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The Terribly Tragic Choices of Samson -- a study of Judges 16:16-31

  • Writer: mww
    mww
  • 3 hours ago
  • 17 min read

Don't waste your life.


Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Judges 16:16-31

We finally come to one of the most tragic (and bewildering) stories in the Bible -- Samson, a man chosen by God to lead His people and gifted with supernatural strength. But Samson instead used his strength to get women, start fights, and take vengeance. God used that to bring about judgment on the Philistines, but how much more Samson could have been.

But he did not know that the Lord had left him. (16:20)


When We Covered This Passage in 2017

My time is limited this week (SPARK Conference on Sunday!!), so I really am going to lean on my last set of notes for this passage:

There, you'll get:

  • Strongmen!

  • Samson's bio

  • "Compromised potential"

  • Nazirites

  • The Philistines

  • Infertility in the Bible


Getting Started: Things to Think About

I still think that a survey of "modern feats of strength" would be fun for any group. I offered that idea back in 2017.


The Wrong Reasons to "Fall in Love"

Tread lightly here; if you sense the answers getting too personal, transition to another topic.


"Love" is just as confusing an idea today as it was when I was a teenager, and the "advice" is similar now to then. All that to say -- if you propose two questions: "what are 'wrong' reasons to fall in love?" and "what are 'right' reasons to fall in love?", I think people of every age bracket could engage together.


(A much more important and fundamental question is "what is love?"! But for this topic, what actually matters is what your group members think the word means. After all, that's what we're dealing with when we try to talk about it with someone.)


In this week's passage, we learn that Samson seems rather fixated on physical attraction. (Or, more crassly, someone who would have sex with him.) Like, laughably fixated on that.


What's the danger for "falling in love" for the "wrong reasons"? And more importantly, how do you prevent that?


The Line Between Teasing and Nagging

I'm still workshopping this idea, but I've run out of time. In this week's passage, Delilah nags Samson. If this were supposed to be a healthy relationship, I would say that she crossed lines ("if you really loved me" is pretty low). But on the other side, Samson keeps lying to her and toying with her. Not great. This is a very unhealthy relationship, and we see that on full display.


How do you know when you've crossed a line from "playful teasing" to something inappropriate or unhealthy? In my family, we pick on one another all the time, and we don't always catch when we've gone too far. How do you learn what that line is so you don't create unhealthy dynamics in your own family?

What's Your Price?

We are not given any reason to like Delilah. Don't misunderstand the topic I'm offering. But anyway, Delilah is offered 5,500 pieces of silver to betray Samson to the Philistines. To put that in context, a lifetime of labor for a Jewish woman was valued at 30 pieces of silver (Lev 27). This is generational wealth Delilah was offered for her betrayal.


Pick a couple of scenarios -- like helping a friend cheat on a test, looking the other way during an inspection, or telling a lie. Ask, "If someone offered you $x to do that, would you?" Then keep raising the price. In other words, bribery -- "can you be bought?"


Our goal as Christians is to get to a place where there is no price for our faithful obedience to God. But as long as we live in a world of finite resources, I imagine that this will always be an interesting discussion.


Violent Heroes

In action movies, the "hero" can be really violent. Movies like The Avengers and The Fellowship of the Ring try to make it more palatable by making the recipients of the violence non-human. I grew up with Arnold Schwarzenneger and Sylvester Stallone, and they were just absurdly violent. Movies today like John Wick and anything with Jason Statham maintain that legacy of the hero being unconscionably violent.


If you're a parent or grandparent, what kind of "movie heroes" would you prefer your kids to have? Would it bother you to find out your kids' hero is incredibly violent?


This week, we're studying Samson. I see him in "Bible Heroes" collections. But he was a womanizer who shirked responsibility, and his violent streak would make John Wick envious. Part of my goal in this lesson is to help us decide what we're supposed to think about him.


Would You Like to Have "Magic Strength"?

