Samson’s Untold Story
Do you recall the final moment in Samson’s life? I do. I remember because I was appointed to do so.
A full day of torture preceded the moment he is most remembered for. We gouged his eyes and bound his hands. The woman cried out when we did so. It was a sad thing. Oak staffs applied with bone-breaking force were next. Then tightly twisted cords embedded with rock and held by our generals were whipped across his back. After salting his wounds, we returned his chains and threw him in our prison.
We laughed at his suffering. Our greatest enemy we brought low and made him to push the grinding stone. We dared not risk his strength returning.
He suffered many cuts to nearly every square inch of his body. The death of Philistia’s greatest enemy must be slow, and the Lords desired to kill him before Dagon, our sea-god who ruled bitterly over us.
When they pulled him from the pit his shoulders sagged. What a thing, to be brought so low from a position so high! And where were his friends? Why did his people abandon him so easily to us?
“Bring this Son of Israel to the temple” they told me, “today he is executed for the deaths of our people.”
When they brought him out in chains, he had a look, a calmness. Bound and leashed, he stepped into the temple. As he did so I heard him speak,
Father, please remember me, and strengthen me just this time.
The lion inside glowed like coal. Amidst the idol worship, the God of Israel stirred amongst us.
His broken right hand pressed against the cool stone temple walls. He felt familiar warmth brush against his heart. His open ears heard a word spoken by Dagon’s priest, “This house of Dagon shall last forever.”
An appointed spark landed on the hot coals burning white in Samson’s heart.
Dagon’s temple rested firmly on wooden pillars cut by craftsmen from a forest miles away, carried by strongmen, and hoisted into place on a stone platform at the exact spot Samson now stood.
A word to architects and builders: it is perilous let a man of God lean upon the pillars of your construction.
Our Father in heaven is jealous. He does not tolerate worship of made things. His children bowing before rotten wood and crumbling stone is hateful to him.
Many years of wrath were released in a single moment upon the Philistines. Samson felt the wind change. Head bowed, arms outstretched, he leaned upon the pillars. A slight shiver ran through the house, and Samson uttered the last words of his life.
Let me die with the Philistines.
The greatest moment of his life flashed by in a second. The lion had become a lamb.
And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it.
Dagon’s house fell and great was the fall of it. It landed on top of Samson. Wrath, long overdue for the sins of the Philistines, toppled upon his shoulders.
Can you see it now?
Picture the blood from his wounds dripping like rain from his brow. Can you hear his raspy lungs, laboriously working for his final breaths? And If you look close, a faint glow rested on his head, like a new snow on a red hill.
Hear the words he spoke.
Father, remember me.
This story has passed through time itself that we may know who Samson was: A lion and a lamb.
In his death he procured peace for a time. But did you know that we was also a prophet?
You see, one was coming who wore sandals Samson would not be worthy to untie. Jesus would die alone on two wooden beams, brought from miles away and hoisted into place by Roman guards.
Another temple fell that day of Jesus crucifixion, the Holy Temple, one of the most glorious constructions in the world, with pillars of marble, designed to catch the light in a certain way at the rising of the sun. It took decades to construct and was guarded, day and night, by an army of soldiers, lawyers, and preachers.
But Jesus found a way in. He became a lamb, deep in enemy territory. Humiliated and despised, he braced himself against the pillars of the temple and bent with all his might.
And the temple fell.
More so, Jesus enacted a change that destroyed any chance of a building taking the place of God in the hearts of Israel ever again.
Why?
Because our jealous God desired a place more beautiful and magnificent to make his home: the human heart.
Jesus made that happen, too. He created a little home for himself (your heart) and a home for you (his heart).
Samson didn’t actually die alone, and neither did Jesus, for that matter. Both rested firmly in the arms of their Father in Heaven.
For Samson, it was a long road to find his true lover. In his search, he passed through broken relationship and suffering akin to death. But he found it.
What Samson found is available for anyone who will simply reach out their hand in a moment of realness and, like Samson, say,
Father…
You fill in the rest. Begin the conversation. Father, what? It depends. Let me tell you though, it helps to be completely honest.
Blessings,
