Samson’s Riddle

1Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me as my wife.” 3Then his father and his mother said to him, “Isn’t there a woman among your brothers’ daughters, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?” Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.” 4But his father and his mother didn’t know that it was of Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. 5Then went Samson down with his father and his mother to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion roared against him. 6Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand, but he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. 8After a while he returned to take her; and he went over to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went. He came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate, but he didn’t tell them that he had taken the honey out of the lion’s body.

The apostle Paul said that if you were raised together with Christ, you should seek the things that are above and not set your mind on the things of the earth. To seek the things above, you must overcome the temptations of the flesh and, even through hardship, show your teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and steadfastness. Faith like this marks the believer who strives to live godly in Christ.

God wanted Samson’s parents to live as Nazirites so that, through their clean lives, he could make Samson the one to save Israel. He looked for Samson to grow up within the faith of parents who fought their passions to live holy lives and lived it out by faith.

God planned to defeat the Philistines through Samson, and for that he gave him great strength beyond any human power. The Philistines ruled Israel, but they did not stop people from mixing, so Samson went down to Timnah, saw a Philistine woman, and resolved to marry her. Manoah opposed the marriage, but he could not stop Samson, who dug in his heels. Already in the grip of lust, Samson defied his parents’ words and made himself a friend of the world, and in doing so he chose the road that made him an enemy of God.

Judges 14:4

4But his father and his mother didn’t know that it was of Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

If we read verse 4, it can look as though Samson’s marriage to the Philistine woman was well meant — as though he intended to build good relations with the Philistines and then strike them when the chance came.

Deuteronomy 7:3-4

3You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. 4For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

Yet Deuteronomy 7:3-4 clearly records the command forbidding marriage with foreigners, and this woman was a Philistine besides. Still Samson pressed ahead with the marriage, claiming that his insistence on it was God’s will.

God had raised Samson up as judge, had him brought up as a Nazirite, and had planned since before his birth to destroy the Philistines through him. That such a God would plan to free Israel through Samson’s marriage is not convincing. Samson’s marriage plan came entirely from human lust — from sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness — which makes such a choice idolatry.

Knowing that God had raised him up as judge and planned to free Israel from the Philistines, Samson used God’s plan as an excuse to get past his parents’ objections. Convinced that God’s will was to strike the Philistines, he held the shallow notion that freeing Israel by any means at all would do. But if Samson forced this marriage through, he would be steeped in lust and pleasure and would do whatever the woman wanted, so he could hardly attack the Philistines with ease.

The sad thing is that Samson was a Nazirite: he must not drink strong drink or wine, must not even look on a dead body, and must not do anything unclean. For such a man to seek marriage with a Philistine woman was wrong in itself.

When you are unsure whether you may say or do something, do not do it, because to think it might be all right means you are already holding on to sin. We who know the word of truth must make no compromise outside the truth, and must offer no excuses or pretexts. To defy what God has forbidden in his law by inventing other reasons is sin. Look at what Samson is doing now: he has no sense at all that he is a Nazirite, and no sense even of his calling as judge.

The writer records that Samson’s reason for marrying was a plan to strike the Philistines, and adds that his parents did not know it was of Yahweh. I take it that Samuel, the writer, recorded it this way by reading Samson’s mind, from the standpoint of parents who were following their son’s lead. Had they lived the Nazirite life as Yahweh’s angel told them in person, they would not have been fooled by Samson’s lie now. Out of love for the son so preciously given to them, they were deceived, though the claim that Samson’s marriage was God’s way of striking the Philistines was false and absurd.

When Samson insisted on marrying, Manoah, far from opposing him, followed him down to Timnah. Since God had forbidden marriage with foreigners, Manoah should have reasoned with Samson. That he went down to Timnah with him shows their faith was not whole.

Judges 14:5-6

5Then went Samson down with his father and his mother to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion roared against him. 6Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand, but he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done.

As it happened, while Samson was alone in a vineyard, he met a young lion. In that danger Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on him, and Samson killed the lion with his bare hands; but because he had taken a life, which a Nazirite must not do, he told his parents nothing.

Here the text records that God helped Samson with mighty power even though he had broken God’s law. But we must not read this event as God helping Samson to kill, because that would mean God helps Samson however he chooses to live. God did not help him at that moment. Samson was already a man who had received power special enough to kill a lion, and so he could unleash that strength whenever he was in danger or had need of it. Since he already had great strength, where and how he used it would decide whether he exalted God’s name or defiled it.

