Tag Archive | Samson

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 95

Apr5
Day 95.  Reading Judges 16 – 17 
 

Read today’s scripture.

Is there anything that encourages you from the book of Judges?

Judges 16.

Oh, Samson. Your lustful eyes and arrogant pride will be your downfall. (Literally.)

Samson goes down to Gaza, the southernmost Philistine city, and there he sees and uses a prostitute. When the people learn their arch-enemy is in town, they surround the house, thinking they will kill him at dawn. But Samson wakes at midnight, goes to the gates of the town (which are closed/locked for the night), pulls up the posts, and carries them and the gates to the top of a nearby hill.  So much for locking him in!

Then, in another place, Samson sees and falls for Delilah. Instead of trying to “take” Samson at dawn, as the people of Gaza, these Philistines offered to pay Delilah $35K to discover the “trick” to his strength.

She woos him, plays on his pride, and using her feminine wiles, has him “confess” three times the key to his strength. She calls the men, but Samson breaks the bindings like wax. She is peeved (seeing that cash melt away) and eventually tricks Samson into telling the true source of his strength – his Nazarite Vow, which forbids him cutting his hair.

Samson sleeps, Delilah calls a barber then the Philistines. Yep, he’s as weak as a babe.  The last thing Samson sees before losing his eyes is Delilah counting her money.  Betrayed!!!  Such glee among the Philistines! They make him “perform” and then put him to work like an ox, grinding grain at the mill in prison.

(Was Jesus thinking of Samson when He said, “If your eye offends you, gouge it out.”? (See Matthew 5:27-29)

But Samson’s hair begins to grow.  And perhaps repentance and submission to God too.

Years later at a great feast for their god, Dagon, who has the head of a man and the body of a fish, the great crowd gets bored and calls for some entertainment. Samson.  The blind man, with a head of hair to his shoulders (DIDN’T THEY SEE THAT???) is brought in to perform and be mocked.  They laugh and cheer and guzzle their wine.

“Young man,” Samson whispers, “let me feel the pillars with my hands so I may rest.“

The boy places Samson’s hands on the two center columns.

He pretends to sag with exhaustion.

“O LORD God,” he prays silently, “please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my eyes.”

God hears him. 

Samson grasps the pillars with his hands and leans forward.

“Let me die with the Philistines!” He prays.

And he pulled with all this strength … and the house fell down.

“The dead whom Samson killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.“

His brothers buried him in the tomb of his father, Manoah. He was a national hero who died for his God and country. 

DID YOU KNOW? Samson is on the list of the heroes of the Faith in Hebrews 11:32, along with Gideon, Barak, and Jephthah.

Judges 17.

This story is evidence that the people of Israel had NOT been reading the Law of God annually.  They had no idea about His commands, statutes, rules, and laws.

Micah, a man from the tribe of Ephraim was a thief to begin with.  He stole 1,100 pieces of silver from his mother but returned it. She was so happy that she dedicated some of it to make a silver image. An idol!! She put it in her son’s house along with the ephod he made and a bunch of other household idols. This inspired Micah to ordain his son as a priest. (MAN!!! How far can they go from the LAW OF THE LORD??)

“There was no king in Israel in those days. (So) Everyone did what was right in his OWN EYES.

Then a true Levite living in Judah’s land journeyed to the land of Ephraim. When Micah saw him, he thought, “Wow, here is a real priest!!” He invited the man to stay with him. The smug Micah then thought to himself, “Now I know that the LORD will prosper me because I have a Levite as a priest.” SERIOUSLY??

Judges 18.

Dan, the tribe from which Samson came, “was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then, no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them?”

(WHAT??  What about that small area on the coast including Joppa? Judges 1:34 tells us that they were indeed given that land, but THEY HAD FAILED TO SECURE IT and let the Amorites press them up into the hill country.)

Anyway, now this very small tribe was looking for some land they could easily take. Spies left Zorah (Samson’s town) and came to Micah’s house. They asked the wayward Levite priest living there for God’s direction. “Oh, all is cool,” said the Levite. “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the LORD.”

So the five spies went waaaayyyyyyy north into the land of the Sidonians (not the land that God had given to Israel).  The people there were isolated and quiet. Cool. No problem.  They returned to their fellow Danites and said, “Let’s go up against this people, for we’ve seen the land and it is very good. Don’t be slow to go and possess the land.  The people are unsuspecting. The land is spacious. We will lack nothing there.” 

