My confession: Samson the great moral failure

 

Hercules from the game SMITE

Synopsis of Judges 13 - 16
It started like a classic story. The ancient Israelites did evil in God's eyes, and He allowed the Philistines to oppress them. Yet God did not abandon his people by promising them a man to deliver them from the Philistines.

Samson was that man. With God's blessing, Samson was a man of great strength. He achieved great feats like killing a lion with his bare heads, and killing a thousand men with a donkey's jawbone.

Unlike the preceding judges, Samson did not follow the laws of his people. He wanted to marry outside his tribe, ate unclean food, and never seemed to develop in character. Even till the end, he never sought to follow God, but focused his life (and death) on revenge. 

Samson was a man of great gifts, but was also a great moral failure.

Cu Chuliann from the game SMITE

Parallels to mythologies
One thing interesting in my readings is that the Samson seems to fulfil the heroic archetype in most mythological stories I know.

In Greek/Roman mythology, Hercules is blessed with strength and sought to overcome the trials laid before him. Thor fulfils this role in the Norse tales, Horus in the Egyptian religion and Sun Wukong in Chinese legends. In Celtic myths, Cu Chulainn is the hero.

Even some of the deeds are similar. Hercules slayed the Nemean lion, while Samson killed a lion. Both Hercules and Samson were betrayed by women.  Cu Chulainn was weakened (and killed) only when he broke his taboo, and Samson was weakened when he broke his.

Yet unlike most of these heroes, Samson shows no improvement in his morals. From the start he started seeking things for his self gratification, even though he was an appointed judge of Israel. In his last prayer he still sought revenge for himself, rather than to free God's people.

Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."
(Judges 16: 28)

What can we learn from Samson?
Despite his moral failure there a few lessons we can learn from this:
1) Be careful worship people with great gifts

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
(2 Peter 2:1-3)

In our meritocratic Singapore (and maybe world), there is a tendency to follow or listen  people who are seemingly gifted or produce great results. Yet we forget that our human idols are just that -- merely human, and therefore are open to selfishness and manipulation.

For instance, the evangelist Ravi Zacharias misused his reputation to manipulate women. This came as a shock to the Christian community as Zacharias was well-know for his oratorical skills and converts. 

2) Jesus is greater and better

He [Jesus] said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
(Luke 24:44)

For my Christian readers, we must interpret our heroes and our own lives in the light of our saviour Jesus. Jesus is a way better example and hero than Samson.

He [Jesus] grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
(Isaiah 53: 2-3)

As described by Isaiah, Jesus was not attractive by contemporary standards (of that time). Jesus did not use his outward appearance (beauty or majesty) to attract us to the message, but in his personhood.