Judges 13-15, Psalm 81

About this episode

The episode explores the life of Samson and his violation of the Nazirite vow, reflecting Israel's spiritual struggles.

Today, we’ll begin to look at the life of Samson, a man who kept the Nazirite vow from his birth, until he didn’t, and violated it several times over. In short, Samson is a picture of Israel in one person. Meant to be set apart and holy, he instead takes his vows and his God lightly, defiling himself over and over. A Nazirite was supposed avoid dead bodies, yet he eats honey from a lion’s carcass and uses a jawbone for a weapon. A Nazirite was supposed to abstain from wine, yet Samson threw a drinking party for the Philistines. And, in our next episode, the last vow to go is that of not cutting his hair, which he hands over to a Delilah, a woman of the very nation that Israel had been tasked with destroying for their perpetual evil.

People in this episode

Host: John Ross

Topics covered

• Samson
• Nazirite vow
• Israel's history
• spirituality
• religion

Keywords

• Samson
• Nazirite vow
• Israel
• Delilah
• Philistines
• Judges
• Psalm 81

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Israel, Philistines

Books & works: Judges, Psalm

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