Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 14:1
And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
1. Timnah ] now Tibneh, about 4 m. S.W. of Zorah, on the low hills of the Shephlah: hence went down is the word for reaching it from Samson’s house ( Jdg 14:1 ; Jdg 14:5 ; Jdg 14:7 ; Jdg 14:10), and go up, for the journey in the opposite direction, Jdg 14:2 and 1Sa 29:9. According to Jos 15:10 Timnah lay on the N. border of Judah (cf. 2Ch 28:18), and is assigned to Dan, ib. Jos 19:43 (P). It is mentioned in the Prism Inscr. of Sennacherib as one of the places which he captured after Altau (Eltekeh), just before he ravaged Judah in 701 b.c., Keil. Bibl. ii. 92 f.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Timnath – See Jos 15:10 and note. It was below Zorah Jdg 13:2, about three miles S. W. of it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jdg 14:1-20
Samson went down to Timnath.
Samsons first love
In considering Samsons choice of a wife, we are conscious of a feeling of painful disappointment. In choosing a Philistine, we begin to see his lower nature acting the tyrant. But it were well if domestic history in modern times did not present many instances of similar stubbornness. In such matters, the fancy of young people is often the supreme law. Samsons falling in love was in the ordinary way: And he saw a woman of Tinmath, and she pleased him well. We do not wonder that his pious parents were astonished at his wish to take a Philistine woman to wife. They were national enemies. And the angel had said he should deliver Israel. They would therefore naturally inquire, How is this? Is our deliverance to begin with an alliance? We are not to touch anything unclean; our child is a Nazarite; and yet he wishes to marry a heathen! This is the beginning of the riddle. Is there never a woman among thy brethren? is the natural inquiry of such a father and mother. As he was so especially consecrated to God, it must have seemed peculiarly improper for him to make such an alliance. In seeking a Philistine wife, even in the most favourable view we can take of the affair Samson was treading on doubtful and dangerous ground. Their law expressly forbade the Israelites to marry among those nations that were cursed and devoted to destruction. It does not appear, however, that the Philistines were numbered among the doomed Canaanites. They were of Egyptian origin. The spirit of the Hebrew law, however, was plainly against such alliances, for the Philistines were idolaters and foreigners. It is true the law that forbade an Israelite to marry a heathen was a ceremonial law, or a police law–one that related to their national policy. It was not one of the laws of the decalogue. It was not a moral law. It might therefore be changed or suspended. But if the Divine prohibition against such an alliance was repealed for the time, making for special reasons his case an exception, how is it that the historian does not inform us of this fact? Why does not Samson tell his parents that the law is repealed in this case? There is not even a hint of any such thing. The match was of his own seeking. But God, seeing Samsons choice, determined to bring good out of it–he determined that his attachment to a Philistine woman should be overruled, so as to be the occasion of his beginning to deliver Israel. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
Samsons marriage
1. That the people of God are liable to imperfections. They are human, though partakers of grace.
2. That our lusts and passions are to be resisted. Scenes of temptation ought to be avoided, and our greatest earthly joys ought to be regarded by us as pregnant with temptation, and be carefully watched.
3. That care should be taken in forming friendships or alliances.
4. That a crooked policy does not eventually profit. Samsons wife burnt by those to whom she betrayed her husband.
5. That God frequently works good out of evil; and that Gods purposes are frequently accomplished by means of persons and events apparently least adapted, or even most opposed.
6. That though God may pardon our sins, their consequences in this life are frequently irremediable. The Spirit of God came again upon Samson, but his eyes were never restored, and he perished in the destruction of his enemies. (J. Bigwood.)
The choice of a wife
Samson, the giant, is here asking consent of his father and mother to marriage with one whom they thought unfit for him. He was wise in asking their counsel, but not wise in rejecting it. Excuseless was he for such a choice in a land and amid a race celebrated for female loveliness and moral worth, a land and a race of which self-denying Abigail, and heroic Deborah, and dazzling Miriam, and pious Esther, and glorious Ruth were only magnificent specimens. There are almost in every farmhouse in the country, in almost every home of the great towns, conscientious women, self-sacrificing women, holy women; and more inexcusable than the Samson is that man who, amid all this unparalleled munificence of womanhood, marries a fool. That marriage is the destination of the human race is a mistake that I want to correct. There are multitudes who never will marry, and still greater multitudes who are not fit to marry. But the majority will marry, and have a right to marry; and I wish to say to these men, in the choice of a wife first of all seek Divine direction. The need of Divine direction I argue from the fact that so many men, and some of them strong and wise, have wrecked their lives at this juncture. Witness Samson and this woman of Timnath! Witness John Wesley, one of the best men that ever lived, united to one of the most outrageous of women, who sat in City Road Chapel making mouths at him while he preached! Especially is devout supplication needed, because of the fact that society is so full of artificialities that men are deceived as to whom they are marrying, and no one but the Lord knows. By the bliss of Pliny, whose wife, when her husband was pleading in court, had messengers coming and going to inform her what impression he was making; by the joy of Grotius, whose wife delivered him from prison under the pretence of having books carried out lest they be injurious to his health, she sending out her husband unobserved in one of the bookcases; by the good fortune of Roland, in Louiss time, whose wife translated and composed for her husband while Secretary of the Interior–talented, heroic, wonderful Madame Roland; by the happiness of many a man who has made intelligent choice of one capable of being prime counsellor and companion in brightness and in grief–pray to Almighty God that at the right time and in the right place He will send you a good, honest, loving, sympathetic wife; or, if she is not sent to you, that you may be sent to her. But prayer about this will amount to nothing unless you pray soon enough. Wait until you are fascinated and the equilibrium of your soul is disturbed by a magnetic exquisite presence, and then you will answer your own prayers, and you will mistake your own infatuation for the voice of God. If you have this prayerful spirit you will surely avoid all female scoffers at the Christian religion; and there are quite a number of them in all communities. What you want, O man! in a wife is not a butterfly of the sunshine, not a giggling nonentity, not a painted doll, not a gossiping gadabout, not a mixture of artificialities which leave you in doubt as to where the sham ends and the woman begins, but an earnest soul, one that can not only laugh when you laugh, but weep when you weep. As far as I can analyse it, sincerity and earnestness are the foundation of all worthy wifehood. Get that, and you get all. Fail to get that, and you get nothing but what you will wish you never had got. Dont make the mistake that the man of the text made in letting his eye settle the question in which coolest judgment directed by Divine wisdom are all-important. He who has no reason for his wifely choice except a pretty face is like a man who should buy a farm because of the dahlias in the front door yard. There are two or three circumstances in which the plainest wife is a queen of beauty to her husband, whatever her stature or profile. By financial panic, or betrayal of business partner, the man goes down, and returning to his home that evening he says: I am ruined! I am in disgrace for ever! I care not whether I live or die. After he ceases talking, and the wife has heard all in silence, she says: Is that all? Why, you had nothing when I married you, and you have only come back to where you started. If you think that my happiness and that of the children depend on these trappings, you do not know me, though we have lived together thirty years. God is not dead and if you dont mind, I dont care a bit. What little we need of food and raiment the rest of our lives we can get, and don t propose to sit down and mope. The husband looks up in amazement, and says, Well, well, you are the greatest woman I ever saw. I thought you would faint dead away When I told you. And, as he looks at her, all the glories of physiognomy in the Court of Louis XV. on the modern fashion-plates are tame as compared with the superhuman splendours of that womans face. There is another time when the plainest wife is a queen of beauty to her husband. She has done the work of life. She has reared her children for God and heaven, and though some of them may be a little wild, they will yet come back, for God has promised. She is dying, and her husband stands by. They think over the years of their companionship, the weddings and the burials, the ups and the downs, the successes and the failures. They talk over the goodness of God, and His faithfulness to childrens children. She has no fear about going. Gone! As one of the neighbours takes the old man by the arm gently and says: Come, you had better go into the next room and rest, he says, Wait a moment; I must take one more look at that face and at those hands! Beautiful! Beautiful! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
It was of the Lord.
