Samson, the Strongest Yet Weakest Man

This chapter is based on Judges 13 to 16. 

Amid widespread apostasy, the faithful worshipers of God continued to plead with Him deliver Israel. Though it seemed as if there was no response, in the early years of the Philistine oppression a child was born through whom God planned to humble the power of these mighty enemies. 1TC 384.2

“The Angel of the Lord” appeared to the childless wife of Manoah with the message that she would have a son through whom God would begin to deliver Israel. The Angel gave her instructions concerning her own habits and also how to treat her child: “Be careful not to drink wine nor similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean.” The child was also forbidden to eat or drink these things. The Angel further instructed that his hair should not be cut, for he was to be consecrated to God as a Nazirite from his birth. 1TC 384.3

Importance of Prenatal Training

Afraid that they would make some mistake, the husband prayed, “Let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.” 1TC 385.1

When the Angel appeared again, Manoah asked, “What will be the boy’s rule of life, and his work?” The previous instruction was repeated—“Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. ... All that I commanded her let her observe.” 1TC 385.2

To be sure that the promised child was properly qualified for his important work, the habits of both the mother and the child needed careful control. The habits of the mother will affect the child for good or evil. She must be controlled by principle, practicing temperance and self-denial, if she wants the best development for her child. Unwise advisers will urge the mother to gratify every wish and impulse, but by God’s command the mother is placed under solemn obligation to exercise self-control. 1TC 385.3

And fathers as well as mothers share in this responsibility. If the parents are intemperate, the children often lack physical strength and mental and moral power. Liquor drinkers and tobacco users may transmit their intense craving, inflamed blood, and irritable nerves to their children. Immoral people often pass along a legacy of unholy desires and even terrible diseases to their children. Each generation tends to fall lower and lower. To a great degree, parents are responsible for the impairments of the thousands born deaf, blind, diseased, or with mental disorders. 1TC 385.4

Many have not taken the effect of prenatal influence seriously, but the instruction sent from heaven to those Hebrew parents shows how our Creator views this matter. 1TC 385.5

A good legacy from the parents must be followed by careful training and forming right habits. God directed that the future judge and deliverer of Israel should never, even as an adult, use wine or strong drink. Lessons of temperance, self-denial, and self-control are to be taught even from babyhood. 1TC 385.6

Why the Distinction Between Clean and Unclean Foods

The distinction between clean and unclean foods was based on sanitary principles. To a great degree, one can trace the marvelous vitality that has distinguished the Jewish people for thousands of years to their observance of this distinction. Food that is stimulating and hard to digest often injures the health and in many cases sows the seeds of drunkenness. True temperance teaches us to live entirely without everything hurtful and to wisely use what is healthful. Few people realize how much their eating habits have to do with their health, their character, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. The body should be servant to the mind, not the mind to the body. 1TC 386.1

Samson’s Strength Depends on Faithfulness to God

In due time the divine promise to Manoah was fulfilled in Samson’s birth. As the boy grew, everyone could see that he possessed extraordinary physical strength. As Samson and his parents knew well, this was not dependent on his good physique but on his status as a Nazirite, which was symbolized by his uncut hair. If Samson had obeyed God’s commands, his destiny would have been nobler and happier, but friendship with idolaters corrupted him. 1TC 386.2

Since his hometown of Zorah was near the country of the Philistines, Samson started to mingle with them on friendly terms. A young woman living in the Philistine town of Timnath caught Samson’s interest, and he determined to make her his wife. His God-fearing parents tried to persuade him not to do this, but his only answer was, “She pleases me well,” so finally the marriage took place. 1TC 386.3

Just as he was entering manhood, the time more than any other when he should have been true to God, Samson connected himself with the enemies of Israel. He did not ask whether he could better honor God when united with his chosen one. God has promised wisdom to all who seek to honor Him first, but there is no promise to those determined to please themselves. 1TC 386.4

How often emotions rule in the selection of husband or wife! The two people do not ask counsel of God nor have His honor in mind. Satan is constantly seeking to strengthen his power over the people of God by leading them to unite with his followers. To accomplish this, he tries to arouse unholy passions. 1TC 387.1

But the Lord has instructed His people not to join their lives with those who do not have His love living in them: “What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:15, 16). 1TC 387.2

At his wedding feast, Samson was brought into close social contact with those who hated the God of Israel. The wife betrayed her husband before the close of the feast. Furious at her treachery, Samson abandoned her for a time, and went alone to his home at Zorah. Later, when he changed his mind, he returned for his bride, only to find that she had married another. To take revenge, he destroyed all the fields and vineyards of the Philistines. This provoked them to murder her, although their threats had driven her to the deceit that started the trouble. 1TC 387.3

Samson had already demonstrated his marvelous strength by killing a young lion by himself and by killing thirty men from Ashkelon. Now, moved to anger by the barbaric murder of his wife, he attacked the Philistines and struck them “with a great slaughter.” Then he retreated to “the rock Etam,” a safe place in Judah. 1TC 387.4

The Philistines pursued him there, and in great fear the people living in Judah shamefully agreed to deliver him to his enemies. Three thousand men of Judah went up to take him captive. Samson permitted them to tie him with two new ropes, and he was led into the camp of his enemies amid demonstrations of great joy. But “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,” and he broke the strong new cords as if they had been flax burned in the fire. Then grasping the first weapon at hand, the jawbone of a donkey, he attacked the Philistines, leaving a thousand men dead on the field. 1TC 387.5

