Samson: All’s well, but doesn’t end well (Lesson 2 of 2)

by Bob Mendelsohn

Given in Moscow, Russia

11 June 2014

I really enjoy William Shakespeare, although I’m not British. He borrowed heavily from the Bible to write many of his stories, and so many of his plays ended in tragedy. One play which I liked is entitled “All’s well that ends well.” It’s the story of an orphan named Helena and her love interest named Count Bertram. Bertram is not interested in her, but by the end (Spoiler alert) she wins him to herself. The mechanism and trickery she uses is similar to Jacob and Laban, to Rachel and Leah, and to Tamar, all in the book of Genesis. Shakespeare certainly knew his Bible.

In our story of the man Samson that we conclude today, we see a military conqueror who was himself conquered by his own passions and although his name means something like “Sunshine”, he ended up in complete darkness. Samson never recruited others to join him, and only once did Israel band together in this story and that was to capture and deliver him to the Philistines. It’s really “all’s not well and doesn’t end well at all.”

Do you know how this ends? Let’s go there first and then back up and see the ending in context.

Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, took him, brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. Thus he had judged Israel twenty years. (16.30-31)

Samson ended in a grave, like everyone, had judged Israel 20 years and he died with the Philistines, the sworn enemies of the Jewish people on the west. He died in blindness, in darkness, and without any of his family around him. He was alone. And far from God. But God strengthened him to the task and gave him if you will, final victory.

I thought of some other men in the Bible who ended not so well. Judas comes to mind first. Remember him? Apostle, chosen by Yeshua, but he failed miserably. He was a sell-out to the Jewish leadership and gave up when Yeshua needed him the most. He killed himself like Samson did, and died alone. (John 13.30 says when “he went out, it was night.”) That’s a summary of darkness. The other one I thought of was Saul, the future king of Israel after the period of the judges. Saul had his own troubles on so many levels, and when he had to fight these same Philistines (1 Sam 28) he sought help from God. God didn’t answer Saul as quickly as he required, so in verse 8, Saul went to the witch at Endor and sought her help AT NIGHT. By the way Saul also committed suicide didn’t he? So all’s not well for those three, and for many who walk away from life in God, no matter the cause, no matter their motivation. God wants us to walk in light and live in the light of the glory of God. His ways are not our ways and we must do things his way. Amen?

Let’s back up and see Samson’s story after yesterday’s ending, and see what lessons we can learn for ourselves.

Samson had been engaged to a woman and paid the ‘bride price’ for her, but after the riddle was ‘solved’ by trickery, he went down the road to Ashkelon, killed 30 men and took their clothing, gave the clothing to the men of Timnah to pay off the wager, and went home. He was really angry.

What should he have done? What did the judges of Israel do during their tenure? They rallied the troops of various tribes, and formed an army. Did Samson do that? Not at all. His own personal warfare was enough for him. Not a good thing if God calls you to lead His people.

What should he have done with Philistia? Marry one of them? By no means. Bad alliances will never work the work of God.

So today (chapter 15 and 16), we see at the beginning

But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat, and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. (.1)

He spent a bit of time away, probably to cool off, and rethink a few things. So he goes to the woman to whom he is still engaged, for whom he has already paid the money, and finds her father preventing him. In verse (2) the father says, “How about her younger sister?” Oy. He said, “I thought you really hated my eldest.” (The Hebrew is intense:  ;h$Dta´nVc aâønDc_yI;k)

Samson is one who retaliates. He is always striking back in the way people deserve. Maybe that’s appropriate for a judge, but it seems a bit personal, rather than legal. He replies to the father (.3) “This time I’ll be blameless…” In other words, you are going to get yours!

So he catches 300 small animals, like jackals or foxes, and ties them in pairs, sets them on fire and releases them into the grain fields (it is wheat harvest time) to burn it all down. He is successful. Then the Philistines who see their economy burned to the ground wanted to know who was responsible. They found out it was Samson and that he was aggravated over the bait-and-switch wife/ best man thing. The people turn on the father and daughter in the conspiracy and burn them to death. (.6) So much fire and anger.

