Who Was Samson & Why is He Important to Us? (Biblical Stories Explained)

the mighty samson shemshin in hebrew was a judge who led and rescued the people of israel from philistine oppression historical background after moses successor joshua died he was followed by a succession of jewish leaders known as the chef tim or judges the judges reigned for approximately 350 years from 1245 to 890 bce samson was the seventh judge and ruled his people for 20 years 951 to 931 bce sampson's story is told in the book of judges chapter 13 to 16 and while little is known about his role as a leader of the jews the verses tell of his great strength and various skirmishes with the philistines birth of a leader samson was born to his parents manoa and zelfini's from the tribe of dan in their old age after they had been childless for many years an angel appeared to them one day in the small town of zora and declared that zephanies would give birth to a son who would grow up to save the jews from the marauding philistines the angel told the couple that the boy was special and that he was to be dedicated to god as a nazarite from birth for the rest of his life he was not to consume any wine or other grape by-product and no razor was to ever touch his hair sylphones eventually conceived and gave birth samson was named after the term shemas umajin which means wall and protector or the word shemes which means sun his name foreshadowed the man he would become a mighty son who would protect and shield his people samson's youth samson possessed incredible physical strength even as a child a lion pounced on him one day while he was wandering through the woods samson slew the line with his bare hands feeling the spirit of god resting on him and strengthening him samson sought an opportunity to engage the jews enemy the philistines after realizing he had been endowed with this strength to help his people the philistines were a nation of marauders living in the west of the holy land they were constantly harassing and pillaging the jews for forty years the jews suffered terribly under the heavy philistine hand until finally samson took a stand the wedding and the riddle the first opportunity for him to confront the philistines came when he arrived in timna a philistine village on one of his frequent wandering expeditions he saw a philistine maiden there and decided to take her as his wife despite his parents objections sampson decided to marry her judges 14 1-10 then samson went down to timnah and saw a woman in timna one of the daughters of the philistines so he came back and told his father and mother i saw a woman in timno one of the daughters of the philistines now therefore go get her for me as a wife then his father and his mother said to him is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our people that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised philistines but sampson said to his father get her for me for she looks good to me however his father and mother did not know that it was the lord for he was seeking an occasion against the philistines now at that time the philistines were ruling over israel then samson went down to timnah with his father and mother and came as far as the vineyards of timna and behold a young lion came roaring toward him the spirit of the lord came upon him mightily so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done so he went down and talked to the woman and she looked good to samson when he returned later to take her he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion and behold a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion so he scraped the honey into his hands and went on eating as he went when he came to his father and mother he gave some to them and they ate it but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion then his father went down to the woman and sampson made a feast there for the young men customarily did this samson saw an opportunity to put his plan into action at the wedding reception he challenged 30 philistine visitors to solve a riddle he would throw at them if they guessed correctly he would give them each a suit of clothes if they did not they would give him 30 suits the philistines concurred samson presented his riddle to which the philistines were unable to respond samson had passed the spot where he had killed the lion on his way to timnah and he noticed that a swarm of bees had turned the carcass into their hive samson took a spoonful of honey ate it and went on his way as a result he came up with the following riddle food came from an eater and sweetness came from the strong what exactly is it the eater is a lion the predator of predators and the sweetness is honey when the philistines came to sampson on the seventh day they asked what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion the philistines approached samson's bride requesting a few days to come up with an answer they threatened to burn down her father's house unless she coaxed an answer from her husband sampson's wife persuaded him to tell her the answer to the riddle which he did when the philistines came to sampson with the answer he realized immediately what had happened samson left the city in rage and went to ascalin another philistine town where he killed 30 philistines then he stripped them and sent their robes to the men who had won the wager revenge at the time of the wheat harvest samson went to visit his wife he took a young goat with him he said i'm going to my wife's room but her father would not let sampson go in he said to sampson i thought you really hated your wife so i gave her to the best man from the wedding her younger sister is more beautiful take her but sampson said to him now i have a good reason to hurt