their hopes and dreams in the capable hands of God.
But when Joshua dies, that faith seems to die with him. Generations of Israelites forget their covenant with the Lord, turning to other gods to meet their needs--gods of rain and fertility, gods of the previous inhabitants of the Promised Land.
God is grieved by this betrayal. He reminds the Israelites of the covenant with Abraham, and that the
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Promised Land is a gift that must be cherished. God uses hard, powerful armies to attack the Israelites, as a father disciplines his son.
The cycle will be repeated for hundreds of years: the Israelites break their covenant; God sends foreign armies to oppress them; they learn the lesson and cry out for help; God then raises a deliverer or "judge" to save them; and, once again, the land enjoys peace, until a future generation forgets God.
The Philistines are more powerful than all the foreign enemies that have subdued the rebellious Israelites to this point in history. They soon conquer the Israelites and claim much of the Promised Land for themselves. Yet God has not deserted his chosen people. He longs to renew his covenant with the Israelites and return to them the Promised Land.
It is 150 years since the death of Joshua. The Philistines control the coastal regions of the Promised Land. Despite being oppressed by them, some Israelites find their ways appealing. Some have even stopped worshipping the God of Abraham and instead choose to bow down to Philistine gods.
One day, an angel of the Lord appears to a woman
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as she draws water from the village well. Though she prays daily for a child, her faith has not been rewarded.
"Do not be afraid," he tells her. "God will give you a son."
She is speechless as the angel suddenly disappears from her sight.
Then he stands behind her and informs her that there are conditions to this childbirth: "See to it that when your son is born, no razor may be used on his head. This will be the sign that the boy is given to God."
Unable to find words, she nods in agreement.
The boy is soon born and given the name Samson. By the age of eight, he knows the story of the angel by heart. His mother believes that he is destined to free the Israelites from the Philistines.
Ten years pass. Samson is a young man now, with a thick head of hair that flows in great, powerful locks, just as the angel requested. He is renowned for his feats of strength, like killing a lion with his bare hands. Some say there is no more powerful man in all of Israel. But Samson does nothing to free the Israelites from Philistine rule. That is, until one of them murders his wife.
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The first to feel Samson's wrath is a Philistine guard standing watch near an alley. Unable to control his rage, Samson bursts into the barracks housing Philistine soldiers, brandishing a wooden club. He is instantly attacked by a half-dozen armed men, but he swats them away. Soldiers are thrown over the balcony into the courtyard below, and then Samson moves into the jail, opening the cells to release their Israelite prisoners. Just as on that great day when Joshua and the Israelite army laid waste to Jericho, Samson kills every Philistine in sight before storming into the night.
A shadow falls across the entrance to a cave situated high atop a steep cliff far outside town. A frightening and precarious path leads to this cave.
Samson's aging mother now bravely makes the climb, accompanied by an elder named Elan and a small crowd of Israelites. They make their way upward, breathing hard from the effort, and take care not to look back down to the valley floor. Small rocks clatter down the slope from 68 above, causing them to press their bodies into the face to avoid being hit.
At last, they reach the cave.
Samson's mother calls out, "Samson? Are you there, son?"
"Mother," Samson says as he emerges from the shadows. He towers over the Israelites, who now back away from him in fear. The depth of Samson's grief shows on his lined and weary face. There is a wild look to his eyes, and in the confines of the small cave Samson looks even more imposing than ever before. His long, thick hair rolls down onto his shoulders like a mane.
He looks capable of killing every man, woman, and child in the land to avenge his wife.
"You must stop the killing, Samson. Please--for the