Samson, Success or Failure?

I'm wrapping up "We Fall Down, We Get Up" for now...

I taught our youth Sunday school class about Samson a few months ago. I learned quite a few things as I prepared the lesson. Some of the commentaries I read made me question my opinion of Samson.

The story of Samson is found in Judges, chapters 13-16. I'll admit, I usually think of Samson as a failure. Although he did many great things, defeating the Philistines repeatedly, he certainly didn't live up to his potential and he loved Philistine women! I've wondered what they looked like compared the Jewish girls he knew. I think it was a lot like what happens in local church - the girls are godly and beautiful, but some boy thinks a worldly girl is much better.

We do not know how old Samson was when he began to judge Israel, but it was at the end of his 20 years of judging that he ran into the harlot of Gaza and Delilah. In other words, he was old enough to know better.

What made Samson so strong was the Spirit of the Lord. Several times the phrase "the Spirit of the Lord came upon him" is found. It is in each of those instances that Samson did a great thing.

So why, when Delilah asked "Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee" did Samson finally reply "There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man."

His strength came from God – his hair was an outward sign of the Spirit of God and his devotion to God. If he had told Delilah, "There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb, but my strength comes from God almighty and no man can take it away,” the Philistines could not have defeated him. As soon as Samson believed his strength came from his hair and not his God, it became true. Somewhere along the way Samson forgot where his strength came from.

But that is not the end of Samson. After the Philistines put his eyes out, he spent time grinding in the prison house. We don't know how long this went on, but Samson must have had plenty of time to think. Think about the prophecy before he was born. Think about the many victories. The Philistine women. His failures.

"Let's call for Samson to celebrate how our god, Dagon, delivered him into our hand!" What a mistake those Philistines made that day. Samson, broken and humbled, did what he should have done all along "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. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. " (Judges 16:28-30)

The final assessment of Samson's life is found in one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. Hebrews chapter 11, that great chapter of faith. After Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and others, we find verse 32: "And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:"

Samson, mentioned in the same sentence as David and Samuel. Samson, who got it right in the end, found the strength to get back up by calling on the Lord. Not such a failure after all.