The story of Samson is a crazy, and mostly confused story. The confusion doesn't come from the story, but its interpretation over the years. Samson has been treated as some sort of tragic hero that was ultimately persecuted for his beliefs.
That isn't really the story.
Samson, in my opinion, is one of, if not the biggest jerk in the Old Testament. His is a story not about a tragic hero, but about squandered potential. That being said, Samson makes an attempt to get it right. It is still flawed, and late, and self-centered, but he begins trying.
Getting to this point takes some time. Israel doesn't just end up with Samson as a Judge. The Judges were the titular rulers over Israel. But, remember that they were a grouping of 12 tribes that had a shared heritage and a familial connection, but didn't have a centralized ruler. The Judges came the closest, but it was a very de-centralized form of government.
Israel has also been going through a very noticeable cycle in its relationship with God.
If you've ever study the Old Testament and how Israel behaves, then you know that they have issues. They can be good, but only for a while, then they'll fail, and then return to God. The key to this is that God is still with them, even at the worst part of the cycle.
That becomes the key to this story. God is always there. There is another cycle to this story. Like so many other things in life, there is a larger life cycle of the usefulness of the Judges as a form of leader. There is a period of growth, and maturity, and then decline. The story of Samson is taking place during the decline, and at the very bottom of the decline.
The Old Testament is beginning the journey to King David, but that's later. Samson is taking them to the bottom of the cycle.
Samson's story starts in Judges 13. It starts with a lot of potential. In fact, it starts in a way that we're familiar with. Samson's mother can't have kids. They wanted kids, but couldn't have them. Then an angel or messenger comes to them and says that you are going to have a son...something they always wanted.
When the angel made the announcement, he said that there were going to be some conditions to this. Their son would be a Nazirite, and that comes with conditions.
This is not a complete list of all that Samson would have to do, but it does cover the specific things that the angel told Samson's mother. The most important one on this list is about Samson's hair. Samson's parents make this commitment, and they're pretty good at it, but you can imagine what is going to happen.
Samson is the miracle child, and the child that appears to have a limitless future. There's a couple of things that can happen at that point. The child can grow up to fill that potential, or he won't. From the tone of this post, you can probably figure out what I think happened, but to see more of why I think that, take a look at the first part of chapter 14.
Samson has just gone to his father to get him a Philistine woman as his wife. The part about this that makes this bad is that as a Nazirite, or even just a part of the nation of Israel, you don't go outside of that to find a wife. You can hear Samson whining in this verse, and this tells us all that we need to know about him.
Samson will go on to do many great things. And here I'm tempted to quote one of the Harry Potter books about great things. All of those things share something in common. They are all for his benefit. They put him at the center of all the action and as the central figure, and as the person who benefits from them. Samson is a very self-centered person.
That being said, he does do one thing well. He scares off Israel's enemies. Because he can do things like defeat an army with the jawbone of a donkey, enemies (like the Philistines) tend to be a little wary of attacking him. So they work to figure something else out.
This is where it becomes important about where Samson is putting his strength. Because it is the very last thing that he is holding on to, from his Nazirite heritage, he hasn't cut his hair and believes that is where his strength comes from. The Philistines don't know this, but they're pretty sure they can find out what it is.
Samson had started a relationship with a woman named Delilah. The Philistines bribe her to find out the secret to Samson's strength. She does this, and when she finds it out she helps to cut Samson's hair, and calls for the Philistines. In the midst of this, we're told that Samson feels his strength leave him as his hair is being cut.
Samson is taken into captivity by the Philistines, his eyes are gouged out, and he is treated like a circus sideshow.
This is not a happy story.
There is one moment of hope for Samson. There is one short line that is what's important for us, and for Samson.
But the hair on his head began to grow again right after it had been shaved.
--Judges 16:22This becomes the most important moment of the whole story. Go back to the cycle that we talked about at the beginning of this post. Never, in all of what Israel does, does God leave them. God is always there. God is always present to catch them when they fall, and help them stand back up.
We see this again when Samson calls on God to give him the strength to pull down the temple at the end of the story. Finally, Samson understands that his strength doesn't come from his hair, but it comes from God. He may have used it badly, he may have squandered it all of his life, he may not have been a very good Judge, but in that moment he finally is beginning to understand.
The question we must always ask ourselves is about where we draw our strength from. The thing for us to remember is that God never gives up on us. Finally, we don't have to be very good at it, but we do need to try. If we try, then there is so much more that we can do. We won't be perfect, but by putting God at the center, we can have the freedom to try.
Go out this week and try. Keep God at the center of who you are, and find the freedom that comes when we know that he will never fail.
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