Was Mighty SAMSON “Ungodly”?

Samson was called by the LORD before his mother even conceived to “begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13:3-5). He led Israel for 20 years after 20 years of oppression by the Philistines (15:20), not as a king, but as a ‘judge’ in the sense of a fierce warrior who judged Israel’s foreign rulers as evil and boldly delivered them. The entire account of Samson is just four chapters, Judges 13-16.

The extraordinary thing about Samson, of course, is that he was anointed by God with great strength on occasion to slay a lion and 30 men with his bare hands, kill a thousand soldiers with just a jawbone of a donkey, tear loose the formidable gates of Gaza and carry them a long distance away, not to mention collapse an entire Philistine temple and execute the multitudes therein.

It should be added that Samson didn’t necessarily look like a body builder since his great strength didn’t come from his muscles but rather his divine anointing, an anointing — by the way — that he knew wouldn’t manifest to oppose the very people he was called to deliver, the Israelites (15:12). Meanwhile, Samson had his own form of ‘Kryptonite’ — if his hair was shaved he’d become as strong as any normal man (16:17). In other words, as great as Samson was, he wasn’t invincible.

Common Criticisms of Samson

Samson was a Nazarite from birth. A ‘Nazarite’ referred to a Hebrew who was exceptionally consecrated unto the LORD, abstaining from alcoholic beverages, grape products, unclean foods, haircuts and contact with human corpses (Numbers 6:2-8). What we want to examine here are Samson’s proclivities & practices, which have caused him to be denounced and slandered over the centuries, such as:

His reoccurring desire for foreign women, all Philistines, which include: A woman from Timnah of whom Samson’s parents disapproved because she wasn’t a Hebrew (14:1-3), a prostitute in Gaza (16:1) and Delilah (16:4).
Gambling before possessing the very items he wagered, which was thirty sets of clothes (14:12-13).
His anger & violence issues (14:19 & 15:6-8).
Enlisting the services of the aforementioned prostitute in Gaza (16:1).

While sleeping with the prostitute was definitely a sin, the others can be explained:

Although Samson’s choice for the woman from Timnah as a wife was weak since the Philistines were Israel’s foreign rulers at the time, the Philistines were not among the seven nations of Canaan that the Hebrews were forbidden to marry (Deuteronomy 7:1–6). If it was a sin for the Israelites to simply marry a foreign person, then Boaz sinned by marrying Ruth, a Moabite (Ruth 4). Obviously he didn’t sin and neither did Samson. As far as the disapproval of Samson’s parents concerning his choice of a wife, Samson did not dishonor them since 1. they didn’t forbid him from marrying her and 2. choosing a lifelong mate was ultimately his decision as an adult and not theirs. Lastly, the text plainly states that Samson’s desire to marry this particular woman was “from the LORD” (14:4).
As for Delilah, the text says that Samson “fell in love” with her and he was obviously blinded by her beauty since he must have known that she was being used by the Philistines to extract strategic information from him (similar to the situation with his former wife in 14:15). Yet there’s no indication that he was fornicating with Delilah (16:4). While some commentators insist that he fornicated with her, the Scriptures don’t mention it. Let’s be silent where the Bible is silent and not assume Samson lived in sin with Delilah.
Regarding Samson lacking the items to back up his wager with the Philistines, he knew he could easily acquire them if it came down to it because he had faith in God’s anointing to take on Israel’s oppressors. This faith is why Samson is acknowledged in the “Hall of Faith” chapter of the New Testament (Hebrews 11:32). For those who argue that making the wager in the first place was a sin because it’s gambling, I can find no command in the Bible against making such a wager. Since this is the only occasion in Samson’s account in which he did this — a time period spanning 20 years — it cannot be argued that he was addicted to gambling.
As for Samson’s anger & violence issues, there’s a place for righteous anger, like when Christ was angry with the legalists who objected to his healing a man’s shriveled hand on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6) or when he cleansed the Temple like a holy terror (Mark 11:15-18). In short, you can be angry and not sin (Ephesians 4:26). There’s also something called righteous enmity. Since the LORD rose up the judges in order to deliver the Israelites from their abusive foreign rulers (2:16), we can conclude that Samson’s anger & violence toward the oppressive Philistines was righteous. As such, God didn’t have a problem with his waylaying thirty Philistine men for their clothing, (14:19) or striking down a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey (15:14-15). In both cases the text plainly says that “the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power” before carrying out the violence. Neither did the LORD mind when Samson viciously slaughtered many Philistines after they wickedly burned to death his former wife and her father (15:6-8). So Samson’s supposed anger issues are examples of righteous anger rather than being carnally short-tempered; meanwhile his violence toward the Philistines was actually his divine calling and purpose.

