DBS. Difficult Bible Stories. That’s what I am calling this series. We’re going to dip into some of the most difficult Bible stories in the Old and New Testament. I take this as a personal challenge—to look upon the parts of the Bible I would rather not see. I’ve already covered one of these difficult stories. It’s the story of Hagar found in Genesis 16 “Invisible People” posted in October 2011. I remember childhood Sunday School lessons with painted scenes and felt board story pieces depicting colorful, yet remarkably vacuous, renditions of some of these stories. Kudos, though, to the Sunday School curriculum designers, artists and Sunday School teachers who did not avoid such stories altogether. For these stories are in the Bible. And I’m so grateful for that.
What if the Bible were filled with only the noble and good behavior of people? Why would we need God to redeem us if that were so? But the Bible is a collection of stories that do include noble and good deeds of fallen humans as well as their foibles and failures, rebellions and defeats. So, why move into these difficult Bible stories? The answer comes twofold: first, and most importantly, to see where God was and what he did or did not do; secondly to face with courage the depravity and failures we try to avoid so that we can see how desperately we need God the Father and Creator, Jesus Christ the Son, and the guiding, convicting and powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. With these clear objectives, let’s begin.
There exists a competition called the World’s Strongest Man. It has been around since 1977 and features men from all over the world who compete and demonstrate strength through a variety of efforts. Wikipedia has a large list of feats attempted which include:
· Loading Medley – Several heavy objects, each weighing 220–330 pounds (100–150 kg), are carried/ dragged and loaded onto a truck bed or a similar platform over a course of about 10–30 meters (33–98 ft).
· Atlas Stones – Five heavy round stones increasing in weight in the range of 220–350 pounds (100–159 kg) are lifted and set on platforms. The modern Atlas Stones event takes place on a 16–33-foot (5–10 m) long course and the competitors participate two at a time.
· Dead Lift – Lifting weights or vehicles up to about 1,100 pounds (500 kg) straight off the ground until knees lock in a standing position.
You get the idea. These men are strong . . . and more importantly they are real.
A few Biblical scholars we can run across declare that Samson’s was just a story, that his feats are too fantastical and that the events of his life as a Judge in the history of ancient Israel are not to be regarded as realistic. Perhaps they put his story on par with the mythical Thor God of Thunder or Hercules. I’m of another mind. I take Samson’s story literally.
Let’s get the context for this story. After Moses had died and Joshua had led the people into Canaan land, the Israelites had started taking over the lands and peoples in that geographical area as God had commanded them to do. From today’s perspective this can be considered abhorrent for sovereign nations. The wars, strife and squabbles over land and the protection of people groups is not new in human history. The difference here is that God had chosen a people group through which he elected to bless the nations and usher in salvation. That’s a bit of a different motivation than just restoring an empire or becoming a world power. If we can keep this difference in mind, then we might be able to stomach what is in the story of Samson.
Judges 1:1 reads: After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites?” This is the point where the story of the Israelites turns to more than just a singular, long-serving leader. From this point in the Old Testament a long series of first judges and then kings leads the people in and out of success and failures, faithfulness and idolatry, exile and redemption. Samson sits as the last God-appointed judges. After him, Judges 21:24-25 states plainly, At that time the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes and clans, each to his own inheritance. In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
So, let’s scroll back and see how the role of the God-appointed judge tragically ended in the life of Samson. He was a promised child with a particular call. We are introduced to Samson, his parents and his mission in Judges 13:1-5.
Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
Samson was a special child, but there is no indication of his physical strength yet—just the call of God on his life and the mode of his dedication to God. Victor Hamilton helps us to understand the Nazarite vow in the Illustrated Bible Life publication.
To understand what the Nazirite vow is all about we need to turn our attention to Numbers 6:1-21. There are three subsections in this unit. The first subsection is in verses 1-8, which describes the three restrictions to which Nazirites obligate themselves: (1) abstention from wine and from any other fermented drink; (2) no cutting of the hair with a razor; (3) no contact with anything/anybody that is deceased. The second subsection is in verses 9-12, which describes the ritual procedure of renewing the Nazirite vow if some emergency—such as being in close contact with a deceased person—forces the individual to begin all over again. The third and longest of these three subsections is in verses 13-21, which details how Nazirites terminate a term of service that has gone forth without incident or interruption with an elaborate sacrificial procedure . . . Hence, we can say of all Nazirites that they are to be: (1) disciplined in their appetites; (2) distinctive in their appearance; and (3) discreet in their associations.
This vow, made on behalf of Samson by his parents, sets him apart from most of the rest of the people of Israel. It is important to read the rest of Chapter 13 to see how seriously Samson’s parents took the encounter with God’s angel and their commitment to his role even before he was born. Already we see that Samson had a unique place in God’s history.
