Slides 13 Blindness as Structuring Device

Slides 13 Blindness as Structuring Device

Now the house was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there… Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "Lord GOD, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes"…. He strained with all his might; and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life (Judges 16:27a, 28, 30)

Slide 14 Disability as Structuring Device

In both Samson’s birth and his death, God intervenes and makes physical changes:

God gives a blind Samson extraordinary strength (Judges 16:29-30)

Slide 15 Disability Expresses a Theme: Alienation

Besides a Structuring Device…

Disability Imagery Develops a Theme:

Disability Imagery is part of the physical descriptions that express Samson’s alienation from others

Slide 16 Physical Description: Hair

Judges 13:4-5 ⁴ Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, or to eat anything unclean, ⁵ for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a NAZIRITE to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines."

Slide 17 Nazirite and Separation

Numbers 6:2-3, 4-6: When either men or women make a special vow, the vow of a nazirite, to SEPARATE themselves to the LORD, ³ they shall SEPARATE themselves from wine and strong drink… ⁵ All the days of their nazirite vow no razor shall come upon the head; until the time is completed for which they SEPARATE themselves to the LORD, they shall be holy; they shall let the locks of the head grow long. ⁶ All the days that they SEPARATE themselves to the LORD they shall not go near a corpse.

Slide 18 Expressions of Separation/Alienation

As a Nazirite, Samson is in a state of separation since birth

His uncut hair marks him as physically different

Other signs of this separation:

Judges 14:3 But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among your kin, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?"

Slide 19 Expressions of Separation/Alienation

Samson doesn’t trust his family:

Judges 14:16 So Samson's wife wept before him, saying, "You hate me; you do not really love me. You have asked a riddle of my people, but you have not explained it to me." He said to her, "Look, I have not told my father or my mother. Why should I tell you?"

Slide 20 Expressions of Separation/Alienation

Samson doesn’t trust the Philistines:

Judges 14:18 And he said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.”

Samson doesn’t trust the men of Judah:

Judges 15:12 They said to him, "We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines." Samson answered them, "Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me."

Slide 21 Samson’s Acts of Personal Vengeance

Separation from his people also has an impact on his fight with the Philistines

Feeling separated, Samson doesn’t fight the Philistines to deliver the Israelites

He fights them by himself for personal revenge

Slide 22 Samson’s Acts of Personal Vengeance

Judges 15:6-7 So the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father. ⁷ Samson said to them, "If this is what you do, I swear I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you.”

Judges 15:11 [The men of Judah ] said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then have you done to us?" He replied, "As they did to me, so I have done to them."

Slide 23 Samson’s Death as Personal Vengeance

Judges 16:28 Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "Lord GOD, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Slide 24 Disability Develops this Disconnect

The angel said, “No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:6)

But Samson doesn’t kill himself in order to save the Israelites

He kills himself to avenge his blindness

His disability expresses his disconnect from his divine mission as a separated nazirite

Slide 25 Hair

His hair also helps to express his separation:

Judges 16:16-17 ¹⁶ Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death. ¹⁷ So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and BE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.”

Slide 26 Haircuts and Blindness

Cut hair might make him look and feel “like everyone else”

He would not stand out as physically separated

Ironically, his haircut allows the Philistines to blind him. Thus, once again, he is physically different and not “like everyone else” in the story. He is the only blind person in the story.

Slide 27 Samson overcomes Separation through Death

Samson’s mother foreshadows a connection between his death and his separation as a nazirite:

“The boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death” (Judges 13:7)

Death will end his vow of separation as a Nazirite

Slide 28 Samson overcomes Separation through Death

More foreshadowing of death as an end of his nazirite separation:

Judges 16:16-17 ¹⁶ Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to DEATH. ¹⁷ So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a NAZIRITE to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like everyone else."