Aug. 29, 2026
Breaking Badly 11: The Book of Judges
Welcome to Gospel Rant, and our new series, Breaking Badly!
Episode 11 — Samson, Part 2: Strength Without a Soul
What happens when God raises up a deliverer…
but the deliverer looks just like everyone else?
Strong.
Gifted.
Chosen by God.
But spiritually disconnected.
That’s the story of Samson.
And it may be the most unsettling story in the entire book of Judges.
We will see what you think.
And now, it’s your turn…
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Take heart, child of God.
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Transcript
00:00:04
Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome to Breaking Badly Episode eleven, Sampson.
00:00:09
Speaker 2: Part two Shrinks Without Soul.
00:00:12
Speaker 1: Sampson is one of the most famous figures in the Bible who hasn't heard his story. Superhuman, straight, legendary battles, a hero who could tear part lions and defeat armies all by himself. But if we look closely at the story, Sampson may be one of the most tragic leaders Israel ever had, because despite all his power, he never becomes the person he was meant to be. Welcome to Gospel Rant Podcast. To doctor Bill Singord YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below if you're watching on YouTube, or emailing me at Bill at gospel dash app dot com with your thoughts and comments. Thank you ahead of time. Also thanks for making Gospel Rant podcast one of the top ten percent in the world. Thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love that loves the unlovable, unloved and lovely, unworthy, and unlikely. And that's all of us.
00:01:23
Speaker 2: On any given day.
00:01:24
Speaker 1: If we were just a little bit honest, me too.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: I want to get right into it.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: After this brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back. Judges tells us the woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of the Lord began to stir him. Judges thirteen twenty four to twenty five. Samson's chosen empowered set apart from birth. He has a quest from birth determined by God. But the story that follows shows a very different pattern than the earlier Judges. Instead of leading Israel in faith, Samson repeatedly.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Follows what seems right in his own eyes.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: The Samson narrative revolves around three women, the Woman of Timna, the Prostitute of Gaza, and Delilah. Each episode follows the same tragic pattern. One Samson moves toward the enemy, driven by his own desires. Two a conspiracy forms against him. Three God empowers Sampson to defeat the enemy. Four Israel fails to rally behind him. Five no victory or peace follows. Again and again, the cycle repeats episode one, The Woman of Timna. The story begins with Samson traveling to Timna. There he sees a philistine woman. He returns home and says to his parents, get her for me. She is right in my eyes, I mean there is That phrase should sound familiar in the story, but also in our own lives. The entire Book of Judges ends with the same tragic summary. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Samson, the final Judge, perfectly embodies the problem of Israel. Instead of pursuing God's mission, he pursues what he personally desires. Look, no judgment, but think of maybe recent prayers. Again, no judgment. Samson isn't acting like an ambassador of God, that's for sure. He's acting like a consumer of God. He sees he once, he demands. And while it's easy to focus on the issue of lust here, the deeper problem is bigger than that. Samson is disconnected from the larger narrative of God in God's heart, and God's pursuit of a people, and God's desire to set a people free. He's not hooked to that. That's just not his thing. He has no sense that his life was meant for something greater than his life. Us no awareness of God's mission to redeem a people, to redeem a world. He's searching for significance of the same place as everyone else is searching. It has never found, but something remarkable is happening beneath the surface. Judges tells us this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines. In other words, two storylines are unfolding at the same time. Samson thinks he's pursuing his own desires, but God is quietly using those events to provoke conflict with Israel's oppressors.
00:04:35
Speaker 2: God's lens is different.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: God's purposes move forward, even though Samson's flawed motivations don't. The wedding story quickly turns into betrayal and violence. Samson's reddle leads to deception. His bride betrays him. Samson responds with revenge. Thirty men are killed, feels or burned. Entire regions suffer devastation, and Samson justifies it by saying, now I have a right to get even no sense of a bigger calling, Samson begins to look less like a servant of God and more like the violent gods worshiped by Israel's neighbors and frankly Israel. Here the narrative takes a surprising turn. After Samson defeats Philistine forces, we expect Israel to rally behind him. I mean, that's what happened earlier with earlier judges, like Deborah with Gideon. But that never happens in this story. Instead, the people of Judah gather three thousand men not to fight the enemy, but to arrest Samson. They hand their own deliverer over to the Philistines. By the way, does that sound familiar to the Ultimate Deliverer? Yeah, it's kind of parallel, if you're with me. Israel has become so accustomed to oppression that they prefer oppression to freedom. After defeating a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, Samson sings a victory song for sixteen.
