Samson by tall73
#Biblestudy
#rdcontest
When I was younger I was with other kids my age in a class at church and one of the teachers asked which Bible character we wished we could be like. Most of the boys said they wanted to be like Samson, because they had heard stories about his feats of strength. Little did we know at the time that Samson was not exactly a great role model It was not our fault. Some of the stories about Samson's life are not something you tell kids!
While he was strengthened by the Spirit of the Lord on several occassions to accomplish the will of God, he was at the same time dominated by his own lust, and thirst for revenge. Yet in all this the Lord was using even that violent and passionate man to carry out his desire to free Israel from the oppression of the Philistines.
Samson's desire for an attractive woman got him embroiled in his own private war with the Philistine cities. The scene in the painting comes after he killed many of the Philistines, bured down their fields, And after they had killed his wife and her family.
The Philistines came to arrest Samson, and to torment him, and the Israelites who had been dominated by them for some time wanted to appease them by handing him over.
Judges 15:11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?”
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21 May, 2023, 6:27 pm
And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”
12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.”
Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”
13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds [b]broke loose from his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. 16 Then Samson said:
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
Heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men!”
17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi. NKJV
21 May, 2023, 6:28 pm
After further feats, and further problems with women (visiting a prostitute, being betrayed by his lover who was bribed and threatened by the Philistines), Samson was eventually captured by the Philisitnes. They blinded him, and set him to forced labor. Then they brought him out to taunt him during one of their gatherings to worship their god.
During this event Samson leaned against the supporting pillars of temple, prayed to the Lord to strengthen him one last time, and pushed the pillars over, collapsing the whole structure on his Philistine captors--and on his own head. And in so doing he killed more Philistines at His death than he had in his life.
Samson, despite many kids eagerness to be like him, is not a great example to follow. But even Samson in the end had faith, and was used by the Lord, failings and all.
Many years later the book of Hebrews commended him and others for their faith in God.
Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. NKJV
21 May, 2023, 6:28 pm
The reason for his long braids of hair is that he had not cut his hair from the time of his birth, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord:
Judges 13:2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. 5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”
In Chapter 16 we are told he had 7 locks of hair.
21 May, 2023, 6:51 pm
very nice
21 May, 2023, 6:52 pm
Wow!
21 May, 2023, 6:57 pm
Samson's life was rather sad, filled with death, anger and betrayal. It's a good story to reflect on how our sins can cause a chain reaction of bad things to happen and cause our lives to fall apart.
22 May, 2023, 2:07 am
nice
22 May, 2023, 10:20 am
Great work, I like the way the brushstrokes convey his momentum
06 Oct, 2023, 2:05 pm
Super :)