Samson avenges the death of his fiancé by killing a number of Philistines in reply. We don’t know how many (.7-8) but we know it was significant. The Bible uses the word for leg (we strangely translate it ruthlessly) and said the slaughter was GADOL, or great.

The military of Philistia then move into Judah (.9) and camp there. The men of Judah learn of this and send a note asking what they are doing. Here we see the pathos of the judge who is not a judge over the tribe, which he should have won over early. In fact, the men of Judah say (.11) that they are happy to get along with the Philistines, that we are ok with their ruling over us. And by the way, who made you the boss of us?

Samson replies that he’s going to get even with the Philistines and you would do well to avoid further contact with them.

In verse 12 they tell Samson they are going to initiate a prisoner swap and send him to the Philistines in exchange for a bit of peace. He says, No problem, just don’t kill me.

The exchange takes place and Samson is delivered into their hands. He breaks out of the chains/ ropes and kills 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. Not a bad way to spend the day.

 Before I go on, whom do you think Samson looks like? The Incredible Hulk? Sylvester Stallone? Maybe one of your own like Danila Kozlovsky. Look he’s probably more like Elya Baskin, Adam Sandler or Woody Allen. There’s nothing in the natural which would show him as having superior strength. If he were a brute, a real strong man, then we would attribute great strength to his working out regimen, to his right eating or something. But only when the Spirit of the Lord came on him could he do great things in the Lord.

In verse 18 Samson again sounds like a ‘natural’ man and asks for water. I think Samson’s big problem was living in the flesh, for the flesh. He was a classic ‘carnal’ man. So although there’s nothing wrong with water, after a military bout, what’s missing is devotion to God, thanksgiving to God, reliance on God. You know?

He finishes the drink and chapter 15 ends with a summary of his leadership. 20 years. Check.

Then chapter 16 doesn’t highlight Israel’s evil; it only shows Samson’s evil. Again he goes to Gaza and finds a prostitute. And has sex with her. Word got around town about Samson, the enemy of the Philistines, was there in town, and they set an ambush. He left town at midnight, but first carried off the gates of the city to a nearby hill. (.3) Remember what the gates represent? Their economic system all came through those gates; their military protected them there; their justice system was there. He basically stripped them of any authority and power. Samson had obviously intended to be a guard of Israel and to annoy Philistia during his life. He was very successful at that. But imagine if he had secured the loyalty of some of the other tribes. He might have sent Philistia back in ships across the Mediterranean.

Verse 4 of chapter 16 we are introduced to Delilah. I think her name comes from the Hebrew DALAL meaning to ‘bring low’ or ‘fade.’ She is Samson’s mistress, probably some level of prostitute and the scene is bizarre and comic as the Philistines promise her great wealth if she will find out the secret to his strength. The boys are hiding nearby to capture him once she finds this out. After three false starts, they leave. Finally after a long time, she does find out, calls the boys back, and she hires a barber[she doesn’t do it] who cuts his hair (.19); Samson weakens enough that the Philistines capture him (.21), gore out his eyes, and make him work in a scene of great mockery. No doubt Delilah gets paid in full. At the end, taunted and embarrassed, Samson, whose hair (and thus his vow’s fulfilment) has grown back, kills 3,000 men and women and commits suicide in the process in the destruction of the temple to Dagon.

Samson’s strength was not his hair. It was his Nazirite faith in God and God alone was his strength. What the hair represented was his strength; but it was not his hair alone.

So what do we learn today?
1)   Men and women of faith can be knocked out of the life of faith if they do not turn to God and repent of their sins.
2)   Sin is a destroyer.
3)   Satan hates us and wants us to retaliate against things and people against us rather than to seek the honor and glory of God in all circumstances. Paul said, Be angry, but do not sin. This is hard, but worth working on.
4)   Working in teams is the best way to win the battles. That’s costly, and you have to adjust to include others, but it’s the best way to win.
5)   When God gives you victories, shout “Hallelujah!”-- don’t ask for a drink of water.
6)   In spite of all this failing of Samson, he’s still listed in Hebrews 11 and is still a member of the Hall of Fame. He did believe. He didn’t live it out to the end, but his faith gave him great victories. He did help Israel by keeping the Philistines away from us for 20 years. Thanks be to God.

Let us end well.

Not only this campaign, but our lives as well.

