Week 7

4/27/2025

Spring 2025

• Central Passage: Judges 13-16, Samson.
• Check out the Middle School Sunday School Resources page for other books of the Bible resources. Note: click here for the Judges handout.

Introduction

Samson was one of my favorite stories as a kid. Every young boy wants to hear about the exploits of a He-Man character who tears a lion to pieces with his bare hands and sacrifices himself to take out thousands of the Philistine oppressors. As a kid, I also missed the tragedy of the spiritual decay of Israel and her judges during these final chapters. Samson is the worst judge in the entire book. However, through him, God accomplishes his sovereign purposes.

Judges 13

Once again, the author of Judges gives the familiar refrain: “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of…” But the book’s downward spiral of spiritual abandonment, increased paganization, and resulting increased oppression continues (cf. Judges 2:18-19). This time, no one cries out to God when the Philistines oppress them. The narrator doesn’t even mention whether Manoah and his wife had cried out to God for a child. The Philistines had oppressed Israel for forty years—the length of a generation.[1] An entire generation of Israel had grown up not knowing the peace of God, instead knowing pagan worship and oppression. Apart from the narrator and the Angel of the LORD, the covenant name for God (Yahweh/LORD) is conspicuously absent from everyone’s lips except for Samson’s at the end of his life (Judges 16:28). The God of the Exodus who had led them through a miraculous, awe-inspiring conquest under Joshua’s leadership needed to begin anew His missionary work to His people.

Before diving into the story, let context set the stage. The Philistines’ origins are not entirely known, but most scholars agree that they likely came from the Aegean/Greek area. One group likely came from the north, battling the ancient Hittite empire before entering the northern lands of Canaan. Another group likely arrived by sea with their sights set on Egypt. However, Rameses III defeated them and displaced them to the southeast regions of Canaan, including Gaza. Philistines had threatened Israel earlier (Judges 3:31; 10:6-8), but now this mighty, seafaring people would be an enclosing threat for God’s disobedient people. They would continue to be antagonistic to Israel until King David.

With the Philistine oppression reaching its zenith, God begins to take unrequested divine action in the tribe of Dan.[2] Not satisfied with a mere vision or dream to an undiscerning people, the Angel of the LORD, the preincarnate Son of the Triune God, appeared to the unnamed wife of Manoah. Though unnamed, she responds with godliness throughout Judges 13. The Angel of the LORD blesses them with news of a child who will be a Nazirite from conception. Numbers 6:1-8 details the Nazirite vow, explaining that it is a temporary vow in which one abstains from three things: (1) alcohol or anything produced by grapes; (2) cutting his/her hair; (3) and contact with a dead body, even if a family member dies. Though this vow was normally a voluntary and temporary dedication to Yahweh, Samson was to be an involuntary, lifelong Nazirite, consecrated for God’s holy use. As a result, Manoah’s wife was also to abstain from grapes/wine and unclean food, for Samson will be a Nazirite from conception.[3]

Note the estrangement from their covenant-God in this chapter. First, as noted, no one cries out to God, neither oppressed Israel nor childless Manoah.[4] Second, the Angel of the LORD commands her not to eat anything unclean, but this should have been a known commandment for all of Israel. Having abandoned that commandment nation-wide, the Angel of the LORD reiterates it to Manoah’s wife. Third, Manoah addresses God merely as Lord (Adonai) and not by his revealed name, Yahweh (commonly rendered as LORD in our English translations). Fourth, Manoah seemed to not understand the purpose of the Nazirite vow, as if it was a forgotten ritual from long ago. Fifth, Manoah’s fearful response to acknowledging that he had been face-to-face with God[5] fails to acknowledge the Angel of the LORD’s previous appearances that did not result in immediate death. He also fails to realize that this salvation-producing God of the Exodus had promised to send a deliverer through his wife, who would need to be alive to do so. However, his wife, who consistently responds with piety and godliness ,comforts her fearful husband with good theology, despite their thoroughly paganized context. And finally (sixth), they name their son Samson, meaning “sun,” likely a common name at the time due to pagan worship of the sun-god, Shemesh.

