2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Readers,
You will remember from yesterday’s message that God had His hand in the birth of Samson to Manoah and his wife. Samson was set aside to be a Nazirite, one whose life is consecrated to God and who was never to defile himself by eating certain foods, cutting his hair, or touching a dead body [JG 13: 7; NU 6: 1-5]. Samson’s life was to be dedicated to the task of beginning the rescue of Israel from the Philistines [JG 13: 5]. As JG 14 opens, Samson has spotted a certain Philistine girl in Timnah and told his parents that he wants to marry her. There are some facts about Jewish culture which add depth to the problem for them this situation presented. The main reason why God established the Jews as a nation through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was to have them eschew the practice of idolatry [EX 19: 5-6; EX 20: 5], to “be a light to the nations” [IS 49: 6], and to place Him at the center of their lives as His chosen people [EX 20: 3]. It would stand to reason that God did not want Jews intermarrying with others like the Philistines. It is the same reason He told Joshua and his men to kill every man, woman, and animal, except the prostitute Rahab, that were the Canaanite inhabitants of the Jericho they were to conquer [JS (Joshua) 6: 17-18]. The other interesting fact has to do with the way marriages were accomplished in ancient Israel. Normally, they took seven days after a betrothal that lasted as long as one year. The groom would prepare a place for them to live during that time. Once the marriage ceremony would begin, it would last seven days, and the marriage would not be consummated until the seventh day.
So, the question that might arise in the minds of Manoah and his wife is why would God allow Samson to take the actions he did? JG 14: 4 reveals the answer. “His parents did not know that it was the Lord Who was leading Samson to do this, for the Lord was looking for a chance to fight the Philistines. At this time the Philistines were ruling Israel.” The next question that might occur to the reader of this story is how did Samson know he had superhuman strength? That is answered in JG 14: 5-6, “So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. As they were going through the vineyards there, he heard a young lion roaring. Suddenly the power of the Lord made Samson strong, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his parents what he had done.” Later when he returned to the area to marry the Philistine girl, he came upon the dead carcass of the lion he had killed. JG 14: 8, “…He was surprised to find a swarm of bees and some honey inside the dead lion’s body.” Something pivotal happens at this point. Samson breaks his Nazirite vow never to touch a dead body when he gathered some of the honey to take back to his parents. Because he had not told them where it had come from, they didn’t know that he had broken his vow.
In keeping with Israelite custom, Samson and his father went to his bride’s home, Samson hosted a banquet there. When the Philistines saw him, they sent thirty young men to stay with him (11). Samson decided to ask them a riddle. JG 14: 13-14, “…’Let me tell you a riddle. I’ll bet each one of you a piece of fine linen and a change of fine clothes that you can’t tell me its meaning before the seven days of the wedding feast are over.’ “Tell us your riddle, ‘ they said. ‘Let’s hear it.’ He [Samson] said, ‘Out of the eater came something to eat; Out of the strong came something sweet.’ Three days later they still had not figured out what the riddle meant.” What makes this riddle very significant to believers in Christ is how it foreshadows Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
As the story proceeds, the Philistine men put pressure on Samson’s bride to find out the answer and give it to him. JG 14: 17, “She cried about it for the whole seven days of the feast. But on the seventh day he told her what the riddle meant, for she nagged him so about it. Then she told the Philistines.” On the seventh day before Samson went into the bedroom with his bride, the thirty men told him the answer to the riddle. Just as Christ was betrayed by Judas Iscariot for thirty pieces of silver, Samson’s bride betrayed him to her 30 Philistine friends [ZECH 11:12-13; MT 27 : 3-10]. God’s desire to begin hostilities is accomplished when Samson goes down to Ashkelon, one of the five major cities of Philistia, and slays thirty men, stripped them, and gave their fine clothes to the men who had solved the riddle (19). We know that God’s hand is in this because this verse begins with the words, “Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong…]. We can see here that Samson is a man of both weaknesses and strength. The final outcome of this part of the story is seen in JG 14: 20, “And his bride was given to the man that had been his [Samson’s] best man at the wedding.” Samson had to suffer the consequences of his own spiritual weakness, even through God’s goal is accomplished.
What are the lessons we can learn from this story? We can certainly see that trusting and obeying God will bring us more happiness and peace than the alternative. Samson was weak in that he gave in to this bride, enabling her to betray him. He was also weak in that he didn’t think twice before touching the lion’s carcass to get the honey. And, yet God must have seen him as the right person for the job of beginning the deliverance of the Jews from Philistine rule. God gave Samson superhuman strength and the courage to use it. That meant that God was able to communicate with Samson, and Samson sensed the power of God in himself. Those were Samson’s strengths. We might ask ourselves these questions: 1) Can we recognize when God is trying to work through us? 2) Do we trust God at all times or only some of the time? 3) How do we display the courage of our faith and how strong is that courage? When we look at this story, we can see the foreshadowing of our Messiah and begin to appreciate the deliverance He has made available to us.
PRAYER: O Lord, not every example You give us in the Scriptures is always entirely faithful. Sometimes, You ask us to look at the lives of people like Samson who struggle with being obedient. We need to understand that this is because You want us to look at our own lives to see how strong our faith is and how willing we are to obey You. You want us to understand the significance of trusting and obeying You not only to our own lives, but the lives of others around us. We must understand that You have invited us to join You in your work and that we can’t do that effectively until we make whatever adjustments are necessary in our lives to allow that to happen. You also want us to see that through the lives of people like Samson, you are preparing the world to appreciate the second coming of the Messiah. Sadly, so many people in this world don’t see that. We must pray for them, enduring in our prayers. We offer You thanks for the guidance You offer us through these stories. We pledge to You that we will live by the precepts You give us, so that You can do Your work through us. We adore, glorify, praise, thank, honor, and magnify You. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue on with the story of Samson, so we can see how God uses him and how much courage of faith he shows. In the meanwhile, be comforted by the fact that our Father in heaven is always there to help us learn what we need to know. He awaits eagerly the times when we seek Him out and always offers advice that is in our best interests. Our Lord is a compassionate God, Who has established His Son as our High Priest in heaven to take our prayers directly to Him. God loves you and so do Peter and I.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn