The story of Samson.
Ok, we need to get one major problem cleared up first. Thanks to Sunday School, most of us think that Samson looked something like this:
Or maybe this version that looks like a still shot from an ancient soap opera…
The superhero physique is appealing, but there’s only one problem. There is ZERO scriptural support for it.
Samson will even later admit that if his hair is cut he will be “weak like other men.” Uh, neither of those images above are “weak like other men” even if he had a man-cold. And when Samson’s hair gets cut and he gets captured, the Philistines shackle and imprison him. That’s not so easily done if he’s the Old Testament version of Thor.
Samson’s strength is supernatural. Not natural. Whenever he does some feat of strength, the text says that “the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him.” That tells us WHO is really doing the heavy lifting. It’s God.
Samson probably looked like a normal (albeit fit) guy. I doubt he looked like a couch potato, but I don’t think he was the Hulk either. Think normal dude. Think Clark Kent, not Superman.
Ok. Good talk. Glad we cleared that up.
Let’s go back now and look at Samson’s birth and early life.
Samson’s father is Manoah. His name is basically the same as Noah, just with a Ma on the front. And it means “rest” just like Noah. Samson’s mother is not given a name, but Josephus said that Jewish oral history had it that she was gorgeous. And that Manoah was the most virtuous man and the greatest leader in his area. But, that may not be saying much because they were from the tribe of Dan.
You may recall that the tribe of Dan failed to drive out the Canaanites and Philistines and that at one point, they were forced up into the mountains and some of them just packed up and moved way up north and conquered a city which they renamed Dan.
Samson’s family stuck it out and they live in Zorah. This map is quite helpful. It shows the hometown of each of Israel’s judges (from the book of Judges). Zorah is on the border with Judah. Note the location and its proximity to the Philistine cities on the coast.
The Angel of the LORD (Who IS Yahweh in human form) appeared to Samson’s parents to instruct them about Samson’s destiny and Nazarite vow. He tells Samson’s mother that the baby she carries will “deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” (Yet more evidence that the LORD and His Word are outside of time and know the end from the beginning.)
Manoah asks the mysterious “man” what his name is. And the Angel of the Lord responds exactly as He did to Jacob: “Why do you want to know my name?”
This is an interesting question because Manoah literally just said why he wants to know the name of the one speaking to them.
“And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?”
Judges 13:17 ESV
Manoah: ☝🏼😀 Are you the one who spoke with my wife?
Angel of the LORD: 🤨 I AM.
Manoah: ☝🏼😀 What is your name so we can honor you?
Angel of the LORD: 🤨 Why do you want to know my name?
Manoah: 🤔
The Angel of the Lord says that His name is piliy piliy. Technically, the letters are P-L-A-Y. And it is pronounced like poly.
👄 The first letter is Peh. In paleo-Hebrew Peh was a picture of a mouth and meant mouth and saying, also opening or rim.
🐏 The second is lamed. It was a picture of a shepherd’s staff and means shepherd, lead guide, toward, protect.
💪🏼 Aleph is the first letter of the aleph-bet and means first, chief, strong/strength.
🫲🏽 Yod is a picture of the hand and means make or do, work, help, power, authority.
When you put them together the result means wonderful or secret. Some translations use the term extraordinary or even incomprehensible.
The saying of the Chief Shepherd with making-doing-power… Yes, that is a phenomenon beyond our comprehension.
The word is doubled in the text which is a way to communicate emphasis.
Piliy piliy is only used twice in all of scripture. Once here in reference to His name, and the other here:
“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!”
Psalms 139:1-6 NLT
God’s name and His knowledge are beyond our comprehension.
Then there’s the floating samek.
The ancient pictograph for samek was a barb and it meant to hold something – like a barb or thorn would catch and hold onto something. It means establish. It’s stuck. It can also mean to prevent or turn like a hedge of thorns (barbs) would prevent access and turn you back. Jesus said that every yod and tittle of the Law would be fulfilled. I think that includes this mysterious samek. Perhaps it represents a kind of pin in the text after the revelation about the incomprehensible name. Maybe it’s there to say “this truth is established.” I think today we’d call it a “mic drop.” 🫳🏽🎤
And it IS the last thing the Angel of the LORD says here.
Now, when Manoah brings the offering it’s very reminiscent of the scene with Gideon. In fact, the scenes are basically identical. You may want to flip back to Judges 6:19-21 and compare them. Both Manoah and Gideon offer a young goat, with a grain offering, on a rock. That’s VERY specific. And in each story the Angel of the LORD touches the offering with the staff in His hand which ignites it. In each case, the Angel of the LORD vanishes as the offering goes up in smoke.
