Samson’s Final Actions

Samson had been a real threat to the Philistines, and it seemed a real coup to capture and humiliate him.  Blinding him and treating him as a beast of burden struggling to turn a mill wheel when they had been so afraid of him gave them a sense of power, knowing he could no longer protect Israel from them.   They knew he had lost his power when his hair was shaved, marking the breaking of his Nazarite vow, but they didn’t realize that when a Nazarite broke his vow, he had to start the entire process again, letting his hair grow and making appropriate sacrifices.  As Judges 16:22 tells us, Samson’s hair began to grow again, but the Philistines were not worried about it.  “Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.”

 

They decided to celebrate his capture, crediting the god Dagon with defeating him.  For entertainment, they decided to humiliate Samson even more, possibly tripping him or causing thim to run into things and making fun of him and his lost power, as Judges 16:23-25 describes.  “Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.  And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.  And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.”

 

To emphasize his weakness and dependence, they had appointed little boy to lead him around.  Feigning weakness, Samson asked the boy to let him rest for a moment leaning against one of the pillars that supported the roof.  Believing he was no stronger than anyone else, the Philistines ignored where he was standing, but Samson knew how the building was constructed and had chosen that place for a reason.  Between the crowd inside and those on the roof, there were about three thousand people at the celebration.  The guests included all the leaders of all of the Philistines cities and many of their wives, as Judges 16:26-27 describes.  “And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.  Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.”

 

Determined to get even for being humiliated, Samson prayed that God would let him get even with them for having put out his eyes, and that he would die so he couldn’t be embarrassed any more.  He then pulled out the two main supports and the building collapsed, as Judges 16:28-30 describes.  “And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.  And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.  And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.”

 

Samson was one of the most gifted leaders Israel ever had, and was definitely chosen of God, but his focus was on satisfying his own lusts, and his victories were always about him getting even with the Philistines for some slight to himself, never for what they were doing to Israel of for going against God.  He even committed suicide to get even with them.    As a result, his impact was nothing like that of other judges such as Gideon or Jephthah, despite twenty years of his leadership, as Judges 16;312 reminds us.  “Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.”

 

Israel followed the Lord for years after other Judges led them, but there was no long period of serving the Lord after Samson’s death.   Samson had not taken God’s law seriously, and people began worshipping other gods almost immediately, as we see in the story of tribe of Dan stealing Micah’s idols in Judges 17 and 18.  He had set a poor moral example, and the standards dropped dramatically, as we see in Judges 19-21, leading to civil war and the near annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin.  With no judge to teach and no king to establish laws, people were left to follow their own conscience.  That would not be corrected until Eli became both high priest and judge.  The Philistines would recover and again attack Israel, in I Samuel 4.