God overrules evil for good
1. This verse has been very strangely and very unfortunately misunderstood by many. It has been thought to mean
(1) That Samson was moved by the Spirit of God to desire this marriage; and
(2) that Samson desired to enter into it for the purpose of finding occasion to quarrel with the Philistines.
2. This view seems open to three fatal objections.
(1) The silence of Samson about any such movement of the Spirit of God.
(2) It makes God inspire Samson to go contrary to the spirit of His own law.
(3) It is opposed to the whole spirit of the narrative, which impresses one with the idea that Samson was sincere in his passion.
3. The marriage was of God, as the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar or the treachery of Judas, inasmuch as He permitted it and overruled it for bringing Samson into collision with the Philistines, and introducing him to the grand work of his life. (Thomas Kirk.)
A young lion . . . and he rent him.–
Bodily strength
1. Physical strength is not an index of moral power. That this man was mighty the lion and the Philistines found out, and yet he was the subject of petty revenges, and was ungianted by base passion. Oh! it is a shame that so much of the work of the Church and the world has been done by invalids, while the stout and the healthy men, like great hulks, were rotting in the sun. Richard Baxter, spending his life in the door of the tomb, and yet writing a hundred volumes and starting uncounted people on the way to the saints everlasting rest. Giants in body, be giants in soul!
2. Strength may do a great deal of damage if it is misdirected. To pay one miserable bet which this man had lost, he robs and slays thirty people. As near as I can tell, much of his life was spent in animalism, and he is a type of a large class of people in all ages who, either giants in body, or giants in mind, or giants in social position, or giants in wealth, use that strength for making the world worse instead of making it better. Who can estimate the soul-havoc wrought by Rousseau going forward with the very enthusiasm of iniquity and his fiery imagination affecting all the impulsive natures of his time? Or wrought by David Hume, who spent his lifetime, as a spider spends the summer, in weaving silken webs to catch the unwary? Or by Voltaire, who marshalled a host of sceptics in his time and led them on down into a deeper darkness?
3. A giant may be overthrown by a sorceress.
4. The greatest physical strength must crumble and give way. He may have had a longer grave and a wider grave than you and I will have, but the tomb was his terminus. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Brawn and muscle consecrated
We are often told that people must give account for their wealth, and so they must; and they must give account for their intelligence, and so they must; but no more than they must give account for the employment of their physical organism. Shoulder, arm, brain, knee, foot, all the forces that God has given us are we using them to make the world better or make it worse? Those who have strong arms, those who have elastic step, those who have clear eye, those who have steady brain, those are the men who are going to have the mightiest accounts to render. What are we doing with the faculties that God has given us? (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Resist the devil
Sudden, surprising danger is brought before us here. How true that is of the life of young men still. Are there not temptations that leap upon us–spiritual wickednesses that come upon us unawares? This Samson was going down to Timnath on thoughts of love intent, never dreaming of such danger. A young lion roared against him. I thank God for the roar–for the sins that are unmistakable. You know where you are. But what are we to do with such temptations? First of all, do not run. Samson had great strength; he could stand and fight till his weapon clave to his fist; but I rather think running was not in his line. There was only one thing death or victory; and he ran all risks, and flung himself on the brute. So with certain sins. Do not dally with them; do not dodge–you cannot. Do not try, as some one has said, to think them down. It is utterly impossible; it is neither philosophical nor anything else. There is just one thing to do–accept them. Take them as they are, in all their ugliness and all their ferocity, and do not be afraid, but by faith and prayer imbrue your hand in their blood. Grip them, bring them out, face them, and slay them before the Lord. And do it quickly; make sure work of it no half-work of these lusts, like springing lions, that war against the soul. See how heaven and earth are mingled in that conflict. In order to tell this story completely, you have to bring in the supernatural–The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. Now, that control by the Spirit must be known by us; His power must be experienced. Without Him ye can do nothing. Without Him, the lion-like temptations, or the snake-like temptations, will lay hold of you and destroy you. But with the Spirit of God you are invincible; you have got the secret of the old warrior in classic story, who as often as he touched mother-earth found his strength return to him. Stand, says Paul. How? you ask. Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, he replies. But notice further, there was nothing in his hand. No sword, no staff. An adumbration, a hint of the New Testament again: The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. To the eye of sense, the most defenceless babe in London is the young fellow, full of flesh and blood, who wants to hold the faith and fear of Jesus Christ. Wonder of wonders! He is not defenceless. Marvel of marvels, joy of heaven, disappointment of hell, he is not overcome! There are men and women to-day living a kind of salamander life; living in the flame, with the roar of the lion, and the hiss of the serpent, and the rattle of the snake, for ever in their ears; and they are not dead yet, and they never shall be. Yet they have nothing in their hands. How, then, do they live when others are pinned to the earth? The Spirit of the Lord is with them. He told not his father or mother what he had done. For a young Christian that is very helpful. Samson had his fine points about him. Like a great many other giants, he was a modest fellow. He bore his honours meekly. You may be like Samson. You may be a deal stronger and brighter than your fellows, and you may be able to cope with difficulties that overwhelm others. Cope with them, and hold your tongue. Perhaps you have escaped a lot of things that others have not escaped. But remember Samson. He did not halloo; and it well became him, for he was not out of the wood. Take care; there is no cause for fear; but there is no cause for boasting. Then another word from the eighth verse: After a time he returned, and he turned aside, etc. The picture is Samson going on eating that sweetmeat, and being refreshed by it; and you see at once the application of it. Sin faced, mastered, becomes a very eating and drinking as we go on our way. See how the believers path is a path going on from strength to strength. Crucifying the flesh is honey-sweetness. Do this to your temptations: get at the honey in the heart of their carcase when you have slain them; thereby reading Samsons riddle, Out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong comes forth sweetness. (J. McNeill.)
