Samson: A Better Death (Shadows)

     In case you don't know by now, I've been posting my reflection on a series titled "Shadows". My church's college group has been studying how Old Testament characters point to the person of Jesus. Last week, I gave the presentation on Samson. Today I'm just going to post my discussion, so there will parts that may not make sense when you read it because of the format. In any case, I hope you enjoy.
     Before we dive into the passages, I want to give a short introduction to where we are in the Bible. The book of Judges is after the book of Joshua. Does anyone know what happens in Joshua? The Israelites gain entrance into the Promised Land, after many years of wandering. The book of Judges describes how the Israelites lived during this time. In Judges, the Israelites sin against God, doing what is right in their own eyes. God gives them over to their sins, but eventually the people cry out for deliverance. God listens, and sends a leader, or judge. This becomes a cycle in the book of Judges, but Samson is a bit different than the rest of the judges. Let’s start with the first group, on chapter 13.
     The first verse of chapter 13 is the beginning of the cycle all over again. “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 (the Philistines are the enemies of God)”. We then see an angel of God approach the wife of Manoah, who remains unnamed for whatever reason. The angel tells her that she will give birth to a son, and he is to be a Nazirite. What exactly is a Nazirite? A Nazirite is someone who specially dedicates himself to God, by abstaining from unclean things, strong drink, and from cutting their hair. Manoah, the husband, asks God to send the angel again, thinking it was a man. The angel comes back, and basically repeats what he said before. Manoah then freaks out after realizing that he was talking to an angel, but his wife says a very sensible thing, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this (Judges 13:23)”. I guess women are smarter than men sometimes. In any case, Samson is born as a Nazirite, and it seems like the cycle will complete itself through Samson. However, let’s go to chapter 14.
     So chapter 14 talks about Samson’s marriage. He goes and sees a woman, who is what? A Philistine. In fact, Samson says so himself. His mother and father are shocked, and they plead with him to find a wife from the Israelite people. Samson then says something very interesting, listen to this. “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me (Judges 14:3b)”. You know who this sounds like? It sounds like the very people that Samson was supposed to deliver. He wants this woman because she is right in his eyes. Moving on, we see that as Samson goes to meet his wife, a young lion approaches him. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, and he kills the lion with his bare hands. Later he sees the carcass and eats some honey from it, and then gives it to his parents. Is there anything wrong with this? Samson is a Nazirite, and is supposed to stay away from unclean things, including dead things. I’m pretty sure anyone from any religion would agree that eating honey from a dead lion is not clean. Samson then tells his companions a riddle about the lion. They find the answer by pressing Samson’s new wife, which enrages Samson. Again, the Spirit of the Lord comes powerfully on Samson, and this time he kills 30 men from Ashkelon, and takes their clothes and gives it to his companions, as their prize. From this chapter we get a picture of who Samson is. He is clearly not serious about his Nazirite dedication to God, since he marries a Philistine, an enemy of the Israelites, and he eats from an unclean animal. Further, we see that Samson has some serious rage issues. Let’s go to chapter 15.
     Samson goes to see his wife, but his father-in-law says that he gave her to one of Samson’s companions at his wedding. Samson gets mad again, and this time he somehow finds three hundred foxes, lights them on fire and burns down the Philistine crops. The Philistines get their revenge by burning Samson’s wife and her father to death. Samson retaliates by attacking and killing many of them, and then he camps out in a cave. It almost sounds like I’m narrating a football game, except with way more violence. The Philistines approach the people of Judah, who are Israelites by the way, and they tell the people of Judah that they are looking for Samson. Something very interesting happens here. Pay attention to what the people of Judah do. They go to Samson, and say “don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us?” What? Samson was their ruler, and they were willing to just give him up, as easy as that? They should have joined with Samson to fight against the Philistines, but instead they simply give him up. This is insane. Why did they do this? It’s because they compromised with their sin. They became comfortable living in bondage to the Philistines. They would rather surrender Samson than go through the trouble of fighting against the Philistines to gain their freedom. The sad thing is, this is how sin rules over us. We would rather compromise with sin, than fight against it. Often times, we see sin as an action. However, what we have to realize is that sin is a power. That’s why it takes the hard work of repentance to overcome our sins. It’s also why we so easily compromise with sin, because don’t want to fight against its power. The people of Judah were clearly victims of the power of the Philistines, and the power of sin.
