FAQs

Samson is overlooked because all he did was chase women (especially Philistine women). Twenty-five years in the pastorate and I never preached about him and am still looking for someone who has heard a message involving him. Samson is also misunderstood. Now after writing this book, hardly a day goes by that Samson is not relevant for us.

His tremendous strength, long hair, Delilah and a really bad haircut. No one mentions the prayer of Samson except to say, it was a sad, pitiful end to a tragic life.

Samson prayed the impossible and God answered his prayer. Through his prayer Samson sought forgiveness, received God’s grace and experienced God’s power. He revealed his faith in God and as a result made the roll call of the faithful in Hebrews 11.

The Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:1-21) is also misunderstood and there is limited knowledge about the vow today. Samson is the only person named in God’s Word as being a Nazirite. There are very interesting parallels between Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist.

Samson was set apart by God before birth until the day of his death (Judges 13:7). We are also set apart by God and have much to learn from Samson. He prayed ‘Lord remember me’ as did the thief on the cross. Both did not deserve their prayers to be answered because of their misdeeds. Both had their prayers answered. Both needed God’s forgiveness, grace and to experience His power. Evidently the thief on the cross was more familiar with Samson than we are!

According to Google his name comes from Psalm 84:11. The context does not allow that, and Psalm 84 had yet to be inspired by God at the time of Samson. Another misconception is that Samson looked strong. The reality is he was a scrawny young man with long hair who never worked out or exercised. An additional misconception about Samson is that he broke the vow many times by touching dead bodies, therefore when he broke it with Delilah, it was no big deal. Each of these misconceptions and perceptions are examined in the book.

Samson and the thief on the cross both had a personal experience with the living God. Have you?