I’ve come across MAGA Christians who love to compare Donald Trump to Samson, the manly warrior, in their view. Christian nationalists have an interesting fixation on Samson as some sort of role model. The man who did not faithfully fulfill his calling to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines was haunted by his own insecurities, driven more by personal grievances than by divine blessing, blurring the line between justice and revenge. A tragic figure whose greatest strength became his greatest liability, enabling his worst impulses.

Many commentators have suggested Samson is perhaps more of a terrorist, rather than displaying the wisdom of a judge acting in God’s spirit.

In the end, Samson kills himself and many Philistines in a temple in Gaza. This may be a partial fulfillment of his calling, but it does not bring lasting deliverance; generations later, David still has to confront and finally break Philistine power. If there is any benefit to God in his act of vengeance, it is that God’s name is vindicated in the destruction of Dagon’s Temple.

The biblical narrative doesn’t conceal any of Samson’s faults, consistent with scripture’s fealty to a witness to people’s full humanity. There is no gloss because the ultimate story is about God’s glory in the midst of man’s folly. Far from a hero, especially a warrior to exemplify, Samson is fatally flawed, doomed by his own hubris and lack of faithfulness. He’s hardly a role model and certainly not anybody we would want our national leaders to emulate.