Don't Know My Own Strength

Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”  And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.  And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.  Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.  – Judges 16:28-31

Samson’s strength came from keeping his Nazirite vow by not cutting his hair.  In other words, his power came from his adherence to the law.  Samson is entirely a man of the flesh.  The carnal nature can be somewhat controlled by law, and, so long as it adheres to the “shalt not”, it can be blessed and empowered.  Where there is no transforming grace, the victories of the law are limited.  As we noted before, though Samson judged Israel for twenty years, he did not defeat the Philistines and break their oppressive yoke from the neck of the nation, unlike Gideon and the other judges.  As far as Samson was concerned, it was all about him.  In the end, he wanted only to be avenged for his eyes. 

All the old man can ever understand about religion is what is in it for him – whether in terms of this life or the next.  Some will focus on the material benefits that come from keeping the law, and these are not imaginary.  The law of sowing and reaping applies to all.  One who sows kindness, charity, and temperance or who is willing to give financially to help others -- even with wrong motives, will be repaid in kind.  I find myself grumbling at times because God is so good to people who don’t deserve it.  Then I remember that would include me – but that’s another topic.

The law can bless us and strengthen us, but it cannot turn us into new men.  Metamorphosis is the result of grace acting through faith.  Like the caterpillar, the old man has his destiny built into him, though he does not know it.  Samson makes the “faith hall of fame” in Hebrews 11 not because of his strength but because, in the end, he found the path to transformation and his true destiny.  And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.”  It will always look like death from the perspective typified by Samson.  For a person who is “stronger” in terms of natural willpower or determination, it may often be the case that the transformation will be more difficult, painful, dramatic, or extreme.

Some of us take more killin’ than others.  It is, perhaps, one of the reasons I tend to be sympathetic toward those who believe in universal salvation.  I can imagine that there are those who will only “die” in the ninth circle of hell – and maybe not there.  Samson fought on for twenty years.  It takes a lot of us a long time.  I suppose it could take some an eternity.  I'd rather not find out the hard way.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29)  

Almost Cut My Hair Today

And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.”  And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. – Judges 15:7-8

Samson is always an interesting character.  He is unique in the biblical record where possibly only Jonah is able to approach him in terms of behavior and attitude.  The name Samson means sun-like.  We might look at him as a Hebrew version of Apollo.  He certainly has the hubris and amorality that typify a pagan god.  His strength and power are also godlike, along with a potential weakness that is Homeric. 

Samson was born to judge and deliver Israel from Philistine oppression.  Though he killed many of his enemies, he is the only protagonist in the book of Judges who failed, ultimately, to break the oppressor’s hold over the land.  Despite his personal victories, Samson is a lone wolf.  It is no accident that he finds himself in Etam, which means a den or lair.  The Philistines are humiliated time and again by this isolated figure, but they maintain their cities, their military power, and, for the most part, their control over the Israelite tribes. 

Though God has sent Samson and ordained his destiny, the Almighty seems to have only the most minimal influence in the hero’s life.  Samson did as he pleased and brought God along for the ride – or so he thought.  He initially entered into conflict with the Philistines not because he wanted freedom for his people or because he desired to be obedient to the Lord but because he lusted after one of the Philistine women.  He went down to the city of Timnah and proposed marriage to a girl there.  This, as we shall see, is the only way that God could the “sun-like” hero to do anything other than look for a good time. 

Traveling back and forth between his home and the home of his bride-to-be, Samson is attacked by a lion which he simply grabs and rips in half.  He tosses the carcass aside and, on a subsequent trek, finds that bees have built a honeycomb in the lion’s remains.  Apparently not too concerned about cleanliness, ritual or otherwise, the hero unhesitatingly scoops out some of the honey and shares with his parents.  This leads to Samson offering a riddle with a wager to his wife’s kinfolk:  Out of the eater came something eat/ Out of the strong came something sweet.  His wife is threatened by those about to lose the wager, and she coaxes the answer from her avowed husband so that he loses the bet.  This begins a cycle of death and revenge that carries through the initial period of Samson’s rise to power and leadership among the Israelites. 

To pay his debt, an angry Samson kills thirty Philistines of Ashkelon then goes away.  The bride’s father, thinking that Samson is done with the girl, gives her in marriage to another man.  When Samson, looking for love, returns with the peace offering of a goat (so much more practical than roses), he is devastated to learn that he no longer has a wife.  The Philistines find that, like the old Nazareth song, now they are messing with an SOB.  And one with a mighty twisted sense of humor:  So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails.  And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.

Would Rambo or even Chuck Norris have been able to pull this off?  Samson’s only regret?   He had to use torches instead of lasers. 

But this seems almost petty compared to the accomplishments of a judge like Gideon who destroyed an opposing army against odds of one hundred to one.  If Superman were pledging a fraternity, he might pull a stunt like Samson’s.  The results were also probably not what Samson wanted, if he wanted anything other than to boast of a awesome prank.  The enraged Philistines did not go after Samson but after his former girlfriend and her family:   And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire (Judges 15:6). 

Revenge breeds more revenge, and Samson responds by striking down his adversaries, saying after he is avenged, he will quit.  Having been satiated, Samson retreats to Etam, thinking, perhaps, he has shown the Philistines the folly of attacking him.  But the blows fall elsewhere again.  The Philistines, knowing their nemesis is in tribal territory, attacks Judah.  When the tribal leaders ask for an explanation, they are told to give up Samson.  The men of Judah go down to Etam and call Samson out, explaining that they will be the ones who suffer if Samson does not allow himself to be taken captive. 

It is evident that everybody knew where Samson was hiding; it was just that no one wanted to go in after him.  They knew they had no chance against him in what amounted to his “fortress of solitude”.  Samson agrees to be bound as long as his kinsmen will not kill him before he is handed over to the enemy.  Bound with two new ropes, the mighty man is delivered to the oppressors.  Under threat, the Spirit comes upon Samson.  He breaks his bonds, grabs the nearest object, which happens to be a fresh jawbone of a donkey (one wonders how fresh it could be).  He proceeds to strike down a thousand of the Philistines, again humiliating them. 

As impressive as Samson’s feat is, it is still merely an act of personal deliverance.  Nothing in the text of his story indicates that he does anything other than mock and sometimes frighten his adversaries.  He does not deliver the people of God. 

Samson is perhaps a type of the modern church.  Today’s church is capable of impressive displays, of filling stadiums and massive auditoriums with great numbers of believers.  Christians own television and radio stations and broadcast the gospel around the world.  Yet our culture continues to deteriorate.  Materialism grows unchecked by Christianity’s efforts.  Like Samson, we can put on a show, but our efforts do not deliver.  We are still under the oppressive power of the enemy who seems to be growing stronger.

Yet the end is not in question.  Christ conquered our enemies once for all through the Cross.  So, too, Samson accomplished his greatest work after his own bondage and through his own death.  Will the Church in the West soon be shackled to grind at the prison mill?  I do not know.  If, however, you ever find yourself shorn and eyeless in Gaza, remember this:

 

But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.