W. Robert Godfrey

And it really struck me very forcefully, this very negative look at Samson—

And as we get into the details of his life, we'll begin to understand why the rabbi thought that way.

There's a lot that is not to be emulated in the life of Samson.

But I couldn't help but think how different the rabbi's appraisal was from the appraisal of the book of Hebrews, where Samson is listed as one of the examples of faith.

And it got me thinking because I thought, here again, we are seeing a real contrast between rabbinical religion and apostolic religion.

The rabbis have one evaluation of Samson because of their approach to religion, which is based on achieved righteousness that we gain as individuals by the way we live.

and apostolic religion, which is all about the work of Christ and the gift of grace that reconciles sinners to God.

And that drew me then into the Samson story.

I wanted to think more particularly about how the apostles were reading the Samson story in contrast to the way in which the rabbis had been reading the Samson story.

And the more I got into the story, the more exciting I found it to be.

And the more complex it was in the way it was written and laid down for us in the Scripture.

I think sometimes, probably most of the time, most of us, when we're reading Old Testament history, we read through it for the facts and dates, sort of.

And we miss the literary structure, which is often very related to the real meaning of the story.

And that's why we're going to take some time to go rather deliberately and carefully through the story of Samson, because I think it's only in that way that we get the full message of what the Bible is saying to us, what God is saying to us through the story of Samson in the context of the book of Judges as a whole, and indeed in the context of Israel's history as a whole in the Old Testament.

Now, the Samson story has inspired a lot of people.

The great Puritan poet John Milton wrote an epic poem on Samson called Samson Agonistes.

And in that poem, Milton has a great line about Samson.

He says, Samson is a mirror of our fickle state.

Fickle is one of my favorite words.

That is, he's a mirror of how unreliable we are.