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Samson, the Strongest Yet Weakest Man
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And fathers as well as mothers share in this responsibility. If the
parents are intemperate, the children often lack physical strength
and mental and moral power. Liquor drinkers and tobacco users
may transmit their intense craving, inflamed blood, and irritable
nerves to their children. Immoral people often pass along a legacy
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of unholy desires and even terrible diseases to their children. Each
generation tends to fall lower and lower. To a great degree, parents
are responsible for the impairments of the thousands born deaf,
blind, diseased, or with mental disorders.
Many have not taken the effect of prenatal influence seriously,
but the instruction sent from heaven to those Hebrew parents shows
how our Creator views this matter.
A good legacy from the parents must be followed by careful
training and forming right habits. God directed that the future judge
and deliverer of Israel should never, even as an adult, use wine or
strong drink. Lessons of temperance, self-denial, and self-control
are to be taught even from babyhood.
Why the Distinction Between Clean and Unclean Foods
The distinction between clean and unclean foods was based on
sanitary principles. To a great degree, one can trace the marvelous
vitality that has distinguished the Jewish people for thousands of
years to their observance of this distinction. Food that is stimulating
and hard to digest often injures the health and in many cases sows
the seeds of drunkenness. True temperance teaches us to live entirely
without everything hurtful and to wisely use what is healthful. Few
people realize how much their eating habits have to do with their
health, their character, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal
destiny. The body should be servant to the mind, not the mind to the
body.
Samson’s Strength Depends on Faithfulness to God
In due time the divine promise to Manoah was fulfilled in Sam-
son’s birth. As the boy grew, everyone could see that he possessed
extraordinary physical strength. As Samson and his parents knew
well, this was not dependent on his good physique but on his status