Despite this hopeless paganization, God begins his miracuolous work of deliverance. The text notes that Samson “grew,” but the Hebrew word for “grew” is not a typical word to describe aging. Instead, it describes Samson as becoming great, for Yahweh had blessed him. However, as the story unfolds, Samson does not see his God-given greatness as a gift and a calling to use for the good of Israel—he habitually exploits it for his own selfish gain.

Judges 14

Despite being a Nazirite holy to the LORD, the story wastes no time in depicting Samson as a self-motivated scoundrel who cares little for his vow or calling. Thus, he pursues a Philistine woman from Timnah, for she looks good to his eyes. Samson’s eyes will prove to be increasingly unreliable in leading him properly as the story continues. After his story concludes, the phrase, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” repeats (Judges 17:6; 21:25) itself as an indictment against Israel’s spiritual decline and a pronouncement of their need for a king. Ungoverned eyes drift toward self-centered indulgence and spiritual decay through the end of Judges.

Additionally, though the flames of Manoah’s sacrifice and the Angel of the LORD went up to heaven, Samson repeatedly goes down (the opposite direction) to Timnah. However, the narrator gives an assuring parenthetical comment in Judges 14:4: God will sovereignly use Samson’s folly to deliver Israel from the Philistines. Regardless of His spiritual laxity that cares little for his parents’ input, the Spirit of the LORD still stirred in him (Judges 13:25).

As Samson foolishly goes down to Timnah, he encounters a lion. But the Spirit rushes upon him, enabling him to tear it into pieces with his hands. The Spirit’s enablement does not condone this action but protects Samson and serves to move the narrative forward so that Samson will end up in his position of accidental deliverer. After he breaks his Nazirite vow by tearing a lion into pieces, he further breaks it by eating the honey from a beehive in its corpse. Note, that both of these instances occur in a vineyard. Though the text is silent, one might question why Samson, prohibited from partaking of anything from the grapevine, might be in a vineyard in the first place. Once again, God does not condone Samson breaking his vow, but he will still use his foolish redeemer by His sovereign direction.

Samson’s folly is on display throughout the entire story, however. He foolishly decides to go down to Timnah for a Philistine wife. He foolishly returns to Timnah again, being confronted by a lion that he tore apart, defiling himself. He then tells no one of his defilement. Next, he takes honey from the carcass of the lion, completing his defilement of the vow that he had carried from conception. He shares the unclean honey with his parents, not telling them. Because of his deceptive silence on the lion and honey story, he speaks a riddle to the men of Timnah, a gamble much more costly to Samson than to the men of Timnah. He foolishly gives in to his wife’s pleas to share the riddle’s answer (showing that her allegiance is primarily to her people and not her husband, foreshadowing Delilah in Judges 16). Yet, in all of this folly, Samson finds himself in another reactionary situation where he angrily kills the neighboring Philistines in Ashkelon.

He then takes the spoil from their corpses (a further breach of his vow). “Spoil” in Hebrew likely refers to weapons and armor removed from dead soldiers/men of war. Thus, he disarms them of their weapons and armor, mockingly presenting them to the men of Timnah as payment of the debt. Though his motivation is vengeful anger, God uses His foolish redeemer to begin the deliverance from the Philistines. Samson cares little for his vow and calling to deliver Israel from the Philistines, but God’s sovereign hand of providence had already written the story for Samson to do so. This is why the Spirit rushes upon Samson, despite that doing so enables Samson to thoughtlessly forsake his vow and calling further. But this is only the beginning of God using pagan women to force Samson to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