The sweet memory of triumph
1. The victory over the lion of unbelief.
2. The lion of temptation.
3. The lion of a rebellious spirit.
4. Death, the last enemy, shall also be vanquished. (T. Davies.)
He told not his father or his mother.–
Estrangement from home influences
All this was bad and dangerous. For by the constitution of what I take to have been his passionately kind and cordial, as well as most murderously resentful nature, he must have company and friends, and even confidants; and not finding them at home, he must go and seek them out for himself abroad, and be thus ever in danger of casting himself into the arms of those who lure him only to destruction. If you are taking up with other friends more readily, and are begun already to be more communicative to other counsellors out of doors, shutting your mouth, because you are more than willing now to shut your ears to such godly counsel as, both by their natural anxiety and their Christian vows, they find it incumbent on them to give–if you feel impatient of such restraint, and would even presume to treat it not a little imperiously, having chosen for yourselves counsellors of another spirit, and more likely to concur with the desires and devices of your own heart, which are many, then just see here how like sleepwalkers, with eyes glistening and staring wide, yet visionless as the blind, are you treading now on the very brink of that hidden gulf, into which if you fall but once, it may be never to rise again. (John Bruce, D. D.)
Honey in the carcase.–
Honey out of the dead lion
I. It is through divine strength that victories are won.
1. The Spirit of the Lord came mightily on Samson. God trains men for the work they have to do; if they are to be deliverers, saviours, then their training shall be physical–as in the case of Samson; his conflict with the lion would prepare him for repeated encounters with the Philistines.
2. It was when Samson was about to enter public life that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. It is in the freshness of youth, before the mind is saturated with worldliness and the heart incrustated with selfishness, that there are Divine visitations.
II. Life is the history of victory and defeat. A man may slay a lion, but have no control over himself; he may be physically strong, but morally weak. Many of our defeats are to be traced to our self-confidence and self-love, to our forgetfulness of God. If we have won any victories, they are to be traced to Divine grace and strength.
III. Past victories are not to be forgotten. On a subsequent occasion Samson turned aside to see the lion he had slain. God will not have us forget the past, or the way by which we have reached our present position (Deu 8:2-5). All our Sabbaths, and sacraments, and sermons, are always saying to us, Thou shalt remember. They remind us of the great victory gained for us by the Captain of our salvation, in which we are permitted to claim our part.
IV. We get strength and encouragement from the remembrance of past victories. If ever you have slain a lion, be sure that eventually it will yield you honey. You have overcome doubt–you have strengthened faith. You have vanquished sin–you have increased holiness. You have conquered fear–you have gained strength. We learn, too, that there is a Divine power ever at work in this world. From the secret place of thunder come forth the streams that make glad the world. The light is born in darkness. Good comes out of evil. (H. J. Bevis.)
Hands full of honey
What a type we have here of our Divine Lord and Master, Jesus, the conqueror of death and hell! He has destroyed the lion that roared upon us and upon Him. He has shouted Victory! over all our foes. To each one of us who believe in Him He gives the luscious food which He has prepared for us by the overthrow of our foes; He bids us come and eat, that we may have our lives sweetened and our hearts filled with joy. The Samson type may well serve as the symbol of every Christian in the world.
I. The believers life has its conflicts. Learn, then, that if, like Samson, you are to be a hero for Israel, you must early be inured to suffering and daring in some form or other.
1. These conflicts may often be very terrible. By a young lion is not meant a whelp, but a lion in the fulness of its early strength; not yet slackened in its pace, or curbed in its fury by growing years. Fresh and furious, a young lion is the worst kind of beast that a man can meet with. Let us expect as followers of Christ to meet with strong temptations, fierce persecutions, and severe trials, which will lead to stern conflicts. These present evils are for our future good: their terror is for our teaching.
2. These conflicts come early, and they are very terrible; and, moreover, they happen to us when we are least prepared for them. Samson was not hunting for wild beasts; he was engaged on a much more tender business. He was walking in the vineyards of Timnath, thinking of anything but lions, and behold, says the Scripture, a young lion roared against him. It was a remarkable and startling occurrence. Samson stood an unarmed, unarmoured man in the presence of a raging beast. So we in our early temptations are apt to think that we have no weapon for the war, and we do not know what to do. We are made to cry out, I am unprepared! How can I meet this trial? Herein will the splendour of faith and glory of God be made manifest, when you shall slay the lion, and yet it shall be said of you that he had nothing in his hand–nothing but that which the world sees not and values not.
3. I invite you to remember that it was by the Spirit of God that the victory was won. We read, And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid. Let the Holy Spirit help us in our trouble, and we need neither company nor weapon; but without Him what can we do?
II. The believers life has its sweets. What is more joyful than the joy of a saint!
1. Of these joys there is plenty. We have such a living swarm of bees to make honey for us in the precious promises of God, that there is more delight in store than any of us can possibly realise. There is infinitely more of Christ beyond our comprehension than we have as yet been able to comprehend. How blessed to receive of His fulness, to be sweetened with His sweetness, and yet to know that infinite goodness still remains!
2. Our joys are often found in the former places of our conflicts. We gather our honey out of the lions which have been slain for us or by us. There is, first, our sin. A horrible lion that! But it is a dead lion, for grace has much more abounded over abounding sin. I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and as a thick cloud thine iniquities. Here is choice honey for you! The next dead lion is conquered desire. When a wish has arisen in the heart contrary to the mind of God, and you have said, Down with you! I will pray you down. You used to master me; I fell into a habit and I was soon overcome by you; but I will not again yield to you. By Gods grace I will conquer you–I say, when at last you have obtained the victory such a sweet contentment perfumes your heart that you are filled with joy unspeakable, and you are devoutly grateful to have been helped of the Spirit of God to master your own spirit. Thus you have again eaten spiritual honey.
