Samson is the son of Elcana. Elcana’s wife met an angel. The angel told her that she will conceive and have a baby. He told her that the child should be consecrated to God as a Nazarite from birth. This means that the child’s hair should not be cut. The angel told Manoah’s wife not to drink wine or any other fermented drink.
When she returned home, she told her husband. Manoah prayed that God would make the angel appear again to teach them how to raise the child to be born. God answered Manoah’s prayer and she appeared again in the field. The angel gave the same instruction to Manoah and his wife, that she should not eat anything made from grape vine or drink wine or other fermented beverages or other unclean things. Later, Manoah’s wife conceived and gave birth to a son named Samson.
Samson wanted a Philistine girl from Timna (Galatians 5:16; Genesis 6: 3; Romans 8: 4). She asked her parents to get her as a wife. His parents chided him for not getting a wife from his own clan. However, they did not know that it was God who prepared this occasion to fight against the Philistines. While Samson and his parents were on their way to Timna, Samson came across a lion cub. The Holy Spirit filled him and broke the lion into many pieces easily like a kid.
During the wedding feast, he gave a riddle to 30 young Philistines at the feast. The riddle is “Out of the devourer came flesh, and out of the strong came sweetness” (Judges 14:14). If they can’t find the answer to the riddle, each of them has to give Samson a new set of clothes. If they can find the answer, Samson will give each of them a new set of clothes.
After 3 days, they still couldn’t find the answer. They threatened his wife with revealing the answer, otherwise they would burn her and her father’s house. Samson’s wife began to scold Samson until he finally couldn’t take it anymore and revealed the answer to him, which is lion. When the thirty Philistines presented the answer, Samson was angry. He killed 30 men in Ashkelon and gave his clothes to the 30 Philistine men.
After that, Samson returned home. Meanwhile, his wife was handed over to another Philistine. When Samson returned for his wife, he was surprised to learn of this. He took revenge by capturing 300 foxes and binding them tail to tail. He lit the torches tied to the fox’s tails and let them go free in the standing grain of the field that belonged to the Philistines. When the Philistines found out, they were angry and retaliated by burning Samson’s wife and father to death. Samson retaliated by killing many of the Philistines.
Later, he retired to a cave in the rock of Etham. The Philistines set up their camps in Judah to take Samson prisoner. To avoid war, 3,000 men from Judah descended to bring Samson from the rock of Etham. When Samson got to Lehi, he broke the ropes that bound him like sharp linen. He saw a new donkey jawbone and used it to kill a thousand Philistines. When he was thirsty, he prayed for water and God caused the water to come out of a hollow place in Lehi.
Samson’s weakness is his desire for women (1 Thessalonians 4: 3-8; 1 Corinthians 6:18; Colossians 3: 5). He was eventually captured by the Philistines because of his love for Delilah. We should always walk by the Spirit instead of following the lusts of our flesh (Ephesians 2: 3; 1 Peter 2:11). This means putting God first in everything you do instead of doing what you feel you want to do (Romans 13:14; Galatians 5: 24-25).