We love to criticize Samson.
We call him reckless. Violent. A womanizer. We read his story and shake our heads at how badly he blew it.
But here’s the problem.
Think about this. We may have been reading ourselves into the wrong character.
Samson’s story is recorded in the book of Judges. This book has two groups. There are the judges. And there is Israel.
The judges were raised up by God. The Spirit came upon them. They brought deliverance. They secured rest for the land.
Israel? They did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They worshiped foreign gods. They ignored the judges God sent. And when each judge died, they became worse than before.
The pattern repeats six times.1
God sends a deliverer. Israel refuses to listen. The deliverer saves anyway. Israel sinks deeper into unfaithfulness.
The problem was never the judges. The problem was Israel.
So why do we spend so much energy attacking Samson?
Modern commentators call him a violent, sex-addicted failure. They pick apart his flaws. They use him as a warning of what not to become.
But the author of Hebrews saw something different.
He lists Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah among the heroes of faith. He says they conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, and routed foreign armies. He says the world was not worthy of them (Hebrews 11:32–38).
Scripture’s assessment is clear. Ours has been wrong.
Here’s the truth that changes everything.
We’re not Samson. We are Israel.
We are not the strong ones who fell. We are the faithless ones who need saving.
Samson wasn’t the failure in the story. He was the rescue. Flawed? Yes. But faithful in his calling. Empowered by the Spirit. Raised up by God to deliver people who didn’t deserve it.
Sound familiar?
Samson’s greatest moment came at the end.
Blinded. Mocked. Chained between the pillars of a pagan temple.
He prayed one last time. And in his death, he killed more enemies than in his entire life.
His victory was accomplished through his death.
Barry Webb, a Judges scholar, put it this way: “In this most unlikely figure, we see possibly more clearly than anywhere else in the Old Testament, the shape of things to come.”2
A deliverer rejected by his own people.
Handed over to pagan rulers.
His saving work was completed in death.
A death that crushed the enemy and laid the foundation for full deliverance.
This is the gospel, promised beforehand.
Every judge points forward. To a better Judge. One who would lay down His life to achieve His greatest victory.
We needed a judge who wouldn’t stay dead.
And that’s exactly who came.
So let’s stop criticizing Samson.
Start seeing ourselves in Israel.
And fix our eyes on the One all the judges were pointing to.
References
- Sammons, Steven. 2025. “Six Judges, One Pattern.” Blog. Six Judges, One Pattern, December 22. https://stevesammons.com/six-judges-one-pattern/.[↩]
- Barry G. Webb, « The Book of Judges » on Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, December 23, 2025[↩]