III. The believers life leads him to communicate of these sweets. As soon as we have tasted the honey of forgiven sin and perceived the bliss that God has laid up for His people in Christ Jesus, we feel it to be both our duty and our privilege to communicate the good news to others. Here let my ideal statue stand in our midst: the strong man, conqueror of the lion, holding forth his hands full of honey to his parents. We are to be modelled according to this fashion.
1. We do this immediately. The moment a man is converted, if he would let himself alone, his instincts would lead him to tell his fellows.
2. The believer will do this first to those who are nearest to him. Samson took the honey to his father and mother, who were not far away. With each of us the most natural action would be to tell a brother or a sister or a fellow-workman, or a bosom friend. It will be a great joy to see them eating the honey which is so pleasant to our own palate.
3. The believer will do this as best he can. Samson, you see, brought the honey to his father and mother in a rough-and-ready style, going on eating it as he brought it. Carry the honey in your hands, though it drip all round: no hurt will come of the spilling; there are always little ones waiting for such drops. If you were to make the gospel drip about everywhere, and sweeten all things, it would be no waste, but a blessed gain to all around. Therefore, I say to you, tell of Jesus Christ as best you can, and never cease to do so while life lasts.
4. But then Samson did another thing, and every true believer should do it too: he did not merely tell his parents about the honey, but he took them some of it. If your hands serve God, if your heart serves God, if your face beams with joy in the service of God, you will carry grace wherever you go, and those who see you will perceive it.
5. Take note, also, that Samson did this with great modesty. In telling your own experience be wisely cautious. Say much of what the Lord has done for you, but say little of what you have done for the Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He told not them that he had taken the honey.–
Samsons silence respecting the honey
Two reasons may be given for it.
1. To secure that his parents might eat the honey. According to the ceremonial law, the honeycomb, from its having been in contact with a dead body, was unclean, and the likelihood is that, if the parents of Samson had known the fact, they would have refused to eat it. Such a motive for his silence would be indeed discreditable; but it does not seem likely that such minute particulars of ceremonial observance, in that degenerate period, would be present to the mind of a young man of about nineteen years of age.
2. The other reason–and probably the true one–is, that he might ensure the success of his riddle at the marriage feast. Samson was gifted with a quick wit and ready invention. He saw, as he walked along, how the circumstance of getting the honey out of the carcase of the lion might be turned into a riddle for the entertainment of his guests, and so, in order to make sure that no inkling of it might get abroad, he resolved to keep it a secret. He was manifestly a young man who could keep his own counsel. (Thomas Kirk.)
I will now put forth a riddle unto you.–
Samsons riddle
By the goodness of God those things which once appeared unpleasant or injurious become real blessings.
1. This general observation may be applied to those painful convictions and apprehensions which sometimes harass the minds of beginners in religion. Many who have felt the deepest sorrow for sin have afterwards possessed the greatest degree of religious joy, and have loved much, because they knew that much was forgiven. Thus, then, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.
2. The same may be said of divers temptations with which a Christian may be exercised.
3. It is the lot of many, of very many good people, to be poor. Yet, even here, they gather honey from the carcase of the lion; for their various troubles give occasion for the exercise of humble resignation to the sovereign will of God. Constant dependence upon God is thereby promoted. Thankfulness is another fruit of sanctified affliction; for such is the ingratitude of our hearts, that we are scarcely sensible of the value of our mercies but by the loss or suspension of them. Another advantage which may be gained from poverty is, that the Christian is led to seek the things that are above.
4. Apply this sentiment to the person who is grievously afflicted with severe pains and bodily afflictions. We have borne chastisement; we will not offend any more, then is the purpose of Divine goodness in the visitation accomplished (Psa 119:67; Psa 119:71).
5. Domestic trials may produce the same advantages (1Co 7:29-31).
6. The same may be said with regard to disappointments in our worldly affairs.
7. Persecution is another of those evils to which the people of God are exposed. As long as there are men born after the flesh, there will be hatred and opposition against those who are born after the Spirit. But out of this unpromising lion sweet honey has been procured.
8. The subject may even be extended to death itself. The death of Christ, though according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, was effected by the cruel hands of wicked men. But bitter as seemed this event to the disciples; what ever produced so much sweetness? Apply this also to the death of believers. Nothing to nature is so formidable as death; it is the king of terrors; and through the fear of it, many are all their lifetime subject to bondage. Such, indeed, is the carcase of the lion; but search and see: is there no honey within? Is there nothing to lessen the terrors of the tomb, and reconcile man to the grave? Yes; there is much every way. The sting of death is extracted. And not only so, but death is gain. The Christian leaves a troublesome world, a diseased body, a disordered soul, to be with Christ, to behold His glory, to be perfectly like Him.
Conclusion:
1. Let us be led to adore the wisdom and goodness of God in bringing good out of evil.
2. On the contrary, it is painful to reflect on the state of worldly and wicked men, who are unhappily so entirely under the power of sin and Satan that they continually extract evil even from good.
3. What an argument may we derive from this subject for the commitment of ourselves and all our concerns into the hands of an all-wise and all-gracious God! (G. Burder.)
Fruits of conflict
I. In the history of civilisation we see how honey comes from the lion, rich fruitage from conflict. Men at first dwelt in caves. Navies were then only in forests, and railways in the mountains. Mens necessities goaded to effort. Even in Eden sinless man toiled; much more must sinful man toil. Think of the poverty and pains of Elias Howe, through long years of weary effort, before he perfected the sewing-machine; of the obscurity and penury out of which the great emancipator came who rent the lion of American slavery and rescued the slave; and of Him whom we worship as the Saviour of the race–if you would justly estimate the value and significance of disciplinary trial.
II. The conflicts of the church illustrate the same. In the glens and on the moors of Scotland thousands have fallen martyrs in struggles against superstition, etc.
III. Individual history. You are a business man. The prosperity you have has been gained by toil. These are the sweets that came from the lion of poverty and toil. You are a parent, and have suffered tribulation in the loss of dear ones. Good comes out of it if you love God, somehow, as purity comes to the atmosphere after the thunderstorm. I saw recently, in the gallery of the Royal Academy in Edinburgh, the face of St. Paul painted with an encircling cloud full of angels. It held me as no other picture, and I thought that every cloud which darkens the believers way is full of angels, if he did but know it. Conclusion: There are three ways of conquering a foe–you may knock, talk, or live him down. Choose the last. Though others are bad, be yourselves good. (C. Easton.)
The wedding riddle and tragedy
1. I do not see anything wrong in Samson making a feast, as the young men used to do. It belonged to the bride and her friends to say what its details should be. In so far, then, as he could comply with the customs of her people without sinning we find no fault. The Bible does not require us to be proud, mopish, rude, supercilious, or ill-behaved. The want of genuine politeness is no proof of true religion.
