Samson - Saint and Sinner
(Part 1 - The Making of a Judge in Israel)
Chapter 3

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It is so often the case in biographies that so little is preserved concerning the early formative years of the person's life being recorded. All those details which made the person what they were, formed their character, and developed their gifts and talents, we feel would have been so interesting, but we are deprived of them. This is particularly true when we come to the stories of God's people.

When we come to the Bible record we are often confronted with the lack of information that we would like to have had recorded, and which we may well feel would be so helpful in understanding and interpreting the message of the Bible. However, as far as the Word of God is concerned, in God's perfect wisdom, what we have recorded is all that we need and the best for us to know. On reflection we can see in what we have been told that this is just right, and anything more would perhaps have caused us to deviate from the truth and instruction we are meant to learn.

What is true here in Samson's case is that what seems to be so little is in fact much more than it seems and specially illuminating and instructive. When we understand, it becomes a source and reason for real thanksgiving to God, for what is true for Samson, is in fact true for all the people of God. We are told in this short account of the beginnings of Samson's life where all blessing and success in the Christian life comes from.

We are told two things about Samson's early life, but how important and profound they are. We are told firstly, that as Samson grew up, God blessed him. Then secondly, we are told that the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him, giving him a foretaste of God's special power provided for him for his future work, and that he had a foretaste of that ministry and that work of deliverance.

"He grew and the Lord blessed him". What did this mean? Let us learn the greatness of God's gracious action in the life of Samson, which is the gracious action of God in the life of every believer.

It tells us that Samson owed everything to God. God's blessing is the constant intervention and action of God in his life to enable him to grow up strong both physically and spiritually. What did this mean?

It meant, first of all, that God gave him Godly parents, but also endowed those parents with the spiritual life and gifts so that they were able to impart to their son the knowledge of God and what it meant to trust and live for God. It was the gift of a godly home where Samson would grow up to know that God was real and his sovereign Lord; where by example and practice Samson would grow up to know God and worship him. Happy is the child who has this blessing of godly parents, where family prayers, grace at meals, and faith and submission to God, permeates the whole of family life. This was part of the blessing of God upon Samson. We saw this gift of blessing in the way God chose Manoah and his wife to be his parents and instructed them for the task.

The blessing given by God at this formative time in the life of Samson was in the means of grace that Samson was able to use and profit by. The grace of the true worship of God which he was able to experience and actively engage in. The worship still used by the remnant of faithful Israelites, amongst whom Manoah and his wife lived and had fellowship. Included in this would be specially the sacrificial worship, where Samson would learn that it was through the sacrifice of an innocent substitute that he could know the forgiveness of his sins, and be in God's favour.

The blessing would have been also in the grace of God shown specially to Samson so that as he listened to his parents, and as he attended the means of grace, he was able to understand and appreciate what he was hearing and seeing, and have in his heart the grace to receive it. It was the grace to discern that here was true life as opposed to the temptations and influences within in him and from around him in the world. It was the grace to know God and believe on him as the one and only God, and give him his spiritual worship.

Let us notice that here is the secret of all spiritual life. The secret is not in any special talents and abilities we may have. These may make us into great people as the world sees it. We may become political leaders, or leaders in industry or in education, or be skilled in craft or art, but abilities bring no spiritual life or gifts. The secret of spiritual life which we see in Samson's life, is the intervention of God, enhancing his natural gifts and abilities, and endowing him with special gifts. It is the grace of God regenerating the soul so that Samson had new life in him.

This blessing is more than the common grace of God that everyone enjoys, where God gives life, and breath and everything else that we may enjoy natural life. It was the special grace of God that saves and redeems. This new life caused Samson to know where acceptance with God could be found. It was not with the clarity of the New Testament, but it was the same knowledge and faith. Just as we are accepted before God solely through the sacrifice of Jesus, so Samson was given the blessing of God so that he knew where he could live in the favour of God, which was through his sins being covered by the sacrifice of an innocent victim.

This is what is meant by the Lord blessing Samson. It is God's intervention in his life to claim and save him and make him his own child. In Samson's case he was separated from birth, but even if we are one of the majority who come to saving faith in Christ in a time sometime after we are born, whether that is sooner or later, God's intervention to bless encompasses our whole lives from conception onwards. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and predestined us to conform to the image of his Son. He was working in our lives before our conversion, even if we were not blessed by godly parents. Our whole life we owe to the blessing of God.