00:06:10
Speaker 2: But something's missing, can you tell? See?
00:06:15
Speaker 1: Unlike the songs of Moses or Deborah, Samson never mentions God.
00:06:22
Speaker 2: He celebrates his own strength. You know.
00:06:25
Speaker 1: The only time Samson prays is afterwards, when he becomes thirsty. You know, God, I need this, He asked God for water. God becomes something like a celestial assistant for this great Man, provide what he needs, meet his requests. Boy, that sounds uncomfortably familiar to me and probably to.
00:06:48
Speaker 2: You and many of us.
00:06:50
Speaker 1: Episode two, The Prostitute of Gaza, the pattern repeats. Samson again travels into enemy territory. Again, there is a conspiracy against them. Again, God gives them supernatural strength. He tears the massive gauge from the city of Gaza and carries it up the hill. It's a stunning act of power, and once again uninspiring. Uninspired Israel, who's doing their own thing, does nothing, so the opportunity for victory passes by no inspiration. Episode three Delilah. The final episode is the most famous. Samson falls in love with Delilah. She is recruited by Pelistine leaders to discover the secret of his strength. Three times she asks, three times, Samson deceives her. Finally, he reveals the truth. His strength is connected to his Nazarite calling. His hair is cut, strength disappears, and Judges tells us something chilling. He did not know that the Lord had left him. Samson was so spiritually disconnected right unaware of God's presence and power, that he couldn't even recognize when God's presence had departed. All right, I'd like to judge him for this, but I am learning. I do that every days.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, I pray in the morning.
00:08:14
Speaker 1: Okay, God, right now Ephesian three, give me power through the Holy Spirit of my inner being, so that I can begin to experience the love of Christ for myself and for others. Because I'm like Samson, I kind of live spiritually disconnected, and the Holy Spirit is in me. There's something wrong up here. I mean, I need rewiring. I imagine you would agree that you could use some of that as well. The final act, Samson is blinded, enslaved, humiliated, but in the final scene he prays for the first time in the narrative, Samson calls out. It looks like and I think so. He calls out sincerely to God. God grants him strength one last time. Samson brings down the Philistine Temple. Three thousand people perish, and Samson dies with them. A beginning, remember not the end. Remember the Angel's word. At the beginning of the story, Sampson would begin Israel's deliverance right there. He wouldn't finish it. The final deliverance would come through someone else, another miraculous birth, another promised child, but this one would live in perfect alignment with the father.
00:09:31
Speaker 2: With God.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: He wouldn't pursue his own desires, only the fathers. He would say, not my will, Father, but yours be.
00:09:38
Speaker 2: Done to him.
00:09:40
Speaker 1: The real victory would finally come. Final reflection, Samson's story forces us to ask some difficult questions. Here is an unworthy savior with mommy and daddy issues, likely all kind of core wounds, attachment wounds, so much so that he has one huge acting out. He is isolated, alone, really longing for love. I have to believe that not an evil kid, just a needy, cracked empty cup.
00:10:12
Speaker 2: God was so.
00:10:13
Speaker 1: Close but he couldn't see. Many of us should relate to Samson honestly, not the long hair of the strength, oh baby, but the neediness and the blindness to see the God who pursues and fills empty cups with life. God right there, right in our inner being. Paul says that Ephesians three, So instead of asking are you living according to what seems right in your own eyes? I'm going to ask you, can you begin to see the reason that you and I are living according to what seems right in our own eyes. We've been doing it for so long we don't recognize that it's a tell that we are more empty, more lonely, more wounded than we know or want to imagine. If you realize that, I'm going to suggest that it's a sign that God is pursuing you right now.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: Stop, stop where you are, and ask God for his power.