2. At weddings it was common to have games, riddles, and the like amusements. An old scholiast on Aristophanes is quoted by Dr. Clark as saying that it was a custom among the ancient Greeks to propose, at their festivals, what were called griphoi, riddles, enigmas, or very obscure sayings, both curious and difficult, and to give a recompense to those who found them out, which generally consisted either in a festive crown or a goblet full of wine. Those who failed to solve them were condemned to drink a large portion of fresh water, or of wine mingled with sea water, which they were compelled to take down at one draught, without drawing their breath, their hands being tied behind their backs. Sometimes they gave the crown to the deity in honour of whom the festival was made; and if none could solve the riddle, the reward was given to him who proposed it. It were a much better way to spend our time at seasons of merry-making in expounding enigmas and riddles than in slandering our neighbours or in gluttony or excessive drink. At our weddings let there be entertainment for the mind, as well as employment for the palate. Our social habits and opportunities should be diligently employed in doing and receiving good. At the wedding all goes on merrily. Sport and play are in the ascendant. The cup-questions were as sparkling as the cups. Many were the passages at Wit. At last Samson is aroused. He says, I will propose a riddle. If they solve his riddle, he is to pay thirty changes of raiment. If they fail, they are to pay him one change of raiment apiece. Samson had an odd humour generally of pitting himself against great odds. No doubt he thought himself sure of victory.
3. The solution is given at the appointed hour. Josephus paraphrases the interview thus: They said to Samson, Nothing is more disagreeable than a lion to those that light on it, and nothing is sweeter than honey to those that make use of it. To which he replied: Nothing is more deceitful than a woman; for such was the perfidious person that discovered my interpretation to you. He meant, doubtless, that without the assistance of his wife they could not have told the riddle. And on this plea, he might have disputed whether they were entitled to the forfeit.
4. Though betrayed and badly treated, Samson scorns to complain, but goes right off to procure the means to pay his forfeit. He was neither a cruel husband nor a repudiator.
5. Samsons anger was kindled, and he went up to his fathers house. Anger is as natural as a smile. His wifes treachery was a just cause of anger, and his going up to his fathers house at this time showed unusual prudence and forbearance. When he returned to Timnath to pay the forfeit, he seems not to have seen his wife. But lordly as Achilles, and quite as angry and proud in his self-consciousness of unmerited wrong and impulsive ferocity, he strides off home to his father and mother. It was not wise for him to trust himself in his wifes presence when the sense of his wrongs was so warm within him. But Samsons wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend. That is, she was given by her father and the chiefs of the town in marriage to his first groomsman. Although she had but little liberty in the matter, still no doubt she was glad the Hebrew was gone, and that she was the wife of his friend. How far Samson was justified in leaving his wife is not altogether clear from the text. Most probably he did not intend a final separation, although this was the result. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
Samsons riddle
The pathway of life has many a lion in it, and our success and happiness depend very much on the way we deal with them. Nearly all the strongest men in our great cities had to encounter, early poverty and hardships; their limited education was got at the cost of self-denial, but learning was all the sweeter when they found it in the carcase of the slain lion. Had there been no Samson in all such young men they would have been frightened by discouragement into a helpless obscurity. One of the Christian leaders in New York tells us that he never has found greater enjoyment in his fine library than he found in the second-hand book which he purchased with his first shilling and read in his fathers rustic cabin. Every good enterprise has its lions. Things that cost little count little. When a handful of Christians undertake to build up a mission school in some wretched neighbourhood, or to build a church in some destitute region, they find difficulties roaring against them like the wild beast in the vineyard of Timnath. These obstacles endear their work to them. There is a spiritual enjoyment in the after-results of their hard toils that they never could have known if their work had been easier. A sermon heard in a frontier church, whose erection cost sharp sacrifice, after a ten-mile ride over a country road, has some honey in it to a hungry Christian. Did you ever face a lion in undertaking the spiritual reformation of some hardened sinner? And had you ever a sweeter banquet of soul than when you saw him sitting beside you at Christs table? Even the performance of a duty which presented a disagreeable front has a peculiar satisfaction in it. Captain Hedley Vicars encountered a shower of scoffs from his brother officers in the Crimean army when he was first converted. But he put his Bible on his table in his tent, and stood by his colours. Henceforth, the lion was not only slain, but there was rich honey in the carcase when his religious influence became a power in his regiment. Lifes sweetest enjoyments are gathered from the victories of faith. Out of slain lions come forth meat; out of conquered foes to the soul come its sweetest honeycombs. One of the joys of heaven will be the remembrance of victories won during our earthly conflicts. (T. L. Cuyler.)
Out of strength, sweetness
Strength and sweetness may be taken as in some way a formula of human perfection. They are qualities which may have a certain hidden connection and interdependence, and yet which men usually expect to find, not together, but apart. Sometimes it is the strength that makes upon us the first and deepest impression–as, for instance, in Luther, a man of gigantic force and grasp; before whose fixed will and undaunted perseverance the Papacy itself totters. And yet in the familiar talk which happily survives to tell what manner of man he was, how kindly he shows himself, how gentle, how full of domestic cheerfulness and mirth, how loving to little children! So perhaps in Luthers master, Paul, it is the strength which dared and endured so much that first makes its mark upon us: we marvel at the inexhaustible energy which founded so many churches, traversed the civilised world hither and thither, survived such various hardships, could know no pleasure, enjoy no rest, so long as an opportunity remained of speaking a word or winning a soul for Christ. And yet, as we look more closely, we note how this restlessly energetic apostle is still the prophet–I had almost said the poet–of Christian love; keeps his sway over mens minds by the charm of sweetness. On the other hand, it is peculiar to that type of character which we call the saintly to make an impression of sweetness, which diverts attention from the hidden strength within: that St. Francis should draw hearts of like pulse to his own, and live the centre of a brotherhood of love, we can understand; while that he should be a power in the Church for centuries, begetting spiritual sons through generation after generation, is a fact that startles us into the search for its explanation. But the consummate instance of this kind of character is the Master Himself. In Him men see and feel the sweetness, but they have to learn the strength. They are swayed, but so gently that they are hardly conscious of the force, which nevertheless they are unable to resist. These examples are all taken from the high places of humanity: let us look a little nearer home. We may admit without any difficulty that there is a strength which has no sweetness in it; which puts itself forth and strives towards its own ends, without caring what other forces it jostles against, or even what hearts it tramples on; which, wholly self-centred, goes on its way with all the hardness which comes of pure and unalloyed selfishness. But whether such strength is not in its nature partial and incomplete, whether its very lack of sweetness does not argue a certain narrowness of scope and meanness of aim, I will rather ask than pause to prove. With all the finest strength we associate the idea of magnanimity; and what we call greatness of mind has in it precisely the quality which I attributed to the powers of nature, of being concerned with things on the largest scale, and yet easily and unconsciously bending to things on the least. This, however, is not the point to which I chiefly ask your attention; but rather that, though there is a sweetness of disposition, undoubtedly genuine and lovable after its kind, which does not co-exist with force of character, the truest and noblest sweetness is that which cometh out of the strong. For this last is no mere yieldingness and flexibility of heart, which is willing to take men for their outward seeming and at their own valuation, but a keen and large discernment of what elements of nobleness are really in them; not a desire that the complicated machine of society should run smoothly, and unpleasant things be hidden out of sight, and a general pretence established that life holds no sin and is stained by no shame, but a true reaching forth towards the essential harmony in which all Gods world is compact together, an aspiration after the peace which comes of all places filled and all rights respected. (C. Beard, B. A.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIV
Samson marries a wife of the Philistines, 1-4.
