Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 14-16.

When Samson asked his parents to arrange a marriage for him with a Philistine woman, the writer tells us that this was from the Lord.  God sought to create a confrontation between Samson and the Philistines.  In previous years I have written about how this passage shows that Samson had poor judgement when it came to the women with whom he chose to have relations.  I still believe that holds true, but this passage shows how God used Samson’s weakness to accomplish His purposes.  For twenty years, Samson led Israel to follow God, and kept them free from Philistine rule, despite his weakness, despite the fact that he was unable to overcome his lust for Philistine women.  Yet, in the end, Samson’s poor judgement when it came to women, his inability/unwillingness to follow God’s commands regarding expressing his sexuality, led to his downfall.  Even then, when God’s enemies gave credit to another for Samson’s defeat, God used Samson to once more demonstrate His power.  In the same way, God will use us, flawed as we are.  Nevertheless, Samson also serves as an object lesson that, even though God may use us despite our flaws, we will pay a price if we fail to allow His Spirit to transform us to overcome them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 14-16.

I was going to write about Samson’s poor choices in women and then something else struck me.  Although before I get into that, I want to say that I feel sorry for the Philistine woman whom Samson married.  Yes, she betrayed Samson, but only because the men with whom Samson had bet threatened to burn her and her father’s household to death.  Then later, they did that very thing.  Any way, back to my main point today.  God’s Spirit was upon Samson up until Delilah cut his hair.  God’s Spirit did not depart from him when he slept with the Philistine prostitute, nor when he slept with Delilah on several occasions, not even when he revealed the true secret to his strength to Delilah.  No, it was only after she actually cut his hair that God departed from Samson.  And, even with that, God answered Samson when he called out to God as a prisoner of the Philistines.  So, despite his flaws, despite his sins, God stayed with Samson and even answered his prayers.  We can take comfort from that when we sin.  God will not abandon us.  Does that mean that it was not bad that Samson committed sexual sins?  Of course not, if Samson had not allowed himself to fall into sexual sins, he would never have revealed the secret of his strength to Delilah.  And who knows what other great things he might have done?  In the same way, while God will remain with us even when we sin, think how much greater works He would do through us if we resist the temptations which come our way?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 14-16.

We have four stories about Samson and tend to think of them as happening one shortly after the other.   However, the passage tells us that Samson led Israel for 20 years.  Which puts the incident with Delilah quite a few years after the incidents surrounding his wedding.  That leads me to a different understanding of Samson’s life.  Essentially, there were twenty years between Samson’s victory over the Philistines with the donkey’s jawbone and his betrayal by Delilah.  This led me to look again at the story of the woman Samson married.  It looks to me like Samson truly loved her and perhaps she loved him, but she was afraid of those to whom Samson had told the riddle.  They threatened to kill her family if she could not give them the answer to his riddle and she believed them, for good reason.  Let’s think about what this reveals about the Philistines.  They credibly threatened an entire family in order to win a bet, an expensive bet, but a bet nonetheless.  Then, after Samson vandalized their fields they burned them to death.  The family they killed were their fellow Philistines.  Actually, now that I write that it suggests to me that Samson had already demonstrated his prowess before his marriage, and the Philistines chose to avenge his vandalism against his wife’s family because they were afraid to go after him directly.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 14-16.

The thing which always strikes me about Samson is his absolutely terrible judgement when it came to women.  I could spend some time considering why Samson was enamored of Philistine women, but I want to look closer at the fact that God used it to further His ends.  I am not sure what led Samson to propose his riddle to the Philistine young men who were chosen as his companions for his wedding, but we often forget just how expensive a set of clothing was before the Industrial Revolution.  Some time ago someone calculated the labor that would go in to making just a shirt in Medieval times and concluded that it would cost about $3,000.  So, 30 sets of clothing would have been rather expensive.  Even one set of clothing from each of Samson’s companions would have cost each of them a large sum of money.  Nevertheless, they accepted Samson’s bet, probably thinking that this Israelite hick could not be bright enough to have a riddle which they could not solve.

As is often the case, I kind of got lost in the weeds on that last paragraph.  We can really learn lessons from both sides of the stories about Samson.  First, Samson sought acceptance among those who looked down on him because of his background.  The Philistines looked down on him because he was an Israelite.  Note: this was not the equivalent of modern Antisemitism.  It is much more like the contempt which the elites in modern society have for the working class (and those who remain faithful to Christ). The Philistines thought they could take advantage of Samson because he was an unsophisticated rube.  When they failed, they used their social position to do so.  Samson suffered for his desire to be accepted, but the Philistines suffered more.

So, two lessons: Don’t allow your desire for social acceptance cause you to compromise your beliefs (Samson revealed that cutting his hair would end his vow to someone he knew did not respect it).  Do not take advantage of a social outcast’s desire for acceptance in order to ridicule them.  Both will end badly.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 14-16.

If you were raised on Bible stories as I was you know that Samson was incredibly strong.  However, the account of the riddle he told at his wedding suggests that he was also smart.  What Samson lacked was wisdom, at least when it came to women.  We know from yesterday’s passage that Samson’s parents were older when he was born.  They had begun to think they would never have children.  As a result, they appear to have never learned how to tell him “No”.  He chose poorly when he chose to take a Philistine woman as his wife.  He reacted badly when she told his secret to her countrymen.  Then later in life he chose poorly when he chose to take up with Delilah, even after she attempted to worm out of him the secret of his strength and use it against him.  Like many people, Samson allowed his sexual desires to rule his life to his sorrow.