elevate review July 25

Continued the concept that Sampson was not a hero but rather someone who ultimately failed to carry out the call that God had on his life.

The two main verses that illustrate for me this sad truth of Sampson's life are these chapter 15 verse 20 in which it says that"Sampson judged Israel for 20 years but the Philistines still ruled the land". And chapter 16 verse 20 in which Sampson wakes up in the Philistines are holding them down and it says that" he didn't know that the Lord had left him".


Although the stories regarding Sampson have been told many times I believe they portray an accurate picture of the life that Sampson led.
Most of the Sunday school stories tell us what a great hero Sampson was because he killed so many of God's enemies. And yet in those two verses mentioned earlier we see that Sampson didn't live a life that was dedicated to God. Samson was used by God on five different occasions to exact judgment on God's enemies, but Sampson was not someone that was followed as an example by God's people.


We see that Sampson violated his vow that he took with God. He looked to enter into a covenant relationship we gods enemies through marriage.after leaving the wedding ceremony he looked to re-enter into that covenant relationships sometime later. He used the actions of his father-in-law as an excuse to burn down all of the cash producing crops of the Philistine. Then he used the actions of the Philistines to excuse his behavior of killing a bunch of them. Sansone then went into solitary confinement. He was turned in by God's people and then turned over to God's enemies because God's people didn't want anything to do with him. After killing a thousand Philistines to the power of God's Spirit his prayer to God was selfishly motivated. He spends 20 years judging a nation but made no difference whatsoever in the behavior of the people. he is sexually promiscuous and I sincerely doubt that was the first prostitute he'd ever been with. Samson is the only liar in the story of Samson and Delilah. And in his final prayer he does recognize that his strength comes from God but he wants the strength to exact revenge for personal reasons not for God's glory.

This is not the life of a man who walked with God.

We need to use Samsons life as an example of what not to do. We need to be walking with God on a daily basis answering the call of God to change our world. The call of God to release people from the bondage of sin which in the story of Samson took on the personification of the Philistines. We need to be life givers not event performers. We need to look out for the needs of others not for selfish revenge or pleasure.

I would personally like to rewrite every Sunday school book I ever went through as a child, I think we have sorely missed the lessons of the life of Sampson.