Slays a young lion at Timnath, in the carcass of which he
afterwards finds a swarm of bees, 5-9.
He makes a feast; they appoint him thirty companions, to whom
he puts forth a riddle, which they cannot expound, 10-14.
They entice his wife to get the interpretation from him; she
succeeds, informs them, and they tell the explanation, 15-18.
He is incensed, and slays thirty of the Philistines, 19, 20.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. Went down to Timnath] A frontier town of the Philistines, at the beginning of the lands belonging to the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:57; but afterwards given up to Dan, Jos 19:43. David took this place from the Philistines, but they again got possession of it in the reign of Ahaz, 2Ch 28:18.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
After he was come to mature age.
Timnath; a place not far from the sea; of which see Gen 38:12; Jos 15:57; 19:43.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1, 2. Timnathnow Tibna, aboutthree miles from Zorah, his birthplace.
saw a woman . . . of thePhilistines; and told his father and his mother, and said, . . . gether for me to wifeIn the East parents did, and do in manycases still, negotiate the marriage alliances for their sons. Duringtheir period of ascendency, the Philistine invaders had settled inthe towns; and the intercourse between them and the Israelites wasoften of such a friendly and familiar character as to issue inmatrimonial relations. Moreover, the Philistines were not in thenumber of the seven devoted nations of Canaan [De7:1-3] with whom the law forbade them to marry.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Samson went down to Timnath,…. A city which by lot fell to the tribe of Judah, but was afterwards given to the tribe of Dan, and now in the hands of the Philistines,
Jos 15:57. Judah is said to go up to it, because the place where he lived lay below it, Ge 38:13, but Samson is said to go down to it, because he lived above it. The Jews t differ about the reconciliation of these two places; some say there were two of this name, the one is a descent, and the other is an ascent; others say there was but one, so situated, that they that came to it on one side ascended, and they that came to it on the other side descended. Bochart u approves of the former. According to Bunting w, this was twelve miles from Eshtaol, where Samson lived:
and saw a woman in Timnath, of the daughters of the Philistines; who at this time dwelt there; he saw no doubt many other women besides her, but he took special notice of her, and entertained a particular affection for her; or, in other words, on sight of her fell in love with her.
t T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 10. 1. u IIierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 4. col. 763, 764. w Travels, &c. p. 115.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Samson’s First Transactions with the Philistines. – Jdg 14:1-9. At Tibnath, the present Tibne, an hour’s journey to the south-west of Sur’a (see at Jos 15:10), to which Samson had gone down from Zorea or Mahaneh-dan, he saw a daughter of the Philistines who pleased him; and on his return he asked his parents to take her for him as a wife ( , to take, as in Exo 21:9).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Samson Chooses a Philistine Wife; A Lion Slain by Samson. | B. C. 1141. |
1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. 3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. 5 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him. 6 And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. 7 And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. 8 And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. 9 And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.
Here, I. Samson, under the extraordinary guidance of Providence, seeks an occasion of quarrelling with the Philistines, by joining in affinity with them–a strange method, but the truth is Samson was himself a riddle, a paradox of a man, did that which was really great and good, by that which was seemingly weak and evil, because he was designed not to be a pattern to us (who must walk by rule, not by example), but a type of him who, though he knew no sin, was made sin for us, and appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh, that he might condemn and destroy sin in the flesh, Rom. viii. 3.
1. As the negotiation of Samson’s marriage was a common case, we may observe, (1.) That is was weakly and foolishly done of him to set his affections upon a daughter of the Philistines; the thing appeared very improper. Shall one that is not only an Israelite, but a Nazarite, devoted to the Lord, covet to become one with a worshipper of Dagon? Shall one marked for a patriot of his country match among those that are its sworn enemies? He saw this woman (v. 1), and she pleased him well, v. 3. It does not appear that he had any reason to think her wise or virtuous, or in any way likely to be a help-meet for him; but he saw something in her face that was very agreeable to his fancy, and therefore nothing will serve but she must be his wife. He that in the choice of a wife is guided only by his eye, and governed by his fancy, must afterwards thank himself if he find a Philistine in his arms. (2.) Yet it was wisely and well done not to proceed so much as to make his addresses to her till he had first made his parents acquainted with the matter. He told them, and desired them to get her for him to wife, v. 2. Herein he is an example to all children. Conformably to the law of the fifth commandment, children ought not to marry, nor to move towards marrying, without the advice and consent of their parents; those that do (as bishop Hall here expresses it) wilfully unchild themselves, and exchange natural affections for violent. parents have a property in their children as parts of themselves. In marriage this property is transferred; for such is the law of the relation that a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife. It is therefore not only unkind and ungrateful, but very unjust, to alienate this property without their concurrence; whoso thus robbeth his father or mother, stealing himself from them, who is nearer and dearer to them than their goods, and yet saith, It is no transgression, the same is the companion of a destroyer, Prov. xxviii. 24. (3.) His parents did well to dissuade him from yoking himself thus unequally with unbelievers. Let those who profess religion, but are courting an affinity with the profane and irreligious, matching into families where they have reason to think the fear of God is not, nor the worship of God, let them hear their reasoning, and apply it to themselves: “Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or, if none of our tribe, never a one among all thy people, never an Israelite, that pleases thee, or that thou canst think worthy of thy affection, that thou shouldest marry a Philistine?” In the old world the sons of God corrupted and ruined themselves, their families, and that truly primitive church, by marrying with the daughters of men, Gen. vi. 2. God had forbidden the people of Israel to marry with the devoted nations, one of which the Philistines were, Deut. vii. 3. (4.) If there had not been a special reason for it, it certainly would have been improper in him to insist upon his choice, and in them to agree to it at last. Yet their tender compliance with his affections may be observed as an example to parents not to be unreasonable in crossing their children’s choices, nor to deny their consent, especially to those that have seasonably and dutifully asked it, without some very good cause. As children must obey their parents in the Lord, so parents must not provoke their children to wrath, lest they be discouraged. This Nazarite, in his subjection to his parents, asking their consent, and not proceeding till he had it, was not only an example to all children, but a type of the holy child Jesus, who went down with his parents to Nazareth (thence called a Nazarene) and was subject to them, Luke ii. 51.