     The tribe of Judah tie up Samson, and leave him to the Philistines. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Samson, and he escapes his bindings, and then kills a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. That is ridiculous. So Samson becomes thirsty, so he prays to God for water. Listen to this prayer, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised (Judges 15:18)?” Now, if you pray like this, don’t be surprised if God doesn’t answer you. This is such an arrogant prayer, true to Samson’s character. However, God answers him, and gives him water. And now we transition to the last chapter of Samson’s life, Judges 16.
     So right off the bat we see that Samson sins yet again, by “spending a night” with a prostitute. People try to kill Samson in the morning, but Samson wakes up in the middle of the night and tears down their city gates. Later he falls in love with a woman named Delilah. As in “hey there Delilah what’s it like in New York City…” The Philistines approach her and ask her to find out the secret of her strength. They agree to pay her eleven hundred shekels of silver, each. Do you know how much that is? Neither do I, but it’s a lot of money. Delilah agrees and asks Samson how he can be bound. He lies to her a couple times, saying false ways of subduing him. Every time, Delilah tries to tie him up, and the Philistines try to ambush him. However, Samson is able to break out and fight back each time. Now, let’s pause here. Is Samson really so blind as to not see that Delilah is trying to get him killed? How can Samson overlook all of Delilah’s attempts of capturing him? It’s pretty ridiculous that Samson doesn’t try to call her out on this, or better yet, end the relationship. So why doesn’t Samson confront her? It’s because of Samson’s idolatry. What do I mean by this? If I asked you what Samson’s number one thing in his life was at this point, what would you say? It’s Delilah. Instead of putting God at the forefront of his life, Samson put Delilah there. Similarly, Delilah put money in God’s place in her life. She was willing to hand over Samson, because she loved money more than she loved Samson. Idolatry is not just worshiping other gods, but worshiping anything above God. Whenever we do this, sin easily enters our life. Whatever sits on the throne of our life takes place over everything else. I know it’s difficult to put God in first place in our life, but it’s very important if we really want to know Him more and leave sin behind.
     So what happens next? Samson eventually cracks, and he tells Delilah that he is a Nazirite and has never cut his hair. Delilah again tells the Philistines, and they are finally able to capture him. Samson thinks that he can break out again, but he did not know that God had left him. This is so sad. Samson thought that his strength came from himself, without realizing that without God, he was as weak as any other man. In his life, he had God’s power, but he didn’t have God’s heart and character. In other words, he was used by God, but he wasn’t changed by God. How often is this true of us? I can tell you that I relate to Samson is so many ways. I was born as a Christian, although granted I’m not a Nazirite. I often do what I think is right in my own eyes, without considering what God thinks is right. I used to have the same rage issues that Samson had. Lastly, I put more emphasis on being used by God rather than being changed by God. Let’s not fall into this pattern, but strive to be changed by God, and to have His heart and His character.
     So the Philistines capture Samson, and they gouge out his eyes. I mean Jesus said that if they cause you to sin gauge them out… Here we see that Samson’s sin was costly. He not only lost his two eyes and his freedom, he lost his connection to God, the most important thing someone could have. The Philistines start to praise their god for delivering Samson, and they humiliate Samson in front of a large crowd. Samson asks a servant to put him in between the pillars of the temple, and he prays to God. This time when Samson prays, he sounds a little different. Listen to what he says now, “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 (Judges 16:28).” Samson reaches out toward the two pillars, and pushes them with all his might, saying “let me die with the Philistines!” The whole temple is destroyed, and the Bible tells us that Samson killed more people in his death than in his life. Through this, Samson brings deliverance to the Israelite people.
