IX. THE STORY OF SAMSON,—ITS ABSURDITIES.
Were the story of Samson found in any other book than the Christian Bible, it would be looked upon by Bible believers as one of those wild and incredible legends of heathen mythology with which all the holy books of that age abound. But it is accepted as true because found in the Bible; and the Bible is considered to be true, partly because it tells such marvelous stories. It is assumed that they prove each other. Perhaps it is upon the presumption that "it is a poor rule that will not work both ways."
1. We are told (Judg. chap. xiii.) that an angel appeared to the wife of Manoah, and promised her a son; and Manoah seemed to be as well pleased about the matter as his wife, and seemed to care but little whether the father was a man or an angel or a God, and we are left in the dark as to which it was.
2. It is rather a notable circumstance that the Jewish God and his angels seemed to have a great deal to do in trying to accommodate and aid old women in becoming mothers, as in the case of Abraham's wife and Manoah's wife, also Elizabeth and Mary in the New Testament, and other cases.
3. The man or angel or God, whichever it was (for he is called by each name), that appeared to Mrs. Manoah, advised her to abstain from strong drink, and to eat no unclean thing. Very good advice to be observed at any time; but it seems to imply that she was in the habit of using such pernicious articles.
4. And, when her child was born, he was called Samson, and was remarkable for his great strength, which is said to lie in his hair. The mighty denizens of the forest interposed no obstacle to his march; and houses were but playthings, to be tossed in the air like balls. He is reported to have seized a lion and slain him when yet a boy, without a weapon of any kind. It would have been well if this mighty hero had been present when Jehovah had a battle with the Canaanites (Judg. i. 19), as he would not probably have been defeated so easily because they had chariots of iron. Those vehicles of iron would have been mere straws for Samson. If their respective histories be true, he excelled Jehovah, both with regard to strength and courage, in a severe contest.
5. It is stated that, a short time after this young bachelor-hero had slain the king of the forest, as he was returning home from a visit to his lady-love, he observed that a swarm of bees had taken possession of the carcass, and filled it with honey.
Those bees must have been very much less fastidious in their tastes and habits than the bees of modern times; for the latter shun a carcass as instinctively as death.
6. Another remarkable circumstance connected with this case is, that the long-haired bachelor thrust his hands through the bees, and tore out the honey, regardless of their stinging mode of defending their rights. His skin must have been as remarkable for toughness as his muscles for strength.
7. One of the most cruel, ungodly, and fiendish acts of this young hero was that of murdering thirty men to get their garments, as a recompense to those thirty persons who solved his riddle; thus massacring thirty innocent persons in order to strip them of their garments,—an unprovoked and wanton murder. And yet it is declared, "the spirit of God was with him." What shocking ideas of Deity!
8. Samson was evidently a "free-lover," as he had intercourse with a number of women of doubtful character.
9. His next great feat consisted in chasing and catching three hundred foxes, and tying their tails together, and making a firebrand of them. It must have been a good time to raise poultry after so many foxes had disappeared, but certainly not before that event, if foxes were so numerous.
10. It seems strange that these "tail-bearers" of fire did not take to the woods, instead of running through all the fields in the country, and setting them on fire.
11. The next feat was the breaking of two strong cords, with which his arms had been bound by three thousand men. (See Judg. xv. 4). It is difficult to conceive how three thousand men could get to him to tie them, as it is intimated they did. His mode of being revenged after he had snapped the cords was to seize the jaw-bone of an ass, and slay a thousand men; and, after he had killed these thousand men with the bone, there was enough of it left to contain a considerable amount of water. It is related that the Lord clave a hollow in it, and there came out of it water to quench Samson's thirst.
12. Asses seem to figure quite conspicuously in Bible history. Sometimes they talk and reason like a Cicero, as in the case of Balaam; and they serve other important ends in the histories of Abram and Job (who had a thousand) and Samson, and also that of Jesus Christ, who is represented as riding two at once. In the hands of Samson the jaw-bone of an ass was more destructive than a twenty-four pound cannon, besides furnishing him with water sufficient to supply his thirst.
13. Another feat of this young Hercules was that of carrying away the gate and gate-posts of the city of Gaza, in which the keepers had shut him up while lodging with a harlot. Most of his female companions seem to have been licentious characters; and yet "the Lord favored him"!
14. It is said "the spirit of the Lord moved Samson" (Judg. xiii. 25). It would seem that the spirit of the Devil did also; for he had a terrible propensity for lying. He lied even to his own wife three or four times. He once deceived her by telling her that his strength could be overcome by tying him with green withes; and yet he snapped them like cobwebs. He then virtually confessed to her that he had lied, but told her that new ropes would accomplish the thing; and yet he was no sooner bound with them, than he freed his limbs as easily as a lion would crawl out of a fish-net. The next experiment in lying and tying appertained to his hair. He told his sweet Delilah, that, if she would weave his seven locks of hair into the web in the loom, he would be as weak as another man; but he walked off with the web and the whole accouterments hanging to his head, as easily as a wolf would with a steel trap dangling to his foot. Why did not the hair pull out by the roots? he then told her the truth, as was assumed, but which was evidently the biggest falsehood he had uttered,—that his strength lay in his hair, and that his strength would depart if his hair were to be shorn off. But if there were any physical strength incorporated in the hair, so that it would flow into the brain and down into the muscles when wanted to be used, men would not frequent barber-shops, as they now do, but let it grow ten feet long if necessary.
15. The last great act in this drama of physical prowess was that of overthrowing a house with three thousand people on the roof. (Modern architecture don't often produce a roof large enough or strong enough to sustain three thousand people. This feat would require more strength than to conquer the battalion armed with chariots of iron!)
16. And in all this unholy and wicked business of lying, cheating, and murdering, "the Lord was with him." This is a slanderous imputation upon Divine Perfection and Holiness.
17. No good that we can discover, but much evil, was accomplished by the practical life of this extraordinary man. He was ostensibly raised up to redeem Israel; and yet, immediately after his death, the Philistines gained a complete victory over the Israelites, and took prisoner the ark of the Lord, and reduced them to a worse condition than they were in before.
18. We can not escape the conviction that such stories have a demoralizing effect upon those who read them, and believe they have the divine approval.
19. For seeming to treat the subject in a spirit of ridicule, I will cite a Christian writer as authority, who says, "He who treats absurdities with seriousness lowers his own dignity and manhood."
20. Such stories as the foregoing can certainly do nothing toward improving the morals of the heathen by placing the book containing it in their hands.