Being Born to Die: Understanding the Story of the Birth of Samson

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Being Born to Die Understanding the Story of
the Birth of Samson

• Judges 13.1-25

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The End of the Story

• Judges 16.30-31
• Then Samson said, "Let me die with the
  Philistines." He strained with all his might and
  the house fell on the lords and all the people
  who were in it. So those he killed at his death
  were more than those he had killed during his
  life. Then his brothers and all his family came
  down and took him and brought him up and buried
  him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his
  father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

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Rev. Nishi's Reading

• Samson was his favorite character in the Bible.
• He wanted his own death to be one that
  accomplished more than his life.

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A Different Perspective

• "Humiliated by his uncircumcised captors, and
  groping blindly in artificial darkness, Samson
  breathed his last gasp with a prayer on his
  oft-kissed lips. In those four Hebrew words rests
  the real tragedy of Samson "Let me die with the
  Philistines" (Judge 16.30a). Having made his bed
  with their daughters, he now chose to die in
  concert with the uncircumcised. Samson could not
  separate himself from the Philistines in life or
  in death. This was Samson's personal dilemma, and
  it governed his every action. Alienated from his
  own people, he entrusted himself to the arms and
  hearts of those who held him in dread contempt.
  In the end, they did him in, and he gladly
  reciprocated." J. Crenshaw

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The Morally Ambiguous Story

• Pascal argued that the Bible was true because it
  explains the human conditions, i.e., both in its
  greatness and its sinfulness.
• Canonically, the Narrator is asking us to
  parallel the story of Samson with another
  contemporary, Samuel, who solves the "moral
  ambiguity."

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The Morally Ambiguous Story

• "History croons a low dirge over the overpowered
  heroes, but loud does its paean ring . . . for
  those who are crowned with success. . . . The
  Bible knows nothing of this intrinsic worth of
  success. On the contrary, when it announces a
  successful deed, it is duty bound to announce
  with utmost detail the failure involved in the
  success . . . this glorification of failure
  culminates in the long line of prophets whose
  existence is plain failure. They live in failure
  failure is the breath of their nostrils, it is
  for them to fight and not to conquer." Martin
  Buber

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The Beginning of the Story

• Judges 13.1
• Now the children of Israel again did what was
  evil in the eyes of Yahweh, so Yahweh gave them
  into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

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The Pattern

• . . . did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, i.e.,
• Forgot Yahweh began serving the Baals and
  Asherahs
• Yahweh gets angry and "sold them into the hands
  of X"
• Children of Israel "Cry out" for help!
• Yahweh hears and sends a "savior"
• This "savior" judges (or better leads) Israel
• The land is at rest during this period and the
  "Judge" has sons . . . .

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What Judges 13.1 Lacks

• Forgetting Yahweh Serving the Baals, etc.
• Yahweh's anger
• No "Cry" for help
• The years are twice as long as any other incident.

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A Familiar Setting

• Judges 13.2
• There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe
  of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife
  was barren, she had not given birth.

• Barrenness is an all to familiar story line
  Sarah (Gen 11.30) Rebekah (Gen 25.21) Rachel
  (Gen 29.31) Hanna (1 Sam 1.5).
• But they all were "named" in the texts.

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The End of this Plot line

• Judges 13.24
• The woman gave birth to a son and she called his
  name Samson. Now as he grew, Yahweh blessed him.

• The woman's state of "not given birth" is changed
  to she "gave birth."
• Yet the woman remains "un-named," but she herself
  names her son.

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The Angel of Yahweh Appears

• Judges 13.3-5
• Now an angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and
  said to her, "You are barren, and have not given
  birth! But you will become pregnant and give
  birth to a son. Now be careful not to drink wine
  or beer, nor eat anything ritually unclean, for
  you are going to be pregnant and give birth to a
  son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy
  will be a nazirite to God while in the womb. It
  is he who will begin to deliver Israel from the
  hand of the Philistines.

