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wrought; and why there was so little and so transient result of his deeds. When the
Spirit of God comes upon him, he does supernatural deeds; not in his own strength, but
as a Nazarite, in the strength of God, by Whom and for Whom he had been set apart
before his birth. All this showed the meaning and power of the Nazarite; what
deliverance God could work for His people even by a single Nazarite, so that, in the
language of prophecy, one man could chase a thousand! Thus also we understand the
peculiar and almost spasmodic character of Samson's deeds, as also the reason why he
always appears on the scene, not at the head of the tribes, but alone to battle.
If the secret of Samson's strength lay in the faithful observance of his Nazarite vow, his
weakness sprung from his natural character. The parallel, so far as Israel is concerned,
cannot fail to be seen. And as Samson's sin finally assumed the form of adulterous love
for Delilah, so that of his people was spiritual unfaithfulness. Thus, if the period of the
Judges reached its highest point in Samson the Nazarite, it also sunk to its lowest in
Samson the man of carnal lusts, who yielded his secret to a Delilah. As one has put it:
"The strength of the Spirit of God bestowed on the Judges for the deliverance of their
people was overcome by the power of the flesh lusting against the Spirit." Yet may we,
with all reverence, point from Samson, the Nazarite for life,^302 to the great antitype in
Jesus Christ, the "Nazarite among His brethren," (Genesis 49:26) in Whom was fulfilled
that "which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarite"^303 (Matthew
2:23).
And it is at any rate remarkable that ancient Jewish tradition, in referring to the blessing
spoken to Dan (Genesis 49:17, 18), applies this addition: "I have waited for Thy
salvation, Jehovah," through Samson the Danite, to the Messiah.^304
- Samson's birth. According to the chronological arrangement already indicated, we
infer that Samson was born under the pontificate of Eli, and after the commencement of
the Philistine oppression, which lasted forty years. If so, then his activity must have
begun one or two years before the disastrous battle in which the ark fell into the hands
of the Philistines, and in consequence of which Eli died (1 Samuel 4:18).
While in the east and north the Ammonites oppressed Israel, the same sin had brought
on the west and south of Palestine the judgment of Philistine domination. Then it was,
that once more the Angel of Jehovah came, to teach the people, through Samson, that
deliverance could only come by recalling and realizing their Nazarite character as a
priestly kingdom unto Jehovah; and that the Lord's Nazarite, so long as he remained
such, would prove all-powerful through the strength of his God. The circumstances
connected with the annunciation of Samson were supernatural. In the "secluded
mountain village" of Zorah,^305 the modern Surah, about six hours west of Jerusalem,
within the possession of Dan, lived Manoah ("resting") and his wife. Theirs, as we
(^)