- Sounds like Mary: An angel came to Samson's mother and announced his conception. The angel also issued instructions to raise him as a Nazirite (long hair & no alcohol). When she described the angel to her husband, she described him as "terror laced with glory" (Judges 13:6-7). They made offerings on an altar, and the angel ascended in the flames of the altar. Wow! I don't remember ever hearing that story before.
- Samson fell in love with a Philistine girl, which was forbidden. But God was behind it, Scripture says, arranging an opportunity to go against the Philistines (Judges 14:4). God works in mysterious ways.
- Samson judged Israel for 20 years, so along with his amazing exploits (the lion & honey incident, the jawbone incident, the wife actually going to his best man incident, the city gate incident), he must have been a wise and just man. When he died by bringing down a large building with his bare hands, he killed 3000 Philistines at the same time.
- Chaos: "In those days there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing" (Judges 17:6).
- Phinehas is still around? Aaron's grandson, Phinehas, was still the priest when the Israelites began a civil war with the tribe of Benjamin, which came about as the result of a brutal rape in the town of Gibeah. (Gibeah was a Benjaminite town, but it sounded exactly like Gomorrah). As a result of the war, 25,000 Benjaminites were killed. "God routed them" (Judges 20:34-36).
Elena's verse of the day: "In those days Israel wasn't ruled by a king, and everyone did what they thought was right" (Judges 17:6 & 21:25).
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