It has been said of Samson, that "Samson stands as one of the saddest figures in the Old Testament, a person who started with great potential but squandered it on self-indulgence and sinful living." Preaching elders have Samson in their back pocket in case they need to preach on a text that proves God can use even rampant sinners to complete his purposes (which means he can use you!). It seems Samson stands as a pseudo-hero in the chronicle of Israel. If God can't use evil men to accomplish his will, what hope is there for the world? Or even the church? Samson gives us hope that our sin cannot derail God's intentions for us, and that gracious power is available even in the midst of rebellion.
...or does he?
My intention in this post is to present a case. A case that Samson is not only NOT a clear-case example of sinful people being used by a holy God to fulfil his will, but is nearly the opposite. I want to paint a picture of a mighty warrior of God who loved Yahweh, served him with a whole heart, and is a wonderful example of godliness in the midst of the sinful nation of Israel. In the first section, I will present a series of arguments in favor of Samson's essentially noble and righteous character, and in the second, I will deal with some counter arguments.
Samson: A precursor to Christ
1) The Hall of Faith. In Hebrews 11, a list is presented of the faithful works of faithful people, and the list is introduced with these words: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." So we are now expecting a list of things and people who are commended for a living and active faith in Yahweh that sets them out from a surrounding pagan worldview. In fact, that understanding of the list makes every single item on the list of noteworthy beauty. Take for example, the first one. "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." This is a righteous understanding of the origins of all things over and against competing pagan worldviews, such as those that argue the world is an illusion (Buddhism) or that the earth is being carried on the back of a turtle (Hinduism) or that the world is the creation of an evil spiritual entity and all that is physical is antagonistic to all that is spiritual (Gnosticism) and the like. The list includes Noah, an obvious example of righteous faith in the midst of pagans. Now Samson is NOT described in the list of Hebrews 11, but he is mentioned there, and the author tells us directly that the only reason he isn't going to discuss Samson's righteous faith in the midst of paganism is "there isn't enough time" (verse 32). That means...the author WANTS to talk about Samson, but he's already said enough just moving through the Torah. He's made his point. This means Samson, indeed, belongs in this list and would make a worthy contribution to it should the author of Hebrews have continued writing.
2) A sacred upbringing. It's not surprise to hear that Samson was a Nazirite. The consequences of this on his parents were simple: "You will become pregnant and have a son. 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". A Nazirite is essentially a holy person. The word means to be branched off. He is branched off of Israel into a special status as a servant of God, and that meant even while he was in the womb. When he was outside of the womb, he was to have nothing to do with grapes, could not be near a dead body, and had to grow their hair out, never to cut it until they ceased to be a Nazirite. It was a binding obligation to be dedicated to God, and these peculiar traits were proof to the Nazirite and to the watching world that they were thus dedicated. Samson was a Nazirite, not by mental ascent, but by the call of God. God had set this man apart to be a life-long Nazirite, meaning he belonged to God in a special way. Judges 13 ends with these words: "He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him..."
3) A delivering sacrifice. There are two people in the Bible who created a greater deliverance for God's people through their death than through their life. Samson...and JESUS. He is clearly a type, a precursor for Jesus himself. With the exertion of divine power, the enemies of God are crushed under their own idols, and the captivity of God's people is ended. Samson did not seek healing or rescue for himself; he had deliverance on his mind, even if it meant his own death.
4) Unrepentance. At no point in the story does Samson ever repent, not even in his prayer when he asks God to grant him strength one last time. He doesn't view his life or his decisions as needing forgiveness from God. He views the circumstances of his life as sin in other people. God seems to agree, by filling Samson with the Holy Spirit more times than he does any other judge, and granting strength to deal with God's enemies even though Samson's hair was gone. His strength was not tied to his hair, it was tied to his God. His God tied it to his hair, but could tie it to Samson if he wanted to, and he did. It's a great demonstration of 2 Chronicles 16:9 "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him."
5) He has a clear, almost supernatural wisdom. Samson is no fool. He thinks carefully, is a brilliant strategist, a wordsmith, and a visionary in battle. Probably the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit, he makes calculated decisions, weaving words and sentences like a poet, on multiple occasions using three-way puns, and even presents riddles to his enemies. This is a mighty man with a mighty mind.
6) He is a judge. The book of judges invites the reader to consider everyone in the book to be wicked except the judge. Israel misbehaves, bad guys show up, Israel gets in a bad state, and then God raises up a judge to rescue Israel. The lives of the judges are entirely mixed with hardship and warfare, but the aftermath of their lives is "peace" in Israel. A return to Yahweh worship. The first couple chapters of Judges present this cycle to you. The judges are people not only concerned with the political hardship of Israel, but their spiritual hardship as well. Their work is to return Israel to a place of obedience to the Law, and we are asked to fill in the gray areas of the narrative with that understanding. We take Judges 1 and 2 with us as we read the rest of the book. We ought not consider the life of any single judge apart from that anymore than we should consider the life of a prophet or a king apart from the Torah, or the letters of Paul apart from the Gospels. The cycle of judges presents us with a framework to take with us into the rest of the book. The judges are the good guys. I really want to press this point because the global Christian mind seems to have told the church to do the opposite. You all can probably admit you open judges to the account of Samson looking for his sins. You expect him to do something wrong, and anything that even remotely looks wrong becomes grotesque sin. How could God use someone like this? And now my introduction regurgitates itself. But the BIBLE doesn't tell you to do that. It tells you to look for sins in the Israelites. It tells you to look for God's judgement against his people. It asks you to regard the judge as the noble-hearted hero. So do it. Read Samson believing he's a good guy, and most of what you read that looks like sin turns into a judgment from God against his enemies...a much better perspective to have.
