Diary of My Trip to Israel: Part 22

My tour guide is driving me through the territory called Dan, named for the specific area given to one of the twelve tribes of Israel. This is where Samson defended his people from their coastal enemy, the Philistines.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I grew up loving comic books. (Not those stupid Archie cartoons, but rather, the D.C. brand with its legendary mercenaries.) This makes Samson an intriguing Bible character because he too was a kind of superhero, one who actually lived! True, the only power he shared with Superman was super strength. But there were other similarities: In Superman 2, Clark Kent also cashes in his powers for the love of a woman (though Lois Lane certainly had far more integrity than Delilah).

Back to Samson: To be sure, this is one of the Bible stories most frequently accused of being a made up fable. Since Samson was not transported from Krypton as a baby aboard a rocket ship, how on Earth could he single handedly defeat armies of men or push in the pillars of a building when the Philistines tried to humiliate him through public spectacle, the first show in history where the performer literally brought the house down?

Actually, many accounts of extraordinary strength have been reported over the years, such as a mother lifting up the end of a car to save the life of her child who is being crushed. Human adrenaline is offered as a large part of the explanation.  I don’t point this out to downplay miracles. In other articles, I have described a miracle as something God does that we merely do not understand. There is a scientific explanation, but we do not yet know what the explanation is. And so, adrenaline need not rule out God as the source of Samson’s might. The Bible tells us Samson’s strength came from the Spirit of God. The Spirit would have known where and how to release Samson’s adrenaline. Or the Spirit may have provided the strength in some other manner science cannot currently catalogue.

Deut 29:29

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

“But doesn’t the book of Judges tell us Samson’s strength came from his long hair?”

Yes and no. Samson had taken a Nazirite vow. Nazirites were men dedicated from birth to the special service of God. As a sign of their pledge, they did not cut their hair. When Samson allowed his hair to be cut, he was disobeying his Nazirite vow. The long hair was not an end in itself. Instead, it represented Samson’s dedication to his God.  The power was withdrawn by the Lord as a result of careless rebellion, not because of a haircut. There are many gifts, ministries and abilities made possible by the Spirit of God, aside from extra-ordinary strength. God also withdrew His Spirit from King Saul. Although Saul could not do the mighty feats of Samson, his failure was similar: Saul had disobeyed. No, Samson is not the story of magic hair follicles. It’s the story of a man who had stopped walking with God due to the influence of a woman who represented contradictory beliefs and idol worship.

Judges 16:6-22

6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued."

7 Samson answered her, "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man."

8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied."

11 He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man."

12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

13 Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied."

He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric [on the loom] and tighten it with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.

17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!"

He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison. 2

As you can see, this story is not merely about disobedience.  Delilah has proven herself untrustworthy and yet Samson keeps falling for it. I like Samson and I admire him in many ways, but…(Oh, how shall I put this?) Had they given out report cards in those days, I doubt that he would have disappointed his friends by raising the Bell Curve.

OK. Time to leave the world of comic books and instead examine a comic strip, one of the most beloved of all time, Peanuts. Remember the one where Lucy used to hold the football for Charlie Brown?

“Here, Charlie Brown, I’ll hold the football for you. Run up and kick it!”

After Charlie Brown runs toward the ball and lifts his foot in the air, Lucy quickly yanks the football out of the way. Charlie brown lands flat on his back.

This was not a one-time piece from Charles Shultz. It was as repetitious as Linus’s blanket and Schroeder’s piano.  Again and again, sometimes once a year, sometimes more frequently, Lucy offers to hold the football for Charlie Brown. “You must think I’m pretty stupid if you’re planning that old trick again!” Charlie Brown shouts.

Lucy looks sincere as she answers, “But I’ve changed, Charlie Brown. Don’t you have any faith in the betterment of human nature?”

Charlie Brown tries it again. As always, Lucy swipes the football out of the way and Charlie Brown lands on his back for the five-hundredth time.

I’m thinking of this story today while driving through Dan, because Charlie Brown and Lucy remind me of Samson and Delilah. Since cartoons did not exist in Biblical days, perhaps God instead preserved a writing about the sad fate of Samson as a warning to his people Israel.