Judges 15

            In Judges 15, Samson desires his betrothed wife from Timnah again, not knowing that his would-be father-in-law had given her to another man in marriage. So Samson arrives in Timnah again, probably seeking to consummate a marriage. In chapter 14 he had refused to listen to his parents’ input on not marrying a Philistine woman. Now, in chapter 15, he refuses to listen to his father-in-law’s offer to take the younger daughter as his bride. However, only vengeful, self-seeking murder occupies Samson’s thoughts, though he believes himself to be innocent when he makes his ominous threat in Judges 15:3.[6]

            The scope of Samson’s unwilling, yet providentially guided, campaign against the Philistines now broadens. Rather than simply killing thirty men, he attacks the Philistine economy. Philistia, known as grain country, had been enjoying the fruits of their wheat harvest when Samson brutally sets fire to 300 foxes, sending them in pairs to the Philistines’ primary source of economic stability. Samson’s fiery action leads to the fiery death of his desired wife and her father, and the cycle of self-motivated vengeance continues.

Samson’s foolish pledge of a final act of vengeance (Judges 15:7) fails to realize that this cycle of vengeance will continue to escalate after he attacks the Philistines who killed his wife. With Samson in hiding and the Philistines encamping against Judah, the men of Judah sheepishly question Samson. Whereas previous judges’ stories included decisive acts of deliverance (such as Ehud stabbing Eglon in Judges 3:20-22) followed by the rallying of Israel’s men of war against their oppressors, this time, the men of Judah do not rally behind their deliverer for battle. Instead, they bind him, still fearing Samson as the Philistines do, and deliver him to their mutual oppressors. But, yet again, this was God’s plan for deliverance. Despite the strength of their “new ropes” (Judges 15:13), the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon Samson to free him from his constraints.

Samson, breaking his vow once again, grabs the nearest weapon: a fresh donkey jawbone. Its freshness also makes it less effective as a weapon since it had not yet dried out and hardened. This does not matter to the Spirit’s work of deliverance, for Samson kills 1000 men. Due to his exhaustion from this battle, for the first time in this entire story, someone finally cries out to God. Samson, not naming God by His revealed name, demands water. There almost seems to be a shred of hope for Samson as he acknowledges that this act of salvation belongs to God. He then calls himself God’s servant (the same title as Moses and Joshua; cf. Deut 34:5; Josh 24:29) and acknowledges the sign of the covenant for God’s people (circumcision). However, no repentance and confession of selfish motivation, vow abandonment, or paganization is found here. Nor is there any sense that Samson understands that God’s salvation is intended for all of Israel from the Philistines. Instead, Samson demands that his personal needs be met, to which God graciously accommodates.

Judges 15:20 unsatisfyingly concludes this section of the narrative that pertains to Samson’s dealings with Timnah. Somehow, this selfish man of reactive, impulsive vengeance judged Israel for twenty years. However, there is no pronouncement of rest from their enemies as with the conclusion to other judges’ stories. Instead, the “days of the Philistines” linger on into the next chapter.

Judges 16

            The opening verses of chapter 16 introduce and hastily move us into the next act. Samson’s sleeping with a prostitute is likely an act of pagan worship, for temple prostitution was widespread throughout Canaanite pagan religions. Nevertheless, the story swiftly continues. The Philistines in Gaza, knowing his infamy, seek Samson’s life, shutting the city gate. With no mention of the Holy Spirit’s activity this time, Samson breaks the gate and carries it away from the city, deep into the territory of Caleb (about forty miles; cf. Judges 1:10-20), escaping and leaving them defenseless. Samson’s placement in the valley of Hebron in 16:3 may lead the reader to hope that he has forsaken his destructive lust for Philistine women, having returned to the territory of his own people. However, the next verse focuses on a newly emerging conflict as Samson returns to Philistine territory. Despite Samson’s great feat of strength, the stage is set for the story’s climax that will showcase Samson’s weakness for Philistine women placing him, yet again, in a compromised situation.

