Judges Part 3: SamsonSample

Anointing vs. Character

The Holy Spirit is explicitly said to have empowered Samson more than any other judge in the 300-year history of the 12 judges. In Judges 15, the Spirit of God famously empowers him to escape from arrest and slaughter a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey that happened to be laying nearby.

In the life of Samson, we see on full display the difference between anointing and character. Anointing is the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, through you, that is nearly entirely done by God. These are the gifts of the Spirit. Conversely, character is something that you have to cultivate by surrendering to God’s rule over all of your life.

This is the fruit of the Spirit. It explains why Samson has a powerful anointing but pathetic character. In the New Testament, there is an entire church at Corinth whose members act like disciples of Samson. They are a very powerful and gifted church but are guilty of all the same sorts of sins as Samson, from sexual immorality to fights and drinking.

After abandoning the sexually desirable Philistine woman, he married because he could not live without her. Sometime later, Samson “went to visit his wife” with the gift of a “young goat” instead of a box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers.

Her father, however, stopped Samson from entering her room. Why? Because he had been gone so long, with no communication, the father, assuming they were divorced, said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion (the best man from their wedding).” In a horrifying revelation of the depravity among the Philistines, the father says, “Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”

Feeling like an “innocent” victim, Samson somehow took the time to catch 300 foxes, which is not an easy feat. He then tied their tails together, set them on fire, and sent them racing to the stacks of grain and orchards, destroying the Philistines’ food and livelihood.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Samson’s life looks like a very dark horror comedy movie with a deeply troubled main character. The angry Philistines responded by burning to death his ex-wife and her father.

A bit like a Hebrew Rambo, the one-man wrecking crew then went camping in the cleft of a rock while his enemies formed an angry mob to kill him. Joining them were 3,000 Hebrews, as his own people turned against him and sided with the Philistines! To both sides of the conflict, Samson was considered a terrorist; the one thing to which these enemies could agree was that the biggest threat to them was the Spirit-filled son of Manoah.

Samson willingly allowed the Hebrews to take him as a prisoner of war and bound him with many ropes.

The entire Samson story is one of escalating violence caused by vengeful revenge. Samson says this very fact in Judges 15:11.

Even though his life and this scene of his life offer a case study in vengeance, which the Lord prohibits as a sin, God allows Samson to emerge victorious over the Philistine enemies. Rather than praying to God or praising God as Deborah had done with Barak after God gave them a battle victory, he simply stated how God had given him the victory but he would die of thirst (Judges 15:18).

Like many, if not most, men, Samson is driven by anger and motivated by pleasure. When he finally does pray, it’s a selfish prayer that sounds more like scolding God for not getting him a drink. Samson treats his God a bit like a bad waitress who has failed to fill up his glass. God very kindly does not strike him dead, but instead brings forth water from a rock, which sounds a lot like the days of Moses.

The scene is now set for the final moment of Samson’s life, which is his most famous moment and one of the best-known Bible stories, which we will examine tomorrow.

What do you learn about God as you witness His patience and provision in the life of Samson? How have you seen a measure of this in your own life?