Samson

Samson is one of the most fascinating and frustrating characters in the Bible. He was set apart before birth as a Nazirite — meaning he was dedicated to God with specific vows, including never cutting his hair. An angel announced his birth to his parents, and the Spirit of God began to stir in him as he grew up. He was destined to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines. The key word is "begin," because Samson never fully finished the job.

His strength was legendary. He killed a lion with his bare hands. He caught 300 foxes, tied their tails together with torches, and set Philistine crops on fire. He killed 1,000 Philistine soldiers with a donkey's jawbone. He ripped the gates off a city and carried them to the top of a hill. The guy was basically a one-man army, and the Philistines were terrified of him.

But Samson had a pattern: he kept chasing relationships with Philistine women, which was the opposite of what God wanted. His first marriage ended in disaster. Then he visited a prostitute in Gaza. And then came Delilah. The Philistine rulers paid her to find the secret of his strength. Samson played games with her for a while, giving fake answers, but eventually — and this is maddening — he told her the truth. His strength was tied to his Nazirite vow, symbolized by his uncut hair.

Delilah had his hair shaved while he slept, and when the Philistines came, Samson's strength was gone. They gouged out his eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and put him to work grinding grain in prison. It was a humiliating end for the strongest man alive.

But his hair started growing back. At a massive Philistine celebration in the temple of their god Dagon, they brought Samson out to mock him. He asked the servant leading him to let him lean against the pillars. Then he prayed — one of the few genuine prayers he ever prayed — and pushed the pillars apart. The entire temple collapsed, killing Samson and more Philistines than he had killed in his entire life. His death was his greatest victory, and it's both tragic and redemptive.