you philistines no one will blame me so samson went out and caught 300 foxes he took two foxes at a time and tied their tails together then he tied a torch to the tails of each pair of foxes samson lit the torches then he'd let the foxes loose in the grain fields of the philistines in this way he burned up their standing grain and the piles of grain he also burned up the vineyards and the olive trees the philistines asked who did this somewhat told them samson the son-in-law of the man from timna did he did this because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man so the philistines burned samson's wife and her father to death then samson said to the philistines since you did this i will hurt you too i won't stop until i pay you back sampson attacked the philistines and killed many of them then he went down and stayed in a cave it was in the rock of edom then the philistines went up and camped in the land of judah they snopped near a place named lehi the men of judah asked them why have you come here to fight us they answered we have come to take samson our prisoner we want to pay him back for what he did to our people then three thousand men of judah went to the cave in the rock of edom they said to samson what have you done to us don't you know that the philistines rule over us sampson answered i only paid them back for what they did to me then they said to him we have come to tie you up we will give you to the philistines samson said to them promise me you will not hurt me yourselves the men from judah said we agree we would just tie you up and give you to the philistines we will not kill you so they tied samson with two ropes then they let him up the cave in the rock when samson came to the place named lehi the philistines came to meet him they were shouting for joy then the spirit of the lord entered samson and gave him great power the ropes on him became weak like strings that had been burned they fell off his hands samson found a jawbone of a donkey that had just died he took it and killed one thousand men with it then samson said with a donkey's jawbone i have made donkeys out of them with a donkey's jawbone i have killed one thousand men when he finished speaking he threw away the jawbone so that place was named rammeth flai samson was very thirsty so he cried out to the lord he said i am your servant you gave me this great victory do i have to die of thirst now do i have to be captured by people who are not circumcised then god opened up a hole in the ground at lehigh and water came out when samson drank the water he felt better he felt strong again so he named that spring collars spring it is still there in lehi to this day so samson judged israel for 20 years that was in the days of the philistines judges 15 1-20 remarkable strength of samson many other stories about samson's strength can be found in the bible when he wandered into gaza one of the major philistine cities one night his enemies surrounded the walls and barred the gates intending to attack and slay him the next morning one day samson went to gaza where he saw a prostitute he went in to spend the night with her the people of gaza were told sampson is here so they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate they made no move during the night saying at dawn we'll kill him but samson lay there only until the middle of the night then he got up and took hold at the doors of the city gate together with the two posts he tore them loose bar and all he lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces hebron judges 16 1-3 delilah and samson's downfall samson's downfall ultimately came at the hands of another philistine he married delilah judges 16 4 through 21. sometime later samson fell in love with a woman named delilah who lived in the valley of sorek the rulers of the philistine went to her and said entice samson to tell you what makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely then each of us will give you one thousand one hundred pieces of silver so delilah said to sampson please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely samson replied if i were tied up with seven new bow strings that have not yet been dried i would become as weak as anyone else so the philistine rulers brought delilah seven new bow strings and she tied samson up with them she had hidden some men in the inner rooms of her house and she cried out samson the philistines have come to capture you but samson snapped the bowstrings as a piece of string snaps when it is burned by a fire so the secret of his strength was not discovered afterward delilah said to him you've been making fun of me and telling me lies now please tell me how you can be tied up securely samson replied if i were tied up with brand new ropes that had never been used i would become as weak as anyone else so delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them the men were hiding in the inner room as before and again delilah cried out samson the philistines have come to capture you but again samson snapped the robes from his arms as if they were thread and delilah said you've been making fun of me and telling me lies now tell me how can you be tied up securely samson replied if you were to weave the seven braids of my hair into a fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle i would become as weak as anyone else so while he slept delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric then she tightened it with the loom shuttle again she cried out samson the philistines have come to capture you but samson woke up pulled back the loom shuttle and yanked his hair away from the loom in the fabric then delilah pouted how can you tell me i love you when you don't share your secrets with me you've made