06/16/2026
Consider the birth of Samson?
Here again, a barren woman is visited by an 'Angel of the Lord,' later believed to be 'The Lord.' She is told she will have a son...no name given. She goes back to her husband and tells him. He wants to be notified if she sees this 'Angel' again. Well, she does, and request it stick around while she goes an fetches her hubby.
She and Manoah go and talk to this patiently waiting 'man' and again the terms are repeated...let not a razor touch a hair on his head, no alcohol (w**e), or unclean food.
We have seen this before, without the conditions cited... Noah, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph (Mary). The generations of the people of Yahweh ( who apparently stated to stop calling Him Baal). This is not really surprising, if you were to know the history of the Moabites, Judeanites Ammorites, Hittites, and countless others, they would have constructive stories of their Lords gifts and miracles.
Samson, of course, leads a life of deception, adultery, and violence...not unlike all the predecessors. You see, every tribe of people believed in a divine authority. God was worshipped as an unseeing spiritual and physical master. Everyone's God was the One God. The tribes of Israel and Judah were no different, they just gave God a new name, stressed that He spoke only to them and that all other people's version of the lord was false. (period)
If you read the Bible, you see the truth in this. Another example is the life of Jephthat in Judges 11 and 12. After being exiled; besides the fact that he was a great man of valor...he was the son of a harlot. He went away from Gilead and formed his own band of warriors. Long story short, Gilead comes to a desperate state and is threatened by Ammon. Having no recourse they petition Jephthat.
While Jephthat is wary, he does accept the terms IF he is made ruler over the Gileadeans.
He meets with the ruler of the Ammonites and ask what their 'beef' was with his people. The answer was that the hebrews had taken all their land and killed multitudes. We know the story of what I consider the most disturbing book in the Torah (Joshua)...one that sets the pattern for what we have in the mid-east to this day. God commanded Joshua to commit genocide and take their land.
BUT...Jephthat offers a different take. He states that the people of Israel only wanted to pass through their lands. It was only when they refused passage that the Hebrews attacked and took the lands. He makes it their fault...he does not say God gave them permission to do it. Two sides of the story. This is so typically a man-made manuscript.
Now, Jephthat (speaks) to the Lord and asks that IF God gives him victory, he would offer (sacrificial) the first thing that greeted him on his return to his home. He was victorious, and on returning, the first thing to greet him...was his virgin daughter. He made a deal, and had to keep it.
She ask to be sent away for a while, even while accepting that her father made a vow, and she insisted he keep it. She went away and returned. Here the story is vague and most biblical scholars accept that the vow was secured by her remaining a virgin...that Jephthat sacrifice any chance of grandchildren...or heirs.
So, the people of Israel, and Judah...the HEBREW nation formed their own nationality, receive a new name for the divine authority recognized by every tribe of people in the region...and unknown at this time in history...in every region of earth outside the mid-east.
The analogy cannot be missed that we are dealing with peoples who thought that the world was nonexistent outside their boundaries...that God was an unseeable ethereal force which brought Life to this world and had hundreds, possibly thousands of names.
Only Jesus comes into the picture saying "no violence, killing, or unkindness...no deception and infidelity. He said that was the fulfillment of God's true message. He was the only one to say God does not order killing, violence and deception to anyone. His only Sermon was based on the Commandments...which even the Bible paints God as a hypocrite of.
Samson was of great strength, he had the power of the gods, but he was a deceptive, adulterous man. He was a murderer, and the Philistines, who are painted as evil, appear to be the better. But this is a story. When you read about the episode with Delilah trying to find his weakness you have to either think Samson, for all his might, has a pea for a brain or is just arrogant with confidence that God will allow him to always come out the victor.. Twice she chastises Samson for tricking her while she has Philistine soldiers waiting in the wings. Twice he repeals them, but the third time he reveals the true method for weakening him...cutting his hair.
Oh, we are led to believe Delilah managed all this by getting Samson drunk...possible, but really, he must have wanted to be captured...what was going on was too obvious. Either way, he is captured and strung between the pillars...and ultimately brings down the colleseum killing most everyone. What's the lesson in all this. A privileged son of the Lord breaks the commandments and kills people who are simply supporting law and order. They are painted as evil, sinful people deserving of God's wrath imposed by His ambassador.
You begin to ask what makes sense. You are told that it's the word of God so just believe it. Trust in the God of Abraham or you will be destroyed...yet Jesus stated that God is within us. The truth begins to come out. Men used the name and professed word of God to break every Commandment...still do.
Jesus came and defied all that, stating that God is within and that the observance of the Commandments was belief in Him...and man killed Him and put Him on a cross and initiated a belief in Him that circumvents the Commandments by accepting Him...not what he taught as their saviour.
How typically mankind (ruled by lesser gods) is that.