My brother Paul certainly knows the story of Samson. But far more frequently, he brings up Lucy and her football, as an analogy of Israel’s dealings with the Arab world and the Western World.

Think about it:

“Here Jews! Some wealthy Arab landlords have land for you to purchase. Of course, after you buy it, the land will be in dispute, but go ahead, take the land.”

“Here Jews !  We, the British Empire, run the entire Middle East. And we have worked out (in accordance with The League of Nations) the Balfour Declaration: This means we are inviting Jews from all over the world to return to their native homeland, joining the Jews who are already living here.”

“Here Jews!  It looks like (heh heh) we had to make a deal with the Arabs too. So 75 percent of what we offered you has been given away and made into a new country called, Jordan, but the remaining 25 percent is all yours. Knock yourselves out kids!”

“Here Jews!  Boy have we got a surprise for you. This is going to be one of those good news/bad news things. First the bad news. The Arabs don’t want you to have anything, not even the remaining 25 percent. They claim they should own all of it. And now, the good news: We are not going to give them all of it. We are going to only give them half of it. So half of the remaining 25 percent is all yours. Oh…I guess we should tell you; It’s a checkered map with indefensible borders. But it’s all yours.”

“Here Jews!  The Arabs rejected their half of Palestine. Instead they are going to join their neighbors, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and others to snuff the life out of you! However, the United Nations did just vote to partition the land. So it’s all yours! (If you can defend it.)

“Here Jews! You won the 1947 war but now there are displaced Arabs from Palestine and most of the Arab countries will not take them in. Since you took in every Jew displaced from Arab countries, you should consider taking in Arab refugees too.”

“Here Jews!  What a year for you! 1967! You have the admiration of the entire world, for in just six days you defeated those neighbor countries who said, once again, that they wanted to wipe you out. But now the Palestinian refugees who were part of Jordan are your responsibility. We hope you treat them well.”

“Here Jews! Good job giving the Sinai back to Egypt even though you had to take it from her when she threatened to annihilate you in 1967. Now you and Egypt are at peace. Never mind that she will sponsor terrorists who want to destroy you and say vile things about you in her newspapers. Congratulations, for giving peace a chance and returning the Sinai.”

“Here Jews!  Now that you gave Yasssir Arafat 90 percent of what he wanted in the Oslo Accords, please realize, that was not enough. He wants more!”

“Here Jews! We know the intifada is bad, with Jewish children getting blown up on buses and all. If you make a deal with the Palestinians to turn over occupied territory one city at a time, peace can come to the Middle East at last. Here’s the deal: You return land. They will promise to stop killing you. Sound fair?”

“Here Jews! The day after you made that peace deal, more suicide bombers attacked. That means your deal was not enough. You need to offer more. Oh, and make very sure you do not send soldiers after the terrorists. That will make us especially mad and we’ll have to stop with the Mr. Nice Guy stuff.”

“Here Jews! Thanks for giving the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinians. In return they are burning down all the synagogues in Gaza and will fire missiles into Israel every single day.”

“Here Jews! Thanks for turning over more towns to the Palestinians. Just one thing: We know you built that wall to keep out the suicide bombers, but such a wall really obstructs the peace process. Those walls should come down.”

The Obama administration is talking about forcing Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders.  Many liberals in Israel, desperate for peace, are ready and willing to make this deal. I spoke with some of them and said, “Nothing you do will please the Palestinians. No matter what you give them, it will not be enough. When they mention “occupied territory”, they do not mean the West Bank and the Golan Heights. They mean all of Israel! Nothing you do; no handshake, no peace agreement, no parcel of land, will be enough until Israel is completely obliterated from the map.”

“You may be right,” they responded. “But we need to try.”

“You’ve already tried.”

“We need to try again.  It’s the only way to give peace a chance.”

“Here Charlie Brown, I’ll hold the football for you. You come running up to kick it.”

“Samson, if you really loved me, you’d tell me the secret of your strength and forget about the times when I helped the Philistines ambush you.”

This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.