That unique place was put into question when we start reading Judges 14. Here we see that Samson was caught in desire for a Philistine woman. So, we now need to understand who the Philistines were—and they were not one of God’s chosen people! In the Bible they first appear from the area of Egypt the newly freed Hebrews needed to avoid because of their violence. (Exodus 13:17) Heads up! These were warring people. Much later they had moved and developed into a city-state system comprised of five cities—on the coast there was Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza, and on the plain east of them, were Ekron and Gath. These were between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea in the southern area of Canaan. The Philistines were pagans with multiple gods, the chief among those was the god named Dagon. Joshua 13:2-3 shows that this area was “still very large areas of land to be taken over.” Joseph Coleson wrote, “In Israel’s early history in the land, the Philistines were the most dangerous and long-lasting menace to Israel’s security and survival”.
Where was the Israelite’s God during all of these developments? He was with them as he promised, and dealing out judgment, through the Philistines, because of many of the Israelite’s contempt and disregard for the loving covenant that God had made with them. It’s hard to read that, isn’t it? Don’t we want a god who will keep us from trouble even when we walk away from him? Yes, we do.
Samson shows the same disregard of God’s commands and deliberately seeks to break God’s law not to intermarry with any of the nations they encounter. God had a reason for this, and we can see in Deuteronomy 7:1-4, with verse 4 articulating this: Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
Although Samson’s parents put up a minor hurtle to Samson’s desire (14:3), we see that he is enticed by the beauty of a Philistine woman and demands to marry her. Then the inspired biblical writers enter a strategic comment to let us know what God is doing here. In verse 4 it is written: His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel. God was still defending his rebellious people, even through a rebellious Israelite! What is God doing? What he intends to do no matter what human behavior is at play. We must keep that in mind each time we feel the sting of disappointment in religious or political leaders, or suffer under their cruel treatment, or see the dark and foreboding reality of war. God is still in control even though we may not see it! It’s difficult to read this, isn’t it? We so want for God to stop all of the awful things humans do, and he will someday. But in the meantime, he is still working on behalf of those who love and obey him.
The next parts of Samson’s story shows us the kind of power that Samson may not have even known he had. In Judges 14:5-9 we see not only a demonstration of his incredible strength, but also one of the breaks in the Nazarite vow that his parents had accepted for him. We see that he rips apart a lion! A lion’s jaw can exert 650 pounds/square inch of pressure! The average adult human bites with a force of about 150 psi. The jaws of a lion, not to speak of the paws and legs should put us in awe of this incredible feat. Samson discovered that he had something many people do not have—strength that defies belief. He was alone with that lion. He wasn’t trying to prove anything to anyone, rather God proved to him what he was capable of. As he let the carcass of the lion fall to the ground, he must have realized that he had broken the Nazarite vow to not touch anything or anyone dead. Oh, that he had turned, turned, turned back to God at that time! But he had already made a decision to intermarry, so the door was opened to further falling. It did not take long for him to touch that carcass again, for later after passing the fallen lion, he found honey in the carcass and desired it. In verse 9 we see that he made a decision to hide his failure to keep the Nazarite vow from his parents. Another step down into disobedience, and he was well on his way.
Chapter 14:10-18 shows us an interesting aspect of Samson’s mindset. Here we see that he is much more than just a strong man. He liked mental gymnastics. His delight in riddles and play makes him very appealing and amusing. But something very dark lurks in the passage—it’s the Philistine way! The cunning and deception that is played out on the riddle-maker leads to another and darker chapter in his life and reveals that power of revenge in humans. When Samson discovers that he has been duped by his wife, he explodes into violence. All of the power that lay within him that could defeat a lion turns now against the Philistines! In verse 19-20 we read: Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.
What was God doing? Was he using the disobedience of one to turn on the many? This is a difficult part of this story because we may have a hard time justifying Samson’s revenge as an act of God. What is God’s goal here? Certainly, his goal is to bring all people to himself for their salvation. (John 12:32) This includes a pagan Abram who was called out of the land of Ur of the Chaldeans. (See Genesis 12). The Apostle Paul wrote about the fact that God can be known by anyone. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20) The Philistines were without excuse.
Samson returned to his wife, we see in 15:1-2, but he was prohibited from seeing her. This enraged him to such a degree that he abused God’s foxes, setting them on fire, and sending them into the Philistine fields to burn their crops. Samson says, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines.” (v. 3) He did not say anything about defending the downtrodden Israelites, nor did he say that he wanted to defend God’s honor or obey him in destroying the inexcusable actions of the Philistines. He did none of that. “I have a right to” and “get even” should not be in the language of any follower of God. It’s not our rights that are important, it’s God’s right and righteousness. It’s not our revenge, but God’s justice, judgment and salvation that are important. Samson takes another sad step down. And God works through that to offer the Philistines a way out. But they do not take it.