The big movie right now is the new Spiderman (my family watched it; we loved it). It's about a young man who gets magic super strength from *waves hand vaguely at spiders*. In that movie, we meet an X-Men (X-Man? X-Woman?), who got magic superpowers from *waves hand vaguely at genetic mutation*.


Have you ever thought you would like some kind of magical superpower? (If anyone in your group says "with great power comes great responsibility", you have my permission to put them in timeout.) What would it be? Would you like super strength? And finally, how responsible do you think you would be with it? (And you can put that person back in timeout if you need to.)


(My superpower desire changes based on what I'm having the most trouble with that day. Right now, super-eyesight would be fantastic.)


In this week's passage, Samson has supernatural strength. He does not use it well.


Poor Building Practices (-or- Ignoring Good Parenting)

It's been a few weeks since this story blew up, but I saved it for this week's lesson. You might have heard about buildings in New York that had to be evacuated because some of the supports were crumpling.

It's pretty terrifying stuff.


Do you have a house or building nightmare story? (That you're willing to share, at least? This can be an uncomfortable topic for some.) What went wrong and why?


How can a building experience serve as an illustration for "building a life"?


If you use this topic, I strongly recommend distinguishing between "foundation problems" and "construction problems". This is important to me -- Samson's parents, by what we know, tried to do the best they could with him. As long as he was a child under their roof, he kept his vows. When he became an adult, they tried to advise him; he chose to ignore them.


In other words, I think Samson's parents gave him as good a foundation as they could. He chose to "build his life" extremely poorly.

Where We Are in Judges: Samson

I gave a short biography of Samson in my 2017 post. Let me link to some other sites:

Assuming we think we're supposed to read Judges as history, most of us draw the same lessons from his life. Calling him a "type of Christ" (as the one article does) challenges me, but I understand what that author is proposing -- Samson sacrificed himself to break the power of those who were oppressing his people. That is a type of Christlike action. I'll give my rebuttal at the end of this post.


Samson's story is told in chapters 13-16. They don't take long to read, and they don't need much explanation. This guy is a mess.


About Nazirites

I'm copying this from my 2017 post:

The Hebrew word nazir means “consecration”; the verb form means “to stay away from”. All we know about Nazirites comes from Numbers 6. It actually was a temporary commitment, though probably longer than something like Lent (long enough for the hair to grow noticeably), so it was a very serious consecration. It involved 3 things: (1) no grape-based food or drink; (2) no cutting of any hair; (3) no touching a dead body. Doesn’t sound so bad. At the end of the vow, the person would cut his (or her—women could be Nazirites too) hair and offer some very expensive gifts in sacrifice to God. The only person specifically identified as a Nazirite in the entire Bible is Samson, and he is also the only person whose parents set him apart to that purpose for life.


The Timeline of Samson

This is fascinating, and there's plenty of debate about this. The author of Judges does not give us enough detail to definitely associate the events in this book with events described in the other limited resources about this era. And that's fine -- the author was giving us a theological overview of this era more than a chronological one.


At least one invasion of the Ammonites happened around 1100 BC. This might be the event described in chapter 10. The Philistines (of this week's passage) had begun settling the coast in 1200 BC, and it seems they took advantage of the Ammonite invasion to greatly expand their influence around 1100 BC. Some online timelines put Samson's era between 1150 and 1100 BC; my NIV Study Bible and Herbert Wolf commentary both have it specifically between 1075-1055 BC.


Why is that important? Here are dates that I feel pretty good about:

  • Saul 1050-1010 BC

  • David 1010-970 BC

  • Solomon 970-930 BC


That would strongly suggest that Samson's actions encouraged the Israelite resistance that culminated in Saul and David.

This Week's Big Idea: God's Use of Our Free Will

This is a tricky one for me; I'm still working through it.


