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Samson, the Strongest Yet Weakest Man
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he attacked the Philistines and struck them “with a great slaughter.”
Then he retreated to “the rock Etam,” a safe place in Judah.
The Philistines pursued him there, and in great fear the people
living in Judah shamefully agreed to deliver him to his enemies.
Three thousand men of Judah went up to take him captive. Samson
permitted them to tie him with two new ropes, and he was led into
the camp of his enemies amid demonstrations of great joy. But “the
Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,” and he broke the strong
new cords as if they had been flax burned in the fire. Then grasping
the first weapon at hand, the jawbone of a donkey, he attacked the
Philistines, leaving a thousand men dead on the field.
If the Israelites had been ready to join with Samson and follow up
the victory, they might have freed themselves from their oppressors,
but they had become discouraged and had neglected the work God
commanded them to do in driving out the heathen. Instead, they
had united with them in their degrading practices, and had tamely
submitted to shameful oppression that they might have escaped if
they had obeyed God. Even when the Lord raised up a deliverer for
them, too often they would desert him and unite with their enemies.
Samson’s Wrong Marriage
After his victory the Israelites made Samson judge, and he ruled
Israel for twenty years. But Samson had disobeyed the command
of God by taking a wife from the Philistines, and again he dared to
go out among them—now his deadly enemies—to indulge unlawful
passion. Trusting to his great strength, he went to Gaza to visit a
prostitute. Those living in the city learned he was there and were
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eager for revenge. Their enemy was shut safely within the walls of
their most strongly fortified city. They felt sure of their victim, and
only waited until morning to complete their triumph.
At midnight the accusing voice of conscience filled Samson with
guilt as he remembered that he had broken his vow as a Nazirite.
But God’s mercy had not forsaken him, and His tremendous strength
was again there to deliver him. Going to the city gate, he wrenched it
from its place and carried it to the top of a hill on the way to Hebron.
He did not venture among the Philistines again but continued
to seek those sensuous pleasures that were luring him to ruin. “He