Two other things we need to keep in mind about Samson’s aggressive attitude toward the Philistines:

In the Old Covenant the Israelites were instructed to fight their human enemies (Deuteronomy 20:1-3).
In the New Covenant believers are instructed to fight the spiritual forces of darkness not fight “flesh and blood,” aka people (Ephesians 6:12).*

* Please don’t take this to mean that believers can’t serve in the military, as explained here.

In other words, God’s directive in the Old Covenant has essentially flipflopped for believers in the New Covenant. Why is this? Simple: In the inferior Old Covenant (Hebrews 8:6) the Hebrews didn’t have the advantage of spiritual regeneration (Titus 3:5) and therefore they didn’t have authority over the devil & filthy spirits as believers do in the superior New Covenant (Colossians 2:15). As such, Old Testament saints only had authority to fight people misled by the spiritual forces of darkness. In the New Testament, by contrast, believers have authority to conduct spiritual warfare against the root cause of deception and evil, the devil & his evil spirits, not to mention the grace to love our human enemies, including walking in tough love when necessary.

Please understand that no person on Earth had access to spiritual rebirth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit until Christ died for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25 & 1 Corinthians 6:19). This explains why the Lord said there was no one on Earth greater than John the Baptist and yet the least in the kingdom of God — the Church — was greater than him (Matthew 11:11). You see, as great as John the Baptist was, he didn’t have the benefit of spiritual rebirth and therefore the Holy Spirit was on him, but didn’t live in him in the sense that only New Covenant believers experience. Likewise, the Spirit “came on” Samson, but he was not born-again spiritually (John 3:3 & 3:6) and therefore he was not a temple of the Holy Spirit, like we are today.

Samson’s situation was compounded by the fact that he lived in a time of spiritual decline in which “everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 17:6 & 21:25). As such, you’ll observe the Israelites in the book of Judges engaging in some morally dubious actions, like Jephthah’s rash vow which cost him his daughter’s life (11:31 & 11:39).

With these things in mind, perhaps we should cut Samson some slack.

A Few Other (Undeserved) Criticisms of Samson

Some commentators accuse Samson of drinking wine, eating food that wasn’t kosher and having contact with a corpse, all of which were against the Nazarite vow (Numbers 6:2-8), but these are dubious accusations since the account of Samson 1. never says he drank wine or ate non-kosher food, even though he participated in a wedding feast in Philistia (14:10) and 2. the prohibition against contact with a corpse referred to human beings, not animals, plus the lion in question was freshly slain by Samson and when he came back later all he did was scoop honey from a bees’ nest in the carcass (14:5-9).

‘Samson Was Ungodly’

Another accusation is that Samson was “ungodly,” which suggests that he wasn’t in communion with God, yet the account plainly shows Samson praying to the LORD and never an idol (15:18 & 16:28). Furthermore, as already noted, God Himself rose Samson up to lead Israel for 20 years (13:5 & 15:20) and the man is cited in the Hall of Faith Chapter of the Bible as a hero of faith (Hebrews 11:32). Would this be so if he were truly ungodly?

‘Samson Lies to Delilah’

Yet another accusation is that Samson lied to Delilah three times about the secret of his strength (16:7, 16:11 & 16:13). However, these weren’t malevolent or selfish lies, but rather justifiable untruths since he knew the rulers of the Philistines — Israel’s enemies — were using Delilah to manipulate him into revealing the secret of his power in order to defeat them (16:5), similar to how his wife in Timnah was earlier manipulated (14:15).

If the Philistines took down Samson they’d have Israel under their thumb. So, naturally, Samson didn’t divulge the truth to Delilah. The fact that he eventually did reveals Samson’s flesh weakness for the fairer sex in general and Delilah in particular.

For anyone who thinks there’s no such thing as a justifiable lie, that’s simply not true. While lying for selfish, evil purposes is always a sin (Leviticus 19:11 & Colossians 3:9), a justifiable lie is not a sin for the precise reason that it’s justified and done with the greater good in mind. In other words, a justifiable lie is not evil, it’s good.

