Samson

THE MAN WHO WAS STRONG IN BODY BUT

WEAK IN SPIRIT

The name of Samson has become the synonym for physical strength and spiritual weakness. Samson did not greatly affect Hebrew history. He was like a great overgrown boy rather than a man of character and purpose. There is a tragic grandeur in the close of his life, the shorn giant, blind, grinding at the mill and bringing down destruction on his enemies and himself.

THE BIRTH OF SAMSON

ND the children of Israel did evil again in the

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sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

THE FIRST VISIT OF THE ANGEL

And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife had no children. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, "Behold now, thou shalt bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: for, lo, thou shalt bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from his birth and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."

Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither

told he me his name: but he said unto me, 'Behold, thou shalt bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from his birth to the day of his death.'”

THE SECOND VISIT OF THE ANGEL

Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, "O my LORD, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born."

CAVE OF SAMSON

Photograph by W. A. Pottenger This cave in the hills between Jaffa and Jerusalem, the country in

And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, "Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day."

And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, "Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman?"

And he said, "I am.

And Manoah said, "Now let thy

which Samson lived, is words come to pass. How shall we

Samson.

order the child, and how shall we do unto him?"

And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, "Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe."

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And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, "I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee."

And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, "Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD.”

For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD. And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, "What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour?"

And the angel of the LORD said unto him, "Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?"

So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wonderously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.

And Manoah said unto his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God."

But his wife said unto him, "If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these."

THE CHILD IS NAMED SAMSON

And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed

him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 13.

SAMSON DESIRES A WIFE OF THE PHILISTINES

And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, "I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife."

Then his father and his mother said unto him, "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?"

And Samson said unto his father. "Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well."

But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

- Judges 14:1-4.

SAMSON SLAYS A LION

Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.

And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and,