Saved by the Well – Samson

Saved by the Well – Samson.

“Samson was now very thirsty, and he called out to Yahweh, ‘You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into he hands of these pagans?’ So God called water to gush forth out of a rock basin at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named the place “the Spring of the One who Called Out.” (Judges 15:18-19).

SAVED: The Hebrew word for save is “Yasha,” which means to be set free into the wide open; to be delivered in a time of desperate need; to be saved from destruction and certain death. “Salvation” literally means to become spacious, and refers to “the sense of deliverance from an existence that had become confined, compressed, or cramped.” (Eugene Peterson). When Jesus delivers us from our inner spiritual confinement, we are liberated into a wide open, broad, expansive place. The word for “wide open space” is the opposite of a straitjacket. Without Jesus, our soul will never be freed from our spiritual straitjacket. There are three passages in Psalms that describe this freedom deliverance beautifully:

1. “From my distress, I called upon the Lord. He answered me and set me on a large place. After being in a tight spot, the Lord placed me into a broad space. Because I was hemmed in, I called on Lord Yahweh. He answered me and gave me room.” (Ps. 118:5);
2. “Lord, you have not given me over into the hands of the Enemy; You have liberated me and set my feet in a wide expanse, a good and spacious land. You have given me the freedom to roam at large, where I can freely move. You have given me room to breathe.” (Ps. 31:8);
3. “The Lord rescued me because He delighted in me. He brought me out to freedom into a wide-open space. My soul has been delivered because of God’s love for me, and my soul finally has some elbow room!” (Ps. 18:19).

THE WELL: There are four Hebrew words used in the Jewish Bible to describe the different kinds of ancient wells. There was the traditional well that was a deep hole dug in the ground to tap into an underground source of water. Another type of well was a fountain spring that had naturally broken through the earth’s surface on its own without man’s help. The wellspring is another version of well in Scripture in which fresh water flowed out of the ground in any number of ways to become available for cleansing, nourishment, refreshment, for survival itself. Life-giving wells of water have always been a powerful picture of our dependence upon God for spiritual survival. Just as Creator God has designed the human body to completely depend on water to live, our spiritual life totally relies on His presence in us to not just survive but to flourish. God is our spiritual well of fresh water, the only stable source of nourishment and purity. He is our fountain of life that gushes forth to replenish and cleanse us. God is our eternal wellspring of living water that will never run dry. Each of us is born spiritually dehydrated, and God alone is the constant, reliable water source to bring us back to life. As the silly joke goes, wells are a deep subject, and the biblical wells involve such stalwarts as Hagar and Abraham; Isaac and Moses; Samson and Solomon; the psalmists and the prophets. And of course, the glorious fulfillment of all these ancient stories of wells… Messiah Jesus and the woman at the well.

Samson’s Well of a Story. As heroic as he was, Samson’s petulance and self-pity knew no bounds. Here he is, telling God… ‘Hey, this killing of a thousand men was exhausting! I worked up quite a thirst, Lord. So here I am in the middle of nowhere with just a bunch of rocks! Don’t you think I deserve better than this? C’mon, give me some nice fresh water here, Yahweh. I deserve nothing less!’ Out of sheer grace, the Lord seemed to ignore Samson’s petulance and accommodated to his demand. God opened up a nearby hollow of a rock and produced a life-giving wellspring of fresh water, much like He did with Moses in the wilderness. So Samson drank till he was full and satisfied, and moved on. There is no record of Samson giving God even a word of thanks or showing any gratitude whatsoever. What a guy. One wonders why God kept putting up with loose cannon of His, but then we think of ourselves in the same light. God’s grace is pretty amazing.

Backstory: The Birth of a Special Son. “An angel of the Lord appeared to a woman and said to her, ‘Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean… No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines… And the woman bore a son and called him Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit  of the Lord began to stir him…” (Judges 13:3-5, 24-25).

When discussing a perplexing character like Samson, where do you start? Unquestionably, he was one of Scripture’s biggest mixed bags, the judge who ruled over western Israel for 20 years. On the one hand, he was touched by God’s hand in a unique way. His birth was announced not once, but twice by an Angel of the Lord. There are many, many scholars who believe it was Jesus Himself making an appearance. This Angel of Yahweh gave precise instructions to the wife of Manoah about her pregnancy with this son. The boy was to be consecrated to God’s service right from the mother’s womb, dedicated to God and His purposes. The angel told her to eat kosher, drink no alcohol, and never cut the boy’s hair. That was known as a Nazarite vow, and was unusual. And Samson himself was to take the Nazarite vow for his lifetime of service to God, which means he was obligated to never touch the dead, have sexual relations, drink alcohol, or cut his hair. It doesn’t take long for Samson to violate all four vows.  The parents named him Samson, and he was blessed with superhuman strength in order to subdue, or at least start to subdue, their enemy the Philistines. Samson indeed killed thousands of the enemy before his career of twenty years as Judge was through. The Philistines would not be totally subdued until king David. The truth of the matter is that Samson was uniquely called and gifted by God to do His will.

