Lessons from Samson

Samson was a strong guy.  We all know that, we’ve read the stories.  We act out knocking down things, but at the same time he was incredibly weak. 

 

Samson had a weakness for women, and he didn’t run from it.

 

When you read the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife comes at him, he runs.  As fast and as far as he can.  This doesn’t keep him from getting in trouble, but it does keep him from getting in trouble.

 

Samson didn’t run, or at least not away.

 

And ultimately that’s why he fell, because he didn’t trust God, he trusted his strength.  He thought he could fight his way out of anything.

 

But can we?  If God is on our side, we certainly can.  We see that over and over again in Judges.

 

But, Samson was the most gifted Judge, he had strength, he had the right upbringing, but ultimately God couldn’t use him as mightily as he did many of the other Judges.

 

What is the difference?

 

To me, it’s attitude and heart.  Samson only called on God when he HAD to.  “God I’m dying of thirst, give me water.”  “God, I want revenge for my eyes, help me knock this down.”  Even those prayers are about Samson.

 

Gideon, on the other hand talked to God constantly at first, and look at what he did.  He destroyed an entire kingdom.  What did Samson do?  He killed a few thousand people.  It says in Judges 16:30, “he killed more when he died, than while he lived.”  What a sad epitaph.

 

I hope to be remembered like Gideon or Deborah, or Othneil.  God used them mightily even if they had great weakness.  I want to be mightily used by God.

 

So, what’s your choice, which Judge do you want to be?

PS: I’ll get Gideon up soon, I went out of town and discovered I didn’t have the pictures I wanted for the story.  Soon to follow after is Ruth.

Samson

Once there was a couple who had been married a very long time.  They wanted kids very much, but weren’t able to have them.  One day an angel appeared to them and said they were going to have a baby who was going to someday judge Israel.

They asked the angel, “How should we raise him?”

“He will be a Narazarite from birth.  He must not cut his hair, drink wine, or touch anything dead.”  After they offered a meal to God, the angel disappeared.

 

Their baby was born, a fine baby boy, and they named him Samson.  Samson grew up to be a strong and handsome boy, but he had a weakness.  He liked to kiss Philistine girls, and God had said only to kiss and marry Israelite women.

 

One day Samson came home and told his parents he was going to marry a Philistine girl, they weren’t happy, but they arranged the marriage.

 

As Samson walked to the wedding he saw a dead lion with a beehive in it and gathered some honey.

 

He shared the honey with everyone at the wedding and said, “I have a riddle for you, if you can’t guess it you’ll give me 30 outfits.”

 

“We agree,” they said.

 

“Out of the eater came something to eat.  Out of the strong came something sweet.”  The guests looked at each other and had no idea what to say.

 

The guests came to Samson’s bride and said, “Get us the answer or we’ll kill your family.”

 

So she went to Samson and cried and cried and said, “You don’t love me, you won’t tell me the answer.”

 

Finally he did, and she told them the answer.

 

They told him the answer and Samson got so mad.  “Very well, I’ll get your clothes.”  So he went out and killed 30 Philistines and took their clothes.

 

Some time passed and Samson wanted to go with his wife, but he found out she was now married to someone else.  So he got mad and took 300 foxes and tied their tails together and set them loose with torches.  He burned up their fields and their towns.

 

Time passed and Samson thought he was in love again.  This woman was named Delilah.  The men in the city came to Delilah  and said, “Find out what his weakness is and we’ll pay you.”

 

So she started pestering Samson to tell her what was his weakness.

 

She bothered him so much and for so long that finally he said, “If you tie me up with new ropes I will be as weak as anyone else.”  So, she tied him up and said “Samson the guards are coming!”  He got up and tore the ropes out.

 

She sobbed and sobbed at Samson, “You don’t really love me or you’d tell me the truth.”

 

Finally he couldn’t take it anymore, “The secret of my strength is my hair.”  So, she lulled him to sleep and shaved his head.  This time when the soldiers came they poked his eyes out.

 

They set Samson to grinding grain and making him work like he was a donkey.

 

One day they were throwing a big party and they wanted Samson to amuse them.  They brought him over, and he danced for them.  Finally he told a young boy he was tired and went over to the pillars.  He said one last prayer to God, “Please let me get revenge for my eyes.”  He pushed as hard as he could.

 

When the dust cleared, the temple had fallen and Samson with his last act had killed more Philistines than he had in his whole life.

Deborah

Ehud died and the people forgot the GREAT GOD who had saved them.  They worshipped other gods and to discipline them God let them be conquered.  Eventually they remembered the God who Saves.

 

So God called Deborah to lead the people.  She sat at the palm tree and told them what God had said.  One day she called and told him God wanted him to conquer General Sisera.

 

“I will only do this if you come with me.”  he replied

 

“Very well,” she answered, “But because you did this God will give Sisera over to a woman.”

 

Barak gathered his army and they waited up on top of the mountain ready to fight the Canaanites.

 

The Canaanites had chariots made of iron.  They were strong and no one had been able to defeat them.

 

Barak was in a good position to fight them up on the hill. The chariots couldn’t drive up there.  God had different plans.  He told Barak to go down the mountain to the Canaanites.

 

As the Israelites came down the mountain, God sent a rain.  The rain caused the chariots to get stuck and the men panicked and ran.

