might have just meant she was physically stunning. Regardless, Samson picked out his potential mate, and did a very respectful thing - he went to his father for the choosing. Later, we can see how physically powerful Samson is, so he could clearly have gone and taken a wife. It is a measure of respect that Samson went to his father and mother and asked them for this daughter of the Philistines. Their response is to ask him why he couldn't take for himself a wife of the children of Judah, and instead Samson is still focused on this particular Philistine. Clearly she had an effect upon him. Likewise, they were unaware that Samson's choosing was of the Lord (although they should have known - God's Spirit had guided Samson from his youth).
To compliment this, we have Samson, after asking his father for the Philistine daughter's hand in marriage, off killing a lion. Nearby were his parents (because all three of them went to the vineyards of Timnath - v5), he killed the lion with his bare hands, and didn't tell his parents. And then, after again being charmed by this young woman from the enemy camp, Samson finds honey in the carcass of the lion he killed earlier. Honey! Then, not telling his parents where he got the honey, he brought some to his parents and they three shared in the honey from this rather interesting source. I claim it as a subtle miracle that the honey didn't smell like dead lion.
The purpose of the lion was soon revealed as a means of revealing the character of Samson's family in law - for whatever reason they agreed to a wager where the prize was thirty sheets and thirty changes of clothing. Given that Samson's family had already given a sacrifice earlier, and placed it on a ROCK, we can assume that nobody was particularly wealthy, so thirty sheets and thirty changes of clothing would have been a rather expensive prize. The Philistines agree to the wager, based upon the resolution of a riddle, likely thinking that this poor child of Judah wouldn't know anything they hadn't already heard. But God had prepared Samson with the riddle of the lion, and the end result of the riddle was for the Philistines to entice his new wife for the purpose of getting the answer. When they were able to answer the riddle Samson new that the only way they could have gotten it was through his wife ("his heifer" - v18), and went to Ashkelon and killed thirty men, likely related to the men who challenged him at his wedding feast, at which time they took his wife. I guess they figured he wouldn't notice.
Sometime later (we don't know how much later, but it was during the wheat harvest) Samson went to visit his wife, who had been given to Samson's "companion" by her father (Again, note the lack of name, in particular, of Samson's wife). We don't even know the gender of the companion, and because the Philistines were not exactly God's people, it could have been anyone. Again we don't have a name. I will, for the sake of time, assume Samson's friend was a Philistine man and that Samson's father in law felt more comfortable with his daughter marrying a fellow Philistine than some randy, destructive son of Judah. So we have Samson going to visit his wife, not having access, and likely out of anger burning their corn. Clearly the Philistines are not a fan of popcorn, as their response to what Samson did was to burn Samson's wife and he father.
The children of Judah are a little confused at this point and so approach Samson, asking him about the details. Samson merely replies that he's returning action for action. Their response is to bind Samson and to take him to the Philistines, but God is still watching, and so breaks the cords tying his hands and kills a thousand men. With a jawbone. It is of interest in noting that it defines the bone as being a new jawbone of a donkey. Why it being new, and its association with a donkey, I am not certain - although there are shades of Baalim here, certainly, where the same animal that tried to stop Baalim is here being used to stop his brothers.
After killing 1000 men with a cleansed remainder of some dead animal's skeleton, he gets hungry, so God makes another few miracles - He provides water from the jaw [possibly the very jawbone that Samson had used to kill the men] and was given to judge his people for twenty years.
Samson may have had some of the wisdom of Solomon, because sometime during the time he was judge, and had been judge for over twenty years, he sought after a strange woman, this time a harlot from Gaza. And after spending the night with her, while those around him were plotting to kill him, he took the gates of the city, and the posts (possibly about which the door was set) and carried them up to the top of a hill. It is an easy thing to visualize and hard to consider - a man, possibly not taller than any you know, walking up a hill carrying half a ton of wood. Or it might have been heavier or made of some other substance. Regardless, they men lying in wait didn't even try to kill him at this point.
Then, again with the wisdom of Solomon, Samson sought after a third strange woman, from the valley of Sorek, named Delilah. And much like his first wife, Delilah enticed him to reveal the answer to a riddle. Samson must not have recognized the deceit in Delilah, for after a period of time (Samson's soul was vexed to death), and Samson, having seen these very same men attack him, went to go as before ... and thus his Samson's pride in his own strength was revealed. Samson as delivered to the Philistines who put out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza (which God had prepared by taking out the old pillars and door, via Samson himself), bound him with fetters of brass, and had him grind in the prison house. And thus Samson was humbled.
After the Philistines had enslaved Samson for some period of time, and there were about 3000 Lords and Ladies of the Philistines making merry, they called for Samson to mock him. Samson was led, by a small boy, to the pillars upon which the house was supported. And it was these pillars through which God moved one last time in Samson's life. And with this one final stroke, Samson killed more people with his death than he had ever killed while he was alive. And one wonders if the small boy who helped Samson survived or mayhap made it to heaven.
Call to action:
Wherein layeth thy strength?
Everyone has a last thing they rely upon. Find yours today. Spend some time in prayer asking God to reveal what you have relied upon when the going has gotten tough. Samson relied upon his strength. The Philistines relied upon Dagon (their god) and the opportunity to bribe and scheme their way out of problems. Even the children of Judah relied upon appeasement. But each of these only reveal our character and our idols. So what do YOU rely upon?
Here are some example questions to help guide you:
- What do you do when you have a driving need for something but can't have it?
Do you eat?
Do you pray?
Do you offer up the drive to the Lord?
Do you give up on it? - What do you do when you are in the middle of a car accident, the car is flipping head over heels, and nothing makes sense?
Do you pray?
Do you grip the seat in fear?
Do you cry and shut down? - What do you do when the paycheck doesn't show up, the rent check doesn't clear, or the accident happens?
Do you pray?
No comments:
Post a Comment