Judges 13 - Samson's Revenge on the Philistines | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Judges 13 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.

In Judges 13 we now come to the backstory of Sampson, who was the twelfth and last of the Judges in this book. Samuel is ultimately the last of the Judges but is spoken of in the book of Samuel. Samuel is also the first of the prophets, with the exclusion of Moses. Samson is an enigma, but in some ways represents us all. We see the obvious lessons in his life about avoiding sexual impurity and temptation, but a bigger less obvious lesson is portrayed out through his life, and it has to do with giftedness.

Samson’s strength is a gift from God, but it was not based on merit. So the gift doesn’t validate the person, but the person’s life can certainly undermine the gift. An angel advises Samson’s parents about how he is to live. He is going to be a lifelong Nazarite. The Nazarite vow was covered in the Law in Numbers 6. There are only three lifelong Nazarites in the Bible, Sampson, Samuel and John the Baptist. The angel also advises that his mission in life is to “begin’ to save Israel from the Philistines.

But it is really King David, a reflection of Christ who completes the job later. In the same way, each of us are called to begin the task of subduing our flesh, but like Samsono we are totally helpless to do anything. Only when we have the Spirit at work, or we come into Christ, as reflected in King David can we actually overcome.