Why Did God Do That? Discovering God’s Goodness in the Hard Passages of ScriptureSample

In Judges 13, we’re told about an angel who visited a woman struggling with infertility. The angel promised that she would have a child who would grow up to save her people from the oppression of the Philistines. We read in verses 24-25, "when her son was born, she named him Samson. And the LORD blessed him as he grew up. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him.”

Reading this, we are naturally inclined to think Samson is bound to grow up to be a decent guy, a man of God with exemplary character. A hero we can imitate. But, no.

The first thing we learn about Samson as an adult is his lustful infatuation with a Philistine woman. Samson demands that his parents get her for him so that he can marry her in total disregard for God’s command for the Israelites not to intermarry with the Canaanites. Samson’s demand is rightly understood as a moral flaw and a breaking of God’s law, but Judges 14:4 points out that God is actually at work in Samson’s folly, orchestrating a way for Samson to get close to the Philistines.

As the story continues, Samson experiences episodes during which the Spirit of God empowers him with supernatural strength. At the same time, he periodically displays immature rage against the Philistines, which spurs him to slay them in great numbers and destroy their property. A prostitute who is essentially an agent for the Philistine leaders eventually seduces Samson. Then, through a record-breaking display of stupidity, Samson winds up betrayed, captured, and blinded by his enemies. They bring him into the temple of their god, where they force him to entertain them like a circus freak.

The temple is a huge building filled with thousands of Philistines, including their rulers. Blind and humiliated, Samson makes one final prayer. Yet it’s not a sorrowful confession to God or a rededication to a higher moral standard. Samson prays to God solely for the ability to avenge himself (Judges 16:28). God graciously grants Samson's request.

Samson’s moral character is so checkered that theologian Preston Sprinkle calls him “a self-centered, vengeful porn star enslaved to lust and bloodshed.” Yet through all his debauchery and folly, God’s Spirit cooperates with Samson, enabling him to accomplish remarkable things.

Samson pushes his arms against two pillars and, with a mighty effort, supernaturally collapses the massive building. He dies along with all of the Philistines. God uses Samson's prayer to lift the oppression of Israel. After forty years of patience, God finally renders judgment against the Philistines through Samson. The literary dance between God’s empowering presence and Samson’s sin is obvious. The story intentionally vise-grips these two seemingly opposites together.

This “hero” of the Bible is frustratingly unheroic, yet God still manages to draw a straight line with a crooked stick. Through Samson, God makes a point about himself, about his providence, and about his ability to work through bad intentions for his good purposes. This echoes the lesson of Genesis 50:20—what people intend for evil, God is able to use for good!

More to the point of this chapter, God’s association with morally challenged characters like Samson is not meant to be taken as an endorsement of their actions. It is a spotlight on their God, whose goodness trumps human failure. God accomplishes his purposes through flawed human characters. Let us admire the goodness of God, who lavishes extraordinary patience and grace over our lives!

God is the only true hero of Scripture. He possesses the power and perfect moral integrity needed to accomplish his purposes. Yet, he chooses to befriend sinful people and use them to play crucial roles in his drama of redemption. Like the characters we are studying in this chapter, none of us are perfect. In fact, many of us have deep regrets about our past or present failures and feel as though God could never use us.

But God wants us to know that if he can use Samson, he can certainly use us. Be encouraged!