Powerpoint Pictures: Superman; Hulk; Mr Incredible; Wolverine; Iron Man; He-Man

Name the Superhero [Superman; Hulk; Mr Incredible; Wolverine; Iron Man; He-Man].

What do they each have in common? [Super Strength].

We pick up the Big Bible Adventure with the Israelites in the slavery again because they didn’t obey God, this time to the Philistines.

They needed a rescuer and again God provided one.  Not just anyone.  A real life superhero with super strength because God was with him.

His name was Samson.

Samson was so strong he could kill a lion with his bare hands and 3000 Philistines with a donkey’s jaw bone.

No matter how hard they tried, the Philistines could not capture or defeat Samson.

Now it just so happened that there was a woman called Delilah whom Samson loved.  The leaders of the Philistines went to her and said they would give her loads of money if she could find out what made Samson so strong.

So Delilah started scheming, nagging, doing whatever she could to get Samson to tell her the secret of his strength.  Eventually she wore him down and he blabbed it out.

“If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would  become as weak as any other man.” (Judges 16:17)

Can you guess what happened next?

She called a man to cut his hair as he did, Samson’s strength left him and the Philistines were able to capture him.

This made the Philistines so happy they held a party to celebrate.  As they partied and laughed at Samson’s expense, they failed to notice that Samson’s hair had begun to grow back.

As Samson stood between two pillars, he prayed to God to give him strength one last time.  Pressing hard against the two pillars, his strength returned and pushing the pillars over the whole building came down killing Samson and all the Philistines inside.

By his death Samson defeated the Philistines.

Israel may have been saved, but they needed a leader again.