Day 2: Samson

And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

Judges 16:28

Samson had a miraculous start in life. In many ways, the events of his conception mirror that of Jesus: an angel came to his barren mother and told her God would give her a son that would grow to become the saviour of Israel (Judges 13:3). He was to have a strict upbringing, only eating certain foods, and his life purpose was ordained by God. Samson’s parents were devout. They followed what God had said, and the boy grew into a mammoth of a man, slaying lions with his bare hands and single-handedly battling a thousand men.

But he had a lust problem. He married a woman from the enemy tribe simply because he happened to see her and decided she was pretty. He had an unruly appetite, eating foods that were forbidden. He slept around with prostitutes too. Soon enough, his enemies the Philistines understood his Achilles heel, and used a woman called Delilah to entice him and find out the secret of his strength. What follows is a ludicrous display: Delilah asks him the first time, and he tells her that if he is bound by seven green cords, he will lose his strength. Lo and behold, Samson awakes one night with green cords around his wrists, and a band of Philistine assassins ready to kill him in bed. Delilah asks him a second time, incensed and hurt, and he tells her another lie (Judges 16:6-14).

Three times in total, Samson tells Delilah a silly story, only to be awoken by assassins brandishing the very weapon he previously discussed with his girlfriend. And he still didn’t dump her. At last, Delilah pulls out all the stops. She gets angry, she cries, she moans, she seduces, and silly Samson tells her the truth: his hair had never been cut, for it symbolises a vow with God. But one night, he wakes up hairless and captured; his whirlwind romance was finished (Judges 16: 19-21). The Philistines made him blind, and he is now depressed and imprisoned. But his time in the cell provided a moment of reflection. He had been foolish. He had wasted the life and the strength God had given him, and he let down his devout parents and his people. He must have felt so ashamed: Samson, the strongest man in Israel, blessed with super-human abilities, now beaten and blinded and weakened by his enemies, all because he could not say no to his lust of women.

But God did not forget him, and as Samson’s hair regrew, he prayed. The vow was restored. God gave him another chance to fulfil his purpose. Using his renewed strength, Samson breaks the pillars of the Philistines’ banqueting hall, and their illustrious building crashes upon them. Samson dies with his enemies, but he performed the task that God had sent him to do originally. It wasn’t the way that God would have intended, but it was equally important to Samson that he died with honour, having freed his people. God could have appointed someone else with the task, someone with better principles and self-control, but he used broken Samson, because Samson was a human like you and me: flawed. Because we are flawed, we can rely on God who is perfect and strong.