Samson: The Weakest Strongman (Part 1) Series

Ask any Sunday School child who is the strongest man in the Bible. There will be no hesitation. It is Samson. The winner of any modern-day strongman competition would not be able to stand against Samson. He was the GOAT, the greatest of all time. He tore a lion apart with his bare hands.

There are only a small number of college football players who can bench press more than 400 pounds. Samson could beat them all. Outer strength is very impressive. The best powerlifter at the weightlifting gym is the one who turns the heads of the other weightlifters. But here is an important question, how is their inner strength?

Yes, Samson was the strongest man in the world. He would have turned heads at any weightlifting gym in the world. But there was a glaring character flaw. He had inner weaknesses. No one could defeat Samson matching strength to strength. They did not have to match his strength because all they needed to do was to exploit his inner weakness.

Samson was more than just your powerlifter at the gym. He was one of the judges of Israel. He was a spiritual leader. He led Israel for twenty years. His character and self-control and judgment mattered. Physical strength or intellectual superiority are not enough for the spiritual leader. These strengths don’t even matter that much.

The theme of judges is that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. There was a reoccurring pattern in the Judges:

1. Sin of the nation

2. Punishment

3. Repentance

4. Deliverance.

Each judge represented a whole new generation that had turned from the Lord and needed a leader who would lead them to defeat their oppressors and bring deliverance and peace for years to come.

This pattern had been going on for generations. Of the 16 judges Samson was the 14th judge. In a sense Samson was the last judge before King Saul. The two judges who followed Samson were priests Eli and Samuel, not so much nation deliverers and Judges in the likes of Gideon, Deborah and Samson.

We can see that Samson was a man who God had chosen to be a spiritual leader. Even the circumstances surrounding his birth make that very clear. Samson was chosen to deliver his people from the heavy oppression of the Philistine’s.

Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. (Judges 13:1)

The father of Samson was named Manoah. He and his wife were childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her (Manoah’s wife) and told her she would have a child. Not only would she have a child, but he would be a leader and deliverer of Israel.

The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. 5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” (Judges 13:2-5)

Guess who came to tell Manoah and his wife they would have a son? It was the Angel of the Lord. This is something that Theologians call a Theophany. This is one of about 50 Theophanies of the Bible. That is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Manoah thought they would die when they realized they had seen God.

19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. 21 When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. (Judges 19-21)

They had asked the Angel of the Lord his name. The answer: He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding” (Judges 13:18). What a name for the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is beyond understanding.

“We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” (Judges 13:22) Manoah and his wife new they had met the Lord. Samson was a man of destiny if pre-incarnate Jesus came to tell his parents of his coming birth.