Monday Morning Quarterback

A series on the Judges of Israel
 – Samson from the tribe of Dan
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Judges 16:4-30 

[The book of Judges is a roller coaster ride. It’s about the history of Israel following their entry into the Promised Land. Unfortunately, Israel went through cycles of rejecting God and then repenting. Each time, the Lord saved them by raising up a leader who was called a judge. In this series, we will be looking at some of these judges to learn about God’s character as well as our own.]

  

Every Wednesday, I have a zoom call with a good friend of mine who lives in Nevada. At some point during the call the conversation invariably turns to the most recent Michigan State football game.

 

True to the “experts” that we are, we analyze the problems that the Spartans are having and what they need to do in order to correct them. If only the coach would contact us, I’m sure we’d have things turned around in no time. You could easily call us a “Monday morning quarterback”.

 

Sampson is an easy target for a Monday morning quarterback.

 

Once again Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. As a result, he handed them over to the Philistines who oppressed them for forty years. During that time the angel of the Lord appeared to a barren woman telling her that she would become pregnant and that her son would take the lead in delivering Israel from the Philistines.

 

True to the word of the angel, she gave birth to a son who she named Samson. Unfortunately, he became a flawed man with feet of clay. Although he was feared far and wide, he also had a weakness for Philistine women that led to his demise.

 

There are a series of bizarre stories that revolve around a Philistine woman that Samson insisted on marrying. These stories put on public display his compulsive, violent and vengeful behavior. However, the Lord was at work through this as Samson confronted the Philistines.

 

Later when Samson fell in love with Delilah, the rulers of the Philistines offered her a significant bribe to find out what gave Samson his strength. Motivated by greed, Delilah nagged Samson “day after day until he was sick to death of it”.

 

Having grown weary of her nagging, he finally told her that it was his hair. With this information, the Philistines were able to capture Samson, gouging out his eyes. In the closing story, the Philistine rulers gathered together to celebrate in the temple of their god Dagon.

 

But with one final act of revenge, Samson asked the Lord to give him the strength that he might kill all who were present at the gathering, including himself. There were over three thousand men and women praising their god for capturing their mortal enemy, when Samson brought the temple down on top of them.

 

As an experienced Monday morning quarterback, I would say that Samson had some great strengths, but also some glaring weaknesses. Despite this, God worked in and through his life.

 

In fact, he is mentioned as one of the heroes of the faith in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11. Here’s what is written about Samson and some others.

³³ By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.        NLT

 

Like Samson, none of us are perfect, and yet the Lord has called us to serve him by faith.

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

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