Samson 1 - Judges 13 - An Introduction

Now we come to one of the most well known stories in the Bible, that of Samson, and it is a very different and unique story with lots of life lessons. There are a few important points to make here before getting too far into this. First is that when they talk about the judges in Israel, it’s not one collective Israel, these are different areas, very small geographical regions that deal only with a certain number of people and tribes. This means that while one judge is “saving Israel” and ruling in one area, another judge that is talked about in this book could be operating contemporaneously. Second, the Old Testament is not put together in chronological order, similar to the Book of Mormon. It follows a general path of increasing time but there are many deviations where side plots are discussed. In the Book of Mormon this happens with the people of Zeniff, king Noah, Alma, etc. and the story of Samson is another example, because this also happens around the same time as the prophet Samuel and also the story of Ruth. So the timeline is moving forward, but not linearly.

The story of Samson is also unique in several ways, but we’ll go over them as we get there. Here we have Israel being oppressed again by the Philistines for 40 years because they had turned to Idolatry as soon as they got the chance, again. Samson was born in the land assigned to Judah but was from the tribe of Dan, who lived in the area assigned to Judah because they were never able to adequately capture the land assigned to them from the Canaanites that lived there. So they lived on the coast which is where the Philistines also lived because they were a sea people, sailing and trading on the coast.

As far as Israel’s oppression by the Philistines, TB gives some good background saying, “the so-called oppression of the Philistines was rather easily accepted by Israel, at last by the tribe of Dan. The Philistines were a technologically advanced society; even though it was their military might that allowed them to conquer so many areas all along the Mediterranean Sea coast. Even so the Philistines were not barbarians and their culture was generally attractive to those who they ruled over. Thus the Israelite tribe of Dan seemed to be somewhat apathetic about their conditions; it apparently bothered God more than it did them because He raised up Samson to deal with the Philistines on their behalf.” This is in contrast to the last judge Jephthath who was only given victory because the people of Israel repented and asked God to save them.

Just as an overview, and we all kind of know how this story plays out with Samson not being a great guy, so I don’t think there are any spoilers here. Both TB and the IM have summaries about Samson. TB notes, “For one thing, his birth was foretold and announced by the Angel of the Lord… Why was Samson singled out for such an honor? We don’t’ really ever learn why; however the Rabbis reckoned that such a thing must have meant that Samson was on a very high spiritual plane. This leads to the second unique aspect of Samson; he never raised an army nor led his tribe in an uprising against their oppressors. Instead we see Samson generally operate as a one-man gang in a manner that could never possibly topple the Philistines from power; rather he was just a constant royal pain in the neck for God’s enemy. And even this, on the surface, stemmed from Samson’s utter lack of self-control and warped moral compass.” The IM summarizes Samson’s story saying, “Samson could have been one of the greatest leaders in Israel since Joshua if he had been true to his Nazarite vows and to his Lord. If Samson, foreordained and chosen by the Lord, had been able to master himself, he could have set an example of spiritual and physical courage that would rank with the finest in history, But we can learn from Samson’s failure to avoid self-justification and uncontrolled passion so that we might join modern Israel in becoming a mighty and pure people before the second coming of the Lord.”

I’ve been think about this a lot, about why some people don’t accept the gospel, why some people reject Christ and some people don’t. I’ve been asking what’s the difference in the way that some people turn out versus others. What is the limit of free will and being “guided” by God’s interventions. Why does God intervene so heavily in some people’s lives and not others? In Samson’s case, could God have “guided” Samson into becoming the person that he was supposed to be? What would it have taken to do that? Could he have flooded his brain with chemicals that made him feel some type of way about being righteous? Could he have flooded him with other brain chemicals that gave him anxiety about doing anything that was contrary to God’s will? Could that have made a difference in his outcome? And if God could have done that, why didn’t He? Was it truly Samson’s free will that overrode all of God’s interventions in his life to turn out so poorly? If we accept that God is in relentless pursuit of us, and that His only goal is to bring us back to Him, we have to accept that He will take any and every opportunity to reach out to us and make that connection in a way that means something. Did God try to reach out to Samson and he just didn’t take it because he chose to be selfish and hardhearted? I hear all these stories of people hitting a certain moment in their lives and God reaching out right when it mattered and everything changing in that moment for them. That’s beautiful and speaks to God’s love for us and His careful watch for those moments that matter, but it begs the question, why does it happen for some people and why not for others?

I know someone who because of his horrific childhood trauma and constantly searching for emotional connections and looks for it in the worst places, even in his late 30s. It’s tragic because his childhood was SO bad and because of that he makes choices to associate with people who are going to get him into big trouble, and have previously. Why doesn’t God reach out to him because surely there have been moments in his life where it would have made a difference. But maybe He did reach out, maybe this guy just didn’t see it, or wouldn’t see it. I don’t know, it’s kind of discouraging because why do some of us react this way and not others? What’s the difference? Is it the individual person? Is it something to do with them spiritually? Like I don’t know, I don’t get it and it’s very frustrating especially when there are people that you want to accept the gospel. I don’t know and maybe that’s the point, I don’t have to know. Maybe the point is to trust that God is not ignoring anyone, to trust that He will work to bring everyone to Him the very first chance it is possible. Because if there are opportunities for Him to reach out and bring someone to Him but he doesn’t take it, then that means that He’s cruel and that accepting Him doesn’t really matter as much as He says it does. And because neither of those things are true, then we have to believe that He will work in every way possible, in every single person’s heart possible, at the earliest moment possible to bring everyone to Him. So if we don’t think it’s happening, then we just don’t understand the process.

I saw something concerning God’s timing the other day that was good that discussed Christ dying on the cross and choosing that time to tell Mary his mother and John his disciple that John was to take care of Mary for the rest of her life. He chose that moment to do it. The video noted that Jesus could have told prepared either of them at any point in the previous weeks that He was going to die and that John was to take care of Mary, He could have done it beforehand, but He didn’t. And the point was, just because you don’t understand God’s timing, doesn’t mean that it’s not perfect. That was the perfect moment for John and Mary to make that connection, for whatever reason, and just because we don’t understand it, doesn’t mean that it’s not perfect. Maybe that’s the point, we have to trust God to fulfill His promises, we have to trust that not only is His plan perfect, but it’s the only way to accomplish His purposes. We also have to trust that He wouldn’t subject us to anything painful that wasn’t absolutely necessary, and we have to also trust that He works all things together for our good. So why did Samson go down the self-destructive path that he did? Why did God allow that and not try to change it? I don’t know, but we have to trust that God allowed it to fulfill His purposes.