“Lesson 25: Samson,” Primary 6: Old
Testament, (1996),110
I need a volunteer who can
demonstrate how to flex muscles!
 Now everyone else, try to
see if you can feel your own
muscles.
 How do muscles help us?
 What happens when we exercise our
muscles and what happens when we do
not use them?
 Exercise helps us develop strong muscles.
 Our spirits also need to
grow stronger.
 How can we become
stronger spiritually?
 By keeping our baptismal
covenants, obeying our
parents, praying, attending
church, reading the
scriptures, and so on.
 Why is it important to
become spiritually strong?
 So we can avoid temptation,
be guided in our decisions
by the Holy Ghost, and
know good from evil.
 We need to develop
spiritual strength just as we
need to develop physical
strength.
In this lesson we will learn about
Samson.
He was a judge in
Israel who could
have been one of
the greatest
leaders in Israel if
he had remained
faithful to his vows
with the Lord.
The story of Samson shows he
had great courage and physical
strength.
Samson’s
remarkable
strength was a
gift from God for
the covenant
Samson made.
Gideon
lived a
good long life.
But after he
died, Israel
turned away
from God again.
Soon
they were captured by the
Philistines. Philistines worshipped
false gods.
Why were the
Philistines
able to defeat
the children
of Israel?
Let’s read
Judges 13:1
The Israelites had become spiritually
weak.
 There
was a man named Manoah
whose wife was unable to have
children.
 An angel appeared to her and told her
she would have a son. He would
begin to deliver the Israelites from the
Philistines.
 The angel told her not to drink any
wine or strong drink and not to eat
anything unclean.
 She
was told her son would be a
Nazarite while still in her womb.
 Nazarites made a covenant to
separate themselves from the things
of the world and become holy unto
the Lord. As part of this covenant,
each Nazarite made a vow not to drink
alcoholic drinks or cut his hair
(see Numbers 6:2–6, 8;
“Nazarite” in the LDS Bible Dictionary [p. 737]).
 What message
did an angel of
the Lord give to
Manoah’s wife?
 Let’s read
Judges 13:3–5
 What did the
angel say her
son would be
called to do?
 Manoah’s
wife went to her husband and
told him what the angel had said to her.
 Manoah
prayed to
God that the
angel would come
back to them to
teach them how
to raise the child.
 The
angel returned and told them to do
exactly as she had previously been told.
 When Manoah heard what the angel
told his wife, what did he do that
showed he had spiritual strength?
 Let’s read
Judges 13:8
 How can prayer
help us develop
greater spiritual
strength?
 Judges 13:24:
And the woman bare
a son, and called his name Samson:
and the child grew, and the Lord
blessed him.
 When
Samson kept his covenants he
was blessed with the ability to help his
people, but when he broke his
covenants he lost both his spiritual
and physical strength.
Samson
grew up to be an incredibly
strong man. He was called by the
Lord to help free the Israelites from
the Philistines.
The Lord made a covenant with
Samson that as long as he obeyed
the Lord, he would be physically
strong.
Samson’s long hair (Judges 13:5) was a sign
of this covenant.
 The
angel had told his mother that her
son “shall begin to deliver Israel out of the
hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5 ).
 When he was a young man,
he was attacked by a lion.
He killed it with his bare
hands.
 He
used the jawbone of a
donkey to kill 1,000
Philistine soldiers.
 Samson was able to
use his physical
strength many times
to protect himself
and to fight against
the Philistines.
 Where did Samson
get this physical
strength?
 Let’s read Judges 14:5–6; 15:13–14
The Lord blessed Samson with
physical strength to accomplish his
mission.
When Samson kept his covenants
and was strong spiritually, he was
blessed with this physical strength.
How are we blessed when we keep
our covenants and are spiritually
strong?
I have written a note to each of
you about a strength I have
noticed in each of you. Don’t read
it until you are by yourself.
Heavenly Father needs us to use
these strengths to serve him and
to serve others.
Enrichment Activity #4
Without naming any names, these
are some of the strengths Heavenly
Father has blessed you with that I
have noticed.
Mention other strengths you have
observed in other class members.
Develop these and other strengths
during the coming week.
Enrichment Activity #4
Samson
served
as a judge in
Israel for
twenty years.
He
fell in love with a woman
named Delilah. He didn’t know
that the Philistines had offered her
a lot of money to trick him to
find out the secret to his strength.