Dealing with the counter-arguments
Perhaps the best way to do this is look together at the most common examples in the life of Samson that are regarded as sin and have a fireside chat about them. Before we do this, I ask that you put on your "Samson is a good judge" eyeglass in accordance with point 6 above so you can see this all rightly.
1) The sinful jerk desired to marry a Philistine. Samson's desire for marriage appears in the first chapter of his adult narrative, and he seeks a marriage to a non-Jew, to his parent's dismay. How could a righteous Israelite desire marriage with a non-Israelite? Isn't this the first hint of a rebellious heart? Actually, YES. It is. But not his heart. The hearts of the Israelites. His parents even ask him, "Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?" Answer: No. Samson, in all his life so far, has not met an Israelite he thinks he can marry. This Philistine woman appears to me the most capable, godly, honorable wife he can find. He confirms his suspicion of her in verse 7: "he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.". Samson's choosing of a Philistine is an indictment against Israel that had stopped raising its women to be godly women. It is not an indictment against Samson. What's more, is that the choosing of this woman by Samson is something Yahweh himself takes credit for. Verse 4: "His parents did not know that this was from the Lord"
2) The sinful jerk was walking in a vineyard, obviously eating grapes. Nazirites weren't allowed to drink wine. Or drink squeeze grape juice. Or eat grapes. Or chew their seeds. Or even peel the skin off and eat them. Grapes are forbidden. So what's this guy doing wandering in a vineyard? See, this is how the worldly church asks you to think about Samson. You've been told to read between the lines and see sin. This guy is munching on grapes! No, we don't get to do that. He's walking through the vineyard because it pleased him. They are pretty. They are tilled and easy to walk through. They are fragrant. And possibly, in this case, the shortest route to his destination was through a vineyard. Don't pop up out of nowhere like the cartoon Pharisees in the fields of Luke 6 and accuse Samson of doing something the text doesn't say he did. Wouldn't you wanna go walking here?
3) The sinful jerk gave his parents unclean honey. I admit. This is kinda gross. But never-the-less, I disagree with the assertion. The law forbid that a Nazirite go near a dead body of any sort, even those of their own relatives, should they die. Someone else would have to take care of burial arrangements; that's how strict the commandment was. Don't touch a dead body. Again, I ask you to read the passage and tell me where it says he touched a dead body? Well the honey is in the dead lion's corpse. Ok? But where did he touch the lion? Well he had to touch the lion to get out the honey. Why? Honey does just sit there on the flesh of the lion, honey is kept in a comb, and the comb inside a nest, and the nest inside the lion. It is not a stretch of the imagination to discern that Samson was able to wriggle the nest out from the inside of the lion using an implement and scoop out the honey without making himself unclean. The proximity of risk here is significant, but I invite you to consider that he made it through without becoming unclean. His parents, though, would be unable to be persuaded of the honey's clean state no matter what, so Samson kept the honey's origin to himself, almost as a kindness to them. He knew it was ok to eat, and he couldn't share it with them and tell them how he got it at the same time. Perhaps another risky move, but see him show love to his parents here instead of hatred. The text makes a point to tell us that Samson did not tell his parents how he got the honey, not so that we would think he was evil, but rather, so we would understand why he didn't tell them the answer to the riddle that slew 30 men. Plus, there seems to be some statute of limitation on the dead corpse thing in general, even for a Nazirite. In going about the work and will of God, God is able to allow things that might normally be considered sinful in order to see his will be done in other ways (think telling Ezekiel to eat from poop fire). Samson himself uses a "fresh donkey jawbone" as a weapon in the next chapter. Now THAT sounds like touching a dead body, and yet, the narrative attributes the action to Samson's response to having the Holy Spirit "rush upon him". Things aren't so crystal clear anymore.
4) The sinful jerk slept with a prostitute. The NIV reads as follows: "One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her." What was he doing with her, playing scrabble? No, clearly the guy was being intimate with her. See, you're doing it again. That whole looking for sins thing I keep telling you about. Let me paint a different picture. Samson, on a covert military mission, heads to Gaza to scope the city out in anticipation of killing a bunch of Philistines, but he needs a secret place to hide away where people are least likely to look, so he "went and entered the house of a prostitute...and stayed there." Actually, I just lied to you. That quote isn't from Samson. It's from Joshua. Joshua 2 reads, "Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. 'Go, look over the land,' he said, 'especially Jericho.' So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, 'Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.' So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: 'Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.'" Did those spies Joshua sent sleep with Rahab? Heaven's no! Why not? Because they were righteous men on a military mission. And now my point is made. Samson used her house as a hiding place.
5) But....but....but DELILAH!?!?!. What about her? Samson got to know her and fell in love with her (Judges 16:4) the same way he fell in love with the first Philistine woman. And Delilah had the same problem his first wife had. People pressured them to betray their husband Samson (the first wife was threatened with a gratuitous death for her and her relatives, this second wife was enticed with a gratuitous prosperity for her and her relatives), and both caved to the pressure. Samson is a man who was betrayed by those closest to him. Samson is not being a fool in this section of scripture, Delilah is being a Judas. And here again, we see Samson as a type of Christ. He really did love Delilah, but he knew that some secrets belonged to God, though she accused him of keeping his heart from her even though he would tell her plainly "I love you" (16:15). I don't see a foolish Samson in this passage. I see a betrayed saint.
So there you go. I might be wrong, but that's my take on it.
