Humiliated and now a slave to a Philistine grinding grain, Samson cries out to the Lord Judges He prays for strength one last time when the Philistines call him out to entertain them at their temple.
Placing both hands on pillars supporting the temple, he pushes the two supporting ones apart and kills himself and thousands of Philistines in the process. God gifted Samson with incredible strength, but he often abused it, using the might to show off, rather than bring glory to God. When we feel like acting on impulse, like he had, we need to remind ourselves of the truth of Scriptures.
Derived of all strength and humiliated beyond measure, God returns Samson his strength for one last showdown. Share this. Who Was Samson? The idea of God granting a child in order to dedicate that child to save the Israelites foreshadows a famous birth that appears in the first book of Samuel.
There, the prophet Samuel is born to a previously barren woman, and he is dedicated from a young age to serve in the Temple. Samuel I, 1. The Philistines raid a town in Judah in order to lure and capture Samson. To save themselves, the Judeans tie up Samson to deliver him to the enemy. But this episode does not end well for the Philistines:. The Philistines came shouting to meet [Samson]; and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
Then he found a fresh jaw-bone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men. Samson differed from his contemporaries in that he was a hero of faith Hebrews He was a Nazirite, and therefore dedicated to God. He was given to revenge, yet he was ready to sacrifice himself in order that his own and his people's enemies might be overthrown. He was willing to lay down his own life for the sake of his fellow-tribesmen--not to save his enemies, however, but to kill them.
Compare Matthew ; Romans Who Were Samson and Delilah? What Happened to Samson and Delilah? Here are three particular lessons we can all start following today: Watch out for arrogance. Share Tweet Save. Judges He went in to spend the night with her. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.
Tell me how you can be tied. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man. And his strength left him. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years. Commentaries for Judges He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.
I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born. The man who appeared to me the other day! She must do everything I have commanded her. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD. It is beyond understanding. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.
Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife? As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. Am I not sending you? What have you done to us? We will not kill you. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Take her instead. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. Did you invite us here to steal our property? So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people. What is stronger than a lion? Numbers They are to be brought to the entrance to the tent of meeting.
They are to take the hair and put it in the fire that is under the sacrifice of the fellowship offering. His parents made sure he heard the story of how he had been chosen by God before he was born. His marching orders were made clear by the angel of the LORD who had visited his parents.
God chose you, and gave you a purpose before you were even born. When God created heaven and earth, he knew that one day you would find yourself right where you are at this moment. You have been created in the image of God, and you were made for a purpose.
Samson could only further his mission as God gave him strength. Without that strength he could do nothing; with it he was completely unstoppable. Our real purpose is not simply to work 9 to 5.
God has a plan to use you in unique ways to help build His Kingdom. Have you discovered that purpose yet?
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