Therre are no strong people (by Jeff Lucas)

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It’s ten years since I read Jeff Lucas’s book ‘There are no strong people’. I recalled being somewhat disappointed when I first read it. Jeff Lucas, a British pastor who lives mostly in the United States, usually writes more light-hearted content. Most of his books contain self-deprecating anecdotes and wry observations alongside thoughts from the Bible and thought-provoking commentary.

This one, however, is more serious. But I decided to read it again, having forgotten what it was about and what was said. As so often happens, I found that I liked it rather more this time around.

The book is about the story of Samson, as given in the book of Judges, chapters 13-16. It’s divided into four sections, and each one starts with a couple of pages quoted directly from Judges. The author suggests that the reader read each biblical quotation thoughtfully, even if one is familiar with it already, and then perhaps read it again. I thought this was good advice.

The bulk of the book is then commentary on the text, and it’s quite extensive: each broader section is divided into four or five chapters, each with around ten pages. It was easy to read a chapter - or sometimes a bit more - each day, and there’s plenty to think about. 

Samson is a very strange character, and reading Jeff Lucas’s book made me realise just how unusual he was, even amongst a rather varied crew of Old Testament heroes. I do think the author makes a few assumptions which he treats as absolutes - that Samson’s father was somewhat downtrodden, for instance, because it was his wife who received the angelic message that she was going to have a baby who would be a ‘nazarite’ from birth. 

However, I hadn’t really thought about the fact that a nazirite vow is something that an individual used to commit to for a fixed period; there don’t seem to be any other instances where parents are told that their son must be a nazirite from birth. Samson’s uncut hair is a well-known feature of his life, and that’s one part of the vow which he evidently kept. 

We don’t know if he abstained from alcohol (again, Jeff Lucas assumes that when he hosted a large feast, there would have been alcohol flowing - but the Bible doesn’t state that Samson actually drank any). On the other hand, we do know that he touched the corpse of a lion, and of many of the people he killed. 

Samson’s unusual strength is a well-known feature, one which, for some reason, relied on his hair being uncut. And his behaviour as a young man is quite boorish - perhaps killing a lion was to save his own skin, but his demand for a heathen woman sounds very self-centred. And this despite his parents’ advice, and without having even met the women whose looks caught his fancy. 

It’s an interesting book, and while I didn’t agree with all the author’s assumptions, he makes a lot of good points. Samson is more than a flawed hero; indeed he doesn’t seem to do much that’s heroic at all, at least until the end when his strength has been sapped and his eyesight destroyed. 

In one sense it’s encouraging that God can use the most unlikely people for his purposes. It’s also a warning that being called does not mean that someone always follows the paths they are supposed to. And Samson doesn’t appear to have any sense that he’s done anything wrong. Perhaps he was somewhat spoiled as a child, or perhaps his personality is what we might call ‘entitled’ today. He doesn’t come across as an appealing person; yet he’s still included in the list of ‘judges’ who ruled Israel for a couple of decades.

The book isn’t in Jeff Lucas’s usual style, but it’s very well written and gives a lot to ponder. I’m very glad I decided to read it again.  And that despite the weird layout of the book with some huge typed sentences, apparently at random. I disliked that intently the first time I read it. This time I mostly ignored it. 

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