Every child loves the legends of Hercules because of his power and strength! This obsession with physical strength can be traced to the ancient Olympic Games when wrestling matches determined the strongest man alive. Since 1977, the presumed strongest men in the world have competed in the World’s Strongest Man to determine who is the strongest of the strong. Oleksii Novikov broke the world record in the partial deadlift at the 2020 show with an amazing 1185lbs.

Judges 13-14 – Potential

If there had been a Bible’s Strongest Man contest, Sampson would have easily won it with supernatural strength. In Judges 13, Samson’s story begins as Gideon’s did. The Israelites were under the thumb of a foreign enemy: the Philistines. After years of oppression, the Angel of the Lord commissioned a new deliverer for His people—Samson. He slayed a lion with his bare hands and destroyed an entire army of Philistines using only a donkey’s jawbone.

Samson’s life is a study in contradiction—a man enhanced with supernatural strength whose feats of strength belong to the world of children’s fantasy heroes. Yet that exceptional strength and power, corrupted and forfeited by his moral weakness, reduced him into a tragically pitiful weakling. But when he was weakest, the Lord used Samson in the mightiest act of his extraordinary life. Samson is mentioned in the Bible’s “Hall of Faith” (Hebrews 11:32). By contrast, he was a man of moral weakness who made many mistakes that should warn anyone who would play with fire and expect not to get burned. 

The Kingdom Coach and Athlete recognize the profound significance of leaning on God’s strength rather than relying solely on their own power. They embrace God’s divine will rather than their own understanding.

Bible Memory Verse – “I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors and drove them out before you and gave you their land.” Judges 6:9 (LSB)