What did the Philistines offer
Delilah if she would help them
capture Samson?
Let’s read Judges 16:4–5
Why do you think people are
sometimes tempted to do wrong
for money?
How can we avoid being tempted
by riches?
 Although
she begged him, Samson
wouldn’t tell her.
 Finally, after she
told him he
didn’t love her or
he would share
his secret, he told
her that it was his
vow to God.
 He never cut his hair or his strength
would go.
Delilah
told the
Philistines and
while he slept, they
cut his hair off.
Samson’s strength
was gone.
The Philistines tied
him up and
blinded him.
 Why did Samson finally give in and tell
Delilah the secret of his strength?
 Let’s read Judges 16:16
 Why did Samson lose his strength?
 Let’s read Judges 16:19–20
 Samson’s strength was not actually in
his hair. His hair was a sign of his
covenant with the Lord. When Samson
broke his covenant by sinning, the Lord
took away his physical strength. (See
“Samson” in the LDS Bible Dictionary [p. 768].)
 Samson
was
taken to the
prison house
and forced to
grind wheat at
the prison’s mill.
 He
had been a man of great strength,
but had broken his vows with the
Lord. When he broke his vow, his
strength left him.
 While
Samson was in prison his hair
began to grow again. Samson
renewed his vows with the Lord.
 The Philistines threw
a big party where
they showed off the
captured Samson.
 Samson prayed that
the Lord would
return his strength.
 Samson
asked a boy
there to guide him
to the main
columns of the
building they were
in so he could lean
against them.
 Samson pushed
hard against them.
 The roof fell in and everyone inside was
killed including Samson.
 What did the Philistines do to Samson
after they captured him?
 Let’s read Judges 16:21
 Later, when they brought
him out of prison for
their own amusement
and ridicule, what did
Samson pray for?
 Let’s read Judges
16:28
 Which kind of strength is more
important, physical or spiritual?
 Why?
 It is good to be strong physically, but it is
much more important to be strong
spiritually.
 Some people are unable to develop
physical strength, but anyone who tries
can develop spiritual strength by keeping
covenants and obeying commandments.
What happens when
people become
spiritually weak?
They give in to temptations, they
sin, they lose the guidance of the
Holy Ghost, and they lose the
ability to fulfill their callings and
bless others.
How can we
develop the
spiritual
strength we
need to live the
way Heavenly
Father and Jesus
Christ want us to
live?
I’ll write your
answers on the
board.
Enrichment Activity #1
 Now that you have a few ideas
I want you to write “I can be
stronger spiritually by:”
 Then write down one or more “spiritual
muscles” you would like to “exercise,”
or ideas you would like to work on,
during the coming week.
 Put the paper where you will be able to
see it often.
Enrichment Activity #1
Choose one of the
ideas from the board
and either act it out
or draw it on the
chalkboard.
The others will try to
guess which idea it is!
Enrichment Activity #2
 Samson made a
covenant with the
Lord but did not
keep it.
 What covenants did
you make with
Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ when
you were baptized?
 Let’s read Mosiah 18:8–10
Enrichment Activity #3
How does keeping these covenants
help us be spiritually strong?
You will make covenants when you
go to the temple. Making and
keeping these covenants provides
great spiritual strength in our lives.
Prepare now for this great blessing
by keeping the covenants you have
already made.
Enrichment Activity #3
Adam & Eve
Joseph
 How
Noah
Moses
Abraham
Joshua
Rebekah
Gideon
were these people were
spiritually strong?
Enrichment Activity #5
Next, we have a
special guest who will
share an experience
with us that helped
develop spiritual
strength.
Enrichment Activity #6
 The Lord needs valiant servants,
To do his work in the latter day,
Who follow the teachings of Jesus
And serve his people in a loving way.
I will be his servant
And keep my cov’nants valiantly.
I’ll stand for truth. I’ll stand for right.
The Lord can depend on me.

Words and music: Vanja Y. Watkins, b. 1938. © 1981 IRI
Enrichment Activity #7
 I testify to you of
the importance
of developing
spiritual strength
and living so that
we can someday
return to be with
Heavenly Father
and Jesus Christ.


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lesson materials are from lds.org. The lesson and
activities are from the Primary 6 Old Testament
manual.
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