Consider spiritual gifts. When God gives a gift to one of his people, he does not take it back; the one who receives it must therefore use it well, with right faith and the word. If they use the gift God gave to exalt themselves, Satan will be at work; if they exalt Christ with the truth at the center, the Holy Spirit will be at work. So receiving a gift is not what matters; what truly matters is what word a believer knows and believes. Having gifts and power from God does not mean someone has faith; their faith is judged by how they use the gift. Some who use their gifts for themselves end up as cult leaders, and some become instruments of evil that threaten people. What matters is not receiving a gift but how the one who receives it uses it — and on that depends what awaits them after death.

Samson had tremendous strength, enough to kill a lion with his bare hands. That he, a Nazirite, killed a living creature and did not count it as sin is a telling event, one that gives us good reason to question his faith. A person must fear God to keep from sin, yet after killing the lion Samson went on to meet the Philistine woman and spend time with her as if nothing had happened. It seems he did not fear God.

This makes plain how careful cell group leaders and other church officers must be in what they say and do. A cell group leader is entrusted with bringing the word to others directly. If such a leader says they serve only because the pastor appointed them and they had no choice, they are no different from Samson. A leader should bring the word while wrestling with how to share it so that the members of the group will love Jesus Christ more. Then God will delight in them and give them greater wisdom, power, and peace.

On his way back to Timnah to see the woman again, Samson saw a swarm of bees and honey in the body of the lion he had killed. A Nazirite must neither look on death nor touch it, yet when Samson saw honey in the carcass of the lion he had killed, he ate some himself and gave some to his parents. That he did not tell them where the honey came from reveals that he knew full well how a Nazirite must live and what a judge is for. Eating honey was not the sin; breaking the law was.

In Palestine, it is said, the land is so hot and dry that a dead animal often does not rot but dries out like a stuffed specimen, and bees take it for a tree and build their hive in it. Samson knew it was sin, but with no one watching he could not resist the temptation of sweet honey, and he went over to the dead lion.

If you were in that situation, what do you think you would choose? Suppose you saw honey you dearly love, and no one happened to be watching — would you still think of God and turn resolutely away? That would not be easy. To make the right choice by habit when such a moment comes, we must live by faith every day; only then is the decision easy.

Samson must have been pleased that all his plans were going smoothly, and when he saw the lion and the honey, he probably ate it still drunk on the memory of that victory. No one was watching, and one taste of honey would change nothing — so he thought, and he acted on it. But God and Satan were watching what he did. For choosing the dead lion and the honey, he was cast off by God, and Satan gained the chance to use him as a tool to ruin God’s work.

Samson made excuses, as though he were striving to accomplish God’s will, but he could not overcome his human desires and was living as he pleased.

Judges 14:12-13

12Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle now. If you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; 13but if you can’t declare it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.” They said to him, “Tell us your riddle, that we may hear it.”

The word used for the woman Samson chose, ishah, is a term used mainly for a married woman; for a virgin the word bethulah is used. So it is highly likely that this woman had been married before. In Israel’s marriage custom, the groom’s parents paid the bride’s parents a bride price, then brought the bride home and held the wedding at their own house.

Yet here they go down to Philistia and hold the wedding at the woman’s house, which looks like following Philistine custom to the letter. That Manoah would not even keep Israel’s customs tells us a great deal about how he had lived until then. Make one wrong choice like this, and you can only take the long way round in life. Samson sank into pleasure with a Philistine woman, ate honey he must never eat, and drank with the company around him. As a result, he suffered a crushing failure.

Christians are not people who live by suppressing every worldly desire and all sexual desire; they live within the healthy freedom given to them. If you have a healthy sexual life with the one you love, within a whole family and a clean relationship, there is no reason to choose an abnormal way.

We should know where we are weak to temptation. If we know what we are weak to — sex, money, entertainment, drink, or something else — we will strive not to sin through it, and so we can receive God’s help. If we refuse to be dragged wherever Satan pulls us and boldly drive him back, we will be fully able to go on standing firm in our faith.

The woman’s family, too, invited thirty young men to celebrate the wedding. They stayed with Samson for the seven days of the feast, and to liven things up, Samson posed a riddle. When the thirty companions, hearing they would get garments, told him to put his riddle, Samson gave it — out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweetness — and asked them what the eater was and what the sweet thing was. Drawn wholly from Samson’s private experience, the riddle was not really a riddle at all; there was no way the Philistines could solve it.

No wisdom could solve Samson’s riddle, so they used his wife to find out the answer. Samson’s misguided love and conduct had backed him into a corner. The Philistines threatened his wife: if she did not get the answer, they would burn her and her father’s house with fire. The woman wept and pestered Samson to tell her, and unable to hold out against a wife who clung to him in tears for seven days, he gave her the answer. If Samson gave in to his wife even over something this small, his plan to use the marriage to attack the Philistines was plainly absurd from the start.

