# David or Samson?



## jjraby (Mar 3, 2011)

Do you think junior high boys, mostly, would enjoy and get more out of a study of the life of David or Samson?


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## JonathanHunt (Mar 3, 2011)

That depends on how much detail you are wanting to go into... I would be tending, with children , towards David, with his one major flaw, rather than Samson (man of faith though he assuredly was and is!) with his many.

But would boys enjoy Samson? Yup.


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## Andres (Mar 3, 2011)

how long is the study? Obviously the scriptures reveal much more about the life of David, so I would think that could cover several lessons compared to Samson.


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## jjraby (Mar 3, 2011)

I have no time limit really i could do as many or as little as i wanted on either one.


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## Andres (Mar 3, 2011)

jjraby said:


> I have no time limit really i could do as many or as little as i wanted on either one.


 
then do Samson first for a lesson or two and then David.


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## Jack K (Mar 3, 2011)

A study on the life of Samson should not be primarily a character study, but rather a study on the ways of God and how he uses even deeply flawed people and circumstances to fit his purposes. The text says as much: "It was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines" (Judges 14:4). The Bible's chief purpose here is to show how far Israel has fallen as a nation and how God is starting to turn this around: "He shall begin to save Israel" (Judges 13:5). The account is not as much concerned with Samson as a person living life with God as it is with Samson as God's tool in the world. That's something to keep in mind as you decide.

On the other hand, David's life as a man in relationship with God is much more fleshed out. To be sure, we must also study his life first of all as the story of God's work in the world. But it's still right to look at David as an example of a servant of God (worshiper, warrior, shepherd king, repenter), with a depth that just doesn't work with Samson. The David account allows this, while the Samson account is not really presented in a way that lets us take such an approach.


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## JonathanHunt (Mar 3, 2011)

I have done a four part study on Samson (admittedly for adults) based on the four chapters in Judges wherein his record dwelleth!


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## Joseph Scibbe (Mar 3, 2011)

Couldn't you do both? I say do both. Boys love cool blood and guts stuff and there is plenty in both to keep them paying attention.


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## TimV (Mar 3, 2011)

Sampson was one of the greatest men of faith in history. A man who truly love the Lord his God. A man who was selected by God Himself to judge His people. Getting drunk and sleeping with an unmarried woman to whom he wasn't married doesn't carry any more penalty under Biblical law than hitting yourself with a hammer and cussing God, and arguably less.

32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Sampson is a great role model for young men. Especially in our wussie culture.


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