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Samson, part 2 (final)

Samson’s seven locks of hair represented horns. Horns themselves represent power or strength. Men had observed that the power of an ox lay in his horns. So also, crowns (diadems) were constructed with horns on top, signifying that the king was given the power to rule.

Samson was a man of great strength, but he had no crown that was manmade. His horned crown was his hair with seven locks. When these were cut, he lost his strength. He also lost the glory of God, setting the pattern for the seven churches in the Age of Pentecost. This foreshadowed the failure of Pentecost itself, for it showed how Pentecost, though a genuine feast of the Lord, was inadequate to the task of bringing righteousness to the earth. It requires the strength of the feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) to accomplish this worthy goal.

Samson’s Death

Samson is listed as a man of faith in Hebrews 11:32, although Scripture openly records his weakness, as well as his apparent failure toward the end of his life and ministry. When his eyes were put out by the Philistines (Judges 16:21), he manifested the blindness upon Israel and its prophets (Isaiah 29:10).

Paul speaks of their “blindness in part” (Romans 11:25 KJV). This blindness again afflicted the last of the seven churches toward the end of the Age of Pentecost, where Christ admonished the believers for not even realizing that they were blind (Revelation 3:17).

In spite of Samson’s weakness, he was still a man of faith. Though he was unable to deliver the Israelites, he prepared the way for Samuel to deliver Israel. Samson’s final act of faith was accomplished because his hair began to grow back (Judges 16:22). When he was brought to the temple to be mocked and scorned, he appealed to the law in Judges 16:28,

²⁸ Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”

This was no mere “vengeance,” as men would view it. Biblical vengeance is a restoration of justice that negates the injustices of men. In this case, Samson appealed to the law found in Exodus 21:26,

²⁶ If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

There was no man who could set Samson free for the sake of his eyes, so he appealed to God for justice. God then set him free, though he died as well, for he had prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines” (Judges 16:30).

The Philistines, being ignorant of the law of God, put out Samson’s eyes after they had captured him. When the Philistines took authority over Samson and made him their servant, they became responsible to treat him without abuse. When they put out his eyes, they became liable by law to set him free, but they failed to do this. Samson remembered the law and appealed to the divine court. God gave him justice.

The Word of Faith

The Laodicean Age is characterized by the rise of the faith movement. One can list dozens of well-known men and women of faith in the past century, who have done many mighty works of strength during an age of overall partial blindness. The Laodicean Age is the time of the Church of Captivity to Mystery Babylon, correlating with the seventh church of the Old Testament, which also was carried to Babylon.

Recall too that when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, they “put out the eyes of Zedekiah,” the last king of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:7). Zedekiah represented the people themselves, and his blindness prophesied of the people’s blindness during their captivity. This, then, correlates with Samson’s own blindness. The only difference is that Samson was a man of faith, while there is no biblical evidence that Zedekiah had faith. Faith comes by hearing. Zedekiah had refused to hear the word of the Lord.

The Word of Faith movement arose in the 1970’s as well, which called upon the people to believe what God has promised and to confess His word. This principle is often abused, misapplied, and misunderstood; nonetheless, done properly, it is the core of Samson’s strength and the strength of the church and ought not to be despised.

When Samson prayed to be delivered for the sake of his eyes, he was appealing to the law, not as a commandment as such, but as a promise of God. He was manifesting a New Covenant perspective of the law. He did not command God to set Him free; he reminded God of His own word and applied it as a promise of God.

Samson received strength in the end to accomplish the negative side of his calling. He judged the Philistines, though he could not deliver Israel directly. In my view, this speaks into the principle of overcomers who are of the feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost, being insufficient, fails to deliver, and those who fail to achieve the anointing of Tabernacles will remain mortal at the time of the first resurrection.

The overcomers will receive aionian life, “life in The Age,” but the church as a whole will have to wait until the general resurrection to receive immortality (John 5:28, 29). This, I believe, is the meaning of Samson’s death, as well as the death of King Saul, who was also a type of the church in the Age of Pentecost. See my book, The Purpose of Resurrection.

The Blind Church

The original church in the wilderness under Moses was blind as well. At the end of their wilderness journey, Moses told them in Deuteronomy 29:4,

⁴ Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

This blindness was in spite of all the miracles that the people saw. Miracles often convince people of God’s existence, but faith comes by hearing the word (Romans 10:17). Miracles are good, but we must also recognize their limited effect. The example of Israel shows how men may see—and even believe—the miraculous, while yet remaining blind and deaf to the word of God. In my view it takes an anointing of Tabernacles to heal blindness.

The Laodicean Age brought captivity at the height of the Pentecostal movement in the early 1900’s. In fact, I believe that God poured out His Spirit at that time partly to instill strength into the church to encourage the church during their time of captivity, and partly (if it were possible) to give the church the opportunity to avoid captivity altogether.

As history shows, the church did not avoid this captivity, in spite of this great revival, for they fell back into the sin of asking for a king—the reason why God anointed Saul to be Israel’s king (1 Samuel 12:17). So too, the Pentecostals a century ago formed denominations from 1909-1914, preferring to be ruled by men rather than directly by God. For this reason, God empowered the Babylonians to enslave us through the Federal Reserve Act in December 1913.

These Babylonians then set up an extended program to remove God from government, education, and public life in general. They changed the educational system from its focus on education to a system of programming the minds of the children to enculturate Babylonian morals and principles.

In essence, the Babylonians have put out the eyes of the church (and everyone else as well). This has reached its culmination point in 2023-2024 just before the final collapse of Mystery Babylon’s temple. Babylon is being exposed and is no longer a “mystery.” The church is now finally appealing to God for deliverance for the sake of its two eyes. The Samson pattern is now nearly complete.