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TheologyFred SmithThe deeply flawed Old Testament “hero” was set apart for a very specific purpose.View IssueSubscribeGive a GiftArchivesJonathan BartlettGrowing up in church as a scrawny kid, I was captured by stories of David slaying Goliath, Gideon defeating the Midianites, and especially Samson taking out 1,000 Philistines practically barehanded. While I loved the daring of those figures, I was also taught to be careful about the temptations of great champions: David’s moral failure and desperate attempts to cover it up, Gideon’s late-in-life slip into creating an idol and snare for his family, and the dramatic and colorful life of Samson and his sensational self-destruction.All of these stories served as lessons to us that great strength demands responsibility, and there is danger of misusing those gifts. The consecrated life demands constant self-examination and moral integrity.When I re-read the account of Samson recently, in Judges 13–16, I was looking for that lesson I had bee...