Like many children’s Sunday groups this summer using Scripture Union’s Light material, we have explored the stories of Deborah, Gideon and Samson. Not exactly the easiest of stories but it’s been a good learning experience for me – and for the children too, I trust! How has our faith deepened? What about Samson?
The 6- to 9-year-olds performed various actions as I read the story from the Contemporary English Version, but the session really came alive when one child asked how Samson managed to kill a lion with his bare hands. The Bible text says that the Spirit of the Lord came on him in power so that he tore the lion with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat (Judges 14:6) but I asked them how they would have done it if they had been Samson. Suddenly they were bubbling with dramatic possibilities. Disappointingly, three girls said they would scream and run away. The two other girls present were more forceful! The boys were far from squeamish: ‘Strangle him!’, ‘Poke out his eyes!’, ‘Throw a giant rock at his head!’, ‘Smash his head with a log!’, ‘Stab him in the heart!’
Then they fought the Philistines, had their hair bound and cut off and then pulled the pillars in the temple of the god Dagon so that the roof collapsed. I told them everyone was dead, hoping no child would want to explore Samson’s revenge. Lying on the floor, flattened by the roof, one child piped up, ‘What happened to Samson, then?’ Was there no happy ending? Was the hero meant to survive? How could they understand that Samson was the means whereby God punished the vindictive Philistines, who had brought misery to his people for centuries?
Samson had misused the gift of strength God had given him. We briefly thought about that and how we could wisely use what gifts God has given us, which I think is a legitimate application. But I was left with three other reflections.
- With older children, I would have talked about how God sometimes uses the wrong that people do for his own purposes in the interests of justice. There is lots of unfairness in the Bible. Why do the unrighteous flourish? Ultimately, why was Jesus killed? But with 6-year-olds, I did not want to go there. Samson is such an unattractive character. We have to consider the age and maturity of children in our groups.
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Boys and some girls love action and fighting. We don’t have fights or wrestling in the group but this was a story the boys really loved. Take note!
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Sometimes, being a Christian we are called to behave differently from our peers. Should I have challenged the girls that running away from a lion was not an option? Sometimes we have to stand up for the right thing however tough and scary. How far is it my role to challenge stereotypes? How far is it my role to prepare children, as lifelong followers of Jesus Christ, to bravely stand up and be counted, now and in the future?
Did Samson strangle the lion first before tearing him apart, or was the lion killed by the tearing process? I must go to London Zoo to find out more, only in a zoo there is more likelihood of the lion being triumphant. Remember Albert!
Anna Giles is a children’s worker in North London
Image: ‘Abbaye de la Sauve Majeure – Samson and the Lion‘ by Ophelia2 – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