So 600 Danites, armed with weapons of war went up and arrived at the house of Micah. The 600 men went into his house and took the ephod, the household gods, and the carved silver image.

“What are you doing?” asked the Levite.

“Keep quiet. Come with us. You can be a priest of a whole tribe in Israel, and not just one man. “

“Cool!” said the priest. He took the artifacts and went with the Danite troops.

Micah, of course, was not happy.  “Why are you taking my priest and my gods?“

The Danites told him to be quiet or else he’d “lose his life.”

The Danites then went up to the people of Laish, a quiet and unsuspecting people, and struck them with the sword and burned their city.  There was no deliverer for them since Sidon was so far away. 

The Danites rebuilt the city and named it Dan. They set up the carved image and had the priests as their own. And so they remained until the day of the captivity of the land. 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 94

Apr4
Day 94.  Reading Judges 13 – 15
 

Read today’s scripture.

What encourages you from the book of Judges?

Judges 13.

Samson, the Old Testament Super Hero?  Not, when you get to know him!

The story begins as it has in the last chapters:

  • The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
  • So the LORD gave them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years.

This time we don’t read about the people crying out to God for help, but you can be sure they did.  The help would come from the tribe of Dan this time.  Remember, their land allotment was a small area at the Mediterranean Sea around Joppa. This was just north of the five main cities of Philistia (Ashdod, Gath, Ashkelan, Ekron, and Gaza). 

The town of Zorah, where Samson’s parents lived, was just east of Ekron and north of Gath. (kind of scary!)

As in so many of the Bible stories where God chooses special people for specific tasks, we see a man with a barren wife. One day the Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah and told him that his wife was going to have a son. He was to be a Nazarite FROM BEFORE BIRTH. That meant that not only would the son NOT have his hair cut, and would not eat anything unclean or connected with grapes (juice, wine, raisins or skins), and never touch anything dead, but his MOTHER would also not eat anything from the vine or unclean.

The Angel of the LORD also told him that this son would “begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”  The couple believed, and asked God for more instructions on what they were to do with the child born to them. And the angel returned to instruct them.

Manoah asked the Angel for his name and the answer was amazing! “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”  This immediately reminded me of Isaiah 9:6, speaking about the Messiah to come.

  • “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

It was surely the pre-incarnate Jesus, talking to this Danite man.

And… in due time, Manoah’s wife conceived and bore a son. They called him Samson. “And the young man grew, and the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him.”

Sounds good, so far……

Judges 14.

Samson went to Timnah, a boarder town of Judah, saw a Philistine girl there and told his parents to get her for his wife. His parents were of course upset, thinking their nice Jewish boy should marry a nice Jewish girl.  But they forgot that God was going to use Samson to “begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”  Samson was “seeking an opportunity against the Philistines” and this was from the LORD.

As the three journeyed down to Timnah, a lion rushed out at them. YIKES!  Samson grabbed the cat with his bare hands and tore it to pieces (in the power of the Spirit).  WHAT???  Then they calmly went the rest of the way and talked to the woman. (I assume they made the deal for the bride price.)

A few days later, Samson went back to claim his wife and saw the carcass of the lion he killed. THERE WAS A SWARM OF BEES INSIDE … AND SOME HONEY.  Samson scraped out some of the honey and ate it! (Now did he touch a dead body?)  When he saw his parents later he gave them some and they ate too. 

Now, why is this in the story – other than to show Samson broke the Nazarite Vow?  Because our clever “judge” made up a riddle for the wedding party guests to guess.  The winning prize would be 30 changes of garments, awarded to the guests if they guessed the answer, or kept by Samson, if they didn’t.

Here it is:

  • Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.

Of course WE know what it was, but no one else could guess.  CHEATERS!!  Yep, the young men went to Samson’s fiancé and threated her to find the answer. She did and told them.  They smugly gave him the answer,

Samson was furious.  “If you had not ‘plowed with my heifer’ you would not have found out my riddle!”

The Spirit of the LORD rushed on him. He went down to Ashkelon and killed the young men in hot anger.  He returned to his parent’s home, and his new bride was given to his best man.   Oh, boy!!!

