W. Robert Godfrey

But that's the background now for the need for Samson, for Samson to arise.

And now we get to the Samson story.

But of course, as we look, we discover we don't get Samson.

25% of the Samson story is about his parents before he's born.

So again, we're a little bit surprised by how this story is told.

I think most of the time in Sunday school when we talk about Samson, we don't spend a lot of time on his parents.

But 25% of the story is given to the story of his parents before his birth.

And so clearly, the Lord intends that this be a preparation for us to really think about Samson and the context in which he's born, the task that the Lord is giving to him.

And as we're going to study and as we're going to see, this story is very interesting.

intricately told, very carefully thought through.

And I think one way of thinking about the whole Samson story is a story in four acts.

It's almost a play, a story in four acts.

Act one is the parents of Samson and the preparation for his birth as we find it in Judges chapter 13.

And then Act 2, which is his marriage to the Philistine woman and the disastrous consequences of that, which really take up chapter 14 and 15.

And then Act 3, which I think is Judges 16, verses 1 through 3.

I think Act 3 is just three verses.

I'll explain that as we go along.

And then the fourth act, maybe the most famous, Samson and Delilah, chapter 16, verse 4 to the end.

So here we have four acts.

We could also say maybe four snapshots.