It was the Lord who saw to it that Samson would fulfill what the angel said before his birth: he will begin to deliver God’s people (Judges 13:5). The conflict with the Philistines was far from over; it would continue for another two hundred years. But the struggle against the enemy would never be the same after Samson, for the Lord had used him to show the Lord’s supremacy over Dagon. When the Philistines captured the ark of the Lord, Dagon then fell again (1 Samuel 5:1–5). And David brought to an end forever their power (2 Samuel 5:17–25). But David completed what Samson had begun. Samson’s victorious defeat in Dagon’s temple was significant. The Lord used him to begin Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines.1
30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.