One obvious example in the Bible is the Hebrew midwives lying to Pharaoh because his command was evil and it saved the lives of innocent babies, “So God was kind to the midwives… because the midwives feared God” (Exodus 1:15-21). Another example is Rahab the prostitute who lied to the officials of Jericho about the whereabouts of the Hebrew spies, which she’s commended for in the Hall of Faith chapter (Joshua 2:1-6 & Hebrews 11:31). You can read biblical details on this topic here.

Samson’s error was that he caved to the Philistines’ manipulations by foolishly telling Delilah the truth about his anointing of strength, obviously due to his weakness for beautiful foreign women. Yet having a penchant for alluring Philistine women wasn’t a sin in-and-of itself; it’s what one does with such a proclivity that determines whether it’s immoral or not. For instance, being attracted to and deciding to marry the woman from Timnah wasn’t a sin; it was “from the LORD” (14:4).

‘But What About His Sleeping With a Prostitute?’

Aside from the folly of caving to his enemies’ manipulations due to his love for Delilah, this is the sole transgression we can lay on Samson from what is written in the text and it’s only chronicled that he did it on one occasion (16:1). While this is bad, it’s not as bad as King David committing adultery with Bathsheba and indirectly murdering her husband (2 Samuel 11) and, yet, David is constantly praised for his greatness.

It is true that David was “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) and thus he humbly confessed his sin after Nathan’s rebuke (Psalm 51 & 2 Samuel 12). Yet what about Samson? Did he repent after having sex with the prostitute? The text doesn’t say, but clearly he still had God’s anointing to take hold of the massive city gates, tear them loose, and carry them to the top of a nearby hill (16:1-3).

What can we get from this? Simply that “God’s gift and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). For instance, I could be totally out of fellowship with the LORD and still teach the Scriptures. How so? Because God gave me the gift of a teacher (Ephesians 4:11). It’s a gift. This explains how an itinerate preacher can travel the landscape and have anointed services, but commit sexual immorality at his hotel in his off time.

Of course such sins will eventually draw God’s judgment if they’re not dealt with and removed from one’s life (Numbers 32:23, Galatians 6:8 & 1 John 1:8-9). In other words, where God’s gracious mercy ends, God’s judgment begins, and this can be observed in Samson’s very account: The impenitent lust of the eyes led to Samson’s downfall (1 John 2:16) and so judgment ultimately fell and his eyes were gouged out in captivity wherein he spent the rest of his life grinding at the mill (16:21). The moral of the story is: If a sinful weakness is ignored, it will master you (Genesis 4:7) — first it will bind you, then it will grind you (Proverbs 5:22 & 29:6).

So, based on what is actually written in Samson’s scriptural account, enlisting the services of a prostitute on one occasion and obviously having lust issues for beautiful Philistine women in general are the ‘only’ sins we can pin on the man. Otherwise, Samson is depicted as a mighty national leader and hero of faith (Judges 15:20 & Hebrews 11:32).

For those determined to denounce him, which is tantamount to faultfinding & slander, honestly ask yourself this question and be honest: In your life, as a believer, have you ever lusted after an attractive member of the opposite sex and had sex with them, if not physically, in your mind? (Matthew 5:28). If so, you’ve sinned in a similar fashion to Samson even with the advantage of spiritual rebirth and the indwelling Holy Spirit, both of which Samson did not have the benefit. In short, have some compassion for the man!

To close, Samson was called and anointed of God to fight against Israel’s #1 enemy at the time, the tyrannical and ruthless Philistines. By keeping relations between the Hebrews and Philistines in a constant state of upheaval, he helped prevent the Israelites from being absorbed into their pagan culture.

This article is available in book form as chapter 9 of…

The print book is available here for only $12.50 (303 pages)
The Kindle eBook is available here for just 99¢!

Both links allow you to “look inside” the book.

Is there Such a Thing as Righteous Hatred or Righteous Enmity?

Jesus Christ — Milksop or Mighty Lord?

Gentle Love and Tough Love

Does Walking in AGAPE LOVE Mean You should be a DOORMAT to Abuse?

How to Walk FREE OF THE FLESH by being Spirit-Controlled

The Basics of Christianity