ROOTED - Thursday, February 26, 2026

Judges 13:25; Judges 14:1

 31   And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
1  Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.

Reflection: Samson

Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro

Let us now discuss the judge named Samson. Perhaps no judge recorded in the Book of Judges had a better beginning than Samson. The Angel of the Lord visits both his parents, telling them that God wants him to do amazing things. They are going to deliver a baby boy and consecrate him for the Lord as Nazarite. Nazarites were to never cut their hair, never drink alcohol and avoid any dead things. His parents, being godly people, do as the Angel says and they raise him well. But Samson seems to not want to honor God with his life.

If you look at a map in the back of your Bible for the Old Testament, you might notice that where the Spirit of the Lord was stirring (13:25) is in the exact opposite direction as Timnah, where Samson goes. You see, he is less interested in the things of God than he is women. He demands that his parents fetch him a woman… from among the Philistines! Yikes! He marries her and she nearly gets him killed. After her death, he goes to the Valley of Sorek (Sorek means “grapes” in Hebrew… though as a Nazarite he is to avoid wine). In tomorrow’s reading, he entangles himself with Delilah… from the Valley, who proves to be more trouble than the first woman, or a third woman, the prostitute, he met before Delilah!

Samson is a character worth studying if you wish to discover what it looks like when a person of great promise fails to live up to his potential. Yes, Samson killed many Philistines with God’s help, but you can see how he often derailed his own success.  He did not honor the Nazarite rules or his parents, he was in the places where God clearly did not want him to go, and he chose women who did not help him to honor God. He is a warning to all people (especially young men) who want to honor God. Honor your parents! Be where God is moving. Attract yourself to ladies who love Jesus and honor God.

Prayer

God in Heaven, help us to learn from Samson’s pitfalls that we must avoid, and pass along the warnings of those pitfalls to our young people.