Judges 15.

After he cooled off, Samson went down to claim his wife, only to discover she had been given to the other man.  The dad offered her younger sister, but Samson was angered again.

He caught 300 foxes (how did he do THAT?), tied there tails together with torches and lit the torches.  The foxes ran wildly though the grain fields and burned up all the crops and the fig trees.

This enraged the Philistines, so they came and burned Samson’s “wife” and her father with fire.

Samson struck them all with great blows, braking their hips and thighs. Then he went to sulk.

The Philistines got up an army and raided Judah.  When asked why, they said, they wanted Samson.  So 3,000 men of Judah went to Samson and made a deal.  They bound him and gave them over to the Philistines. 

The Philistines shouted in victory when they saw the bound Samson coming.  But……………………

The Spirit of the LORD rushed on him and the ropes binding him melted away.  He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey (another dead body), grabbed it, and with it killed 1,000 Philistines!  And he sang a song about it.  Then he threw away the jawbone.

Samson was then very thirsty and called out to God, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

And God split open the hollow place and water came out from it, and Samson drank it.  WHOA!

And Samson judged Israel twenty years.

..

(But wait! that’s not the end of his story. Stay tuned to tomorrow when Samson meets Delilah.) 

 

#2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 94

Apr3

    Day 94 —  We have been reading the Bible daily for a quarter of the year and have begun a new month. Praise God! What have you learned about God? About yourself?

   Day 94 – Judges 13 – 15 (Samson, good & bad)

Chapter 13 begins with the people of Israel doing EVIL in the sight of the LORD. So, the LORD gives them over into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years.

The Philistines occupied five cities near the Mediterranean coast: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. It’s possible that they were oppressing Israel from the West at the same time as yesterday’s reading about the Moabites and Ammonites on the East of the Jordan River – a pincer or squeeze situation.  

God raised up a Danite judge, Samson, who is probably the most familiar (and possibly the worst). His story begins with a barren woman whom the Angel of the LORD promises a son. And he is to be a Nazarite from the womb. (Numbers 6:2-8 details the Nazarite prohibitions about eating grapes, cutting hair, and touching dead bodies – all of which Samson fails.)  Samson’s parents seek to train him up in a godly way, and at first, we see the LORD blessing him and stirring him to service.

In Chapter 14, Samson oddly seeks a Philistine woman as his wife. His parents object, but verse 4 reveals that this was of the LORD, as an opportunity against the Philistines. (His ways are mysterious, for sure!)  On the way with his parents to make the marriage deal, a roaring lion came at Samson. Empowered by God’s spirit, he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands. Several days later, as he returned for his wedding feast, he saw the lion’s carcass in which a swarm of bees had set up house.  He swiped a handful of their honey to enjoy on his journey.  Later, he thinks up a riddle to ask as a way to get “loot” from his Philistine family. 

"Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet."

None of the guests could guess the riddle, and since they didn’t want to lose 30 costly garments, they threatened his bride to find the answer. Afraid, she obeyed, and Samson was tricked.  He knows what they did, and IN ANGER, with the Spirit of the LORD on him, he struck down 30 men of Ashkelon and took their spoil.  Thinking Samson would not return, the bride’s father gave her to the “best man.”  After all, a feast had been prepared. Can’t let it go to waste!

Chapter 15 tells how Samson returned after a cooling-off period to claim his wife and consummate his marriage, only to find his wife had been given to another. Furious, he catches 300 foxes, ties their tails together, and lights a torch between them. The foxes run wildly through the fields of ripe grain, burning it all with the olive orchards.  In retaliation, the Philistines burned his wife and her father. For that he killed all of them. 

Later, the Philistines came to Judah searching for Samson to kill him. The men of Judah gave him up!!!  As the Philistines requested, they bound Samson with new ropes and turned him over to the enemy. 

However, when they roared with glee, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon Samson, and he burst the robes as if they were straw on fire. They melted off his hands.  With those hands, he took the jawbone of a freshly dead donkey, and with it, he killed a thousand Philistines. 

After all that killing, he was thirsty and called out to the LORD.  Graciously, the LORD split open a rock and poured out water so Samson could drink and be refreshed. 

A flawed hero, full of arrogance, but still used by God. Gives US hope, doesn’t it?