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The Angel of Yahweh Appears

• Judges 13.6-7
• Then the woman came and told her husband,
  saying, "A man of God came to me, and his
  appearance was like that of an angel of God, most
  awe-inspiring. I did not ask him where he was
  from, nor did he tell me his name. But he said to
  me, 'You will become pregnant and give birth to a
  son. Now be careful not to drink wine or beer,
  nor eat anything ritually unclean, for the boy
  will be a nazirite to God while in the womb,
  until the day of his death.'"

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The Angel of Yahweh Appears

• Judges 13.8-10
• Now Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, "O,
  Yahweh, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent
  come to us again and teach us what we are to do
  concerning the boy who will be born." God heard
  the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came
  again to the woman as she was sitting in the
  field but Manoah, her husband was not with her.
  So the woman ran quickly and told her husband,
  "The man who came to me the other day has
  appeared to me."

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What the Reader the Woman Know

• The "man of God" is an "angel of Yahweh"
• No Razor is to touch the hair of the boy.
• He will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of
  the Philistines

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Manoah's Seeks to Understand

• Judges 13.11-14
• Manoah got up and followed after his wife, and
  came to the man and said to him, "Are you the man
  who spoke to 'the' woman?" And he said, "I am."
  Then Manoah said, "Now when your words occur,
  what is to be the 'boy's rule', what is he to
  do?" The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Let the
  woman keep all that I said to her. She may not
  eat of anything that comes from the grapevine.
  She is not to drink wine or beer, nor eat any
  unclean thing. She is to keep everything that I
  commanded her.

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Manoah's Seeks to Understand

• Judges 13.15-18
• Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "Allow us to
  detain you, and prepare a kid for you." The angel
  of Yahweh said to Manoah, "If you detain me, I
  will not eat your food but if you want to
  prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to
  Yahweh." For Manoah did not know that he was an
  angel of Yahweh. Then Manoah said to the angel of
  Yahweh, "What is your name, so that we may honor
  you when your words occur?" But the angel of
  Yahweh said to him, "Why do you ask my name? It
  is too wonderful."

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What Manoah does not Know

• The "man of God" is an "angel of Yahweh"
• No Razor is to touch the hair of the boy.
• He will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of
  the Philistines

• The whole story is kept from Manoah, the
  "Traditionalist" (Hamlin).
• "The Woman," is given more information. She then
  uses "intuition" (Hamlin "intuitive faith").

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Manoah Knows

• Judges 13.19-21
• So Manoah took the kid along with the grain
  offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh,
  to him who works wonders, while Manoah and his
  wife were watching. When the flame went up toward
  heaven from the altar, the angel of Yahweh
  ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah
  and his wife were watching and they fell on
  their faces to the ground. The angel of Yahweh
  never appeared again to Manoah and his wife. Then
  Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh.

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But Manoah does not Understand

• Judges 13.22-23
• And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely
  die, for we have seen God." But his wife said to
  him, "If Yahweh had desired to kill us, would he
  have accepted a burnt offering and a grain
  offering at our hands. He would not have allowed
  us to see all these things, nor cause us now to
  hear about these things.

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God's Purposes Human Knowing

• God's Purposes in the Samson Story
• Judges 13.5b "It is he who will begin to deliver
  Israel from the hand of the Philistines"
• Judges 14.4b "for Yahweh was seeking a pretext
  to act against the Philistines."

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God's Purposes Human Knowing

• Human Knowing
• Judges 13.16 Manoah did not know it was an angel
  of Yahweh.
• Judges 14.4 The parents did not know that Yahweh
  was involved in the Timnah engagement
• Judges 15.11 Samson is asked if he knew that the
  Philistines were the overlords to Judeans
• Judges 16.20 Samson does not know that Yahweh
  had departed from him.

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God's Purposes Human Knowing

• "God being thus hidden, every religion which does
  not affirm that God is hidden is not true and
  every religion which does not give the reason of
  it is not instructive." Pascal
• "Faith has its Reason, which Reason Cannot
  Understand." Pascal