This Week's Story
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Samson breaks his vow and twists his mission.
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
Samson’s Vow and Mission,
part four
Muhammad Ali and Samson were up early the next morning after Ali’s arrival. By jet and camel Ali had come to Samson’s home in Israel. It was eerie, yet logical, that these two mavericks would skip 3,000 years so they could talk occasionally.
“Samson, why did you break your nazirite vow?”
“I was a fool with women. My vow was to love and obey God. My mission was to deliver my people from the Philistines who dominated our country.
“When I was a child, my parents helped me. We followed the vow requirements that my hair was never to be cut, and I was to drink no alcoholic beverages or touch dead bodies.
“Do you think that was unreasonable, Ali?”
“No. My father and mother agreed that my brother and I would
be taught to love and obey God. Mother took my brother and me to a Baptist church every Sunday. Some of my beliefs changed later when I became a Muslim.”
“Samson, how did you break your vow?”
“My rebellion erupted when a Philistine woman captured my attention. I told my parents, ‘I want to marry her.’
“They protested, ‘Can’t you find one woman you can marry among our people? The Philistines believe in many gods. They have no understanding of God.’
“I told my father, ‘Get the woman for me.’”
Ali sighed, “So you spit on your parents’ training and broke the nazirite vow.”
“Yes.
“As my parents and I travelled to the woman, a lion attacked me. God’s spirit took control of me and I ripped the lion’s jaws apart easily with my bare hands.”
“When we reached the woman, I was pleased with her; so my father began marriage arrangements.
“When we returned for the wedding, I saw that bees had made honey in the lion’s carcass. I ate some, and gave some to my parents.
“During this time as a wedding custom, I prepared a big party for 30 young Philistine men. I told them, ‘I have a riddle for you. If you solve it, I will give you thirty plain linen robes and thirty fancy robes. If you fail, you give me what I would have given you. The riddle is:
‘From the one who eats came something to eat;
Out of the strong came something sweet.’
“The men could not find the answer and ordered my new wife, ‘Get the answer, or we will burn your father’s house down with you in it. Did you invite us to your wedding to make us poor?’
“My wife nagged me and cried until I gave her the answer. She gave it to the men, and they gave me the correct answer.
‘What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?’
“I went to a Philistine town and killed thirty men with strength from God. I gave their clothing to the men who got the riddle answer. My wife then remarried-- the best man from our wedding.”
“That is maddening!”
“Oh, yes!”
“Ali, come and eat.”
This is Barbara Steiner. Join me for another saga in Samson’s life, based on chapters 13 through 16 of Judges in the Bible.
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