Judges 13-15: Sunday School Gideon versus the Book of Judges

Sunday School Gideon is strong and noble, deceived by the evil Delilah.
The man with the long hair and huge muscles, chosen by God.
The man who defeats the Philistines even though his eyes have been gouged out by the enemies of God.

My Sunday School teachers liked to tell this story.  It's a pretty good story too.  Samson can kill a lion with his bare hands.  And he's dedicated to wiping out those pesky Philistines.

At least he wants to wipe out the ones with Y chromosomes.
He wants to do something else with the ones who don't have Y chromosomes.

I don't think that's something you can explain to Sunday School kids.  I wouldn't have understood that when I was eight.

The real Samson disregards his vows to God and touches dead things.
The real Samson disregards God's law and decides to marry a Philistine woman.
The real Samson lets his passions--anger and lust--drive his actions.

The real Samson is so distracted by Delilah's sexual beauty that he lets her deceive him three times.

Sure, Delilah is kind of evil.
But Samson's just stupid.

And God uses him anyways.

God chose Samson before he was even born.  When I read the story of the angel visiting Samson's mother and father, and contrasted that with the life Samson chose to live, I wondered, if Samson had obeyed God's laws, what would his life have been like?

Satan definitely tried to mess up God's plans.
And Samson made it fairly easy for him.

But God's plans to punish the Philistines still succeeded.

Job 42:2 says God's plans can't be thwarted.
No matter what we do.