SAMSON MAN OF STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
Judges 14-15

I. Background Judges 13
   A. Born to Godly parents - Manoah was his Father
   B. Angel told them they would have a son and he would be a Nazarite / God would be with him
   C. Samson means " little son "
   D. vs. 24 says the child grew and God blessed him
   E. Because of Israel's sin God allowed the ungodly Philistines to rule over them

II. Samson's Great Weakness Chapter 14
   A. He started with great promise but has also no much failure
   B. He saw a Philistine woman in Timnah that he told his parents to get for his wife
   C. Ex. 36: 14 forbid the marrying of non Israelites or converts
   D. God uses his disobedience to begin the overthrow of the Philistines ( e.g. Joseph Gen 50:20 )
   E. When a lion attacked Samson , God's spirit came on him and he killed him with his bare hands
   F. At Samson's wedding party he gave a riddle concerning the dead lion's carcass that had served as
a bee hive
   G. Because his wife obtained the answer , the Philistines solved the riddle
   H. To pay the bet , Samson killed 30 Philistines to get their clothes

III. Samson's War On The Philistines Chapter 15
   A. When Samson went to get his wife her Father had given her to his best friend
   B. At this point Samson declared war on their nation single handily
   C. He gathered 300 foxes and tied their tails together and set them afire - they burned their fields
   D. He slaughtered a large number of the Philistines and went to the Rock of Etam to rest
   E. The Philistines brought 3000 troups to kill Samson
   F. The Israelites instead of helping  gave Samson to the enemy
   G. When Samson was given to them he broke the ropes and used a donkey's jawbone to kill 1000 of them
   H. After the battle he prayed to God for water for he was thirsty - God opened earth and water came forth
   I . God confirmed Samson as Judge over Israel - he served for 20 years

IV. Take Homes
   A. When he saw _______ he stood up - even though he was _______ ( but God's Spirit came upon him )
   B. His strength was from ____ not the Nazarite vow
   C. He started pure but became ________
      i) he was not corrupted all at ________
      ii) little concessions led to ______ ones
   C. The same is true for us regarding our relationship with _____ and _______