odd and immoral characters in the bible who led israel

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.” But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. (Judges 16:1-3)

As a child in Bible class, I learned about this story. It was always interesting, especially to a young boy. Samson picks up the gates of the city and carries them to the top of the hill. We colored pictures of him doing this, and I would try to imagine myself doing the same.

It was interesting as I got older to realize that he was visiting a prostitute when this happened. When the citizens of Gaza found out he was there, they were going to kill him and laid wait to get him in the morning. Instead, he left in the middle of the night and took the gates of the city up the hill.

For what reason? I have no idea. Probably just an in your face gesture to the Gazaites, or whatever they were called.

But he was there with a prostitute. Now this was a man of God, and what is more, the book of Samson never ever one time mentions that this was a bad idea. It just mentions it. In fact, people throughout the Bible visited prostitutes sometimes while doing what God had sent them to do (the twelve spies and Rahab, for instance).

And what is more, why was Samson ever made a judge of Israel anyway? The guy was a rounder. There was little good or holy that he ever did in his life.

Why was he in the position he was? Romans 15:4 says that the things written before (that is, in the Old Testament) were written for our learning that we might have hope. What hope do I get from an immoral man being the judge of Israel?

One of the chapters before, Judges 13, had the angel of the Lord coming to Samson’s mother before he was born and telling her that Samson was to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

Now he did that, I suppose. After he was captured, he brought down the temple with his massive strength and killed more in his death than he did in his life, Judges 16 says.

It is a conundrum. Why is such an immoral man mentioned as a deliverer of Israel yet nothing is said of his immoral lifestyle? I recognize that he came to an inglorious end, stripped of his power, blinded and made to grinding grain. It seems that God would have used this as an illustration of why Samson fell.

But, on the other hand, a lot of other men, who were great men of God, came to a rather inglorious end themselves. Jesus was chief among these. So his end doesn’t mean anything necessarily.

He did begin the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines, I suppose, but they were around long after Samson and caused a lot of hassle for Israel all the way through the kings. So he really didn’t accomplish all of what God set him to do.

Solomon was another example. God blessed him with wisdom and he turned around and did some of the stupidest things that could be done.

A lot of the men in the Bible were like this, set apart by God to do something great, yet never quite got around to it.

What does it mean? I do not know. I loved reading about him as a child, but I recognize that the things I read about him were extremely sanitized. No older woman Bible class teacher in the world is going to go into detail about Samson’s infidelities.

The Bible can surely be strange.