The power of seduction.

Samson was born at the times of the Philistines terrorizing the Israelites left right and centre. An angel of God appeared to his parents before his birth. His father, Manoah, asked what the angel’s name was.(He was not yet aware he was an angel) but then he said ‘Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?’ Manoah offered a burnt offering to God in his presence and ‘and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.’ Judges 13v20: ‘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.’

We all know Samson was to be a Nazarite from his mother’s womb. That is to say, he drank neither wine nor strong drink, and never shaved his hair. Samson grew and went to the Philistines and met a beautiful lady named Timnath. His parent could not understand how he went, saw and wanted to marry a damsel of the uncircumcised Philistines while he could have married an Israeli woman, but he insisted, ‘Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.’

Him and his parents went to see this girl. While at the fields, Samson left his parents and proceeded alone. He met a huge lion wanting to tear him apart. Samson killed him bare handedly, as if he dealt with a young kid or lamb, but he kept it a secret. After meeting his girl, he returned to his parent, passing by the lion carcass he killed. He saw bees on its body and there was honey. He took the honey and ate and brought to his parents.

Samson made a feast for his woman and challenged his in-law companions to solve a riddle for a price within a week.  Judges 14v14: ‘And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.  And they could not in three days expound the riddle.’ The young men threatened Tamnath with burning her father’s house if she did not get the answer from Samson. She then seduced him to telling the answer, which she passed on.

Judges 14v18: ‘And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey?  and what is stronger than a lion?  And he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.’ Samson met his end of the bargain farely, killing 30 Ashkelon men and taking their spoils for the wedger. His girlfriend was then offered to his buddy.

Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, tied their tails in pairs and set the tails alight. The foxes, their tails alight, ran with great speed into the fields of the Philistines, burning all crops. They then burnt his wife and father in law with fire and he was still angry with them. Judges 15v8: ‘And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.’

The Philistines invaded Judah and demanded the arrest of Samson. 3000 men of Judah went to the mountain to bind and deliver him to the enemies. When he came near to them, the Spirit of God filled him and he broke all that bound him, found a fresh jaw bone of a donkey and killed a thousand of the Philistines.

After throwing away that bone, ‘he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?’ Judges 15v19: ‘But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived.’

Samson came to Gaza and met a prostitute that he slept with. People of Gaza planned for his kidnapping hoping to kill him the next morning. Judges 16v3: ‘And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.’

Mr Loverman saw a woman in the valley of Solek and loved her. She was the famous Delilah. Their story is one of the commonest in the Bible. The Philistines bribed her to solicit to him to reveal to her the source of his powers. After several attempts, she repeated her probe she made here in Judges 16v13: ‘And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound.’ He poured his heart out to her, and she cut his hair and he was an ordinary man.

The Philistines arrested him, removed his eyes and jailed him because the Lord God departed from him. Then they organized a banquet to honour their gods in a huge theatre with many people. ‘When their hearts were merry, they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport.  And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport.’ The blind Samson asked the lad that led him to let him feel the pillars that supported the building so he could lean on them.

Samson remembered God,  ‘And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.’ Judges 16v28. Samson bowed and with all his might, pulled the pillars down and the building fell killing all the Philistine kings and their guests. He killed more people at his death than when he was alive. He was judge for 20 years.