This statement that God blessed Samson is so pregnant with meaning. It is not simply a general statement of God's good will towards him, but also a statement of God's electing grace claiming him for eternity. How much Samson and all God's redeemed have to thank God for. We are what we are, because we stand in the grace of God solely by the sovereign and continual everlasting blessing of God. It is a blessing that will never let us go whatever we are like, as we shall see so markedly in the life of Samson.

Then secondly, let us notice the special grace God gave to Samson for his life's work as a deliverer of Israel, and the beginnings of the working of this grace in these early days. This was grace to enable him to be the deliverer. Without it he could do nothing. When God calls a person to special service He equips that person for the task. Special grace and power is given.

This grace for Samson is described as the Spirit of the Lord stirring within him. We shall become familiar with this action of God as we progress in the life of Samson. What was its nature in the case of Samson? As we read Samson's story we shall find that when God wanted him to work in deliverance, the Spirit of God came upon him and not only gave him supernatural power for the task ahead, but the indication of the will of God, and what God had in mind for him to do.

God's blessing on Samson in these early days was that God began to teach him by experience concerning this equipment for his ministry. God gave him experience of it, so that he may be able to discern it when it came, and not be in any doubt when the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. He was given the experience so that he could interpret his experience and understand correctly when the Spirit of God was sent to him.

Samson was also given the experience of ministering to people, and in life, under the power of the Spirit of God which came upon him. The information we are given suggests, surely, that God gave him some ministry of deliverance in these early days, so that he may have experience of it and learn how to minister.

In this way God led Samson gently into the ministry he had called him to perform and prepared him for it. Thus he learnt about the conduct of this ministry and how to perform it. He learnt confidence to engage in it.

When God calls his people to ministry he prepares his people. We may not have the experiences which Samson had, but we shall be prepared and trained. These days of preparation and training must not be despised, nor must we grow impatient with them. How much we have to thank God for. Just as everything Samson had he owed to God, so everything we have we owe to God. God deserves all our thanks and praise.

Before we close this study there are spiritual rules that are plain for us to learn from the experience of Samson as God stirred him for his work by the Spirit.

God never calls to a work without giving the special necessary power by his Spirit to fulfil that work. We are told in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians chapter 12 that to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. This is special power for the ministry which God has called each person to do. God does not send his people into the spiritual battle without the resources to do his work.

We shall see in the life of Samson that when God wanted him to engage in his ministry of freeing Israel from the dominion of the Philistines, that the Spirit of the Lord stirred him to act. We shall find that sometimes Samson acted without this stirring. We shall see that when he acted by the stirring of the Spirit he was victorious, and the action brought good for Israel, but when he acted in his own strength, bad consequences followed.

There is a very important lesson here. Whatever our ministry, we must wait for the stirring of the Spirit before we act. In all the work of the church of God, we must be sure that we are moved by the Spirit of God and that true guidance of God has been given, before we act. We must plead with God to make his will and way plain. We must be in godly fear that we never act outside the stirring of God. We must ask to be able to discern when this stirring is present. This is essential, because it is only when God's stirs his church to action or ministry, will he accompany that ministry with blessing. Invariably, if we act without this stirring, evil consequences will follow.

However the other side of the coin is this, that when we are stirred by the Spirit for ministry we must never hold back, or fail to go forward. Whatever our fears, when God's stirs his church we may have perfect confidence that his work will prosper. Samson's life assures of this. Let us take hold of this assurance with faith.

It can also be said that if things do seem to be going wrong, we need to question whether the action taken has been from God or ourselves, and if we can't say that it is from God we must repent and cease from it.

Then lastly we need to wait for the stirring of God by his Spirit before we do act. We must wait until we are sure we have discerned the guidance and direction of the Lord before we go forward with any plans. We tend to be impatient. We tend to mistake good ideas for God's stirring. We make the mistake so often in supposing that God's stirring of his people by his Spirit in one particular case or situation means that he is stirring in this way in every situation and all the time, and this is not so. Just because God has blessed in a particular way in one place or in one persons experience, it does not mean that he will bless simply because we follow the same pattern ourselves.

We need to listen to all that God is doing. We need to seek him in his Word. We need to be much in prayer waiting upon him. We must also be patient in waiting upon God's time. God in his own way, and at his time, will stir his people. Let us patiently and expectantly wait for that stirring.