Samson is son of Elkanah. Elkanah’s wife met an angel. The angel told her she will conceive and have a baby boy. He instructed her that the boy is to be consecrated to God as Nazirite since birth. This means that the boy’s hair is not to be cut. The angel instructed Manoah’s wife to not drink wine or any other fermented drink.

When she returned home, she told her husband. Manoah prayed that God made the angel appear again to teach them how to bring up the boy that will be born. God answered Manoah’s prayer and she appeared in the field again. The angel gave the same instruction to Manoah and his wife, that she is not to eat anything made of grape vine or drink wine or other fermented drinks or other unclean things. Afterwards, Manoah’s wife did conceived and she gave birth to a son called Samson.

Samson lusted for a young Philistine woman from Timnah (Galatians 5:16; Genesis 6:3; Romans 8:4). He asked his parents to get her for him as wife. His parents rebuked him for not getting a wife from his own clan. However, they did not know that it was God who set up this occasion to fight the Philistines. While Samson and his parents were on their way to Timnah, Samson encountered a young lion. The Holy Spirit filled him and he tore the lion into many pieces easily like a young goat.

During the wedding party, he gave a riddle to 30 young Philistine men at the party. The riddle is “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness” (Judges 14:14). If they could not come up with the answer to the riddle, each of them has to give Samson a new set of clothing. If they are able to come up with the answer, Samson will give each of them a new set of clothing.

After 3 days, they still couldn’t come up with the answer. They threatened his wife to reveal the answer otherwise they will burn her and her father’s household. Samson’s wife started nagging Samson until he finally couldn’t take it anymore and he revealed the answer, which is lion. When the 30 Philistine men presented the asnwer to him, Samson was angry. He killed 30 men in Ashkelon, and give their clothing to the 30 Philistine men.

After that, Samson returned home. Meanwhile, his wife was given to anotheer Philistine man. When Samson returned for his wife, he was shocked to learned about this. He took revenge by catching 300 foxes and tying them tail to tail. He lit the torches tied on the tails of the foxes and let them go free in the standing grain of the field that belonged to the Philistines. When the Philistines found out, they were angry and took revenge by burning Samson’s wife and her father to death. Samson took revenge back by slaughtering many of the Philistines.

Later, he retreated to a cave in the rock of Etam. The Philistines set up their camps in Judah to take Samson as prisoner. To avoid war, three thousand men of Judah went down to bring Samson from the rock of Etam. When Samson arrived at Lehi, he broke the ropes that bound him like sharred flax. He saw a fresh donkey jawbone and used it to killed 1000 Philistine men. When he was thirsty, he prayed for water and God made water come out from a hollow place in Lehi.

The weakness of Samson is his desire for women (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; 1 Corinthians 6:18; Colossians 3:5). He was ultimately captured by the Philistines due to his love for Delilah. We must always walk by the Spirit instead of following the lust of our flesh (Ephesians 2:3; 1 Peter 2:11). This means to put God first in all that you do instead of doing what you feel like you want to do (Romans 13:14; Galatians 5:24-25).