00:11:09
Speaker 1: Read Efesion three fourteen to twenty one, over and over. Ask God to give you his power through the spirit and your inner being, so that you can begin to experience, like me, the height and with the linkeodin depth of the love of Christ for you and for others. That's what Samson really needed. That's the moral of the story. Of all of the actual judges, they were each reflections of the people who were so close to God but would never look up. But the good news of the Gospel is the final Deliverer, the final Judge has already come and the victory Samson could only begin, Jesus has finished. Yeah, what's next. I'll let you know after this brief.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: Word from our sponsors. Well.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: As I said in the last podcast and YouTube show, good Enough, Christian is Out. It's a sequel to good enough parent. Here's the back cover. I beg you just to listen, be patient. Why so many Christians feel stuck and how to experience more? Are you a Christian who believes the Gospel but doesn't feel loved by God? No, my, you're not alone. If you've ever felt spiritually stuck. If you've quietly wondered why the abundant life Jesus promised feels out of reach. If you've sat in church hoping to feel loved, yet left unchanged. If you haven't felt that inner stirring for a long while, maybe you've already left church for well, you know, lots of reasons. The pattern is unmistakable, sincere Christians who love Jesus but feel stalled in their faith, not rebellious, not apathetic, wondering if they've somehow become a disappointment to God. With warmth, honesty, biblical depth, and disarming humor, this book invites readers into a shame free exploration of why so many believers struggle to experience the love of Jesus, not just believe it intellectually. You'll discover why feeling spiritually underwhelmed is more common than you think. Hidden obstacles that dull are experience of God's love. The role of the Holy Spirit in making Christ's love real, not theoretical how your brain background and church culture shape your faith. Experience a gentler, more grace saturated path forward. So look, this is not another cry to try harder. It's not a shame or guiltrip. It's an invitation to experience more. If you've ever wanted to ask without shame, what does the love of Jesus actually feel like?
00:13:48
Speaker 2: This book is written for you. Welcome to good enough Christian.
00:13:52
Speaker 1: So look, check it out, Get it to your church, your pastor, your youth group, your Bible studies, use it in devotion group. Yeah, they will thank you. Closing, thanks for listening to Breaking Bad. Next time we'll move towards the final chapter of Judges, stories that showed just how far Israel had fallen and why the people would soon cry out for a king. But even that king would not ultimately solve the problem, because what humanity truly needs as a savior.
00:14:24
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time. Take heart, child of God.
Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome to Breaking Badly Episode eleven, Sampson.
00:00:09
Speaker 2: Part two Shrinks Without Soul.
00:00:12
Speaker 1: Sampson is one of the most famous figures in the Bible who hasn't heard his story. Superhuman, straight, legendary battles, a hero who could tear part lions and defeat armies all by himself. But if we look closely at the story, Sampson may be one of the most tragic leaders Israel ever had, because despite all his power, he never becomes the person he was meant to be. Welcome to Gospel Rant Podcast. To doctor Bill Singord YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below if you're watching on YouTube, or emailing me at Bill at gospel dash app dot com with your thoughts and comments. Thank you ahead of time. Also thanks for making Gospel Rant podcast one of the top ten percent in the world. Thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love that loves the unlovable, unloved and lovely, unworthy, and unlikely. And that's all of us.
00:01:23
Speaker 2: On any given day.
