As we continue our march through the Bible looking at some of the Most Misused Stories of the Bible, we come this week to the infamous story of Samson and Delilah in Judges 16:4-31.  Samson and Delilah.  Those names conjure up a lot of thoughts, most of which revolve around temptation and squandered strength.  We tend to look at Samson as the quintessential anti-hero.  He’s reckless, prideful, and possibly stupid because he failed to pick up on Delilah’s rather transparent attempts to gain the secret of his strength in order to betray him.  And sure, he ended up winning a victory over the Philistines by collapsing their temple with his bare hands, but really, what kind of victory was it?  It feels rather hollow since the Philistines were still ruling over the Jews.  Plus, God’s chosen judge, Samson, died in the temple collapse too.  Add it all up, and it all seems to point us to look at Samson as a cautionary tale of squandered gifts, the perils of lust, and the massive consequences of sin.

But as with most of the stories in our series, we would do well to look at the context of the passage to gain a fuller understanding of its meaning.  The danger with looking at Samson and Delilah is that this relationship comes toward the end of Samson’s life.  It was the sudden and shocking downfall of Israel’s supposed savior and judge.  But a lot happened before Samson even met Delilah.  Samson’s story started way back in Judges 13.  It is in within the proper context of what God has been doing in and through Samson throughout his life that we begin to see the actual point of the story of Samson and Delilah.  It’s not so much focused on the sinfulness and failures of Samson, nor is it focused on the temptations of Delilah.  Rather unsurprisingly, it’s focused on what God was doing to save His people, even through a terribly flawed and sinful leader.  It’s a story focused on the enduring faithfulness of God to an unfaithful people and an unfaithful judge/savior.

While we can certainly look at Samson and glean wisdom about what not to do, we want to marvel first at the faithful graciousness of God directing this self-absorbed man in such a way that unfaithful Israel would eventually rise up and defeat the Philistines at the hands of next week’s hero: David.  Some come this Sunday ready to look a little deeper and a little wider so that we can understand Samson in his proper context.  Hopefully, when we think of Samson in the future, it will be a little less about his superhuman strength and cringeworthy downfall at the hands of Delilah and a little more about how God was gracious and faithful to use Samson for Israel’s salvation despite all of his and the people’s sin.  See you Sunday!