fun of me three times now and you still haven't told me what makes you so strong she tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it finally sampson shared his secret with her my hair has never been cut he confessed for i was dedicated to god as a nazarite from birth if my head were shaved my strength would leave me and i would become as weak as anyone else delilah realized he had finally told her the truth so she sent for the philistine rulers come back one more time she said for he has finally told me his secret so the philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands delilah lulled sampson to sleep with his head on her lap and then she called the man to shave off the seven locks of his hair in this way she began to bring him down and his strength left him then she cried out samson the philistine have come to capture you when he woke up he thought i will do as before and shake myself free but he didn't realize the lord had left him so the philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes they took him to gaza where he was bound with brown's chains and forced to grind grain in the prison death of a hero the philistines gathered in gaza's great hall for a great feast to celebrate their victory over samson they sang and danced in praise of their gods for delivering him into their hands then they summoned the blind samson to amuse them he was tormented and cruelly humiliated and he couldn't stand their crude jokes and idol worship lead me to the pillars so that i may lean on them and rest for a minute he said to his guide the youngster complied samson enraged and in pain prayed to god please god give me strength this time allow me to exact my vengeance on these cruel philistines so that they may know that you are the only god it doesn't matter if i die with them suddenly he felt the presence of god in him again samson reached out his hands and tore down the pillars that supported the structure the walls and roof collapsed in an instant destroying the entire structure the great crash killed every single philistine including samson himself samson killed more philistines on that day than he had in his entire life his body was later returned home and buried on the land he had fought so valiantly to defend for 20 years samson was the acknowledged judge of the people of israel in summary the great samson simpson in hebrew was a judge who led and rescued the israelites from philistine oppression samson a nazarite by birth was endowed with herculean strength by god which he used to fight the philistines who occupied the land of israel samson ruled over the people for 20 years before being betrayed and captured by the philistines samson's life ended when he knocked down the pillars supporting the building he had been taken to killing himself and thousands of philistines inside after being blinded and mocked by his captors the story of samson and delilah teaches us many important lessons despite being born with incredible potential samson lost his life due to sin the lesson for us is that the more we allow the glamour and allure of sin to influence us the more blind we become according to his extraordinary story samson was spiritually blind long before his eyes were gouged out judges 16 21 we must accept the fact that sin can infiltrate every aspect of our lives we must understand that sin has a blinding and numbing effect on us otherwise we'll be ensnared by it just as samson was all sin especially sexual sin has dire and sometimes fatal consequences sin binds us then blinds us and finally grinds away at us slowly and inexorably judges 16 21 in reality sin will lead us further than we intend it will keep us for longer period of time than we intend to stay in addition sin will cost us more than we intend to pay above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life the prophet warns proverbs 4 23 we discover that god can use both the wicked and the righteous to accomplish his will we also learn that our own righteousness or wickedness will not prevent god from carrying out his will though god punishes wrongdoing he has the option of delaying the punishment samson also reveals himself to be a shallow vengeful man who pouted when things did not go his way his references to i have a right to retaliate are particularly telling judges 15 3 and 11. this was also the mindset of the philistines judges 15 10. it's eerily similar to today's world view and contradicts christ's teaching matthew 5 38 despite all of samson's flaws he did repent and return to god before dying judges 16 28-30 in his sovereignty god used samson to accomplish his goal in reality samson's death did much to thwart the philistines oppressive actions samson's destruction of dagon's temple played a significant role in their defeat at mitzvah by samuel and the children of israel some 100 years later 1 samuel 7 7-14 perhaps the most important lesson we learn is that god prefers to forgive rather than judge in the end god saw samson as a man of faith this is demonstrated by the fact that he is listed in the hall of faith hebrews 11 32. when we read through the list of names in the hall of faith we discover that no one in the hall of faith was perfect samson was the strongest man who ever lived but he owed his strength to god more importantly samson allowed god to use him in fact god could have used him even if he hadn't made him the strongest man he's willing to meet us right where we are and take us wherever he wants if we let him james 4 8 come near to god and he will come near to you [Music] wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded you

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Length: 24min 59sec (1499 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 11 2022