Samson: Not Really Checkered after All

Day 26: July 13, 2009, Monday

In an earlier post, I described Samson as checkered, i.e., he had plenty of character flaws that diminished his good points. Now that I've been through the entire text at least initially, I'm having a hard time seeing anything good in his character. True, he kills Philistines, which is part of the driving out of the land that God wanted the Israelites to do, and is at least part of God's answer to the prayer of the Israelites for deliverance from oppression by the Philistines. However, other than that, he seems to do everything wrong.

For example, he seeks a Philistine woman as a wife (here his parents weren't much better, for, though they tried to dissuade him, they make the arrangement). Later when he uses a jawbone of a donkey to kill Philistines, he is not supposed to touch anything unclean, such as a dead animal. When the Philistines kill his estranged wife and her family, because they blame them as Samson to cause problems, Samson can't believe they would do such a thing. So he sets out to take personal revenge, rather than pursuing the purposes of the Lord (Jdg 15:7). Even at his death (with apologies to the movie with Victor Mature, I believe), he prays for strength just one more time; why? to avenge the loss of his two eyes.

Samson was selfish, demanding, immoral, reckless, and foolish. Still about four times we read before the cutting of his hair that "the Spirit of the Lord rested on him," meaning that he was strengthened by God.

The people of Israel were no better. When surrounded by Philistines who wanted only Samson, the people of Lehi sent 3,000 men to take Samson and deliver him to the Philistines. What a way to treat your "deliverer" and judge!

The entire story sets up very well that the Israelites, God's special people, had become very much un-special; they had become like the peoples around them. Samson was what God had to work with. God, nevertheless, was faithful in his desire to preserve the nation for the purpose he had intended, namely to bring the Messiah into the world. And this he did, even using Samson. I wonder, though, what all God would have done with Samson for Israel, if Samson had been godly.

I think there are many obvious lessons for us. We should surely avoid the sins of Samson. Also, God recognizes we are sinful, but he is gracious. He still uses us. But he can use us more and better, the more we obey him. I would only be guessing, if I were to estimate whether Samson had any faith like Abraham did. But I do know that the evidence of our faith in Christ is seen in how we live. Let's encourage each other to grow.