2. But this treaty of marriage is expressly said to be of the Lord, v. 4. Not only that God afterwards overruled it to serve his designs against the Philistines, but that he put it into Samson’s heart to make this choice, that he might have occasion against the Philistine. It was not a thing evil in itself for him to marry a Philistine. It was forbidden because of the danger of receiving hurt by idolaters; where there was not only no danger of that kind, but an opportunity hoped for of doing that hurt to them which would be good service to Israel, the law might well be dispense with. It was said (ch. xiii. 25) that the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times, and we have reason to think he himself perceived that Spirit to move him at this time, when he made this choice, and that otherwise he would have yielded to his parents’ dissuasives, nor would they have consented at last if he had not satisfied them it was of the Lord. This would bring him into acquaintance and converse with the Philistines, by which he might have such opportunities of galling them as otherwise he could not have. It should seem, the way in which the Philistines oppressed Israel was, not by great armies, but by the clandestine incursions of their giants and small parties of their plunderers. In the same way therefore Samson must deal with them; let him but by this marriage get among them, and he would be a thorn in their sides. Jesus Christ, having to deliver us from this present evil world, and to cast out the prince of it, did himself visit it, though full of pollution and enmity, and, by assuming a body, did in some sense join in affinity with it, that he might destroy our spiritual enemies, and his own arm might work the salvation.
II. Samson, by a special providence, is animated and encouraged to attack the Philistines. That being the service for which he was designed, God, when he called him to it, prepared him for it by two occurrences:–
1. By enabling him, in one journey to Timnath, to kill a lion,Jdg 13:5; Jdg 13:6. Many decline doing the service they might do because they know not their own strength. God let Samson know what he could do in the strength of the Spirit of the Lord, that he might never be afraid to look the greatest difficulties in the face. David, who was to complete the destruction of the Philistines, must try his hand first upon a lion and a bear, that thence he might infer, as we may suppose Samson did, that the uncircumcised Philistine should be as one of them, 1 Sam. xvii. 36. (1.) Samson’s encounter with the lion was hazardous. It was a young lion, one of the fiercest sort, that set upon him, roaring for his prey, and setting his eye particularly upon him; he roared in meeting him, so the word is. He was all alone in the vineyards, whither he had rambled from his father and mother (who kept the high road), probably to eat grapes. Children consider not how they expose themselves to the roaring lion that seeks to devour when, out of a foolish fondness for liberty, they wander from under the eye and wing of their prudent pious parents. Nor do young people consider what lions lurk in the vineyards, the vineyards of red wines, as dangerous as snakes under the green grass. Had Samson met with this lion in the way, he might have had more reason to expect help both from God and man than here in the solitary vineyards, out of his road. But there was a special providence in it, and the more hazardous the encounter was, (2.) The victory was so much the more illustrious. It was obtained without any difficulty: he strangled the lion, and tore his throat as easily as he would have strangled a kid, yet without any instrument, not only no sword nor bow, but not so much as a staff or knife; he had nothing in his hand. Christ engaged the roaring lion, and conquered him in the beginning of his public work (Matt. iv. 1, c.), and afterwards spoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself, as some read it, not by any instrument. He was exalted in his own strength. That which added much to the glory of Samson’s triumph over the lion was that when he had done this great exploit he did not boast of it, did not so much as tell his father nor mother that which many a one would soon have published through the whole country. Modesty and humility make up the brightest crown of great performances.
2. By providing him, the next journey, with honey in the carcase of this lion, Jdg 13:8Jdg 13:9. When he came down the next time to solemnize his nuptials, and his parents with him, he had the curiosity to turn aside into the vineyard where he had killed the lion, perhaps that with the sight of the place he might affect himself with the mercy of that great deliverance, and might there solemnly give thanks to God for it. It is good thus to remind ourselves of God’s former favours to us. There he found the carcase of the lion; the birds or beasts of prey, it is likely, had eaten the flesh, and in the skeleton a swarm of bees had knit, and made a hive of it, and had not been idle, but had there laid up a good stock of honey, which was one of the staple commodities of Canaan; such plenty there was of it that the land is said to flow with milk and honey. Samson, having a better title than any man to the hive, seizes the honey with his hands. This supposes an encounter with the bees; but he that dreaded not lion’s paws had no reason to fear their stings. As by his victory over the lion he was emboldened to encounter the Philistine-giants, if there should be occasion, notwithstanding their strength and fierceness, so by dislodging the bees he was taught not to fear the multitude of the Philistines; though they compassed him about like bees, yet in the name of the Lord he should destroy them, Ps. cxviii. 12. Of the honey he here found, (1.) He ate himself, asking no questions for conscience’ sake; for the dead bones of an unclean beast had not that ceremonial pollution in them that the bones of a man had. John Baptist, that Nazarite of the New Testament, lived upon wild honey. (2.) He gave to his parents, and they did eat; he did not eat all himself. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, and no more, Prov. xxv. 16. He let his parents share with him. Children should be grateful to their parents with the fruits of their own industry, and so show piety at home, 1 Tim. v. 4. Let those that by the grace of God have found sweetness in religion themselves communicate their experience to their friends and relations, and invite them to come and share with them. He told not his parents whence he had it, lest they should scruple eating it. Bishop Hall observes here that those are less wise and more scrupulous than Samson that decline the use of God’s gifts because they find them in ill vessels. Honey is hone still, though in a dead lion. Our Lord Jesus having conquered Satan, that roaring lion, believers find honey in the carcase, abundant strength and satisfaction, enough for themselves and for all their friends, from that victory.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Judges – Chapter 14
Samson’s Marriage Plans, vs. 1-7
Samson had reached his maturity, and it was time for him to enter into the work for which the Lord had called him. His moving about the country brought him to Timnath (not to be confused with Timnathserah, where Joshua had lived and was buried). It is also called Timnah, and was about half way between Zorah and Ekron, one of the Philistine’s chief cities. These places of Samson’s locale were almost in a straight line proceeding westward from Jerusalem to Eshtaol, Zorah, Timnah, and Ekron. In this area Israelite towns and cities were intermingled with those inhabited principally by Philistines.
