The Vicious Circle

What may serve to elucidate the choice of leadership during this period is not to view the judges simply as leaders, but as paradigms of the people of Israel. Samson is one such example.

The Book of Judges is built around a recurrent theme: Israel does evil, God is angry, He raises up enemies to punish them, they repent, a judge is chosen to save them, ushering in a brief period of peace, followed by a repeat performance of the entire cycle.

Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis suggests that Samson epitomizes this cycle:

He, like Israel, is a special child of God. He also is, like Israel, immature, opportunistic, rash. His weakness for women culminates in the loss of strength through the wiles of Delilah – like Israel; he has played the harlot once too often. He is enticed, as Israel is enticed, the source of his strength is taken from him, as God, the strength of Israel removes Himself to punish the Israelites; he is overcome, bound, and subdued, as Israel is sold into the power of her enemies and driven into the hills and mountains. Samson's blindness seems to symbolize and crystallize the blindness of Israel when it gives in to temptation and weakness and does evil in the sight of the Lord. Samson suffers literally the darkness which the Israelites suffer figuratively when they turn away from God and are forced to live in caves and dens, when their highways are unoccupied, their villages empty. But as the strength and favor of God are renewed repeatedly to the Israelites, so Samson's God-given strength returns in a natural manner; indeed, so natural is the return – The hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved – that it suggests like the coming of dawn after night how natural it is for God to give Israel new strength against its enemies.

Although Samson himself meets a brutal end, his saga serves as an inspirational model for the people of Israel. God will not utterly abandon them in their time of greatest need. He will overlook their blind spots, renew their sources of strength, and bring them unexpected salvation.