Transcript Samson
“Lesson 25: Samson,” Primary 6: Old
Testament, (1996),110
I need a volunteer who can
demonstrate how to flex muscles!
Now everyone else, try to
see if you can feel your own
muscles.
How do muscles help us?
What happens when we exercise our
muscles and what happens when we do
not use them?
Exercise helps us develop strong muscles.
Our spirits also need to
grow stronger.
How can we become
stronger spiritually?
By keeping our baptismal
covenants, obeying our
parents, praying, attending
church, reading the
scriptures, and so on.
Why is it important to
become spiritually strong?
So we can avoid temptation,
be guided in our decisions
by the Holy Ghost, and
know good from evil.
We need to develop
spiritual strength just as we
need to develop physical
strength.
In this lesson we will learn about
Samson.
He was a judge in
Israel who could
have been one of
the greatest
leaders in Israel if
he had remained
faithful to his vows
with the Lord.
The story of Samson shows he
had great courage and physical
strength.
Samson’s
remarkable
strength was a
gift from God for
the covenant
Samson made.
Gideon
lived a
good long life.
But after he
died, Israel
turned away
from God again.
Soon
they were captured by the
Philistines. Philistines worshipped
false gods.
Why were the
Philistines
able to defeat
the children
of Israel?
Let’s read
Judges 13:1
The Israelites had become spiritually
weak.
There
was a man named Manoah
whose wife was unable to have
children.
An angel appeared to her and told her
she would have a son. He would
begin to deliver the Israelites from the
Philistines.
The angel told her not to drink any
wine or strong drink and not to eat
anything unclean.
She
was told her son would be a
Nazarite while still in her womb.
Nazarites made a covenant to
separate themselves from the things
of the world and become holy unto
the Lord. As part of this covenant,
each Nazarite made a vow not to drink
alcoholic drinks or cut his hair
(see Numbers 6:2–6, 8;
“Nazarite” in the LDS Bible Dictionary [p. 737]).
What message
did an angel of
the Lord give to
Manoah’s wife?
Let’s read
Judges 13:3–5
What did the
angel say her
son would be
called to do?
Manoah’s
wife went to her husband and
told him what the angel had said to her.
Manoah
prayed to
God that the
angel would come
back to them to
teach them how
to raise the child.
The
angel returned and told them to do
exactly as she had previously been told.
When Manoah heard what the angel
told his wife, what did he do that
showed he had spiritual strength?
Let’s read
Judges 13:8
How can prayer
help us develop
greater spiritual
strength?
Judges 13:24:
And the woman bare
a son, and called his name Samson:
and the child grew, and the Lord
blessed him.
When
Samson kept his covenants he
was blessed with the ability to help his
people, but when he broke his
covenants he lost both his spiritual
and physical strength.
Samson
grew up to be an incredibly
strong man. He was called by the
Lord to help free the Israelites from
the Philistines.
The Lord made a covenant with
Samson that as long as he obeyed
the Lord, he would be physically
strong.
Samson’s long hair (Judges 13:5) was a sign
of this covenant.
The
angel had told his mother that her
son “shall begin to deliver Israel out of the
hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5 ).
When he was a young man,
he was attacked by a lion.
He killed it with his bare
hands.
He
used the jawbone of a
donkey to kill 1,000
Philistine soldiers.
Samson was able to
use his physical
strength many times
to protect himself
and to fight against
the Philistines.
Where did Samson
get this physical
strength?
Let’s read Judges 14:5–6; 15:13–14
The Lord blessed Samson with
physical strength to accomplish his
mission.
When Samson kept his covenants
and was strong spiritually, he was
blessed with this physical strength.
How are we blessed when we keep
our covenants and are spiritually
strong?
I have written a note to each of
you about a strength I have
noticed in each of you. Don’t read
it until you are by yourself.
Heavenly Father needs us to use
these strengths to serve him and
to serve others.
Enrichment Activity #4
Without naming any names, these
are some of the strengths Heavenly
Father has blessed you with that I
have noticed.
Mention other strengths you have
observed in other class members.
Develop these and other strengths
during the coming week.
Enrichment Activity #4
Samson
served
as a judge in
Israel for
twenty years.
