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"For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for
the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver
Israel out of the hand of the Philistines" (Judges 13: 5).
Samson was to be a Nazarite: one separated to God from his birth. It was God's
intention that Samson should be wholly concerned with the Lord's will for him:
frequently he was concerned only with his own desires and will. Nevertheless, Samson is
an illustration of the fact that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance"
(Romans 11: 29). God purposed that he should begin to deliver Israel from the
Philistines, and in considering this man called of God, this needs to be remembered.
Frequently he is thought of as a Judge, with all that is implied to us in the word: but it
was not as a judge that he was commissioned. His commission was to `begin to deliver
Israel', and in this, and to this extent, he succeeded. While the frailty and sinfulness of
human nature is very clearly to be seen in the life of this man, he did fulfil his
commission to this extent. Yet as we look at the life and exploits of this man called of
God, recognizing that he did `begin to deliver Israel', we can only say `what might have
been'. How very much more he might have accomplished had he not given way to his
own likes and dislikes, his own desire and whims.
It is clearly the responsibility of believing parents to bring up their child in the way
that he should go. Samson was fortunate in that his home influence was godly:
"Then Manoah intreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which
Thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that
shall be born" (Judges 13: 8).
"So Manoah took a kid with meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord"
(13: 19).
Samson was born into a family which desired to know the will of God, and to do it; a
family which worshipped Jehovah. Yet, alas, Samson was not all he might have been.
Samson's first exploit is recorded in chapter 14:: what a disappointment it must have
been to his parents to find their son, of whom such great things had been foretold,
desiring marriage with a Philistine woman. Yet there was something about it they did not
realize:
"But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an
occasion against the Philistines" (14: 4).
It was of the Lord that he sought an occasion against the Philistines. When marriage
with aliens was forbidden by God, it is clear that the occasion Samson found was one of
his own devising: God's Spirit moved him to seek an opportunity to move against the
Philistines; but his own wishes found him an occasion which pleased him. We also need
to beware lest we seek to do God's will our own way.
Samson, it seems, always sought an excuse, if not a reason, for attacking or injuring
the Philistines. In this case the `reason' came through the riddle: the Philistine guests at
the wedding cheated! As a result Samson slew thirty Philistines. The discovery, later,
that (evidently in accord with custom) his wife had been given to the `best man', gave