If the Israelites had been ready to join with Samson and follow up the victory, they might have freed themselves from their oppressors, but they had become discouraged and had neglected the work God commanded them to do in driving out the heathen. Instead, they had united with them in their degrading practices, and had tamely submitted to shameful oppression that they might have escaped if they had obeyed God. Even when the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, too often they would desert him and unite with their enemies. 1TC 388.1

Samson’s Wrong Marriage

After his victory the Israelites made Samson judge, and he ruled Israel for twenty years. But Samson had disobeyed the command of God by taking a wife from the Philistines, and again he dared to go out among them—now his deadly enemies—to indulge unlawful passion. Trusting to his great strength, he went to Gaza to visit a prostitute. Those living in the city learned he was there and were eager for revenge. Their enemy was shut safely within the walls of their most strongly fortified city. They felt sure of their victim, and only waited until morning to complete their triumph. 1TC 388.2

At midnight the accusing voice of conscience filled Samson with guilt as he remembered that he had broken his vow as a Nazirite. But God’s mercy had not forsaken him, and His tremendous strength was again there to deliver him. Going to the city gate, he wrenched it from its place and carried it to the top of a hill on the way to Hebron. 1TC 388.3

He did not venture among the Philistines again but continued to seek those sensuous pleasures that were luring him to ruin. “He loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek,” not far from his birthplace. Her name was Delilah, “the consumer.” Sorek’s vineyards were also tempting to the wavering Nazirite who had already indulged in wine, thus breaking another tie that bound him to purity and to God. The Philistines determined to bring about his ruin through Delilah. 1TC 388.4

They did not dare try to seize him while he possessed his great strength, but they were determined to learn the secret of his power. So they bribed Delilah to discover and reveal it. 1TC 388.5

A Weak Woman Subdues a Strong Man

As the betrayer kept on questioning Samson, he deceived her by saying that he would be as weak as other men if certain procedures were tried. When she put the matter to the test, the cheat was discovered. Then she accused him of falsehood: “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.” Three times Samson had the clearest evidence that the Philistines had plotted with his charmer to destroy him; but she treated the matter as a joke, and he blindly dismissed any fear. 1TC 389.1

Day by day a subtle power kept him by her side. Finally she overcame him, and Samson told her the secret: “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.” 1TC 389.2

Delilah immediately sent a messenger to the lords of the Philistines, urging them to come without delay. While the warrior slept, the Philistines lopped off the heavy masses of his hair from his head. Then Delilah called, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Waking up suddenly, he thought he would exert his strength as before, but his powerless arms refused to obey him, and he knew that “the Lord had departed from him.” Delilah began to annoy him and cause him pain, thus testing him for his strength, because the Philistines did not dare come near to him until they were fully convinced that his power was gone. Then they seized him, put out both his eyes, and took him to Gaza. There they bound him with chains in their prison house and confined him to hard labor. 1TC 389.3

What a change! Weak, blind, imprisoned and degraded to the most lowly service! God had been patient with him a long time, but when he had gone so far in sin as to betray his secret, the Lord left him. There was no special power in his long hair, but it was a sign of his loyalty to God. When the symbol was sacrificed while he was giving in to passion, the blessings that it represented were given up. 1TC 389.4

In suffering and humiliation, and as an amusement for the Philistines, Samson learned more about his own weakness than he had ever known before. His sufferings led him to repentance, and as his hair grew, his power gradually returned. His enemies, regarding him as a chained and helpless prisoner, felt that he was no threat. 1TC 390.1

Samson’s Final Repentance and Tragic Victory

The boasting Philistines claimed that victory had come from their gods, and they defied the God of Israel. A feast was appointed in honor of Dagon, the fish god. Throngs of Philistine worshipers filled the vast temple and crowded the galleries around the roof. It was a scene of festivity and rejoicing. 1TC 390.2

Then, as the crowning trophy of Dagon’s power, Samson was brought in. People and rulers mocked his misery and adored the god who had overthrown “the destroyer of their land.” After a time, as if weary, Samson asked permission to rest against the two central pillars that supported the temple roof. 1TC 390.3

Then he silently prayed, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may at one blow take vengeance on the Philistines.” With these words he encircled the pillars with his mighty arms, and crying, “Let me die with the Philistines!” he bowed himself and the roof fell, destroying everyone in that vast crowd in one crash. “So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.” 1TC 390.4

The idol and its worshipers, priest and peasant, warrior and noble, were buried together beneath the ruins of Dagon’s temple. And among them was the giant form of the man whom God had chosen to be the deliverer of His people. 1TC 390.5

The news was carried to the land of Israel, and Samson’s relatives rescued the body of the fallen hero without opposition. They “buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah.” 1TC 390.6

How dark and terrible is the record of Samson’s life, which could have been a praise to God and a glory to the nation! If Samson had been faithful to his divine calling, he could have accomplished the purpose of God. But he yielded to temptation, and his mission to humble Israel’s enemies was fulfilled in bondage and death. 1TC 391.1

Physically, Samson was the strongest man on earth—but in self-control, integrity, and firmness, he was one of the weakest. Whoever is mastered by earthly desires is weak. Real greatness is measured by the power of the feelings that we control, not by those that control us. 1TC 391.2

Those who are brought to the test while fulfilling their duty may be sure that God will preserve them, but any who deliberately place themselves under the power of temptation will fall, sooner or later. Satan attacks us at our weak points, working through character defects to gain control of the whole person. He knows that if we cherish these defects, he will succeed. 1TC 391.3

But no one needs to be overcome. Help will be given to every person who really wants it. Angels of God that ascend and descend the ladder that Jacob saw in vision will help everyone who chooses, to climb even to the highest heaven. 1TC 391.4