Let me go to Habakkuk 1 as an illustration:

5 Look at the nations and observe—be utterly astounded! For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it. 6 Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter, impetuous nation that marches across the earth’s open spaces to seize territories not its own. 7 They are fierce and terrifying; their views of justice and sovereignty stem from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards and more fierce than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead; their horsemen come from distant lands. They fly like eagles, swooping to devour. 9 All of them come to do violence; their faces are set in determination. They gather prisoners like sand. 10 They mock kings, and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their strength is their god.

Habakkuk was confused and angry by what God said. He didn't think it was "right" for God to use sinful people as His agents, and he let God know. Read Habakkuk chapter 2 for God's response (not an "explanation" -- God does not owe Habakkuk that).


I have felt similarly about Samson. Why would God choose such a violent, chauvinistic man to be a leader of His people? And remember -- the Lord "comes upon" Samson more than any other judge. It just seems icky to me.


Here's the real question: can God use a person who will accomplish His will using sinful means? Should God do so?


I cited Habakkuk at length to make it as clear as possible that God most certainly can do whatever He wants. And He doesn't have to explain Himself.


But let's take this to its logical conclusion -- if God could not work through sinful people, who could He work through? Any sinful person's actions are tainted with sin. See where I'm going with that? God will accomplish His purposes. If there are only scoundrels and heathens at hand, He will bring about His will through them.


Here's the most important observation I can make about this: God will work through a person's free will. Samson was a violent man and a womanizer. God put Samson in positions where his "free tendencies" would result in the things God wanted -- conflict between Israel and Philistia so that Israel (ultimately King David) could throw off their oppression. God did not make Samson do anything. Samson willingly jumped into every mess he found himself in.


I understand if we are not comfortable with God "taking advantage of" our sinful tendencies to accomplish His purposes. Habakkuk was not comfortable with that. But if we don't get comfortable with that, we will never truly believe that God will use us. All of our actions and motives are tainted with the residue of sin. God uses that and still brings about His perfect purpose. Does that make sense?


For me at least, I've decided that I'm just uncomfortable with how barbaric this era in Israel's history is. If so, let this be an encouragement to us: even in the depths of humanity, God can still bring about His perfect purpose, even through a rotten sinner and his pathetic vengeance.

Part 1: Hey There, Delilah (Judges 16:16-20)

16 Because she nagged him day after day and pleaded with him until she wore him out, 17 he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut, because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.” 18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, for he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the silver with them. 19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. In this way, she made him helpless, and his strength left him. 20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When he awoke from his sleep, he said, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

The Lifeway passage just jumps right in. It would take little time to start reading at the beginning of the chapter and get the full context. We often drag Delilah through the mud here (as we should), but see that Samson has been lying to her -- "the woman he loves" --quite blatantly and flippantly. This relationship is not in a good place.


The Bible does not say that Delilah was a Philistine, just that she lived in the area. But she recognized an opportunity when she saw one in a real femme fatale way, and she was happy to get rich off of the Philistines.


Samson, a real meathead, seems to have a thing for "foreign women".


We don't know for certain what the word "Delilah" means, whatever you read elsewhere. There is a related word in Ugaritic that means "to be poor".


Here it's important to note how clueless Samson was about what it means to be a Nazirite. All he cared about (or remembered) was his hair, although the fact that he didn't tell his parents about the dead animals he had touched suggests that he remembered (and didn't care about) that particular part of the vow. To him, not cutting his hair was a magic formula for God's super-powered-blessings.


This is where my Big Idea about free will comes into play. Why would God continue to give him super strength if he had violated his Nazirite vow? Because God was not using him based on his faithfulness but on God's plan for him. I think that's a really big deal, and I think we can draw wrong conclusions if we claim we can say "why" God did this. God had a plan; Samson was a part of that plan.


Delilah continued to nag him -- as dangerous as that must have been -- because she probably thought that the Philistines would kill her if she failed. Samson continued to toy with her, not realizing that her resolve was stronger than his. This is a grave error that all Christians can make when we "toy around" with sin or the people who would draw us into sin. We simply aren't as strong as we think we are.