He
fell in love with a woman
named Delilah. He didn’t know
that the Philistines had offered her
a lot of money to trick him to
find out the secret to his strength.
What did the Philistines offer
Delilah if she would help them
capture Samson?
Let’s read Judges 16:4–5
Why do you think people are
sometimes tempted to do wrong
for money?
How can we avoid being tempted
by riches?
Although
she begged him, Samson
wouldn’t tell her.
Finally, after she
told him he
didn’t love her or
he would share
his secret, he told
her that it was his
vow to God.
He never cut his hair or his strength
would go.
Delilah
told the
Philistines and
while he slept, they
cut his hair off.
Samson’s strength
was gone.
The Philistines tied
him up and
blinded him.
Why did Samson finally give in and tell
Delilah the secret of his strength?
Let’s read Judges 16:16
Why did Samson lose his strength?
Let’s read Judges 16:19–20
Samson’s strength was not actually in
his hair. His hair was a sign of his
covenant with the Lord. When Samson
broke his covenant by sinning, the Lord
took away his physical strength. (See
“Samson” in the LDS Bible Dictionary [p. 768].)
Samson
was
taken to the
prison house
and forced to
grind wheat at
the prison’s mill.
He
had been a man of great strength,
but had broken his vows with the
Lord. When he broke his vow, his
strength left him.
While
Samson was in prison his hair
began to grow again. Samson
renewed his vows with the Lord.
The Philistines threw
a big party where
they showed off the
captured Samson.
Samson prayed that
the Lord would
return his strength.
Samson
asked a boy
there to guide him
to the main
columns of the
building they were
in so he could lean
against them.
Samson pushed
hard against them.
The roof fell in and everyone inside was
killed including Samson.
What did the Philistines do to Samson
after they captured him?
Let’s read Judges 16:21
Later, when they brought
him out of prison for
their own amusement
and ridicule, what did
Samson pray for?
Let’s read Judges
16:28
Which kind of strength is more
important, physical or spiritual?
Why?
It is good to be strong physically, but it is
much more important to be strong
spiritually.
Some people are unable to develop
physical strength, but anyone who tries
can develop spiritual strength by keeping
covenants and obeying commandments.
What happens when
people become
spiritually weak?
They give in to temptations, they
sin, they lose the guidance of the
Holy Ghost, and they lose the
ability to fulfill their callings and
bless others.
How can we
develop the
spiritual
strength we
need to live the
way Heavenly
Father and Jesus
Christ want us to
live?
I’ll write your
answers on the
board.
Enrichment Activity #1
Now that you have a few ideas
I want you to write “I can be
stronger spiritually by:”
Then write down one or more “spiritual
muscles” you would like to “exercise,”
or ideas you would like to work on,
during the coming week.
Put the paper where you will be able to
see it often.
Enrichment Activity #1
Choose one of the
ideas from the board
and either act it out
or draw it on the
chalkboard.
The others will try to
guess which idea it is!
Enrichment Activity #2
Samson made a
covenant with the
Lord but did not
keep it.
What covenants did
you make with
Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ when
you were baptized?
Let’s read Mosiah 18:8–10
Enrichment Activity #3
How does keeping these covenants
help us be spiritually strong?
You will make covenants when you
go to the temple. Making and
keeping these covenants provides
great spiritual strength in our lives.
Prepare now for this great blessing
by keeping the covenants you have
already made.
Enrichment Activity #3
Adam & Eve
Joseph
How
Noah
Moses
Abraham
Joshua
Rebekah
Gideon
were these people were
spiritually strong?
Enrichment Activity #5
Next, we have a
special guest who will
share an experience
with us that helped
develop spiritual
strength.
Enrichment Activity #6
The Lord needs valiant servants,
To do his work in the latter day,
Who follow the teachings of Jesus
And serve his people in a loving way.
I will be his servant
And keep my cov’nants valiantly.
I’ll stand for truth. I’ll stand for right.
The Lord can depend on me.
Words and music: Vanja Y. Watkins, b. 1938. © 1981 IRI
Enrichment Activity #7
I testify to you of
the importance
of developing
spiritual strength
and living so that
we can someday
return to be with
Heavenly Father
and Jesus Christ.
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