Ah, Samson. Just the name conjures up images of Stretch Armstrong toys from my childhood – blond with rippling muscles… and no brain. I like to think of Samson as the “dumb jock” deliverer! However, I don’t think this was the scenario God wanted him to play out – he was born with great potential.

If you read Judges 13, you’ll find that Samson has quite a good start in life – a miraculous birth foretold to a barren woman. Set apart to God from conception. He’s in good company here – Isaac, Jacob and Esau, John the Baptist… God instructs Samson’s mother and father that he is to be brought up as a Nazirite (another parallel with John the Baptist).

So, what’s a Nazirite? Numbers 6 contains the regulations for a person who wants to take a special vow of separation to the Lord by becoming a Nazirite. The instructions given to Samson’s parents parallel these stipulations in Numbers:

1. No grapes, wine, or other fermented drink. Why? The Nazarite was to be in control at all times.

2. No haircuts. Why? The Nazirite was to be unashamed of his open dedication to the Lord.

3. No close association with death. Why? Death has no place in God’s presence. [In my opinion, a strong argument against Halloween. But, that's another topic entirely.]

Wow, things are looking up! God has set a man apart from conception to be the leader and deliverer of Israel. He is going to be a man wholly and unashamedly devoted to the Lord! Add super-human strength, and bingo – he’s the whole package!

Sadly, this is not how we see the story playing out. Please read chapters 13-16 on your own, as we won’t go through all of the events together – there are just a couple of things I’d like to highlight.

First of all, how does he do on sticking to his lifelong dedication as a Nazarite? He obviously doesn’t cut his hair (well, until Delilah gives him a makeover), and we don’t see him drinking wine… however, was he in control at all times, focused in his service of the Lord? Yeah, not so much – hold on to that thought and we’ll come back to it.  How about that death thing? That weird part of the story with him scooping honey out of the lion carcass… not on the “Nazarite diet.” One more obvious account where he flagrantly violates this: slaying 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.

This man also has a shockingly small amount of self-control, if any – he is completely ruled by his appetites. Chapter 14:2-7 pictures this well. The way he talks about the woman he wants to marry (who, by the way, is a Philistine) is really odd:

“I saw a woman in Timnah… get her for me…” (14:2)
“Get her for me, for she looks good to me” (14:3)
“So he went down and talked to the woman; and she looked good to Samson.” (14:7)

This gets even more interesting in chapter 16. Samson goes to Gaza and spends the night with a prostitute. (Enough said, right?) The people hear that he’s there and are lying in wait for him. Samson, however, gets up in the middle of the night and tears out the city gate and carries it on his shoulders to the mountain opposite Hebron. This might not strike you from reading the text, so let’s talk about that a bit.

First of all, the city gate. 16:3 says he “took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all.” If you have never seen pictures of what the city gates at this time period looked like, this might not seem impressive. Get that image of a little garden gate out of your head.

Remember, the walls around a city were your primary mode of defense in these days. The weakest point of the wall was obviously the gate. So they made these gates HUGE, and I’m sure they were reinforced in any possible way they knew how! So, he rips this ginormous gate out, puts it on his shoulders, and takes it… to the mountain opposite Hebron. Hebron was 40 miles east, and 3,300 feet up from Gaza!

This post is “to be continued” tomorrow!!  :)  In the meantime… what always comes to mind when you think of Samson?  Do you think it is in line with what we see in this text?