Samson & Delilah

Someone told me that Samson was a great man yesterday. Or maybe the day before. Whatever. I couldn't quite remember the story so today I took out my NIV version of the Bible and found it. It's in the OT in the Book of Judges and chronicled his life from the circumstances surrounding his miraculous conception to his death.

I have no idea why anyone would call him a great man. He was an awful barbarian! He was demanding, ungrateful, rude, mean to anyone he came across, arrogant, a habitual liar, used his god-given strength for petty disputes and vengeance/vendettas, and he was an idiot!

So, if they meant great as in good, I must vehemently disagree. If they meant great as in powerful, then I guess they have a point. But, might doesn't always make right all on it's own. I guess God didn't really care much about who he bestowed his gifts upon. God is supposed to know everything before it happens, so he knew very well what Samson was going to be like. That wasn't really the point.

God didn't need a good man. He just needed a man. Why the authors chose for him to go about this in this way I will never understand. He could have just bestowed these gifts on a man already born. Any man of his race falling in love with a Philistine woman would've set things in motion just fine.

He was really just using Samson. He was just a means to an end. Which makes little sense, anyway, even looking at it that way. He could have fixed the problem himself without any human involvement whatsoever. He is supposed to be almighty.

I can only conclude that using and manipulating humans in this way must have been very amusing for him. Well, I guess it must get boring being the one and only almighty god on high, with no equals to hang out with....

If you don't own a Bible, or if you just don't own a NIV translation, and want to know exactly what I read here is a link to read it online. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2013-16&version=NIV

And here is a link to a recent episode of Thomas and the Bible which talks about Samson, as well. Very awesome and funny, check it out. http://www.thomasandthebible.com/podcast/2012/02/judges-12-16

Here is a link to the relevant chapter of Judges you'd begin at to read about Samson, from the Skeptics Annotated Bible. http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/jg/13.html