Chapter IV: Samson

AFTER Joshua was dead, the Children of Israel began to be very slack in serving God; and worse than all, they set up other gods, and worshipped them, as the heathen did around them.

God was very longsuffering, and He raised up Judge after Judge who delivered them from their enemies; but soon the people fell into idolatry again.

At length, God was so grieved at their evil ways that He delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for twenty years. And then He raised them up another Judge.

There was a man who served God, whose name was Manoah; and he had a godly wife, but they had no children.

One day, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife, and he told her that she would have the joy of having a little son, who, when he was grown, should deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

But the angel gave Manoah's wife very strict instructions. Neither she, nor her child, were to take any wine or strong drink, and the boy was not to have a razor come on his head from the day of his birth to the day of his death! He was to be what was called "A Nazarite unto God."

And Manoah prayed earnestly that God would send the angel to them again to tell them how to bring up the child who was to come to them.

And God listened to Manoah's prayer; and as the woman was in the field, the Angel came again to her; and she ran hastily to Manoah, and told him.

Then Manoah begged the man to let him dress a kid and offer him food-but the man said he would take no food, but they could offer a sacrifice to God, if they wished it.

And when the sacrifice was offered, and the smoke arose from the Altar, the Angel of the Lord went up toward heaven, and ascended in the flame from off the Altar.

Then Manoah said, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!"

But his wife argued from all that had happened, that if the Lord had intended to kill them, He would not have accepted their offering, neither would He have showed them all these things.

At length the child came, and they called him Samson. As he grew to manhood, he found that God was giving him wonderful strength.

One day a young lion came out and roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent the lion, and killed him, just as he might have rent a kid; for he had no weapon in his hand.

When Samson next passed that way, he looked for the carcase of the lion, and there it was lying by the path, and the bees were swarming around, as they had built a honey-comb in the body of the lion.

So he ate some of the honey, and took the rest to his father and mother; but he did not tell them that he had killed the lion.

Then Samson made a great feast for seven days, for he had married a Philistine girl, to the great sorrow of his parents. And while they were feasting, he and the thirty young men who were his companions, Samson gave them a riddle to find out, promising that he would give a large prize if they could discover it; but if not, they were to give him a prize.

This was the riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."

The young men puzzled for several days, and at last they persuaded Samson's young wife to get the secret from him. And at length she begged so hard that he told her the answer.

Then she went to her people, the Philistines, and told them.

When the seven days were up, the young men gave the answer: "What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?"

But Samson was very angry when he found that they had persuaded his wife; and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty Philistines, and brought the spoil and divided it among the young men who had answered his riddle. And then in fierce anger, he returned to his father's house.

But his wife was given to one of the companions who used to be his friend, and Samson never saw her again.

Samson judged Israel for twenty years, and by his great personal strength and courage, he gained many victories over the Philistines.

But he made a great mistake, which resulted in his death.

The Philistines at once took advantage of this, and promised a heathen Philistine woman great riches if she would find out, and tell them, the secret of his wonderful strength. In an evil moment, he told her that it was because he was a Nazarite, and that no razor had ever come upon his head!

So, when he was asleep, Delilah managed to cut off his hair; and then she sent for the lords of the Philistines, who hurried to the spot. They easily bound Samson because his strength was gone from him; and they put out his eyes, and sent him to grind in the prison-house.

It would take me too long to tell you how his hair began to grow again, and his strength began to return. Or how he was taken out to make sport for the Philistines, and how he begged the boy who led him to let him feel the pillars of the house where three thousand Philistines were watching him from the roof.

Samson asked God to give him strength for this, once more; and then he bowed himself with all his might, clasping the pillars in his arms, and the house fell, and he, and all the three thousand Philistines, were buried beneath the ruins.

What a difference there was between Manoah's godly wife, and Samson's heathen!