Samson was chosen by God before he was even born. His mom was told by one of God’s angels not to drink alcohol and not to eat anything unclean. Samson’s dedication to the Lord was openly displayed through his hair – he must never get his hair shaven since he was a Nazirite.
Folks usually associate Samson with Delilah. However, he was married before he even met Delilah. The woman whom he married was a Philistine – so she wasn’t one of his own people. Samson was attacked by a lion and he tore the lion apart, killing him, with his bare hands! Later, he passed the lion’s carcass and saw that some bees had built a hive in the carcass. He scooped out the honey and ate it, but he didn’t tell his parents about the incident with the lion. He shared the honey with his parents.
He told the Philistines a riddle, offering a prize if they came up with the correct answer. If they did not come up with the correct answer, then the Philistines had to give Samson a prize. The prize was thirty linen garments and 30 sets of clothes.
The Philistines threatened Samson’s wife and her dad. They told her to coax Samson into telling her the answer to the riddle, if she was not successful, then they said they’d burn her and her dad to death! She begged Samson until he finally told her the answer to the riddle.
When Samson realized he’d been tricked into revealing the answer, he became angry and through the power of God he struck down 30 of the Philistine men and stripped them of their clothing. He left the Philistines. His wife was given away to a companion who’d attended his wedding feast.
When he found out that his wife had been given away to somebody else, his wife’s father offered Samson one of his other daughters. Samson was angry about his wife being given away. So, to get revenge on the Philistines, he caught 300 foxes, tied their tails together and placed lit torches on the foxes tails. He let the foxes loose and as a result, the Philistines’ crops were burnt up and destroyed. When the Philistines discovered that Samson had burned their crops, they then burned Samson’s wife as well as her dad as revenge. When Samson discovered his wife and father-in-law had been burnt to death, he slaughters a lot of the Philistines. He leaves and hides in a cave.
When the people of Judah found him in the cave, they wanted to turn him over to the Philistines. But Samson escaped and using a donkey’s jawbone, he killed 1000 men. The Lord blessed him with a huge drink of water after his battle.
Later, Samson falls in love with Delilah. The Philistines bribed Delilah by offering her 1100 shekels of silver if she can get Samson to reveal the source of his strength. He lies to Delilah three times. Each time, Delilah bounds Samson with the material that’s supposed to rob him of his strength. And each time, the Philistines come to take him away, Samson escapes.
He finally tells Delilah that he gets his strength from his hair. His hair is cut and the Philistines capture him and gouge his eyes out. When he is taken prisoner, his hair starts to grow back. He is brought out to entertain the Philistines. He places his hands on the pillars of the temple and brings down the temple with his strength. He kills himself and all the people in the temple.
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