Zak Shively
Old Testament Literature
11-16-13
“Samson’s Worldly Nature”
We must be sure not to live as the people of the world live. Be very definite about the spiritual things that should come first. It is easy to follow a certain false idea. It is the idea that it is simple to follow God. All you need to do is to say that you trust God. Then you are safe. This is all that God requires of you.
Samson was born into a time when Judges ruled the Jews. It was a terrible time of confusion and trouble. Judges had army control of the area, therefore eventually Jews turned to God for help against their enemies. A young man named Samson was one of the saddest examples of living a selfish life in the Old Testament literature. The story of his life is found in Judges 13-16. Samson came from a good home whose parents loved and obeyed God, they prayed about Samson before he was born. They wanted to raise the best child they could for God, but this did not stop him from becoming ‘worldy’ influenced. He had a strong, attractive nature as a young man and his name actually means “sunshine”. His major downfall was that he loved to be popular and this ended up ruining him of his potential to be a great leader of Christ.
Samson possessed extraordinary physical strength, and the moral of his saga relates the terrible loss of his power to the violation of his Nazirite vow. He first broke his religious promises by feasting with a woman from the neighboring town of Philistine, one of Israel’s mortal enemies. Other remarkable deeds follow. For example, he decimated the Philistines in a private war. On another occasion he repulsed their assault on him at Gaza, where he had gone to visit a harlot. He finally fell victim to his foes through love of Delilah, a woman of the valley of Sorek, who charmed him into revealing the secret of his strength: his long Nazirite hair. As he slept, Delilah had his hair cut and betrayed him. He was captured, blinded, and...