The Strength (and Weaknesses) of Samson

One of the saddest chapters in all of Scripture is the story of Samson. Here was a man with tremendous potential. He had godly parents, supernatural strength, and the Lord's favor. He literally had more gifts and more advantages than anyone else in his era. He was born and called and used by God to serve as a living picture of divine deliverance—and in that sense, he prefigured Christ. His birth was supernatural; he suffered for the sake of his people. Everything about him was amazing. He is very much a messiah figure—in every way but one: he was not particularly faithful. Scripture records several disastrous spiritual lapses in his life. He was especially prone to the kind of carnal failure that stems from unbridled lust blended with a lack of personal discipline. He couldn't control his fleshly desires, and he was a strong-willed man. And that is a disastrous combination.

The fact is, if we looked only at Samson's personal character and the external evidence of his sanctification (or lack of it), we would almost certainly conclude that Samson was a miserable failure. He is a classic example of wasted opportunity. He is a vivid reminder that mortal men are totally depraved and in desperate need of a deliverer. And yet he himself was a great deliverer. So he stands as a warning about the dangers of compromise and worldliness; and yet at the same time, He himself is a living emblem of deliverance—and a reminder that God's grace is greater than all our sin...

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