When the Philistines, now knowing the answer, came to Samson and said that the strong thing was the lion and the sweet thing was honey, Samson in his anger killed them all and went back home. Once Samson had left, his father-in-law gave his wife to another man.

If Samson’s wife had trusted and relied on her husband, things would not have gone this far, but she listened to the Philistines, her own people, rather than to him. In the Garden of Eden, Satan, intent on destroying life, tempted Eve with a sweet promise: if she ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, her eyes would be opened and she would be like God. The Philistines, to gain their end, terrified Samson’s wife with threats. Had Eve trusted her husband, and had Adam honored and revered God’s word, they would not have fallen into so great a sin. Had Samson’s wife trusted her husband, and had Samson honored God’s word, this great slaughter would not have happened. Such acts are the sins of those who neither honor nor fear God’s word and live as they please. If Adam and Samson, whom God had set in their places, had obeyed his word, these tragedies would never have taken place.

We, too, are precious, for we have received the word from God. God gave us his law, and the wisdom to live by love and grace. But Satan’s temptation always dogs those who live in the world, so we need the wisdom to judge by faith. We must search the word continually and hold to a good standard. Whether we accept a wife’s temptation, as Adam and Samson did, or live out God’s word — that choice is ours.

Samson, raised a Nazirite, killed the lion, and when he saw the honey overflowing from its carcass, he walked toward it without a moment’s hesitation. As he walked toward the lion, he should have stopped to think. He should have recognized that he was defying the word, and resolved that however sweet the honey, he must not eat it. Yet knowing all this, Samson could not refuse the sweet temptation, just as he had lived until then.

Samson’s greater sin was that he did not eat the honey alone; he gave it to his parents too, and made them share in his sin. Samson, whom Yahweh’s angel had come in person to bless, throws away all that grace and love and stands right in the middle of sin. He posed a riddle drawn from his own private experience, then could not master his anger against those who found the answer and went as far as murder — all because his character was not whole.

Watching Samson kill the Philistines, some may think that perhaps all of this was God’s will to strike the Philistines. But God is holy. He is not one who, to achieve his aim of striking the Philistines, uses a mere man in the grip of lust and hot temper. Killing thirty men because his wife was threatened, and plundering Philistines to give garments to those who solved the riddle, is not ordinary conduct for one chosen by God. If we look at this event thinking Samson did such base things to fulfill God’s will, God’s holiness will be called into question.

We must believe that God does not use schemes — power, plotting and slander, evil means and base methods — to achieve his purposes. God’s purpose is to make Israel a people of faith, not to kill Philistines for Israel’s sake. If God worked by any means at all to accomplish his purpose, the Kingdom of God would be neither holy nor glorious.

That Samson went to the dead lion to eat its honey shows in itself that he was not a man of God. Imagine, if you will, a different event: though a Nazirite, he met a lion in a moment of danger and had no choice but to kill it to save his life. Had that been so, God would have forgiven Samson and helped him.

Like Samson facing a mighty lion, we have met Satan, whose power is vast, and we were born in the middle of a world with nowhere to run. Without God’s help, death is the natural end of such a life. But as Samson killed the lion with the power God gave him, by the grace of Christ we can overcome Satan and enjoy peace in God’s embrace.

Yet just as Samson found honey in the dead lion, believers today are wavering at the sight of the wealth, pleasure, and vast power of the world that, by God’s absolute help, they once boldly left behind. As Samson, with no one watching, scooped up the honey, ate it, and carried it to his unsuspecting parents, they too think no one will see what they do. Just once, they say, let me taste it; just this once, I hope no one finds out — and they eat the sweet honey of the world.

But honey once tasted is not easily given up. They cannot forget its sweetness, and that keeps them from leaving the spot. Then, like Samson, they will make excuses: God told them to strike the Philistines, so all that matters is killing Philistines. Scooping and eating once, then twice, until darkness falls, following temptation until they lose the way of truth, they will at last make the excuse that prospering in the world is a blessing after all, and lend their ears to Satan’s voice.

Samson was a Nazirite who must not kill a lion, a judge who must not eat the honey however richly it flowed. God’s people are his holy children who must not set their eyes on the world, saints who must not lay a hand on its temptations however richly they abound.

Friends, just as Samson, having started wrong, sank ever deeper into the mire, there is no escaping the temptations of the world and Satan. Only when we do what God commands and, with all our might, refrain from what he forbids can we live as citizens of the holy Kingdom. Samson, born a holy child, a child cherished and loved, drifted away from God through his wrong choices and died a miserable death. When the saints choose wrongly, they will in the end face God’s solemn judgment.

You know the holy word; you hear it and learn it. May you put that word into practice and be treasured saints, held in God’s great love.