Judges 12 - 16, Psalms 58,59
The most famous of the judges was not even a "judge." He wasn't even a very good boy. He was a one man wrecking crew. Yet he was probably what Israel needed at the time to defend the hill country from the Philistines.
As you read these chapters know that the biblical Samson and the Sunday School Samson are two very different people. The story of Samson begins with a miraculous birth and a Nazarite vow. Samson, it is thought, is meant for great things but what transpires is basically a string of grudges and fights over women escalating into warfare.
Samson falls for a Philistine girl and marries her. At the wedding feast, Samson tells a riddle and bets the guests that they can't solve it. When the bride tricks Samson into telling her the secret, the guests win the bet, and Samson has to kill 30 people to pay off the bet. Samson abandons his wife, who is then given to Samson's best man! In retaliation Samson sets the Philistine wheat fields, olive groves and vineyards on fire. Then the Philistines retaliate by burning Samson's wife and father-in-law. Samson ends up slaughtering a thousand Philistines with the "jawbone of an ass."
All this before he even meets Delilah.
Samson clearly had a taste for foreign girls. And Delilah certainly knew how to bring him to her. Delilah--whose name may be related to the Arabic word for "flirt"--is not identified in the biblical account as either Philistine or Israelite but she is bribed by Philistine leaders to find out the secret of Samson's strength. She then has his hair cut (the secret of his strength) and Samson is enslaved by the Philistines. Unfortunately for the Philistines they forget to keep cutting his hair and it grows back! Samson repents of his foolishness and asks God for his strength to return. During a crowded festival, his strength returns and Samson pulls down the temple, killing himself and thousands of Philistines at the same time.
Was Delilah at fault for Samson's problems or did Samson bring his troubles on himself? I tend to believe that Samson wasn't an angel...he was a human being with a weakness for pretty women. He also wasn't too bright. He always seemed to find himself in the middle of situations where only his physical strength could help. It was always a case of brawn over brain. In the end, his weaknesses led to his downfall and death. Samson's story is not exactly heroic...more like a morality tale.
NOTE: History hasn't been kind to the Philistines. They are on the losing end of one of western civilization's "shortest sticks." For a long time, when someone was called a "Philistine," it was an insult, meaning boorish, classless and ill-educated. The opposite is true. These were sophisticated sea peoples of the Mediterranean who entered the ancient Near East in the last years of the 13th century BCE (300 hundred years before King David) . From their coastal base, the Philistines pressed inland, becoming a threat to the loosely organized Israelites.
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