Judges 14
-The character and tendencies of Samson begin to be revealed
as his story plays out in this descriptive chapter. Samson went down towards
the west to Timnah as a young adult and saw a woman that infatuated him to the
point that he asked his father and mother to get her for him as a wife. His parents’
response was typical within their clan, “Is there not a daughter among the
daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a
wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” This was also against their commands
given by Moses from the LORD (Deuteronomy 7:1-3). But, she looked good to the
young Samson, who was showing his propensity for beautiful women, and his
parents eventually consented to the union at his request. Verse 4 tells us that
even though his parents didn’t know it, this was of the LORD to begin bringing about
the freeing of Israel from the Philistines for at this time these people were
ruling over God’s chosen people in the Promised Land (Judges 14:1-4).
-While at the vineyards of Timnah with his parents, a strong
young lion came roaring at Samson. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him
mightily there to the degree that he tore the lion apart as one would tear a
hapless young goat with his bare hands. So, we see his impressive and enormous strength
from the Almighty revealed. His parents weren’t witness of this particular
event, and he didn’t inform them of what occurred. From there, he went and
talked to the woman that he liked, and she “looked good” in his eyes. He
returned later to take her as his wife, but on the way back home he observed
the dead carcass of the lion he had destroyed. He beheld a swarm of bees and
honey in the body of the lion. Unusual. Seeing the opportunity and having
courage I suppose, he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as
he went. He gave some of the honey to his parents, but he still didn’t tell
them of his domination of the lion, nor that he had gotten the honey from its
dead body. Then, in the customary tradition, his dad went down to the woman,
and Samson made a feast there with 30 of the Philistine companions, which would
accompany him. Samson, feeling confident and cocky (another trait that is initially
revealed), propounded a riddle for them as a wager. If they could figure out
the riddle by the time the feast was over within the seven days, they would get
30 linen wraps and changes of clothes. But if they couldn’t, Samson would get
this from them. They accepted the challenge, and here was the riddle: “Out of
the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.”
For three days they surmised, but could not come up with the answer. On the
fourth day, these “companions” of Samson’s went to his newly acquired wife
threatening her to “entice” her husband so that he would tell her the riddle,
which she could further relate to them. If she didn’t come through with their
request, they told her they would burn her and her father’s house with fire.
The reason? They felt like they had been invited to this wedding celebration to
be made impoverished. It certainly wasn’t her fault, but the men who accepted
the challenge of the riddle were assigning her the blame for their ineptitude.
Samson’s wife therefore wept before him calling him a hater and unloving. She
wanted to know the answer to the riddle. Samson maintained that not even his
parents knew these things he was concealing, but she was persistent. She
continued to weep before him seven days while the feast lasted. “And on the
seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard.” This begin to
demonstrate the habitual notion that Samson could eventually be persuaded by
the whims of a woman. She then told the answer of the riddle to the sons of her
people, and they won the beat. On the seventh day, before the sun went down,
they gave the answer to the riddle, “What is sweeter than honey? And what is
stronger than a lion?” Samson’s anger burned as he responded, “If you had not
plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.” The Spirit of
the LORD came upon him mightily as he went down to Ashkelon and killed 30 men
taking their spoil. He fulfilled his end of the bargain giving the changes of
clothes to those who had told him the answer to the riddle. Afterwards, still
in rage, he went back up into the hill country to his father’s house. “But
Samson’s wife was given to his companion who had been his friend (Judges 14:5-20).
-*Application* Twisted, convoluted, and peculiar. This was a
match seemed to be made in hell, but God was at work in it even through the
complete depravity of man that we see in this episode. Our character and our
traits that demonstrate who we are and what we believe perpetually build and
build through the course of our lives. Can a leopard change his spots (Jeremiah
13:23)? Only through the righteousness of Christ can our lives truly be
radically altered and transformed permanently. Otherwise our destinies tend to
go in a circular pattern of mishaps and destruction in self-repeating
dysfunction. So let the LORD do His amazing and gracious work in your life
starting today, if it hasn’t happened already. He is beginning to make all
things new (Isaiah 48:6, Revelation 21:5). May the Spirit of the LORD come into
all of us through our acceptance of the Father’s Son.
Verse to Memorize:
Judges 14:2
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