00:01:24
Speaker 1: If we were just a little bit honest, me too.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: I want to get right into it.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: After this brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back. Judges tells us the woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of the Lord began to stir him. Judges thirteen twenty four to twenty five. Samson's chosen empowered set apart from birth. He has a quest from birth determined by God. But the story that follows shows a very different pattern than the earlier Judges. Instead of leading Israel in faith, Samson repeatedly.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Follows what seems right in his own eyes.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: The Samson narrative revolves around three women, the Woman of Timna, the Prostitute of Gaza, and Delilah. Each episode follows the same tragic pattern. One Samson moves toward the enemy, driven by his own desires. Two a conspiracy forms against him. Three God empowers Sampson to defeat the enemy. Four Israel fails to rally behind him. Five no victory or peace follows. Again and again, the cycle repeats episode one, The Woman of Timna. The story begins with Samson traveling to Timna. There he sees a philistine woman. He returns home and says to his parents, get her for me. She is right in my eyes, I mean there is That phrase should sound familiar in the story, but also in our own lives. The entire Book of Judges ends with the same tragic summary. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Samson, the final Judge, perfectly embodies the problem of Israel. Instead of pursuing God's mission, he pursues what he personally desires. Look, no judgment, but think of maybe recent prayers. Again, no judgment. Samson isn't acting like an ambassador of God, that's for sure. He's acting like a consumer of God. He sees he once, he demands. And while it's easy to focus on the issue of lust here, the deeper problem is bigger than that. Samson is disconnected from the larger narrative of God in God's heart, and God's pursuit of a people, and God's desire to set a people free. He's not hooked to that. That's just not his thing. He has no sense that his life was meant for something greater than his life. Us no awareness of God's mission to redeem a people, to redeem a world. He's searching for significance of the same place as everyone else is searching. It has never found, but something remarkable is happening beneath the surface. Judges tells us this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines. In other words, two storylines are unfolding at the same time. Samson thinks he's pursuing his own desires, but God is quietly using those events to provoke conflict with Israel's oppressors.
00:04:35
Speaker 2: God's lens is different.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: God's purposes move forward, even though Samson's flawed motivations don't. The wedding story quickly turns into betrayal and violence. Samson's reddle leads to deception. His bride betrays him. Samson responds with revenge. Thirty men are killed, feels or burned. Entire regions suffer devastation, and Samson justifies it by saying, now I have a right to get even no sense of a bigger calling, Samson begins to look less like a servant of God and more like the violent gods worshiped by Israel's neighbors and frankly Israel. Here the narrative takes a surprising turn. After Samson defeats Philistine forces, we expect Israel to rally behind him. I mean, that's what happened earlier with earlier judges, like Deborah with Gideon. But that never happens in this story. Instead, the people of Judah gather three thousand men not to fight the enemy, but to arrest Samson. They hand their own deliverer over to the Philistines. By the way, does that sound familiar to the Ultimate Deliverer? Yeah, it's kind of parallel, if you're with me. Israel has become so accustomed to oppression that they prefer oppression to freedom. After defeating a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, Samson sings a victory song for sixteen.
00:06:10
Speaker 2: But something's missing, can you tell? See?
00:06:15
Speaker 1: Unlike the songs of Moses or Deborah, Samson never mentions God.
00:06:22
Speaker 2: He celebrates his own strength. You know.
00:06:25
Speaker 1: The only time Samson prays is afterwards, when he becomes thirsty. You know, God, I need this, He asked God for water. God becomes something like a celestial assistant for this great Man, provide what he needs, meet his requests. Boy, that sounds uncomfortably familiar to me and probably to.
00:06:48
Speaker 2: You and many of us.
00:06:50
Speaker 1: Episode two, The Prostitute of Gaza, the pattern repeats. Samson again travels into enemy territory. Again, there is a conspiracy against them. Again, God gives them supernatural strength. He tears the massive gauge from the city of Gaza and carries it up the hill. It's a stunning act of power, and once again uninspiring. Uninspired Israel, who's doing their own thing, does nothing, so the opportunity for victory passes by no inspiration. Episode three Delilah. The final episode is the most famous. Samson falls in love with Delilah. She is recruited by Pelistine leaders to discover the secret of his strength. Three times she asks, three times, Samson deceives her. Finally, he reveals the truth. His strength is connected to his Nazarite calling. His hair is cut, strength disappears, and Judges tells us something chilling. He did not know that the Lord had left him. Samson was so spiritually disconnected right unaware of God's presence and power, that he couldn't even recognize when God's presence had departed. All right, I'd like to judge him for this, but I am learning. I do that every days.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, I pray in the morning.
