A few weeks ago, on Lucia’s favorite scripture Sunday, we heard a little bit about the time of the Judges in Ancient Israel. During the roughly 400 year period after the Jewish people entered the Promised Land following their flight from Egypt, they were led by Judges. The Judges were often regular people who were recruited by God to lead the people – and while they led, things went ok. But after the judge passed away, the people of Israel turned away from God and started worshipping idols. As they fell away from God, they were persecuted by the armies of their enemies….things would go from bad to worse for the Jewish people…they would turn towards God..God would send them a Judge…they would fall into line and everything would be ok until the Judge passed away….the same dysfunctional cycle would happen again and again.
When I asked you to share what your favorite scriptures or stories were for this summer’s series on Trinity’s favorites, Ned came to me and said he was interested in the story of Samson from the book of Judges. This is someone we perhaps read about as children – Samson was often pictured as a superhero of the ancient Jewish people. But, when we read the story of Samson, it is much more of a tragedy than a story about a hero. Samson was born with a lot of advantages, making him almost a superhero, but he ended up making a lot of mistakes. Eventually, his mistakes caught up with him….he sort of epitomized the story of God’s relationship with the people of Israel – they were given a lot of advantages, but their mistakes caught up with them again and again.
Samson’s story included 4 chapters in the book of Judges….listen now to an overview of his life and story as we turn to Judges chapter 13….
The Scripture A Selection from Judges 13-16
13 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.
2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.
3 The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.
4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean.
5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him,
Pause….
Samson was born and was raised as a Nazirite – he couldn’t drink fermented beverages like wine or beer, he couldn’t touch any dead bodies, and a razor or blade could never cut his hair.
After Samson grew up, he proved to be the physically strongest man alive. The Nazarite vow gave him super-strength.
Although Samson’s parents followed the Angel’s instructions, and raised Samson very strictly, Samson did what he wanted when he grew up. And, this led to problems.
Samson insisted on marrying a Philistine woman – the Jews were forbidden from marrying outside of their religion. But, Samson didn’t follow the Jewish law. On his way to his wedding, he killed a lion with his bare hands – again, he was a Nazarite who wasn’t supposed to touch dead people…or animals. He later found honey inside the lion’s carcass, so he again touched the lion when he ate the honey. Afterwards, Samson posed a riddle to the guests at the wedding feast, and then was angry when the bride told her Philistine guests the answer. Samson was enraged – he killed 30 of his wedding guests and immediately abandoned his new bride.
A little while later, Samson decided he wanted to return to his wife. In the meantime, her family had married her off to another man. This enraged Samson, so he attached flaming torches to the tails of foxes and burned up the crops of the Philistines. He also killed 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.
But, did these tragic and strange events convince Samson that he shouldn’t marry outside of the Jewish faith? Evidently not…because he married another Philistine woman….
4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.
5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels[a] of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
Samson made up stories – lies – fibs to tell Delilah instead of admitting to her the source of his strength. But, she caught on to his teasing….
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.”
16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.
17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would
become as weak as any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.
19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.[a] And his strength left him.
20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.
22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain.”
25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
When they stood him among the pillars,
26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.”
27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.
28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “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.”
29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other,
30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray….
The Message The Burden of Potential
Samson had everything going for him…he was the long awaited only child of a formerly childless husband and wife. He was doted on by his parents. He was blessed by God. He was a Nazarite….he never had his hair cut, he never drank fermented beverages like beer and wine, he never had to do dirty work. He was the strongest man who ever lived. He became a leader of the Jewish people. He was a mighty warrior. The enemies of his people, the Philistines, could not figure out how to defeat him…Samson had everything going for him, yet he messed up…he royally messed up.
If we grew up attending churches when we were little children, we probably heard the “G-Rated” version of Samson’s life. Stories that said he was a superhero for God…..he was super strong and super smart – his riddles could only be solved by trickery. He defeated the enemies of God by killing them with the donkey’s jawbone…and burning up all of their crops….
Nevermind the foxes…and the falling into “lust” with all the wrong women. And, I don’t remember hearing about him being blinded after his capture….the “G-Rated” version of the Samson story leaves out a lot of details…and smoothes over many rough edges.
Samson had everything going for him and yet his anger, his lust, and his drive for vengeance messed everything up.
We probably have all known people that fall into the Samson trap – they have everything going for them and it all comes crashing down….a friend who lost their house because of a secret gambling “problem”....a high school friend who was brilliant and yet they lost their life to a drug addiction….a relative who had a family, a great job, a beautiful home and yet lost everything when they started drinking alcohol. We all know people, or have known people, who have opportunities and possibilities for wonderful things, and lose it all.
In that way, Samson’s life is very relatable to us…we are all given talents and interests and callings. And as our lives progress, we have to find ways to use them for good.
Samson didn’t use his talents for good…. If we read our way through the book of Judges, reading about Samson’s life seems like a reading of failed opportunities…of missed opportunities. The people of Israel, the Jewish people, asked God to help them stand up to their tormentors, the Philistines. God had Samson groomed to lead them and protect them from the Philistines…but, Samson squandered his talents by using them to settle personal scores – a stolen wife, a rigged riddle, a personal betrayal. He was “into” retaliation — when he was asked why he was responding by killing his enemies, he said, according to Judges 15:11 “I merely did to them what they did to me.” Samson did not fight the battles God called him to fight – instead he put his energy into settling personal grievances.
When Samson became a Judge in Israel, the people probably looked at his super-human strength and thought everything would be ok….they would stand up to the Philistines…they would live in peace…they probably saw Samson as a deliverer of the people of God – a savior.
But, we know the true savior…he wasn’t Samson…he wasn’t “into” retaliation….he didn’t use his powers for his own glory or to avenge his own grievances. We know Jesus – the true savior of humanity.
Like Samson, Jesus had a miraculous birth…instead of being born to a barren woman, he was born to a virgin. Samson was raised by parents who kept him pure – he was a Nazarite set aside to lead a holy life. Jesus’ parents knew he was the messiah – they protected him from harm and set him aside to lead a life of redemption for all people. Both men died with their arms outstretched….but again, Samson died demanding personal revenge (“Let me be avenged for my two eyes.”)...Jesus died praying for forgiveness for his executioners. Samson took his enemies down with him out of wrath. Jesus defeated death through sacrificial love.
Samson’s life is a morality tale with a sad ending. Samson was given tremendous gifts by his community, his parents, and our god. Instead of using those gifts for good, he used them for folly.
We have also been given tremendous gifts – we may not have the gift of super-human strength, but as i look around this room I see teachers and crafters and singers and pray-ers and nurturers and people who can build things and people who can fix things and people who can invest money and people who can take care of the environment….plus countless other gifts and talents. Samson’s story is a reminder that we have been given our gifts and talents by our loving God to be used by us for good.
And, we have a Savior – Jesus the Christ – who demonstrated sacrificial love to all people – not squandering his talents for personal gain or glory, but for the betterment of all the people in the world and for the glory of God.
Let us thank God that God has planted in us our gifts and talents and callings – and let us use them to help each other, to glorify God, and to serve God’s world..
Amen.
