Reading: Judges 13-15, Psalm 74
Following on the heels of Jephthah, that paragon of Israel, we get the story of Samson. The people of Israel have again fallen into idolatry- although following Jephthah it was more of a minor slide than a fall, considering how he “worshiped” the God of Israel. God brings in the Philistines to rule over them. These guys will be a thorn in the side of Israel for hundreds of years. During this oppression God does something new in providing a deliverer for Israel.
The story opens with an angel telling Manoah of the tribe of Dan and his wife, who are barren, that they will have a son. We have seen this pattern of story before, back in Genesis 15, and this is not the last time we will see it. When God promises to give a barren man and woman a child in the story of the Bible, something very significant is about to happen. Here God makes a second significant condition on this child- he will be a Nazirite from the day of his birth. The Hebrew word here, נָזִיר, means something like “one who is consecrated.” The regulations for someone who makes a vow to be a Nazirite show up in Numbers 6- no grapes or anything derived from them, no haircuts, staying away from dead things, and certain sacrifices- but as we have seen the knowledge of the law is a bit lacking in Israel by this time. So God has to tell the parents twice how their son will be a Nazirite from day one. Manoah and his wife bring out food for their angelic messenger, who consumes it with a touch from his staff. Which is awesome. Also, it proves to them that the message is legit from God. God fulfills his word to them, and they have a son named Samson.
Ok, so far this is going really really well. Samson is an ordained child, given by God directly to a specific family, who seem ready to raise him in the way God directed. In contrast to Jephthah, who was totally a leader chosen by and after the heart of the people of Israel, Samson is dedicated to the service of the God of Israel from the day of his birth. This guy will be the good judge, right? The one who follows God’s commands to the letter than ushers in a new age of obedience to the covenant? Unfortunately, the author of Judges is setting us up.
The first story we get about grown up Samson is about who he is going to marry. He picks a Philistine. He parents correctly object, but Samson insists. Our narrator tells us this was from God, to smite the Philistines. Still, this is not a good showing for Samson. Even if God is using the circumstance to blast the Philistine oppressors, Samson is violating the covenant by this marriage. Also, he is flouting the instruction of his parents. It is also not a good show for his parents, who fail to discipline their son to obey the laws of Israel. So they head down to visit the Philistine family.
On the way down, Samson gets attacked by a lion and he rips it apart. Which is pretty cool. Once there, he is all about marrying the girl, so they set a date some days later. On the second trip down, he finds bees in the lion’s dead body, and he eats the honey, as well as giving some to his parents.
Now, what is wrong with this picture? Samson, dedicated to the service of God as a Nazirite, is eating out of a dead body. The Nazirite vow prohibits touching dead bodies. Remember all the purity laws back in the books of Moses, which set the people of Israel apart from the consequences of the curse and death? Samson couldn’t be violating this more blatantly. He is marrying outside Israel. He is literally eating from a dead body. Another questionable showing for Samson.
The next scene is him making a feast for the Philistine young men. Yeah, the occupying oppressors, the enemies of Israel. His soon to be relatives. Because the situation isn’t awkward enough, he decides to wager with them with a riddle about his honey filled lion carcass. The Philistine response is just great, threatening to burn his new wife and her family in their house if she can’t get the answer out of him. These are great guys. So she goes and gets Samson to tell her the answer. This theme of Samson being an absolute sieve to a woman will come up again. Anyway, having lost the wager with the Philistine young men, Samson now owes them thirty sets of clothing. So of course he goes and slaughters thirty other Philistines, takes their clothes, and gives them to these Philistines. Because he hasn’t trashed his Nazirite vow enough. Then he goes home. Leaving his new wife there. With the guys who threatened to burn her and her family to death to avoid paying Samson’s wager.
Some time later, Samson goes back to her father’s house, and finds she has been married off to another guy- our translations often say “best man” because that is the closest thing we have in modern language. It really means close companion and was very likely another Philistine. Samson is understandably upset by this, although he is hardly free of mistakes in this relationship. His response will not improve matters. He ties torches to a bunch of foxes’ tails and sets them running through the Philistine crops at harvest with predictable results. When the Philistines figure out he was responsible, they burn the woman he was going to marry and her family to death. Philistines are great relatives.
Samson gets mad, and apparently does something violent, striking them “hip and thigh.” Then he goes and hides in a cleft of a rock in the wilderness. Yep. Living in a cave in the desert. The Philistines go out to smite Israelites in response to Samson’s actions. The Israelites decide to turn Samson over to the Philistines. Samson has done a great job rallying the people of God to deliverance hasn’t he? The rest of this story is classic Samson: when nothing else works, kill a bunch of people. When the Israelites bring him bound to the Philistines, he breaks the ropes, grabs a donkey’s jawbone, and slaughters a thousand people. We close today’s story with Samson alone, everyone’s hand turned against him, complaining to God that he is dying of thirst, and God miraculously granting him water in the wilderness.
Let’s gut check how Samson is doing. This guy is, pre-birth, claimed by God for his service. He has violated the conditions of the covenant up and down, caused chaos and death, disgraced his family and himself, and earned the enmity of both Israel and the Philistines. He is impressively strong, basically a superhero, totally unstoppable. But how much deliverance has he brought to Israel? How much repentance are the people of Israel doing? Tomorrow we will see the rest of the story of Samson and how he ended pretty much exactly as he lived.