Judges 16:21-31 - Salvation Snatched From Defeat
- Chad Werkhoven
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Samson is one of the Bible's most fascinating characters.
SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... Gideon's son Abimelek, whose name literally means 'my father is king,' rises to power. After slaughtering his 70 brothers to solidify his power, he 'reigns' until he's killed by a woman in battle. Several other judges come and go in the intervening years, and after the Israelites once again descend into evil, the LORD delivered them to the Philistines. But then He gives rise to the most famous of all the judges: Samson.
Dale Ralph Davis explains Samson well: "Samson is a paradigm of Israel: one raised up out of nothing, richly gifted, who panders around with other loves and yet, apparently, always expects to ‘have’ Yahweh... Samson’s tragedy still speaks: watch out, lest you abandon the divine call, leave your first love, and forfeit the divine presence."
We catch up with Samson in his final moments, after he'd confessed to Delilah that his long hair - which as a Nazirite, he had taken a vow to never cut - was the key to his strength. Delilah then cut his hair off and called in her Philistine co-conspirators.
Judges 16:21–31 (NIV)
21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain.”
25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
When they stood him among the pillars, 26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A 37
Q. What does it mean that Christ 'suffered'?
A. That during his whole life on earth,
but especially at the end,
Christ sustained
in body and soul
the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race.
Summary
Most people are familiar with the name Samson even if they don't really know much about the rest of the Bible. He's one of those characters who's larger than life. His super human strength, his exploits, and his one weakness - women - have made him legendary. Take some time to read the four chapters of Judges that tell his full story sometime soon. I guarantee it will be far more entertaining than anything you can watch on TV.
The scene in the Dagon's temple shows humanity at its worst. Certainly the Philistines are sickening, as they pour out praises to their pagan god, who in their mind delivered our enemy into our hands. Everybody who was anybody in Philistia had gathered there that night; the temple was crowded with men and women... and on the roof, were about three thousand, whose weight strained the temple structure. It was a real rager for sure - they were in high spirits. Most importantly, all the rulers of the Philistines were there. This obvious lapse in national security shows the overconfidence they had now that the blinded Samson was in their hands.
But the ugliest aspect of this scene began once the drunken crowd shouted "Bring Samson out to entertain us..." So the mighty Samson was led out, guided by the hand of a young boy to perform.
It was in this moment of the enemy's triumph and celebration, when the hero of Israel was led out, humiliated, broken, and seemingly defeated, that God's people would gain their salvation. Samson deserved what he got, unlike our Savior, who would ultimately save God's people in a very similar way - by dying in the presence of His gloating enemies.
Dig Deeper
Commentator Mark Boda captures the tragedy of Samson, and the judges as a whole:
The account of Samson highlights a community that has lost all faith. By failing even to cry out for help and by handing over their judge-deliverer to the enemy, the community reveals their acceptance of the status quo of divine discipline and the reign of his agents of wrath... Samson, the judge-deliverer himself, is one who receives Yahweh’s Spirit violently, acts by personal vendetta, enters foolishly into dangerous zones, and is depicted largely as a powerful human who pursues his physical lusts (honey, sex, water). ...Theologically challenging is the way Yahweh uses this tragic figure’s inappropriate patterns for his advantage. In no way does this action by Yahweh absolve Samson of his guilt, but it does remind the reader that God will use even one’s failures for his greater glory, even if in the end these failures are destructive.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who snatches salvation even from the jaws of defeat;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would use the gifts God's given you for His glory, rather than your own, as Samson so often did;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
