Judges 13-15: Samson (Part 1)

"Then he went down and talked with the woman,

and she was right in Samson's eyes." Judges 14:7

Before we begin our devotional for the day, I would like to encourage you to consider how you will celebrate this Passion Week, that is, the week before Easter. This is the most important week in all of Christian history as we annually celebrate Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, which is the only way in which we are saved. As you abide by your respective "Safer at Home" order, I encourage you to take some time to read through the narratives of Passion Week, as outlined by the following schedule:

Passion Week Reading Schedule

Monday – (Nothing)

Tuesday – Luke 19:45-48

Wednesday – Luke 20:1-22:6

Maundy Thursday – Luke 22:7-53

Good Friday – Luke 22:54-23:56a

Black Saturday – Luke 23:56b

Easter Sunday – Luke 24

Nevertheless, let us begin our devotional for the day. We turn this morning to the twelfth and final judge in the book of Judges, Samson. I apologize for not covering any of the other Judges (that post on how to read your Bible took me a while, you should go and read it), but Samson does a great job at giving us a model for the rest of them. Although the Lord raised up these judges to deliver Israel, what we will find in the person of Samson is that most of them (minus Deborah) were wicked, sinful people within themselves. Although each of them had high points and low points, they are certainly not the "stellar leaders" that we would want to have to lead us. Perhaps we would ask of the Lord why he chose to use these people of Israel and not others, but we quickly find that he didn't have anything better to work with because everyone in the country was deprived with sin. He certainly could have raised up in his own power a righteous judge without iniquity who would rightly rescue his people (which he did--see Samuel in 1 Samuel), but here in Judges, he wants to show the need for a righteous leader (that is, a king) to reign over the land of Israel, which points us to David and ultimately to Christ.

With that long introduction, let us examine the person of Samson. Many people start Samson's story with his dealings with Delilah, but the story starts much before that in Judges 13. From birth, Samson was set apart for the work of the Lord (this is a very brief summary of chapter 13, which you should go read for yourself), yet very quickly, we find the man being led into sin. After growing up, he finds for himself a Philistine woman that he thought what perfect "in his own eyes" (see 14:7, quoted above). Thus, Samson demanded that his parents go obtain her for him, even though marrying a foreign woman was against Israelite law. Samson then obtains her as his wife, but is soon led to further corruption. At a feast with his wife, Samson's pride leads him to offer a riddle to the men of the feast, offering them a great wager of 30 cloaks. After the men of the feast fail to figure out the riddle, they convince Samson's wife to deceive Samson into telling her the riddle. Samson gives in, and his wife tells the men the answer to the riddle. Inferioriated that he lost the bet, Samson slays 30 men of a nearby town and delivers their clothing to the men with whom he lost the bet.

The story goes on from there in chapter 15 (I'm not going to summarize it all; you should go read it for yourself.), and we eventually find Samson killing 1,000 Philistines with nothing but a jawbone in his hand. Although this was part of the Lord's sovereign deliverance plan for Israel, let us realize that Samson was doing these things out of anger and revenge for those who had hurt him, not out of obedience to the Lord.

There are many things we could focus on this morning in the story of Samson, but let us notice how sin starts small but grows quickly. In chapter 14, we find Samson desiring to obtain a woman simply because she was "right in his eyes" (this phrase foreshadows for us the rest of the book, as all of the men of Israel did what was "right in their own eyes," which we will see later). However, this simple, lustful desire quickly led to an immoral wedding. Furthermore, Samson was quickly led down the path of anger, rage, and vengeance, as clearly seen in the story, all because he desired what was "right in his own eyes."

What I want to encourage us with today is this: how often do we follow Samson's example and merely pursue what is right in our own eyes? Scripture clearly lays out for us that we should follow the example of Christ, who did what was right in his Father's eyes, as he remained completely obedient to his Father until death. However, how often do we follow Samson's pattern instead of Christ's? Today, let me encourage you: stop judging your actions by whether or not they are right in your eyes, for this will quickly lead you into great downfall and treachery, as it did Samson. However, follow the example of Christ, who followed his Father's plan for him all the way to the cross.