BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Israel’s leadership hits a new low with Samson. God says that Samson will be a Nazarite from birth. His mother is set apart for God, and Samson must commit to observing a high level of ritual holiness. Instead, Samson breaks all the rules.

Nazarites must stay away from grapes, but Samson strolls through vineyards and hosts drinking parties. Nazarites should avoid any contact with corpses, but Samson touches a dead animal and eats honey out of it with his bare hands.

Samson’s flagrant disregard for Yahweh’s laws goes on and on. He takes a foreign wife, then uses an underhanded riddle to deceive her companions into a rigged bet. When they foil his plan and trick him in return, he murders them all in a fit of rage. Samson’s story highlights an important point about the book of Judges: Just because God partners with someone does not mean he approves of that person’s choices.

Samson’s story also acts as a miniature picture of Israel’s overall spiritual condition. Yahweh gave Israel a special calling to live as his holy people from birth. But in Judges, the Israelites abandon Yahweh to chase whatever looks smarter or more popular, often giving themselves to idols. Instead of reflecting God’s character to the world, they are drawn into it and begin dying with it.

Yet even as the people violate their covenant agreement, Yahweh works with them to show his patience, love, and ultimate superiority over foreign gods.

Reflection Questions

• Where do you see the design pattern of see-desire-take in today’s reading? What happens as a result?
• Where else have you seen God’s Spirit empowering a leader to deliver the Israelites in the book of Judges? Did those leaders act in a way consistent with God’s character? What does this tell you about the way God works with humans?