     So now that we’ve covered Samson’s life, how is he a shadow of Jesus? Samson and Jesus were both born as people dedicated to God. Samson had unusual strength given from God, being able to destroy huge armies and a whole temple. Jesus also had unusual strength from God, but it was in the form of miracles. Samson’s great strength caused others to question where he got his strength from. This reminds me of when the chief priests and elders asked Jesus “by what authority are you doing these things (Matthew 21:23)”. While Samson was by no means a perfect man, he still made others question the source of his strength. We also should make people question what the source of our life is. People should be able to see God working in us. Next, Samson was handed over to his enemies by the very people he came to save. Furthermore, he was traded over to his enemies by one he loved, for pieces of silver. Jesus was betrayed by his people, and he was sold by Judas, a disciple whom He loved in exchange for some money. When Samson was captured, he could not use his strength to break free, but when Jesus was captured, He chose not to use strength to break free. “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!’ (Luke 23:39)” Jesus could have saved Himself, but He chose not to. Samson was humiliated in front of his enemies, standing between two pillars. Jesus was humiliated in front of His enemies, hanging between two thieves. When Samson was about to die, he said “let me die with the Philistines (Judges 16:30)!” When Jesus was about to die, He said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).” In other words, where Samson died with the enemies of God, Jesus died for the enemies of God. Samson died to avenge, Jesus died to forgive. Lastly, Samson dies at the hands of his enemies, and kills more people in his death than in his life. If you really think about that, that is amazing. Samson killed a lot of people in his life. Remember in chapter 15 that he killed a thousand men, using a donkey’s jawbone. Jesus also dies at the hands of His enemies, but He brings more people to life through His death than in His life. Do you realize that you were an enemy of God? Romans 5:10, “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!” When Jesus died, He brought life, not death.
     Let’s take a step back and look at Samson’s life again. If you could describe his life in one word, what word would you choose? If you ask me, I would say “failure”. Samson was supposed to be a deliverer for the Israelites, because they fell into sin. However, Samson falls into the same sins of the people he came to save. Samson was overall just not a good person. He suffered from anger, lust, and idolatry. Basically, as I said, he was a failure. So why did God continue to use him? If you were paying attention, you would have noticed that the Bible often says “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him”. Why? Shouldn’t God have just left Samson to suffer from his sins? Let’s take a look at Hebrews 11. As you probably know, this is the so called “Hall of Faith”. Reading from verse 32, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies (Hebrews 11:32-34)”. Now, how could Samson be included in this? Samson only really showed faith at the end of his life, when he prayed to God for strength. However, through Jesus, Samson’s small faith was made perfect. Samson was an imperfect deliverer, because he could only bring short deliverance to the Israelites. This why Jesus came, because He became the perfect deliverer, not Samson or any other judge. Through Jesus, our faith can be made perfect. He is the “pioneer and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2)”. God saw Samson for his faith, not for his failures. This is how God also sees us, because Jesus is our righteousness.
     You may have noticed that through this discussion, I highlighted three aspects of sin that we saw in Samson’s life. One, sin is a power. Two, idolatry leads to sin, and three, sin is costly. Sin is very serious, and we should treat it that way. That being said, where sin is a power, Jesus is stronger. Idolatry leads to sin, but Jesus is our true Lord. Sin is costly, but Jesus paid the cost. Let’s thank God that He sent Jesus to be our ultimate judge; the better Samson. If you’ve read my blog these past couple weeks, I’ve been recapping what we’ve learned each week in this “Shadows” series. At the end, I like to present some questions that relate to what we’ve learned, and how we can apply it. Here are the questions that I have for today:
1. In what ways do I identify with Samson, specifically in his faults and struggles?
2. Do others see something in me that causes them to want to know God?
3. Instead of crying out for deliverance, am I compromising with my sin?
4. Who or what often receives my worship?
5. Am I being used, but not changed?
6. Do I believe that God sees me for my faith and not my failure? Do I believe that Jesus is my perfect deliverer?

-Smart