The Philistine next actions are deeply disturbing. They burn Samson’s wife and father-in law. What was Samson’s response to this? “I swear I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” Thus, his turn to extreme violence commenced. He slaughtered many more Philistines single-handedly. Once again, his heart was not in the right place, but God’s work through him was—the rebuking of a pagan group of people whose hearts were so very hard, and the defense of a people he had promised to protect.
When the Philistines set up camp in Judah, and appeared to prepare for battle, the Israelites were distressed by this and begged and pleaded with Samson to stop. (15:11-13) As a ruse he allowed himself to be bound, broke the binds and wreaked such vengeance on the Philistines that it is difficult to read. He summarized what he did in verse.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men.
God was still working his justice through Samson. But oh, how different it could have been!
Chapter 16 is the famous story of Samson and Delilah. I won’t spend a lot of time going over this part of the story because it is so well-known. But please read or re-read it in Judges 16. While we don’t know if Delilah was a Philistine, an Israelite or from some other people group, we do know that she easily colluded with the Philistines and grew quite rich from her betrayal of Samson. It appears that Delilah and Samson were taken in by some magical thinking, a likely influence on both of them from of the pagan Philistine religion. The length of Samson’s hair really had no bearing whatsoever on his strength. His empowerment came from the Lord. The story can be seen to demonstrate the further failings of Samson, despite God’s call on his life. Not only did he slide into revenge and deny his Nazarite vows throughout his short life, but his attraction to women—definitely not of the Israelite kind—was his Achilles heel. He was willing to give it all up for the desire for women (we didn’t even cover the part of the story where he consorts with a prostitute!) and for one woman in particular.
But here more was at play than even this. Joseph Coleson wrote: “We know already that he loved mental as well as physical contests, that he was competitive and hated losing (14:12-20). This and his subsequent ‘answers’ also highlight once again Samson’s attraction to risk and danger; each of his false responses to Delilah hinted at the true source of his strength.” What if that “true source of his strength” was regarded as God and not the length of Samson’s hair, or his physical prowess, or his mental agility—all of which had been given to him by his Creator?
After Delilah betrayed him, we read of the devastating consequences for Samson’s actions—most devastatingly that the Lord had left him (v. 20). Judges 16:21 reads: Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. Joseph Coleson draws a sharp contrast to the children’s pictures of Samson grinding grain pushing a heavy bar around a millstone in circles like an animal. No, this was a far greater humiliation for the Herculean figure we have seen before.
Samson’s humiliation ran even deeper in Bronze/Iron Age terms. Samson knelt on the ground, a hand-mill in front of him, pushing and pulling a convex-surfaced grinding stone back and forth over grain placed in a concave “saddle” stone, one of several hand mills in use at the time. This was the work of women or slaves, and a monstrous shame for a warrior in that patriarchal society.
How long Samson ground that grain is not entirely clear. The writers do indicate that his hair was growing back, and human hair grows about a half an inch a month. This seems to be a bit of play on themes by the writers. We know that his hair had nothing to do with any of it. But what we do come to know is that Samson had started to move back toward God. When the Philistines bring him out for public humiliation and entertainment during one of their celebrations of their god Dagon, the story of Samson comes to a sad end. We read in Judges 16:28-31.
Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.
What do you think of Samson’s prayer? Was he in alignment with God’s work and purposes? I say he was not. He was still filled with the spirit of revenge. But that is not what gave him the strength to push out those pillars. No, it was God’s strength pouring through him to defend the Israelites against their enemies. Yes, Samson was a judge in Israel. But his role was more of a deterrent to complete Philistine oppression and control, not the Israelite’s deliverer. Only God delivers!
Judges 13:5 states: “He [Samson] will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” Through Samson’s vast failings God could only start deliverance. Samson was never able to bring it to fulfillment. Wendall Bowes wrote: “During his lifetime, Samson kept the Philistines from overrunning Danite territory. This gave him hero status and is one of the reasons why his story is included in the book of Judges.” For without God’s work through Samson, what would have become of the Israelites? What would have become of God’s reputation as a trustworthy Savior?
We end this study with one more wonderful quote from Joseph Coleson.
The author of Hebrews, including Samson in the “Hall of Faith Heroes” (11:32), seems to have taken this view. Even here, in the depths of his personal failings and reminded of them every moment of every day, Samson experienced God’s lovingkindness, with the growing realization that God had not abandoned him. In God, Samson still could hope; in God, so we also may treasure hope.
Amen
All quotes taken from Illustrated Bible Life, Fall 2022, The Foundry Publishing, Kansas City, Missouri.
© M.R.Hyde 2023
What do you learn from this difficult Bible story?