00:08:14
Speaker 1: Okay, God, right now Ephesian three, give me power through the Holy Spirit of my inner being, so that I can begin to experience the love of Christ for myself and for others. Because I'm like Samson, I kind of live spiritually disconnected, and the Holy Spirit is in me. There's something wrong up here. I mean, I need rewiring. I imagine you would agree that you could use some of that as well. The final act, Samson is blinded, enslaved, humiliated, but in the final scene he prays for the first time in the narrative, Samson calls out. It looks like and I think so. He calls out sincerely to God. God grants him strength one last time. Samson brings down the Philistine Temple. Three thousand people perish, and Samson dies with them. A beginning, remember not the end. Remember the Angel's word. At the beginning of the story, Sampson would begin Israel's deliverance right there. He wouldn't finish it. The final deliverance would come through someone else, another miraculous birth, another promised child, but this one would live in perfect alignment with the father.
00:09:31
Speaker 2: With God.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: He wouldn't pursue his own desires, only the fathers. He would say, not my will, Father, but yours be.
00:09:38
Speaker 2: Done to him.
00:09:40
Speaker 1: The real victory would finally come. Final reflection, Samson's story forces us to ask some difficult questions. Here is an unworthy savior with mommy and daddy issues, likely all kind of core wounds, attachment wounds, so much so that he has one huge acting out. He is isolated, alone, really longing for love. I have to believe that not an evil kid, just a needy, cracked empty cup.
00:10:12
Speaker 2: God was so.
00:10:13
Speaker 1: Close but he couldn't see. Many of us should relate to Samson honestly, not the long hair of the strength, oh baby, but the neediness and the blindness to see the God who pursues and fills empty cups with life. God right there, right in our inner being. Paul says that Ephesians three, So instead of asking are you living according to what seems right in your own eyes? I'm going to ask you, can you begin to see the reason that you and I are living according to what seems right in our own eyes. We've been doing it for so long we don't recognize that it's a tell that we are more empty, more lonely, more wounded than we know or want to imagine. If you realize that, I'm going to suggest that it's a sign that God is pursuing you right now.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: Stop, stop where you are, and ask God for his power.
00:11:09
Speaker 1: Read Efesion three fourteen to twenty one, over and over. Ask God to give you his power through the spirit and your inner being, so that you can begin to experience, like me, the height and with the linkeodin depth of the love of Christ for you and for others. That's what Samson really needed. That's the moral of the story. Of all of the actual judges, they were each reflections of the people who were so close to God but would never look up. But the good news of the Gospel is the final Deliverer, the final Judge has already come and the victory Samson could only begin, Jesus has finished. Yeah, what's next. I'll let you know after this brief.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: Word from our sponsors. Well.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: As I said in the last podcast and YouTube show, good Enough, Christian is Out. It's a sequel to good enough parent. Here's the back cover. I beg you just to listen, be patient. Why so many Christians feel stuck and how to experience more? Are you a Christian who believes the Gospel but doesn't feel loved by God? No, my, you're not alone. If you've ever felt spiritually stuck. If you've quietly wondered why the abundant life Jesus promised feels out of reach. If you've sat in church hoping to feel loved, yet left unchanged. If you haven't felt that inner stirring for a long while, maybe you've already left church for well, you know, lots of reasons. The pattern is unmistakable, sincere Christians who love Jesus but feel stalled in their faith, not rebellious, not apathetic, wondering if they've somehow become a disappointment to God. With warmth, honesty, biblical depth, and disarming humor, this book invites readers into a shame free exploration of why so many believers struggle to experience the love of Jesus, not just believe it intellectually. You'll discover why feeling spiritually underwhelmed is more common than you think. Hidden obstacles that dull are experience of God's love. The role of the Holy Spirit in making Christ's love real, not theoretical how your brain background and church culture shape your faith. Experience a gentler, more grace saturated path forward. So look, this is not another cry to try harder. It's not a shame or guiltrip. It's an invitation to experience more. If you've ever wanted to ask without shame, what does the love of Jesus actually feel like?
00:13:48
Speaker 2: This book is written for you. Welcome to good enough Christian.
00:13:52
Speaker 1: So look, check it out, Get it to your church, your pastor, your youth group, your Bible studies, use it in devotion group. Yeah, they will thank you. Closing, thanks for listening to Breaking Bad. Next time we'll move towards the final chapter of Judges, stories that showed just how far Israel had fallen and why the people would soon cry out for a king. But even that king would not ultimately solve the problem, because what humanity truly needs as a savior.
00:14:24
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time. Take heart, child of God.