Somehow, Delilah realized that Samson finally told her the truth, so she "cried wolf" again (and the Philistines listened to her again).


HOW DOES SOMEBODY SHAVE YOUR HEAD COMPLETELY BALD WHILE YOU ARE ASLEEP WITHOUT YOU NOTICING? I assume that there is alcohol involved (we know how seriously Samson took his vows).


Some scholars call this a "last straw" for God, and that's why God withdrew the super strength. That very well may be true. But it does seem that Samson being captured and brought to the Philistines was a necessary part of God's plan, and how else would this be accomplished? (That would seem to make Samson God's "Trojan Horse". Again, this is why I'm so cautious about even trying to say "why" God would do anything. We don't know.)


In any event, God had left Samson. This is as tragic (and pathetic) an event as there is in the Old Testament. A very simple lesson: when the Spirit of the Lord leaves someone, the results are disastrous.


An important question for your group: can the Spirit of the Lord leave a Christian?

Part 2: Samson Brought Low (Judges 16:21-25)

21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison. 22 But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved. 23 Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said: Our god has handed over our enemy Samson to us. 24 When the people saw him, they praised their god and said: Our god has handed over to us our enemy who destroyed our land and who multiplied our dead. 25 When they were in good spirits, they said, “Bring Samson here to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he entertained them. They had him stand between the pillars.

This seems like a rather clean "win" for the Philistines. We're supposed to see some tragic irony in the punishment -- his eyes are part of what got Samson into this mess, and grinding grain was a job done by serving-women (with the aid of a donkey); plus, Gaza was the city Samson had earlier escaped and vandalized.


But just as Samson had overestimated himself, so the Philistines also disastrously misread the situation.


Look at what they said: they believed that their god Dagon had enabled this victory. "Dagon" was the Philistines' chief god and their god of grain. Samson had earlier deliberately burned their grain fields (a truly reckless act on many levels). They believed that Samson's capture had proven Dagon's superiority over Yahweh. Thus, they didn't really worry that Samson's hair started growing back.


What was the Philistines' biggest mistake here?


I'd say it was not their treatment of Samson (careless though that was) but their confidence in their god. Samson wasn't in their custody because of Dagon. Dagon doesn't exist! Samson was there because (1) he had sinned, and this was his punishment from God, and (2) the Philistines had sinned, and this was their punishment from God.


Perhaps they let Samson's hair grow back on purpose, thinking they could now "control" him.


The Hebrew word behind "in good spirits" literally means "their hearts were good" which was a phrase sometimes used of those who were drinking.


The word for "entertain" basically means "toy with", which reflects the behavior Samson had earlier showed toward Delilah.


Big Question: Was Samson's Hair "Magic"?

Most of the study materials I've read about this chapter -- including our Lifeway resources -- dance around this. Samson's hair is obviously not magic. Magic (like that) does not exist. "Magic" in this context would suggest that Samson's great strength came from his hair, and we know that is not true. God is not bound by His creation (reminder: this is why superstitions are not helpful). Rather, Samson' great strength came from God and was to be used for God's purposes.


So why does the author of Judges say so much about Samson's hair?


Personally, I think the author of Judges believed that God gave Samson magical hair. Remember that this is an era when the Israelites believed that the ark had special powers (you can read more about this in 1 Samuel). It took multiple prophets to explain to them that that's not how God worked. God can use symbols, but God is not bound by those symbols. For Samson, his hair was a symbol of his commitment to his Nazirite vow. God obviously knew his heart and knew that he had violated that vow many times over, so in reality, Samson had this strength only because God had a purpose for it -- a purpose to bring about judgment on the Philistines. I do not think that they author of Judges being confused by this affects the trustworthiness of this book in any way. The "what" is still accurate; the "why" is simply a little more nuanced.


