Tag Archives: Samson

Judges 14-18:

Samson kills a lion and eats honey from its body:

Samson then comes into contact with a lion, which he was able to kill with just his bare hands, “and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion asunder as one tears a kid; and he had nothing in his hand.” (Jdgs. 14:6)  After he had killed the lion, a swarm of bees were eating on the carcass, and leaving honey there.  Samson then commits his first infidelity to his Nazirite vow by eating food (i.e., honey) that was in contact with the dead corpse, “he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.” (Jdgs. 14:9) 

Samson then has to host a great feast for seven days.  This hints again at Samson breaking his Nazirite vow of no strong drink or wine. This would have been Samson’s second infidelity to his Nazirite vow.   

The Passion Prefigurement of Samson:

Some early commentators have identified Samson with a type of passion and suffering death of Christ, as was begun when the Philistines bound Samson: “So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.” (Jdgs. 15:13)  Samson then broke the ropes and slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.  Afterwards, Samson was thirsty to death, and the Lord provided water miraculously from a split rock, hearkening Moses in the desert: “And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and there came water from it; and when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.” (Jdgs. 15:19)  

Samson carries two wooden posts on his shoulders as he ascended a mountain.  This was a prefigurement to Christ carrying His Cross up the mountain to Calvary: “at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is before Hebron.” (Jdgs. 16:3)  

Samson and the Philistine Delilah’s Betrayal:

Samson then met and slept with a Philistine woman, Delilah.  She pestered him relentlessly to find out the secret of his strength, until “his soul was vexed to death.”(Jdgs. 16:16)  Samson finally confessed to Delilah the source of his strength: “And he told her all his mind, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.” (Jdgs. 16:17)  During the night the Philistines shaved seven locks of hair from his head, and “the Lord had left him.” (Jdgs. 16:20)  As Samson lost his strength, through this third betrayal of his lifelong Nazirite vows, the shaving of his head, he became a tormented prisoner of the Philistines: “And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison.” (Jdgs. 16:21)  Yet, his hair began to grow back.  

The Passion and Death of Samson:

The Philistines sacrificed to their pagan god Dagon, and made a mockery and folly of Samson: “Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.”  And when the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has slain many of us.”  And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may make sport for us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he made sport before them. They made him stand between the pillars.” (Jdgs. 16:23-25)  Samson was bound and held in prison like Christ had been in His Passion.  He was mocked by the Roman soldiers and the Sanhedrin in His mock trial and at His Crucifixion.  Christ was whipped at a pillar.  

Then, Samson killed about 3,000 of the Philistines, including the Lords of Dagon: “And Samson grasped the two middle pillars upon which the house rested, and he leaned his weight upon them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.  And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were in it. So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain during his life.” (Jdgs. 16:29-30)  Samson’s hands rested on two pillars as Christ’s hands rested upon the two wooden beams of the Cross.  Samson slew his enemies and died in the process, just as Christ slew death, evil, sin and the demons in His sacrificial death on the Cross.  

Caesarius, a fifth century biship of Arles (France) wrote of Samson’s prefigurement of Christ: “Notice here an image of the Cross.  Samson extends his hands spread out to the two columns as to the two beams of the Cross. Moreover, by his death he overcame his adversaries, because his suffering became the death of his persecutors. For this reason Scripture concludes as follows: ‘Those he killed at his death were more than those he killed during his lifetime.” (Jdgs. 16:31)  This mystery was clearly fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, for at His death He completed our redemption which He had by no means published during His life.”  Samson’s sacrificial death prefigured the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross. 

Judges 1-13:

Judges 1-13:

Israelites Fail to Drive Canaanites from the Land:

Some of the tribes of Israelites “dwelt among the Canaanites.” (Jdgs. 1:33)  In Israel’s disobedience, the Angel of the Lord spoke out against the Israelites:

“Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land which I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. What is this you have done?  So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”  When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.” (Jdgs. 2:1-4)

The angel of the Lord was still with the Israelites, but He delivers the bad news to the Israelites because of their disobedience and failure to drive the Canaanites from the land. 

The death of Joshua:

“And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.”(Jdgs. 2:8)  Joshua died“in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash,” which is located in the modern West Bank area, southwest of Nablus.  

Israelites worship false gods:

“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.  They forsook the Lord, and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.” (Jdgs. 2:11-13) The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.  So, the Lord consequently abandons the Israelites to subjection of the Canaanites and their false pagan religions, particularly Baal and Ashtaroth.  

The Lord raised up Judges to help Israel:

 “Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them.  And yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed down to them; they soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.  Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.  But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them; they did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.”  (Jdgs. 2:16-19)  The Israelites dwelt amongst the Canaanites and intermarried, and worst of all, “they served their gods.” (Jdgs. 3:6)  

Jael, a type of Church, kills by the type of the Wood of the Cross:

“But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, till it went down into the ground, as he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died.” (Jdgs. 4:21)  Origen deemed Jael a prefigurement to the Church, by which the devil is defeated by the wood of the Cross.  He stated: “The woman Jael, that foreigner about whom Deborah’s prophecy said that victory would be had ‘through the hand of a woman’ (Jdgs. 4:9), symbolizes the church, which was assembled from foreign nations  . . . She killed him with a stake, then, which is to say that she overthrew him by the power and cunning of the wood of the cross.” (Origen, Homilies on Judges)

The Flesh and Bread Offering of Gideon:

Gideon makes an offering to God of flesh (i.e., meat) and bread (i.e., unleavened cakes). This was a prefigurement to the Eucharist: “Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and there sprang up fire from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.” (Jdgs. 6:21)  Gideon then pulled down and destroyed the pagan altars to Baal and Asherah.  

Israel’s Idolatry Continued:

“Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more.  Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.” (Jdgs. 10:13-14)

Samson and the Nazirite Vow:

The Angel of Lord prophesied the birth of Samson and his vows as a Nazirite.  These threefold Nazirite vows included: (1) No contact with dead bodies; (2) No strong wine or drink; (3) No razor upon his head, no shaving of his hair.  

“And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have no children; but you shall conceive and bear a son.  Therefore beware, and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for lo, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” (Jdgs. 13:3-5)

Some have hypothesized that John the Baptist, and even Jesus Himself had taken the Nazirite vows.  

The Angel of the Lord:

This is the oft repeated instances in the Old Testament of the Lord or the “Angel of the Lord” appearing in human form as a man.  These are the pre-incarnate appearances of Christ in the Old Testament, “and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field.” (Jdgs. 13:9)  The Angel of the Lord answers her husband that He is the one who appeared to her, “And he said, “I am.” (Jdgs. 13:11)  The Angel of the Lord uses the name of God for Himself, “I Am,” or the translation of the Tetragrammaton, YHWH.  This is the preincarnate Christ.  

Manoah and his wife then offered a “flesh and bread” sacrifice to God: “the kid with the cereal offering, and offered it upon the rock to the Lord.”(Jdgs. 13:19)  The Angel of the Lord then ascended to Heaven in the flame of the sacrifice upon the altar. Manoah and his wife fell on their faces recognizing that they had seen the Lord saying, “for we have seen God.” (Jdgs. 13:22)  They recognize that the Angel of the Lord was, in fact, God, and from a New Covenant perspective, He was the preincarnate Jesus. Interestingly, like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, they recognized the Lord in the flesh and bread sacrifice, with its obvious Eucharistic connotations.  She then bore a son, Samson.