And Samson’s father asks the Angel of Yahweh, ‘What is your name, that we may honor you when your words come true?’ The Angel replied, ‘Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding. It is a name of wonder (“pili”).’” (Judges 13:17-18).

Pili (pil-ee) = the Hebrew word which means: wondrous; miraculous; unsurpassed; something so wonderful that it is beyond comprehension; remarkable, extraordinary, marvelous; so awesome it cannot be understood by humans; so amazing that it seems impossible or too difficult to accomplish; so uniquely set apart from human understanding that it is God’s secret.

Samson and Jesus. The wondrous presence and name of God are revealed in Judges 13 as we read that Israel had once again done evil in the sight of the Lord. The cycle of idolatry has once again surfaced in the lives of the Israelites. The consequences were severe. Yahweh delivered the Israelites into the hands of their sworn enemy, the Philistines. This punishment was no light matter, because the Philistines dominated Israel for 40 long years during this time. In the midst of the judgment was a woman who was childless with her husband Manoah. This unknown woman was paid a visit by none other than the mysterious Angel of Yahweh. The first time this Messenger appeared to her, she ran to her husband and reported to him, “A Man of God appeared to me! He looked like one of God’s Angels, very awesome to see – terror laced with glory!” (13:6). The Angel told her that she would conceive a son, this son will live his life in service to God, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines.

The Wondrous Name. Manoah had prayed that this Man would come a second time to offer more instructions regarding this puzzling message. Sure enough, the Messenger, Jesus, returned to the couple and gave her specific instructions. Manoah was not aware of who this Man was yet, so He asked the Angel for His name. Jesus answered that it’s no use asking for His Name. It is too wonderful to comprehend. His Name is so extraordinary and awesome that it is beyond human understanding. God’s name is wondrous (13:18). Manoah decided to honor this special Messenger, and respectfully offered to sacrifice a burnt offering and a grain offering, and the Angel accepted the idea. And then an amazing thing happened. “As the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the Angel of the Lord ascended from within the flame.” (13:20). Manoah and his wife immediately fell to the ground in awe and worship and fear. Manoah knew that this was the unique Man representing Yahweh, and he thought they would surely die, “because we have seen God!” (13:22). His wife disagreed. How else can we give birth to the special son, she says. We will not die.

Face to Face. “So the barren woman bore a son, and called his name Samson, and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.” (13:24). Samson’s extraordinary story is told in Judges 13-16. Manoah was right, they really had seen God, in the form of God’s Son. And His name is indeed wonderful, the name above all names. The Angel of Yahweh, that mysterious heavenly Messenger that appears and then disappears in many stories in the Hebrew Bible, has long been considered by many scholars to be none other than Jesus Christ. Early Church theologians, and many others since then, have recognized that this unique Angel not only represents Yahweh, but also speaks for Yahweh, and is seen by witnesses as being Yahweh Himself. We do know that Scripture is clear… no one can see God face-to-face and survive the experience. And we do know that God is a Spirit. So, logically, any manifestation of God in the form of man is Jesus in His pre-incarnate state. The Angel of Yahweh was Jesus Christ, the Man who has always been Yahweh in the flesh.

Backstory: The Riddle of Samson. Scripture makes it clear that this God-ordained man was fully consecrated from birth and yet was seriously flawed. He is a biblical legend, and yet… He consorted with prostitutes. He was especially violent. He was impulsive, impetuous, and in desperate need of the local anger management class. He was ruled by his sensuality and arrogance. He foolishly confided in the wrong people. He chased after pagan women. But his final downfall was trusting in his latest infatuation, Delilah, who would betray him to the enemy. Delilah nagged until Samson told her his secret… his unusual strength was his hair, a sign from God that he was blessed by Him. So she called in the Philistines, they shaved his hair, and his strength was gone. Once able to kill a lion with his bare hands and massacre a thousand men with the skeletal jawbone of a donkey, Samson became as weak as a kitten. Once Samson was so physically skilled that he could corral 3,000 jackals, tie their tails in pairs, and light his torch onto each tail so they could run through Philistine territory and burn down all their standing wheat crops, as well as many vineyards and olive groves. After the well miracle, Samson decided to intimidate some local ruffians by lifting up the two doorposts of a walled city clean out of the ground, put them onto his shoulders, and walk these gigantic two-story-high gateposts all of thirty miles to Hebron! After Delilah, Samson couldn’t lift a finger, no less a gatepost.

“Then Samson called to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God remember me I pray you, and strengthen me, I pray you, only this once, O God. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes!” And Samson cried, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’” (Judges 16:28-30).

And Yet Heroic. One might be puzzled by the fact that, despite his flaws, Samson was specifically mentioned in the Hebrew Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11 for his strong faith. Samson finally revealed this faith at his best in his one shining moment at the end of his life, the one time he seemed to place his trust fully in God. Despite his many failings, Samson was a certified biblical hero.