The Cost of Pride and Arrogance

Samson was the third to the last of the Judges, those who God placed over Israel in that period of Israel's history. His parents were aged and had no children, like Abraham and Sarah, and Zechariah and Elisheva (Elizabeth). The angel of the Lord told Samson's mother that he was to be a Nazirite, no grapes or fermented beverage should he ever drink, and Nazirites were never to touch dead things as they would be defiled. The scriptures tell us that Samson grew and the spirit of the Lord stirred him, but in reading through Judges 13-16, It's clear Samson had some issues: arrogance (an only child, and announced by an angel his parents probably denied him nothing). The Jews were not supposed to take foreign wives, much less a Philistine woman, as the Philistines were oppressing Israel, and their sworn enemies (to this very day, as Philistia is what is today known as Gaza), but at his insistence (being an only child, and "special") he went to Timnah, with his parents in tow, he killed a lion on the way, unbeknown to them, and later on the way back, ate honey from a honeycomb that bees had made inside the lion's carcass! He also had an obvious weakness for women- his first wife... Delilah...visited a brothel, and that is just what is recorded.
My impressions are that because of pride and arrogance, he did not treat sacred things as sacred, perhaps because the Lord had been with him since he could remember, he took those special giftings for granted. Killing a thousand men with a donkey's jawbone, he composed a song - about himself! He acted out of selfishness and often responded in a gut-level kneejerk sort of way, and the results were obvious. There are consequences, the last of which resulted in his capture, imprisonment and having his eyes gouged out by his enemies. The loss of his eyesight, though, resulted in his greatest spiritual clarity...weak and chained to a mill stone grinding grain, he had time to repent and dwell on the Lord,and as he did his strength was renewed. When the Philistines brough Samson out to make fun of him, he asked the Lord for restoration, the Lord redeemed him, answered his petition, and as Samson pushed out the pillars of Dagon's temple, he literally "brought down the house", destroying many of Israel's and God's enemies, as he died.