The Philistine lords recruit Delilah[7] to seduce and expose the source of Samson’s strength so that they might bind him and weaken/afflict him.[8] Samson’s first deceitful answer to Delilah is another breach of his Nazirite vow: fresh sinew, i.e., fresh from a corpse. After the Philistines fail to capture him by this method, Delilah asks again. Samson then offers her a more reasonable answer: bind him with new ropes. However, we already know that even the strength of new ropes cannot bind God’s deliverer (Judges 15:13-14). His third lie to Delilah’s repeated inquiry comes closer to the truth: his hair. His hair may be the only remaining piece of his Nazirite vow that he has not yet broken.[9] However, she once again finds out his trickery. The story builds tension by slowing its pacing and depicting Delilah as an endlessly nagging wife. Samson, not known for having control over his frustrated, emotional outbursts, finally reveals that he is a lifelong Nazirite to God (once again leaving the covenant God of Israel unnamed).

Though the narrator refrains from making parenthetical comments about God’s behind-the-scenes activity in this chapter, his providential hand remains at work. God allows Samson to enter into a deep sleep after he tells Delilah everything, and He removes Samson’s strength in preparation for a real display of God-given strength. Though we know Samson’s real strength comes from the Holy Spirit rushing upon him and not his hair or a vow that he so carelessly disregards, God temporarily removes his strength. The Philistines seize him and gouge out the eyes that have so frequently sought what was right for Samson but faithless to God.

However, with masterful storytelling, the narrator mentions, “the hair of his head began to grow again.” The dwindling signs of the Nazirite begin to show themselves once more. Though his purpose as the Nazirite who will deliver Israel seemed lost when his final hair fell from his head, hope resurrects itself that God will once again raise up his Nazirite to deliver Israel.

Therefore, as the Philistines boast in their god, Dagon, the reader is overcome with dramatic irony. God allows this seeming victory of Dagon to creep into their minds, just long enough for His redeemer to take his place of action at the request of their pride and hubris. While they laugh and mock Yahweh’s humiliated, suffering servant, Samson finally calls out to Him by name: “Lord Yahweh.”[10] Though he finally calls out to Yahweh, his cry is still self-motivated, for he cries, not for the deliverance of Israel but for vengeance for losing his eyes. Though Samson had sworn one final act of vengeance in Judges 15:17, this would be his true final act of Spirit-empowered vengeance that consumed more Philistine lives than he had taken over the entire course of his life.

Conclusion

As Samson’s story concludes, no pronouncement of peace and rest for Israel comes after his sacrifice. Instead, the following chapters contain some of the most horrifying scenes in the Bible, which the children’s Sunday school curriculum (understandably) skips. This story of Samson is messy. God uses a persistently selfish deliverer who was humiliated and vindicated. After Samson, the story of Judges continues its downward spiral so much so that civil war against Benjamin erupts.

God sovereignly uses Samson for a very temporary and incomplete deliverance. But Israel needs a king. We, likewise, need a redeemer-king who is unmotivated by selfish, sinful desire. We need the Angel of the LORD to be our king, for “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (Phil 2:7-8). Jesus is that redeemer. As awesome as a young boy might think Samson’s accomplishments are, Samson merely points us toward the King of creation who came in the form of a humble servant, was humiliated with death on a cross, vindicated by resurrection, and exalted above every name as our deliverer from Satan’s oppression.

Just as Manoah, his wife, and Israel never cried out for deliverance, Jesus is the king we never would have thought to ask for. How often does God graciously answer prayers that we never prayed? How often does God mercifully overlook our sin, deciding instead to sovereignly direct all folly and sin toward His glory and Kingdom expansion? Stories such as Samson’s give narrative weight to the promise of Romans 8:28-29. As the downward spiral of Judges progressively worsens, and it becomes clear that Israel needed a king after God’s own heart, God was already at work in the lives of Ruth and Boaz to establish the line of David that would bring forth the Messiah whose reign of peace never ends.