Americans have a love-hate relationship with those who are called to adjudicate between competing factions whether on a sports field, stage, courtroom, etc. When a decision is made correctly, nothing is said because the person is acting according to the position of authority. However, if a decision or action goes awry from the expected, howls go up calling into question the arbiter's eyesight and/or intelligence. This is most often true of those who are removed spatially and chronologically from the action: the further removed from the decision, the greater the misunderstanding of facts and context resulting in negative criticism. Christians are not exempt from this behavior. Over the years, I have noted many comments about the failings of those mentioned in the Bible who purport to represent Almighty God in an official capacity. The further from an idealized conception of what that person should be and do, the more condemnation is poured on the target.
One of the most common recipients of misinformed assault is the judge Samson. Israel's downward spiral of decline – oppression – supplication – deliverance brought the nation lower and lower with each cycle, but God was always faithful to aid when the people cried out to him. Philistines had been oppressing the people forty years when the Lord visited Manoah and his barren wife and promised that a son would be born with two main distinguishing characteristics.
The first distinctive is that the boy would be a Nazirite* from birth. Normally, such a vow was intended to be temporary in nature, however in this case, Samson would be set apart until his death (Jud 13:7). He would never be released from this vow set upon him. In addition, Manoah's wife was to prepare for this future life and work by abstaining from appropriate foods while pregnant.
The second distinctive is his life mission: he will "begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines" (Jud 13:5). Samson was to begin the liberation process from his countrymen's oppressors. Notice that the Lord did not say that Samson would completely save Israel. This was never his to accomplish, which was borne out in the historical record. God had different timing involving other men.
Upon reaching adulthood, Samson began to be stirred by the Spirit of the Lord (Jud 3:25). He traveled to a neighboring city of the Philistines, saw a good-looking woman, and requested that his parents get her for his wife. His parents questioned why an Israelite woman was not good enough but relented.† God was using Samson's infatuation to provoke an altercation (Jud 14:4) resulting in the death of 30 from Ashkelon (Jud 14:19). Samson had violated his Nazirite lifestyle in eating honey from the lion carcass, but the Lord used it for deliverance.
When Samson later discovered that his fiancée had been given to his best man, he took vengeance by catching 300 foxes, tying torches to pairs of tails, and set them running through the standing grain and olive orchards (Jud 15:5). When the Philistines reacted by burning her and her father, Samson once again acts against the Philistines (Jud 15:8). Then when men of Judah came to deliver Samson over, he struck down 1,000 Philistines with a donkey's jawbone (Jud 15:14-15). After this he went to Gaza where an ambush was set, but he carried off the gate of the city (Jud 16:3).
Lastly, Samson was addled by his infatuation with Delilah, gave away the secret of his strength, and was enslaved. As a last act of mercy, the Lord allowed Samson to bring down the house upon the Philistine leaders so that "the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life" (16:30).
In all this Samson is usually portrayed as a ladies' man who scorned his life mission. There is no denying his conduct—going after Philistine women, one of whom was a prostitute, and breaking the Nazirite vow at least twice. He was a sinner who was used mightily by the Lord. Could he have done more by being obedient, or been more productive in how he judged Israel those 20 years (Jud 15:20)? Perhaps, but he accomplished all that the Angel of the Lord had promised—the beginning of deliverance.
What we know for certain is that this flawed man is given a brief mention as one who acted in faith (Heb 11:32). This surprises us because our heroes are not supposed to be flawed. They are to be inhumanly perfect, so that we can dream of emulating though falling short. We cannot bear our heroes to be normal because their shortcomings become apparent and remind us of our own fallen humanity.
Maybe our heroes need to change. Notice those who are mentioned with Samson in Hebrews 11—Gideon, Barak, Jephthah. This is hardly a Who's Who list by any worldly standard, yet all are regarded by the author of Hebrews the same way. They acted in faith as witnesses to God's faithfulness, but they are not the epitome. Only Christ is the one suitable for following. He, who knew no sin, bore our sin on the cross. That is true heroism. That is true victory over an enemy. We can never accomplish the like, but we can with other sinners saved by grace "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:14).
* See Numbers 6:1-8 for laws concerning the Nazirite vow.
† There was no direct prohibition against this union: Canaanites, Amorites, Jebusites, et al were under God's ban, though a case can be made that Philistines were as wicked as can be seen with what happens to Samson's betrothed (Jud 14:20; 15:6).
