The Strong Judge
1082- 1065BC
Bible Reference: Judges 13- 16
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- Samson served as a judge for twenty years and delivered the Israelites who were suffering at the hands of the Philistines for the previous forty years.
- His birth was foretold to his parents Manoah and Zorah of the tribe of Dan by an angel that said he would be set apart as a Nazirite, which was a higher calling to abstain from sin.
- His first act in the Bible was to violate his vow by marrying a Philistine woman.
- He showed his exceptional strength when he killed a lion with his bare hands, but later, he violated his Nazarite vow again by touching the dead carcass of the lion.
- Despite turning away from his vow, God fulfilled his purpose of deliverance, and he killed thirty Philistines in Ashkelon, burning their fields and orchards, and avenging his wife and father-in-law.
- To satisfy the angry Philistines, the Jewish people tied Samson up to turn him over to the Philistines. When he was delivered, he split the ropes and slaughtered 1,000 of them.
- Samson’s downfall escalated when he fell in love with Delilah, a Philistine woman who eventually won his trust and got him to share the secret of his strength.
- Delilah betrayed Samson, cutting off his hair and relieving him of God’s Spirit and strength. The Philistines then took him as their prisoner and cut out his eyes.
- In one final act of strength, while Samson was chained to the pillars of a temple and the Philistines mocked him, he asked God for strength, and he knocked down the temple, killing 3,000 Philistines and himself.
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