 

The Israelites came down and defeated the Canaanites, but General Sisera had disappeared.

 

General Sisera ran to the tent of Jael and demanded she hide him.  She let him lay down and gave him some warm milk to drink.

 

While he was asleep she went in and killed him.

 

Barak came and wanted to know where General Sisera was.  Jael told him he was in her tent dead.

 

Deborah and Barak sang a song of praise to God for his goodness in defeating the Canaanites.

Cycle of Apostasy printable

After talking about the cycle of Apostasy for a while and letting the kids put the steps in order.  The kids made their own version to be able to keep.


It was a simple color, cut, and glue activity, but they enjoyed it, click on the picture to go the link.

Finally we followed it up with a lesson on the dangers of sin.


Look at this marble as it goes down the cone.  At first it is going slow (this works even better with the coin slides at grocery stores), but as it goes down it starts to circle faster and faster.  Eventually it will fall down into that hole and nothing can get it out.

That is the danger of sin.  At first it doesn’t seem so bad.  But, the more more you are exposed to it the more quickly you fall into the trap.


That is unless someone interferes.  In this case it’s our dog, but a friend can, or God, and that can stop the cycle.

Judges: The Cycle of Apostasy

At first the Israelites worship God.  They do what He says and follow Him.

 

But, because they didn’t drive out all of the other people, they start to make friends with them and marry them, and finally they start to worship their gods.

 

God lets the Canaanites conquer the Israelites to punish them for their disobedience.  It isn’t because He doesn’t love them.  God is doing it just like a parent does to their child, to help them learn.

 

 

Israel remembers the God who Saves, and they call out to God.  God is merciful just like a parent and remembers how much He loves them.

 

God calls up a Judge to rescue Israel.  The Judge goes in and defeats the people enslaving Israel.  While the Judge is alive Israel follows God and worships Him.  For a short time after the Judge’s death they continue to follow God, but usually they forget again, and the cycle starts all over.

 

Let’s take a  moment and look at the first 3 Judges, each of them needed God to be able to do what God needed done.

 

Othneil was an old man when God called him to be a judge.  He shouldn’t have been a might fighter, but God called him forth and he defeated the people oppressing them.

 

Ehud was crippled, his right hand was deformed.  God called him and he hid a dagger when he went to see the king of the Moabites.  He pulled the dagger out and killed the king, then he led the Israelites in defeating the Moabites.

 

Shamgar herded cows.  God called him and he killed 600 Philistines with a stick.

 

God did mighty things with three simple men.

reference: Judges 2 and 3

Judges chapter 1, why does who took what land matter?

 

As we talked about this the kids colored this map I found of the 12 tribes land.  They had two colors, blue for success, red for failure.

 

Now, you ask why do I care if they took their land all of those years ago?

 

I’m glad you asked.

 

1.  God told them to drive out all of the people in the land because they were being punished for what they were doing.  The people in the land were offering their children as sacrifices, they were living in sin.  Israel was to be God’s judgement.

 

2.  God knew if the people stayed there it would be a temptation to do what they were doing.  This leads to number 3.

 

3.  Because the people were still there the Israelites started to worship their Gods.  This affected the entire Old Testament.  The rest of the book of Judges is about their failure.  1 and 2 Samuel is affected by their failure, the people in iron chariots Judah failed to defeat, those are the Philistines that David fights.  They pop up in every book for the rest of the Old Testament.

 

How does this affect us personally, though?  Sure, it makes sense historically.

 

Have you ever realized there was a sin in your life you needed to get rid of?  Did you get rid of it completely?  Or did you leave that one small thing?  And did you slowly notice that one small thing becoming bigger and bigger again until it was a problem?

 

Why are these two so important?  Who cares that Achsah married Othniel?

 

Have you ever thought about who your kids will marry?  Caleb did.  He wanted his daughter to marry someone who would fight for what God wanted, so he made sure that happened.

 

Do your kids ever ask you for something?  Achsah asked Caleb for some springs, not only did he give her what she asked for, he gave her more than she asked for.  God is like that.  We ask for so little, but He gives us so much more than we ask for.  Read Matthew 7:10 to back this up.

 

When you read these stories don’t just look for a fun adventure, look to see how does this affect me?

The Tribes of Israel take the land

God told the tribes of Israel to go in and take the land.

“Who should go first?” they asked.

“Judah,” God answered.




So Judah asked Simeon to come with them and they took the land God called them to take.


Now Caleb was from the tribe of Judah, and he took all the land God had given him.  He called the young men together and said, “Anyone who takes this city will get to marry my precious daughter Achsah.”


Othneil, Caleb’s nephew, took the city and married Achsah.  She went to Caleb and asked him for some springs to water their land.  Caleb looked at his daughter with love and said, “I don’t just give you the spring, but the upper and lower springs as well.”

After this the other tribes went in one by one and attacked the people there.


Benjamin went in and took the land, but did not drive out all of the people.


Manasseh went in and was not able to drive out the people already there.


Ephraim went in and did not drive out all the people in the land before them.




Zebulun went in and failed to drive out of Zeber and lived among them.


Asher and Naphtali both went in and neither was able to drive out the people already there.



Dan went in and attacked the people, but they drove the tribe of Dan back out and they had to hide in the hill country.


Tomorrow, I will share why this is important and what we did with this.

12 tribes pictures