JUDGES - Week 2

Last week we did an overview of key themes in Judges, so this week it feels fair to do a reflection based on the story itself, especially as we come across one of the better known stories in Judges.

I’ll be honest, the story of Samson is one whose details I didn’t remember at all! I knew that he was super strong and that it had something to do with his hair, but that’s it. And there is so much more to it than that. This account is mad!!

We start off with a miraculous conception. Manoah and an unnamed woman (the first hint of several that this story was probably written by a man…) had not conceived and then an angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and told her that she’d have a son and not to drink wine (sound advice during pregnancy). The angel also said not to shave the child’s head from birth as he will be a Nazirite from birth.

Nazirite means ‘consecrated’ and Nazirites were ‘devoted’ to the lord, usually for a set period of time, during which they were prohibited from drinking alcohol, eating grapes, cutting their hair or beards (we'll obviously revisit this shortly!) or approaching a dead body (also significant in the story).

Samson is the first explicitly named Nazirite, but we don’t have to wait long for another who comes about in a similar fashion – Samuel was also born miraculously to a ‘barren’ mother and was a Nazirite (1 Samuel 1:9-11)

Now, in Chapter 14 we find a grown Samson who sees a Philistine woman and apparently just the sight of her was enough to make him want her as his wife. There’s love at first sight and then there’s impulsiveness and, some might say, lunacy! Not only does this come across as purely desire driven, which is almost never good, but also directly contradicts something that we’re told in Deuteronomy;

“Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.” (Deuteronomy 7:3-4)

Samson is going against what we’re told is the people’s understanding of the will of God.  Or so it appears, until we find out that really he just wants a reason to attack the Philistines, who ‘had dominion over Israel’ at that time. (Maybe Samson should have just told his parents?)

Then, on reaching Timnah, a lion appears and Samson tears it apart with his bare hands! There has been no mention of physical gifting up to this point, so this comes as a bit of a shock. He then marries the woman, and looks back at the lion’s carcass and finds bees and honey – and then eats it out of the dead body… This guy!

This eating of wild honey combines with what we go on to read about him enlisting foxes to fight with him (15:4-5) and retreating to a cave (15:8) to present a portrayal of a traditional ‘wild man’ of folklore.  The reader is intended to recognise Samson as having this wild side.

However, he also gives some honey to his parents without telling them where it was from (or that he had ripped the lion apart). More secrets… This feels odd, but when we remember the Nazirite vow to not approach a dead body, Samson’s actions violate this. His not telling his parents can also reflect independence and impulse. 

Then we have this incident with a riddle. The Philistines, who would have been at the wedding feast, were infuriated by this riddle (I can relate) to the point of threatening to burn down Samson and his father’s house (I cannot relate). After seven long days of his wife crying and “nagging” him (this isn’t the last time a woman’s “nagging” will be Samsons undoing – and I think the ‘nagging’ is another good indicator of male authorship…) Samson reveals the answer, his wife tells the people, who tell Samson, who then is suddenly filled with the spirit of God and goes and kills thirty people and gives prizes to those who answer the riddle. He then ‘gives’ his wife away to his best man.

Though this reads as madness to us, there is a reminder here that God uses all kinds of people, even Samson, who appears to be impulsive and brash. That said, if Samson’s strength was intended to deliver the Israelites, everything so far fits together into one plan that achieves some victory over the Philistines. It could be that all of these bizarre events, even those which appear to oppose God, are part of God’s plan!

We then get a short story of Samson and a prostitute, whose purpose appears to be to demonstrate more of Samson’s strength as he uproots the doors of the city gate, which would have been huge given that Gaza was a major city for the ancient Philistines, and then carried them around 35 miles to Hebron.

Finally, we reach the story of Samson and Delilah. This confused me!

Delilah is trying to find out the source of Samson’s strength, so that the Philistines can kill him. Despite his apparent infatuation with Delilah, when she asks him about the source of the strength, he keeps lying to her, which perhaps suggests that he knows what she’s up to. They go back and forth with this until, again after she had “nagged him with her words, day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death.” Tad dramatic, don’t you think? I wonder if everything is okay at home for this writer…

Anyways, the Philistines shave his head, rob him of his power, gouge out his eyes, and take him prisoner. The Philistines taunt Samson and celebrate the capture of a great enemy of their people, “the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.”

In one final act, whilst in a house full of Philistines, Samson prays for strength one last time to tear the house down, killing himself and everyone else in it. The text says the number killed at his death outnumber those killed in his life, which sounds like a lot!

Sensitively, you could read this passage and understand it as God helping Samson complete suicide. Discussion of that here is above my pay grade!

Only at the end of all of this craziness are we grounded once more as we’re told Samson was a judge over Israel for twenty years, though how many of those he spent on escapades like those mentioned we don’t know!

It seems as though the primary purpose of this story, and of Samson within, was the beginning of the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines. The means of this deliverance seem unorthodox, but the characteristic of God’s provision and strength against any enemy is something that we come across plenty of times – think of Gideon vs the Midianites, or David vs Goliath.

So, the message is on point, but as for the story, I think we ought to just enjoy the ride…