Sampson and Gideon

Both Stories start with Oppression

Did evil in the sight of the Lord (sin and disobedience of the law)

Judges 6:1 NRSV

1 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Judges 13:1 NRSV

1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

God is on the side of the oppressed

Sin

Not being ourselves, not taking risks, becoming victims.

Both Judges Receive a Calling

Sampson’s calling from birth, to be keep the Nazarite vow and deliver Israelites from the hand of Philistines

Judges 6:11–12 NRSV

11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.”

Judges 6

Judges 13:5 NRSV

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.”

13:5

Gideon’s calling as he was hiding “to deliver Israel from the hand of the Midian”

God calls you

Both Judges have Weaknesses

Sampson’s was Lust

Gideon’s was Doubt and Attitude

Both Judges are used by God Regardless

The Spirit goes upon both of them at the time of Battle

Judges 14:6 NRSV

6 The spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and he tore the lion apart barehanded as one might tear apart a kid. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

Judges 15:14 NRSV

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.

Judges 6:34 NRSV

34 But the spirit of the Lord took possession of Gideon; and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him.

Judges

Jesus brakes the Cycle of Oppression

His