by Ron Fast
What is a Nazirite and what does it have to do with Samson?
Tuesday
Samson
The story of Samson can be found in Judges 13 and 14. Samson, like Gideon, lived during a time when judges ruled in Israel. This is long before Israel was ruled by kings like Saul, David and Solomon. During the time of the judges, Israel didn’t have a king to rule over them so they had to rely on these judges to keep them in line. During this time, God would raise up men, and sometimes women, to challenge the Israelites to come back to God and to help destroy their enemies. If you’ve read the Old Testament all the way through, you know that the Israelites would spend a lot of time rebelling against God. When they rebelled, God would “spank” them by sending other nations to conquer them. This usually involved a lot of bloodshed and other ugly stuff. After they had endured a lot of pain under the control of these other nations, they would cry out to God and ask for His forgiveness and ask to be rescued from their misery. God would then rise up a deliverer, sort of like Moses, that would help deliver them from their enemies. The book of Judges in the Old Testament is full of these Deliverers or Judges. Samson was just one of them.
Strange Arrival (Judges 13:1-25)
Read Judges 13:1–5. What was so different or unusual about Samson’s birth?
1. (vs. 2)
2. (vs. 3)
3. (vs. 4)
4. (vs. 5)
So what’s a Nazirite?
The word Nazirite is not used very much. Let’s see what it means. Turn to Numbers 6:1-8 and write down three things that describe what it means to be a Nazirite (this is spelled correctly).
Verse 8 gives a great definition of a Nazirite. What is it?
What’s so special about “The Angel of the LORD?”
Who or what is the “Angel of the Lord”? (Read Genesis 16:10) Hint: Key words are “The” and “LORD”
Wednesday
Samson’s Bad Choices (Judges 14:1-20)
The weird things that surrounded Samson’s birth, him being a Nazirite and all, meant that God has something special in store for him. Being a Nazirite meant that he had been “set apart” by God for a special purpose.
God called Samson to deliver the Children of Israel. Who was the nation that Samson was supposed to help nuke?
Samson was in the spotlight because he was called by God to have a very special purpose. Being in the spotlight can be very cool but it has its drawbacks. One of its drawbacks was that everyone can see the choices that person makes. Samson was no exception. He made some bad choices. He didn’t make very wise choices in friends, especially his girlfriend. Read Judges 14:1-4. Who was his girlfriend?
Samson wanted to marry this woman. So what was so wrong about that? What’s the big deal if he marries this Philistine woman? Read Deut. 7:3
So Samson chose to marry this woman even though God commanded the Jews not to marry non-Jews. What’s it called when you go against God’s commands?
Imagine that you had the strength of Samson. What would you do with it?
Do you think it would affect how you treated family and friends? How?
Would you use your super-human strength to your advantage? How?
Thursday
The Lion (Judges 14:5-9)
Samson had super-human strength. Strength could only come from God. No normal human could even come close to defeating him. He would be great in the WWF. Even though he was blessed by God with his strength, he continually made bad choices. Read Judges 14:5-9. What happened to Samson?
Who is the “Spirit of the Lord”?
What does it mean that the “Spirit of the Lord came upon him”?
What does the “Spirit of the Lord” have to do with Samson’s strength?
In verse 8 it says that some time later Samson came back to where he killed the young lion and found bees living in the dead lion. Samson ate the honey from the bees. Was there something wrong with scooping the honey out of the dead lion and eating it, besides that it was probably a really gross sight? Read Lev. 11:27, 28.
Why do you suppose he didn’t tell his parents about the honey thing?
Friday
Samson Crashes and Burns (Judges 16:1-22)
Let’s do a fast forward in Samson’s life and study about Samson’s big boo-boo. Samson took a dive, a big dive. Let’s take a look at the circumstances surrounding it.