The similarities are not accidental. They are to make us connect the two narratives. Gideon was one of Israel’s most famous heroes. Samson will be too. Gideon was a flawed man who started out insignificantly and grew quickly in boldness as God used him. Samson, same. Both men had a thing for women. Gideon had 70 sons. That’s a lot of wives. And son number 71 was with a slave woman. Samson’s desire for particular women got him in trouble. Both of them had a rather tarnished ending. Gideon had the golden ephod that people began to worship and Samson ended up blind and grinding wheat for the amusement of the Philistines.
But I’m getting ahead of the narrative…
Some translations have something to the effect of: “as Manoah and his wife watched, the Angel of the Lord did an amazing thing.” And that could be right. He did ascend in the smoke. Pretty amazing. But the rendering in the ESV (which is informed by the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate) is quite compelling in my opinion:
“So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching.”
Judges 13:19 ESV
This makes complete sense in light of the Lord’s response to Manoah’s question about His name. It’s typical in the OT for a person who encounters the Angel of the LORD to name an altar or landmark after what they learn about Him – The Well of the One Who Sees, Peniel, Bethel, The Lord is our Banner, etc. The Angel said His name was “wonderful” so they make their offering to “YHWH asah pala”; Yahweh does wonders.
In chapter 13, Manoah and his wife finally have their first child. And they name him…
I kid you not…
Sunshine. ☀️
No, seriously. That’s what his name means.
😘 Delilah: Good morning, Sunshine!
😒 Samson: Babe, please stop. It was cute the first time.
Not only does his name mean sunshine, in Hebrew it’s pronounced Shimshon. 😆 It sounds like a toddler with a lisp trying to say “Samson.”
The Lord has asked that Samson be a life-long Nazarite. We went over the rules about Nazarite vows back in Numbers 6. This is a good spot to review them:
- Eat nothing unclean 🐷
- Don’t touch anything dead ☠️
- No wine or strong drink 🍷🍺
- Eat no fruit of the vine 🍇
- Cannot cut hair 💇🏻♂️
Notice where Samson’s encounter with the lion takes place – in “the vineyards.” What is a Nazarite doing surrounded by grapes? And then he takes the honey from the carcass of the lion he killed. Honey is a clean food but lions are unclean animals. And it’s a dead lion.
Then he gets married – to a Philistine; the very race that has been oppressing Israel for 40 years. The group that Yahweh told his mother he would deliver Israel from. And he’s going to marry one of them. And for a week they feast. And what do people drink at a wedding feast? Wine. And Samson is hosting this wedding shindig.
It’s like Samson is seeing how close he can get to the edge without technically violating his Nazarite vow- which, keep in mind, he did not willingly make. It was placed upon him before birth. Maybe he looked on the restraints as a burden rather than a mark of special consecration. Christians would never do that right? See how close to sin we can get without technically crossing the line? We would never look at the restraints of the crucified life as a burden. Right?
In this chapter we get the first of Samson’s 3 women. His unnamed Philistine wife is like a foreshadowing of the famous Delilah. She wheedles and whines and turns on the feminine waterworks during the honeymoon week to get the solution to his riddle out of him.
So he loses his bet and goes off in a huff leaving his bride behind. Believing the marriage to be “off”, her father gives her to Samson’s best man instead.
It sounds like a bad ‘90s rom-com. Very bad.
Samson was a one-man raiding party when he attacked the Philistine city of Ashkelon to kill 30 men to gather the spoils he needed to pay off his bet.
Sometimes you need a scalpel. And sometimes you need a sledgehammer. Samson seems to be more of a sledgehammer in the hand of God. Blunt. Flawed. Coarse. Not fancy or refined.
Let’s not forget that it is the Sprit of the LORD that directed and empowered him to both kill the lion and attack Ashkelon.
Samson is one of those OT proofs that the Lord uses flawed people. But just because God uses him doesn’t mean He approves of him. (Christian ministers would do well to remember this.) Samson behaves like a petulant child. He’s hot tempered, impulsive, and lets his flesh do the thinking. But God is so capable, He can play the hand that Samson is dealing. The Lord can take the poor choices of flawed humans and make something out of it.
If you need someone to catch 300 foxes and light their tails on fire to incinerate the enemy’s standing grain crop, you don’t ask the goody-two-shoes golden child. You use the bratty punk kid who thinks up creative mischief because being good is “too boring” and highly risky behavior like lighting up foxes tails is “fun.”
That’s what happens next.
🦊🔥🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾
To The Reader 