Read verses 1-2: Samson goes to Gaza (which is a Philistine city) and sleeps with a prostitute. The Philistines see him and set an ambush to attack him in the morning.
Read verse 3: Samson wakes at midnight, somehow sneaks past the ambush and takes apart the city gate. He then carries the gate's doors, posts and bar up a mountain 38 miles away. (That's a really strong guy to carry any weight such a long distance!)
That's the end of this first little story. Now on to Delilah...
Read verse 4: Samson meets Delilah. It's not clear from the text, but according to commentaries, there's a high chance she was another prostitute. Either way, she was definitely a Philistine. Samson "falls in love" with her, but hadn't talked to her so it was more that she pleased his eyes...
Read verse 5: The Philistines offer big bucks (1100 pieces of silver each) to Delilah, if she can find out where Samson's strength comes from.
Read verses 6-14: In these verse we see three times that Delilah asks Samson the secret of his strength. He gives her an answer. She does it while he sleeps. She wakes him up telling him the Philistines are attacking and each time he breaks free.
Read verses 15-17: Delilah is quite upset by the fact that her man doesn't trust her enough to tell her the truth. She begs, even harasses, him day after day to tell her the truth. She annoys him to death (ah clearly nagging eventually works...). To get her off his back, he tells her the truth about his Nazirite vow and his strength lying in his hair.
Read verse 18: Delilah knows he was telling the truth (probably because he explained why it was the secret too) and tells this Philistines. They pay her in advance (they knew it was the truth this time too!).
Read verses 19-20: Delilah gets a barber to shave Samson's head and then the Philistines ambush him. Because his hair is cut, the Spirit of the Lord has left him and the Philistines capture him.
Read verses 23-24: The lords of the Philistines through a party to celebrate Samson's defeat.
Read verses 25-26: The drunken Philistines bring Samson from prison as entertainment. They position him between two pillars, which he asks to rest his hands upon.
Read verse 27: Oh by the way, the house and roof are filled with Philistines-leaders, men and women. There are 3000 people on the roof and an estimated 3000-4000 inside too.
Read verses 28-30: Samson prays for God to remember him and allow him to get revenge for his eyes by killing the Philistines. Samson then presses the pillars until they collapse and kills everyone, himself included.
Read verse 31: His family takes him and buries him.
Some interesting things to note:
Read verse 3: Samson wakes at midnight, somehow sneaks past the ambush and takes apart the city gate. He then carries the gate's doors, posts and bar up a mountain 38 miles away. (That's a really strong guy to carry any weight such a long distance!)
That's the end of this first little story. Now on to Delilah...
Read verse 4: Samson meets Delilah. It's not clear from the text, but according to commentaries, there's a high chance she was another prostitute. Either way, she was definitely a Philistine. Samson "falls in love" with her, but hadn't talked to her so it was more that she pleased his eyes...
Read verse 5: The Philistines offer big bucks (1100 pieces of silver each) to Delilah, if she can find out where Samson's strength comes from.
Read verses 6-14: In these verse we see three times that Delilah asks Samson the secret of his strength. He gives her an answer. She does it while he sleeps. She wakes him up telling him the Philistines are attacking and each time he breaks free.
Read verses 15-17: Delilah is quite upset by the fact that her man doesn't trust her enough to tell her the truth. She begs, even harasses, him day after day to tell her the truth. She annoys him to death (ah clearly nagging eventually works...). To get her off his back, he tells her the truth about his Nazirite vow and his strength lying in his hair.
Read verse 18: Delilah knows he was telling the truth (probably because he explained why it was the secret too) and tells this Philistines. They pay her in advance (they knew it was the truth this time too!).
Read verses 19-20: Delilah gets a barber to shave Samson's head and then the Philistines ambush him. Because his hair is cut, the Spirit of the Lord has left him and the Philistines capture him.
Read verse 21: To make matters worse, they gouge out his eyes (this is a punishment considered worse then death). They bind him with chains and force him to work.
Read verse 22: Some foreshadowing: Samson's hair starts to grow back. (Some commentaries add that this might be showing his repentance, but I don't see any textual support for that.)
Read verses 23-24: The lords of the Philistines through a party to celebrate Samson's defeat.
Read verses 25-26: The drunken Philistines bring Samson from prison as entertainment. They position him between two pillars, which he asks to rest his hands upon.
Read verse 27: Oh by the way, the house and roof are filled with Philistines-leaders, men and women. There are 3000 people on the roof and an estimated 3000-4000 inside too.
Read verses 28-30: Samson prays for God to remember him and allow him to get revenge for his eyes by killing the Philistines. Samson then presses the pillars until they collapse and kills everyone, himself included.
Read verse 31: His family takes him and buries him.
Some interesting things to note:
- At no point did Samson actually deliver the Israelites. He oppressed and weakened the Philistines but did not completely destroy them.
- In the 4 chapters that recount Samson's story, we are given a rather dismal picture. Samson continually gives in to the desires of his flesh instead of serving the Lord. Yet he is one of the men mentioned in Hebrews 11:32 that were men of faith, but the writer didn't have enough time to tell his story too. I wish he had, cause I don't understand why he'd be part of that list.
- The judges started off with a picture perfect Judge (Othniel) and have spiraled downward-Samson was the worst of the Judges.
- Samson's life was considered to be a warning to the Israelites. Samson chased after foreign women, Israel chased after foreign gods. Samson ignored God's commands and did what he wanted, so did the Israelites. They both squandered their potential. This story would've said to the Israelites, "Don't be like Samson or you'll suffer the same fate." Sadly as we learn in the next few books, they do not heed the warning of Samson's life.
Application:
- Live victoriously. Samson lived in defeat. He accomplished more in his death than life. (He killed more Philistines, which was God's will for him, in his death than throughout his life.) Hebrews 12:1-2 encourages us to lay aside sin and fix our eyes on Jesus. It's only by doing this that we can live victoriously.
- Remove stumbling blocks from your life... Samson's eyes continually caused him to sin, so God had the Philistines gouge them out. Matthew 5:29 says to remove the things that cause us to sin (eyes, hands, etc.). Choose to obey God rather than being forced to.
- Resisting Temptation on your own is very difficult. Delilah wore down Samson's resolve until he finally gave in. However, in Genesis 39:10, Joseph was also tempted day in and day out, yet resisted. The difference? their relationship with God. Joseph took it seriously and Samson did not.
One final though to share with you. Throughout the Old Testamant there are men who are considered to by a type of Jesus, meaning that their lives are an imperfect example of what Jesus would be like. Men like Adam, Joseph, Moses, and David, among others, are considered to be a type of Jesus. Samson is also a type of Jesus. Here are some facts about Samson's life that are also true of Jesus:
- a miraculous birth
- life purpose was to sacrifice (that sacrifice was to bring deliverance)
- destroyed a lion (Satan is called a roaring lion in 1 Pet. 5:8)
- use worthless things as instruments (Samson used a jawbone; Jesus uses us)
- betrayed for silver
- mocked before death
- voluntarily died to destroy the enemy
- died with arms outstretched
- taken and buried
Thankfully for us, Samson is just a type of Jesus and not Jesus Himself! It's cool to see how many correlations there are between the two.
**All Scripture is quotes from the New American Standard.
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I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. These are my lessons and some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.
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I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. These are my lessons and some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.
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