Saturday, July 01, 2023

SIULAI 1, 2023

Skirt-Chasing  Sunny Boy  שמשון  

Ko e ki’i tangata na’e vaivai ki he fefine


JUDGES 13:24-25

AND THE WOMAN BORE A SON AND CALLED HIS NAME SAMSON. AND THE YOUNG MAN GREW, AND THE LORD BLESSED HIM, AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD BEGAN TO STIR HIM IN MAHANEH - DAN, BETWEEN ZORAH AND ESHTAOL.


FAKAMAAU 13:24-25

Pea fā‘ele‘i ‘e he fefine ha tama tangata, ‘o ne fakahingoa ko Samisoni: pea na‘e tupu ‘a e tamasi‘i, pea na‘e tāpuaki‘i ia ‘e he ‘Eiki. Pea kamata ‘e he Laumālie ‘o Sihova ke o‘i ia ‘i ‘Apitanga-Tani, ‘i he vaha‘a ‘o Sola mo ‘Esitaoli.


The English spelling of biblical names is usually derived from Greek and Latin  translations, so they often don't sound like the original Hebrew, Samson is a case in point. In Hebrew, his name is Shimshon, which is a diminutive form of shemesh ("sun"). Samson is Sunny Boy. But the bright hopes attached to Shimshon were often eclipsed by his lunatic addiction to skirt-chasing.


Samson was a weak, strong man. 

A weak, strong man was he. 

Just one hot-bodied damsel 

Could squash him like a flea. 


Shimshon's lust and power were his undoing - the chinks in the armor of many a man. Blessed and Spirit-driven, he was simultaneously cursed and passion-driven. Saint and sinner, a motley mixture of divine weal and human woe. Sunny Boy, like all of us self-destructive mortals, stood in need of the rays of mercy that shine from Sun of righteousness,the Messiah, who rises with healing in his wings (Mal. 4:2).


O Lord God, our sun and shield, bestow favor and honor upon us (Ps. 84:11).


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