Day 107 – Judge Samson

• Today begins a three day mini-series on the last judge that we will look at, Samson. You’ll know about Samson, of course, but it may be that your knowledge of him is limited to only the famous bits! I bet there will be plenty to surprise you as we read. This includes today’s readings, which are more about the way Samson came into this world rather than the man himself.
• You may find today’s passage a little tricky as it talks a lot about a “Nazirite vow”. The rules for someone who takes this vow are listed in the passage in Numbers (bet you thought we’d left that book far behind!). You don’t need to remember all the details. The important thing to remember is that people usually took this vow voluntarily, and dedicated their life to the service of God, giving up many of the things that they could have had on earth (such as certain food/drink). They never cut their hair as an outward sign to people that they had taken this vow. Nowadays, nuns and monks may take similar vows to choose to forgo things in this world to focus on God, in much the same way, although they are not the same as Nazirites.
• What were some of the rules they had to follow? The passage in Numbers will help you.
• Who decided that Samson would take the Nazirite vow, according to the account given in Judges 13? What does this say about God’s plan for Samson since before he was born?
• Describe the events that occurred when Manoah and his wife met with the angel. What was the angel trying to show to them (apart from telling them about their son to be born)?
• When the angel left, was was Manoah worried about? How did his wife encourage him?
• Would you be willing to take a mini “Nazirite vow” of your own? How about just for an hour? Could you dedicate an hour at some point this week to focus completely on God’s word, or in prayer, or in private worship? What might you do or say during this time, and how do you think it would benefit you?

As we read about Samson over these three days, spend some time thinking about how he is like the Israelite people as a whole. We’ll rethink this question again on day 110 to see what sort of things come up.

One thing I hope you’re quietly finding as you read this year is a gradual improvement in generally handling the Bible. I expect that you should now be able to easily locate the books we’ve read, plus others such as the gospels, Acts and Hebrews, of which we’ve also read several sections. Amos might have had you stumped for a while though, all tucked away in the middle of all those confusing minor prophet books at the end of the Old Testament. Did you find it without the index?!

You might not come out of the year knowing the order of all 66 books, but you should be making a steady effort to learn where stuff is. For example, if you had no idea about Amos before today, at least remember it’s a book within the minor prophet section. Next time you can then flick to the easily found Daniel, or Ezikiel, and know that Amos can’t be too far away. Same with Paul’s letters. Do you have any idea about where his letters to Timothy are? Would you find Peter’s epistles before or after Hebrews?

Get to know your Bible, remember its layout and your favourite verses, and you’ll find that studying it becomes increasingly pleasurable.