Faces - 3 - Samson

We are part way though our series called Faces. For the past two weeks, we have been looking at the life of Daniel and what lessons we can learn from his life. This week we will be taking a look at a new face, Sampson.

Samson’s life is a story of physical strength and emotional weakness. His story starts before he was born. An angel came down to tell Samson’s mother that although she had been unable have children God had decided that she was going to give birth to a Son who she who was to be dedicated to him even from before the child was born, Judges 13 : 2 - 5.

During Samson’s childhood God blessed him and he became one of the leaders (called Judges) of Israel. Physically Sampson was a very strong man, far stronger than anyone else. One day we find him walking along with his parents to meet a girl when he is faced with a Lion and in Judges 14 : 5 - 7.

So, we are going to play a game to find out which one of us has the most Samson like strength. I need the two strongest youth to volunteer.

So, we have found who is the strongest in our group, but even our strongest would have been no match for Samson. Samson’s strength was a gift from God, and went far beyond the ordinary. Just think about ripping apart a lion with your bare hands!

As you would probably expect Samson’s ordeal with the lion had quite an impact on him, as did the girl that he met. Samson decides to marry her, and on his way to his party celebrate the occasion we see that Samson takes a little detour to find the carcass of his lion, Judges 14 : 8 - 14.

So here we see that Samson not only discovers his lion carcass, but is surprised to find a colony of bees inside it and lots of fresh honey. Samson decided to use this experience as a party-piece, telling a riddle he knows that no one would possibly know the answer to. Nothing out of the ordinary there, however Samson’s emotional strength is tested by his wife to-be pushes him for the answer to the point where he can’t take it anymore, he gives in and tells her the answer.

Now it is your turn, can you come up with a seemingly impossible riddle like Samson that we will struggle to solve. You have 5 minutes to come up with a riddle and then we will try and crack them.

There is nothing out of the ordinary with Samson’s party piece. As we have seen it can be fun to come up with riddles that other people struggle to solve. However, as we will now see in the next part of the story Samson’s weaknesses are starting to be exposed, Judges 14 : 15 - 19.

What weaknesses do you think Samson has in this passage?

God chooses to use non-perfect people. Like Samson we all have weaknesses and things we struggle with, but this does not exclude us from being part of God’s plan. God uses our weaknesses as well as our strengths for the good of his kingdom.

The example that we have looked at is just one example of where Samson used his strength against enemy nations. We are now going to fast forward to the very end of his life. (If you a few minutes spare this week you might want to read the whole story of Samson, which is just it is just four chapters, Judges 13 to 16).

Here we find that Samson gets himself into another sticky situation where a woman is trying to get him to reveal a secret. This time rather than a riddle the secret is how he has his amazing strength, and how his strength can be defeated.

The woman, called Delilah wants to know this because she has been bribed (with 13 kilograms of silver) by Israel’s enemies, the Philistines who want to know the secret.

After a few attempts by Delilah, Samson finally gives in and tells her the secret to his strength. He reveals that his hair has never been cut, not even as a child. As this was a sign that he had been dedicated to God, and this is why he had the strength that he had. Delilah then cuts his hair and hands him over to the Philistines who imprison him and gouge out his eyes.

Our final passage takes place shortly after this, Judges 16 : 25 - 30.

Samson had been made to look like a fool. He was blind and chained up, forced to perform for his enemies like some freak show. However, Samson doesn’t let his horrendous situation cause him to lose hope. He cries out to God to once more give him strength so that in death he could have a bigger impact on his enemies than he ever did during his life.

Even in his darkest hour this hot-tempered man kept his cool, turned to God and allowed him to use the abilities and opportunity that he still had in order to make a change that influenced his nation and went down in history.

We might not be called to pull down a building with our bare hands, but we are called to make a difference using the skills and abilities that we already have, and the situations that we find ourselves in.

When we face challenges, these shouldn’t stop us from still aiming for God’s goals in our life. When we use our abilities and trust in God and keep on going we can hit the bullseye of God’s plan for our life.

Like Samson we all have things in our life that we are really strong at and other things that we struggle with. In pairs or threes talk to each other about the one thing you feel really strong at and one thing you find difficult. Then take it in turns to pray for each other thanking God for their strengths and to support them in the things that they find hard.

So today we have seen how God used both Samson’s gifts and his weaknesses to allow him to defend Israel and attack his countries enemies.

Let’s pray together as we close:

Lord God,

We thank you that have a plan for us and want to use us just the way that we are using both our strengths and our weaknesses.

Help us to use every part of ourselves to do the things that you have prepared for us to do, and strengthen us to do things for you even when they are difficult or scary.

Amen