After Samson had come of age, he sought to marry a young Philistine woman whom he had met in Timnah, a city twenty miles east of Jerusalem. Even after the objections of his father and mother, Samson was adamant in his pursuit of the young woman who he had fallen in love with. Samson was chosen to be the deliverer of his people even before his birth and was under a Nazarite vow that forbids unions with pagan worshippers. His parents were not keen on this alliance and tried their best to persuade Samson to marry one of the girls from his own tribe. but what his parents did not realise was God would use this opportunity to confront the oppressors of His people and make Samson a constant thorn in the side of the Philistines. Our God works through our mistakes in ways we can’t even imagine. Though Samson was carrying out the desires of his heart by marrying the Philistine woman, God still used him to bring down the Philistine army.
Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
Judges 14:5-9 (NIV)
Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.
Samson hid the source of the sweet honey from his parents because he did not want to reveal how he had violated his Nazirite vow. By killing and touching the carcass of the dead lion, Samson broke one of the lifelong rules imposed on him. He became ritually unclean and by sharing the honey with his parents, he passed on the same to them as well. Though his parents did not know the source of the honey, Samson knew exactly what he was doing when he was breaking each of his Nazirite vows.
Riddle Me This
When Samson and his father went down to see the woman and her family, he threw a feast for all who were gathered for the occasion. When the bride’s family saw that Samson did not have any men to accompany him, they chose thirty men from their own tribe to be his companions, perhaps to protect him from roadside robbers during his travellers. It would have been customary for the bridegroom to provide garments made of linen to his accompaniments but Samson tried to weasel his way out of this custom with a riddle.
“Let me tell you a riddle, ” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”
Judges 14:12-14 (NIV)
“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”
He replied,
“Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.”
The men racked their brains for three whole days but could not come up with the answer to the riddle posed to them by Samson. On the fourth day, they approached Samson’s wife, hoping she would be able to coax her husband into getting the answer for them. When that failed, they threatened her and her family saying that they would burn her house down if she would not help them. At this, Samson’s wife threw herself at her husband, sobbing and wallowing for the entirety of the feast period. Annoyed by her constant nagging, Samson finally gave in and revealed the answer to his wife who in turn explained the riddle to her people. Samson was furious at his wife for betraying him and left that place and went down to Ashkelon to kill thirty men just to repay his debt to his groomsmen.
Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home.
Judges 14:19 (NIV)
It seems strange that the Spirit of the LORD would empower Samson to kill thirty innocent bystanders just to repay his debt. However, we must understand that God was still using Samson to cause problems for the Philistines. The only difference here is that He is using Samson’s ego and foolishness to further His cause. In the same way, pagan kings would set out to conquer Israel to satisfy their egos but God was using them to punish Israel according to His plan. He empowers us to fulfill His will for our lives but we use His gifts and fruits to satisfy our personal desires.
Foxes in the Fields
After calming down, he took a young goat (perhaps as a peace offering) to Timnah, to bring back his wife. However, his father-in-law did not allow Samson to even meet his wife as she had been given in marriage to one of his groomsmen.
“I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
Judges 15:2 (NIV)
Samson burned with anger and plotted his revenge. So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. It is interesting to know that the author does not mention the Spirit of God when Samson carries out this mischievous act just to quench his own thirst for vengeance. Seeing their supply of grain turned to ashes, the Philistines were livid and took out their anger on Samson’s wife and father-in-law. The hasty decisions we make without consulting God, end up hurting us and our loved ones rather than helping us achieve the goal we had set out to achieve.
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.
Judges 15:6-7 (NIV)
While Samson sought to cause damage to the grain stock of the philistine, the embers of the fire he lit seemed to have caused unintended damage. The Philistines could not hurt Samson but in retaliation to their harvest being destroyed by Samson, killed his wife and her father by burning them alive. It does seem like the series of events that happen one after the other can be traced back to Samson his thirst for personal revenge. He thought he would hurt the Philistines by burning their shocks of grain but the flames resulted in the death of his loved ones.
Samson responded in kind to the attack on his father-in-law’s house by viciously slaughtering numerous Philistines. He then went down to Etam and hid himself in a cave in the rocks. The Philistines tried to hunt him down but could not find him, so they camped in Judah near Lehi in search of him. This caused panic in the tribe of Judah when they saw the Philistine early at their doorstep thirsting for Samson’s blood.
Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?” … They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Judges 15:11-13 (NIV)
Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
“Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
The men of Judah had already accepted the Philistines as their rules and did not have any faith in God to lift them out of their current predicament. For them, Samson was the root of all their problems and they thought his death would withdraw the destructive hand of the Philistines that was against them. Sometimes we do not understand the long-term plan God has intended for our lives but look for ways that give us only temporary respite. Samson is not able to deliver them so let’s give him as a living sacrifice to find some temporary respite
Samson is the problem child,
As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
Judges 15:14-15 (NIV)
Samson narrated a poem which was completely opposite to Deborah’s song, as he did not praise God for His provisions but sang his own praises for having killed a thousand men with only a donkey’s jawbone. However, after narrating the poem, Samson became very thirsty and cried out to the Lord saying,
…“You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
Judges 15:18-20 (NIV)
Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Throughout Samson’s life, he mistook the unflinching support of God for His stamp of approval on the evil he perpetrated. God did not use Samson because of the brash way in which he approached different situations, but He used him despite his “act first and think later” attitude. God wants to work through us even though we are imperfect human beings but we misunderstand God’s grace for his approval of our self-preserving and even self-elevating attitude. These chapters have revealed a few red flags in Samson’s relationship with God. Rather than addressing his flaws, Samson doubles down on his personal ambitions, ignoring the will that God has for his life. Let us not ignore the red flags in our lives and promptly address our broken connection.
Discussion Questions
- Did God really need Samson to marry a Philistine woman to accomplish His purpose?
- Why did Samson hide his incredible feats of strength from his parents?
- Why was Samson empowered by the Spirit of God to kill thirty innocent men just to settle a debt for a bet he made?
- Is Samson to be blamed for the collateral damage caused by his actions?
- Why were the men of Judah ready to give Samson, their deliverer from God, into the hands of the Philistines?
- Does God’s constant support give a stamp of approval to our actions?
The Jordan Valley 
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