The Lord Gives Samson Spiritual and Physical Strength to Help Him Fulfill His Mission to Deliver Israel from the Philistines
Judges 13:24–25; 14:5–6, 19; 15:14–15
24 And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.
25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. . . .
5 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
6 And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. . . .
19 And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. . . .
14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:
“[Samson was] one of the Judges in Israel who in spite of his marriage to a Philistine woman and his numerous acts of rebellion and unrighteousness, had periods of faith and devotion during which the Lord used his great physical strength to perform almost superhuman feats for the deliverance of his people [see Judges 13; 14; 15; and 16].”
(Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 3:216–17.)