Bonus Big Question: Is This Really an Act of Grace by God?

The Lifeway material really plays up what's about to happen as an act of grace and second chances by God. I think they're playing that up too much. Let me explain in the next section, and you can decide for yourself what you'll think.

Part 3: An Agent of Judgement (Judges 16:26-31)

26 Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.” 27 The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them. 28 He called out to the Lord, “Lord God, please remember me. Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars supporting the temple and leaned against them, one on his right hand and the other on his left. 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life. 31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. So he judged Israel twenty years.

I want to throw a wet blanket on Lifeway and everyone else who plays up this "God shows mercy to Samson" and "God answered Samson's prayer" angle. Samson is very clear about his motives: they are small, selfish, petty, and vengeful. Does God honor such motives?


So why did God answer this prayer?


I hope you've had the discussion about prayer in your group before. Even if you have, have it again. Have you ever prayed with selfish or impure motives? (You'd better say yes.) How have you justified that? Based on whatever happened subsequently, how have you explained it?


We don't (shouldn't) pray to change God's mind or attempt to manipulate His actions. We pray to make ourselves aware of our own hearts and seek to align ourselves with God's will. God's will was for Samson to be His agent of justice to the Philistines, regardless of Samson's motives. God did not graciously give Samson an affirmative answer to Samson's selfish prayer; Samson was God's tool, and ultimately, at the very end, that's what Samson also wanted for himself. (This gets really deep really quick.)


Do you agree with me or disagree? Why?


I do think this moment in Israel's history is unique important. The country is in utter disarray (see the closing thoughts) and being oppressed on all sides. It is almost time for David to enter the scene, and David is one of the most important figures in all of Israel's history. Samson's role in shaping the political situation was vital to David's future ascent.


Here's why I'm reluctant to call Samson a "type of Christ" -- Samson did not willingly sacrifice himself for the good of his people. The only reason he was in the position to kill the Philistine leaders was his own hubris and humiliation. If he had done this intentionally and sacrificially, knowing this would put him in the best position to "cut off the head" of the Philistine aggressors, that would be one thing. That would be Christlike. Jesus Christ willingly submitted Himself to torture and death because He knew that that was the only way He could save His people from the power of sin and death.


Samson didn't do that. Samson died as he lived, a self-centered, small-minded man who squandered his incredible blessings on selfish motives. He accomplished God's will for the Philistines, but how much more could he have done for his people.


The best thing we can say about Samson is that with his dying breath, he called God "Yahweh". Maybe Samson finally had some clarity.


I've always wondered how Samson's family got his body, if it were buried under the kind of rubble necessary to kill thousands of people. It was an open-roofed structure (so the people on the roof could see inside). Samson must have been on the most central columns, so the structure crashed around him. This would suggest that some of the Philistines survived, which makes sense. Philistia still had a lot of power in Israel for the next generation.


Samson is a tale of tragedy. A tale of what-could-have-been.


For our part, I want us to use Samson' experience to think about our opportunities, our motives, and our commitment to God. We've all received blessings from God. How are we using them? We've all made commitments to God. How are we keeping them?


We're on to the book of Ruth net week!

Closing Thoughts: The End of Judges

The Lifeway material skips the last five chapters of Judges. I get it; they're unsavory. But I think it's important for us to understand how far this downward spiral goes. When we better understand the depth of human depravity, we can hopefully better appreciate the length of God's mercy.


Note that the final chapters do not say anything about judges or oppressors, so we don't know when they happened. Samson was from the tribe of Dan, which suggests why the author put the story about Micah (which involved the Danites) here.


Both of these final stories involve the hills of Ephraim -- a region that was difficult to travel or maintain. The second story is one of the most shocking in the entire Bible. It involves the tribe of Benjamin (the tribe of Saul), suggesting it happened a long time before the people wanted Saul to be king.


But the author's point is simple: Israel needed a king. For us today, the inspired point is more simple: Israel needed a King.



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