Live in faith. Trust in God. Flee youthful lusts. And you will do well.

Samson (Lesson 1 of 2) Strength is its own weakness

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given in Moscow, Russia

10 June 2014

I remember the story of a young executive on his first day on the new job. He approached the boss’ office and knocked.

“Come in, son,” the boss told him.

“Sir, do you have any advise for me today?” he asked uncomfortably.

“Sure, make good choices.”

“Great, thanks for that, boss.” And towards the door he stepped.

“Excuse me, boss, how do I make good choices?”

“Experience,” boomed the boss, now writing notes on his notepad.

“Great, thanks for that, boss.” And again the young executive stepped towards the door.

“One more thing, boss, how do I get that experience?”

The boss looked up from his paper and said, “Bad decisions.”

Today we meet another judge in the book of Judges by the name of Samson. His story is told over four chapters, 13-16. We will take two days to unpack his tale. We are introduced to the setting as is common in Judges with the words in 13.1: “Israel…evil… Philistines rules over …40 years.” Typical of the situation in the continual story. The pattern is clear. The continual bad decisions and bad choices of the people of Israel are summarized in the last verse of Judges. Let’s look at that one:

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judg. 21.25)

This summary of the condition of the Jewish people is so sad, like I said when we started, it almost makes one depressed or anti-Semitic or something.  But remember our pattern, God listens to our cries, and delivers us, even when we don’t deserve it. So it will be in this case, in chapter 13, that God will make a barren woman, the wife of Manoah, to bear a child and he will deliver Israel. I’m so glad to know that no matter our condition in 1933 or in 1994 or in 2014, that God will bring His word to fulfillment, and will make things happen according to His will. His will is to keep Israel. He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. (Psalm 121)

The angel of the Lord appears to the wife, not to the husband, and not to them together. He says to the woman about her diet:

Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.

OK, so she is to avoid certain foods and drinks for a reason. (.5) tells us:

For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite (Numbers 6) to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

If you were not a Bible reader, and only reading this story as if Pushkin wrote it, you would think this child would be a hero from his youth. He is to avoid certain foods and drinks, and razors, and fight against the enemies of the Jews, in this case, the Philistines. Maybe he would be a powerful and strong boy. And if you were writing such a story, you might include some dangers like monsters or big and powerful human enemies, rocks falling, ships being tossed in the rough winds, and then the little hero would conquer everyone, and like in Hollywood, they would all ‘live happily ever after.’

That’s not the case in the tale before us, however.  His Hebrew name is from the root SHEMESH meaning ‘sun.’ You would think his parents Manoah and the unnamed wife would have named him something like “Keeper of the vow” or “Son of Nazir” since the only thing the angel of the Lord told them was that he would be a Nazirite, and had a few regulations on him that they were strictly told to maintain.

The story in chapter 13 is very detailed and I guess that someone close to Samson wrote it. The repetition of the visitation by the angel of the Lord and the exact language over and over makes me think this. So the angel visits both mother and father and details Samson’s diet and commitments. Then Manoah wants to have a special dinner for the visitor (.15), but the visitor declines. The angel recommends that Manoah offer an offering to the Lord (.16). Manoah still isn’t sure, and wants to know the visitor’s name. Again the angel declines but says something which makes people think he is Jesus. The angel says, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful.” (.18) The Hebrew word for wonderful is of course pela, the same word used in Isaiah 9.6

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

The human born to the virgin (Is. 7.14) who is ‘given to us’ in chapter 9 of Isaiah will be called Pela, El gibor, and Sar Shalom. All great titles for God or Messiah. So when the angel here in Judges says why do you ask my name since it is ‘pela’, some folks think he’s indicating that he is an appearance of the Son of God before He came to earth. They call this a ‘theophany’ or “Christophany’ in theological circles. I personally don’t believe this is Yeshua, for many reasons, but if people believe that, it won’t hurt them.

So in verse 19, Manoah does what the angel told him, and offers both a grain and goat offering on a rock. Usually he should have gone to the Tabernacle down in Shiloh, but perhaps for speed or for urgency or for compliance or…we really don’t know why, he chooses to do it locally.

Not only did the couple offer things to God, but the angel did ‘wonders’ (.19) Again a variant of the word “pela” And again I don’t know what wonders he performed, but together with his disappearance into the flames of the offering, it was enough to convince Manoah and his wife that this was an angelic visitation. (.21) They bowed low (.20) and Manoah got scared. He thought, “If that was God, then we are doomed. No one can see God and live.” (.22). She replied that this was silly logic. If God wanted to kill them, why would he have told them about the baby, and why would he have accepted our burnt offering? (.23). She is very convincing and the next thing we see is the baby’s birth and the activity of the Spirit of God. Notice the phrase at the end of .24, “The Lord blessed him.” I don’t think this is used of any other judge in the Bible. Again we can only guess what this might mean, but whatever the details of this blessing, it’s clear that it’s a positive thing. You know many of you ask me to bless you before a sortie or if you are unwell, or in various situations of life. And I’m happy to do that. I think we can all agree that however blessing works out, it’s a good thing. So the child was experiencing a good life in his home in the tribal region of Dan. Only note this, the land of Dan is in two places in the Bible. Originally they were to live to the west of Judah in what we today call the Gaza Strip. But since they couldn’t defeat the enemies there, Dan moved up north to the Golan region. These scenes with Samson however, take place in the original location about 20 miles west of Jerusalem.  

Then look how chapter 13 ends. The Spirit of the Lord is stirring Samson. It could also be translated as troubling Samson.

Chapter 14 begins with his first view of a woman from Philistia and although the story seems to say Samson has a plan to use her, I wonder if he was actually falling to the trap which would eventually knock him to his own death. And yet, he is listed in Hebrews 11, in the short list of 4 judges from this book who were men of faith. So his cleverness here in chapter 14 probably is accurate. Sometimes our very strengths are what get us in trouble. We don’t know how weak we really are, and thus lean on our own strengths instead of on the Lord. 

Oswald Chambers said this, "We are apt to say, “It is not at all likely that having been through the greatest crisis of my life I would now turn back to the things of the world.” Do not try to predict where the temptation will come; it is the least likely thing that is the real danger. It is in the aftermath of a great spiritual event that the least likely things begin to have an effect. They may not be forceful and dominant, but they are there. And if you are not careful to be forewarned, they will trip you. You have remained true to God under great and intense trials— now beware of the undercurrent. Do not be abnormally examining your inner self, looking forward with dread, but stay alert; keep your memory sharp before God. Unguarded strength is actually a double weakness, because that is where the least likely temptations will be effective in sapping strength. The Bible characters stumbled over their strong points, never their weak ones."

Samson convinces his parents to go to Timnah in Philistia (not far from their home) to get a woman whom he has seen to be his wife. On their way, a young lion approaches and without so much as a stick, Samson captures and rips the lion into pieces and kills it. (.5-6) How did he do it? By the power of the Holy Spirit! (.6)

They make it into Timnah and the story collapses into a short chapter, but probably lasted months. The key is the 7-day period of the riddle (.14) and the wedding festival. Samson was to marry this woman, but the day before the wedding (day 6), he submits to her tears and tells her the solution to the riddle. She mocks him, submits the answer to the boys of town, Samson gets really angry and goes to kill 30 others, take their garments and pays off his wager with the men of Timnah. Samson’s fiancé marries his best man, and of Samson we read,

And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. (14.19)

Samson is a man of faith, to be sure, and filled at times with the Holy Spirit. What we learn of him today and tomorrow will guard our hearts and guard our bodies and guard our spirits so we can continue to be men and women of faith as well.

Anger doesn’t work the righteousness of God. Lust doesn’t work out God’s purposes. False alliances will not help anyone. Samson had a duty to honor God as a Nazirite and stay away from vineyards and from foreign women and their food. He failed over and over, yet God calls him a man of faith.

I’m so glad God wants our hearts and not our perfections. We are not perfect. We do commit sin. I’m not excusing that, but the reality is here. We fall short of God’s standards, and YET, He loves us and wants us to draw on His grace and forgiveness, amen?  Our response to what He tells us, via an angel or via the Scripture or from wherever our instructions come, will determine our future.  Like the young executive, make good choices. Choose well, and you will do well, Amen?