Here at Timnah Samson saw a pretty Philistine girl, who evidently was popular with the Philistines, judging from succeeding events. So Samson became a mischief-maker. He decided he would have the young woman as his bride, intending by it to provoke a quarrel with the Philistines so that he could stir up deliverance for the people of Israel from the Philistine oppression. When he requested that his parents go through with the formalities necessary to marry the Philistine girl, they were upset and protested. They thought Samson should have sought a bride among the Israelites, not understanding that it was a move to carry out the Lord’s will to destroy the Philistines and deliver Israel from them.
When Samson insisted on marrying the Timnite girl the parents went down to arrange the marriage contract, Samson accompanying them. When they reached the Philistine vineyards (This is still an area of grape culture even today) an incident occurred which would soon play a major role in Samson’s first foray against the Philistines. But his parents were not aware what had happened. Samson evidently was roaming some distance form his parents, and a young lion came charging out of the vineyards against him. The Lord caused the mighty power which would characterize Samson to surge through his muscles. He took the lion in his strong arms and tore his body apart as he might have done a young newborn lamb. No weapon was used.
This was probably the first time Samson had experienced such excelling strength, so he kept it to himself, telling not even his parents. Samson talked to the Philistine girl, and all was arranged for the wedding.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE BOOK OF JUDGES
Judges 1-21.
THE Book of Judges continues the Book of Joshua. There are some Books of the Bible, the proper location of which require careful study, but Judges follows Joshua in chronological order. The Book opens almost identically with the Book of Joshua. In the latter the reading is, Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua. In the Book of Judges, Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the Children of Israel asked thd Lord, saying Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. God always has His man chosen and His ministry mapped out. We may worry about our successors and wonder whether we shall be worthily followed, but as a matter of fact that is a question beyond us and does not belong to us. It is not given to man to choose prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers. That prerogative belongs to the ascended Lord, and He is not derelict in His duty nor indifferent to the interests of Israel. Before one falls, He chooses another. The breach in time that bothers men is not a breach to Him at all. It is only an hour given to the people for the expression of bereavement. It is only a day in which to calm the public mind and call out public sympathy and centralize and cement public interest.
Men may choose their co-laborers as Judah chose Simeon; leaders may pick out their captains as Moses did, and as did Joshua; but God makes the first choice, and when men leave that choice to Him, He never makes a mistake.
Whenever a captain of the hosts of the Lord is unworthily succeeded, misguided men have forgotten God and made the choice on the basis of their own judgment.
People sometimes complain of some indifferent or false preacher, We cant see why God sent us such a pastor. He didnt! You called him yourself. You didnt sufficiently consult God. You didnt keep your ears open to the still, small voice. You didnt wait on bended knees until He said, Behold your leader; follow him!
When God appoints Judah, he also delivers the Canaanites and the Perizzites into his hands. Adoni-bezek, the brutal, will be humbled by him; the capital city will fall before him; the southland will succumb, also the north and the east and the west, and the mountains will capitulate before the Lord of Hosts.
But the Book of Judges doesnt present a series of victories. There is no Book in the Bible that so clearly typifies the successes and reverses, the ups and downs, the victories and defeats of the church, as the history of Israel here illustrates. It naturally divides itself under The Seven Apostasies, The Successive Judges, and The Civil War.
THE SEVEN APOSTASIES
The first chapter is not finished before failure finds expression. Of Judah it was said he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron (Jdg 1:19). Of the children of Benjamin it was said, They did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem (Jdg 1:21). Of Manasseh it was said, They did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-Shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land (Jdg 1:27). Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, (Jdg 1:29); neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron (Jdg 1:30), nor the inhabitants of Mahalol. Neither did Asher (Jdg 1:31) drive out the inhabitants of Acho nor of Zidon; neither did Naphthali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh (Jdg 1:33), and this failure to clear the field results in an aggressive attack before the first chapter finishes, and the Amorites force the children of Dan into the mountain (Jdg 1:34).
If one study these seven apostasies that follow one another in rapid succession, he will be impressed by two or three truths. They resulted from the failure to execute the command of the Lord. The command of the Lord to Joshua was that he should expel the people from before him and drive them from out of his sight, and possess their land (Jos 23:5). He was not to leave any among them nor to make mention of any of their gods (Jos 23:7). He was promised that one of his men should chase a thousand. He was even told that if any were left and marriage was made with them that they should know for a certainty that the Lord God would no more drive out any of these nations from before them; that they should be snares and traps and scourges and thorns, until Israel perished from off the good land that God had given them (Jos 23:13). How strangely the conduct of Israel, once in the land, comports with this counsel given them before they entered it; and there is a typology in all of this.
The Christian life has its enemiessocial enemies, domestic enemies, national enemies! Ones companionship will determine ones conduct; ones marriage relation will eventuate religiously or irreligiously. The character of ones nation is more or less influential upon life.
The ordinance of baptism, the initial rite into the church, looks to an absolute separation from the world, and is expressed by the Apostle Paul as a death unto sin, the clear intent being that no evil customs are to be kept, nor companions retained, nor entangling alliances maintained. The word now is as the word then, Come out from among them, and be ye separate (2Co 6:17).
They imperiled their souls by this forbidden social intercourse. It is very difficult to live with a people and not become like them. It is very difficult to dwell side by side with nations and not intermarry. Intermarriage between believers and unbelievers is almost certain to drag down the life of the former to the level of the latter. False worship, like other forms of sin, has its subtle appeal; and human nature being what it is, false gods rise easily to exalted place in corrupted affections.
If there is one thing God tried to do for ancient Israel, and one thing God tries to do for the new Israel, the Church, it was, and is, to get His people to disfellowship the world.
There are men who think God is a Moloch because He so severely punished Israels compromises. They cant forget that when Joshua went over Jordan and Israel lay encamped on the skirts of the mountains of Moab, her people visited a high place near the camp whereon a festival of Midian, idolatrous, licentious in the extreme, was in process, and they went after this putrid paganism and polluted their own souls with the idolatrous orgy. Then it was that Moses, speaking for the Lord, said, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, and while that hideous row of dead ones was still before their eyes, the plague fell on the camp and 24,000 of the transgressors perished! But severe as it was, Israel soon forgot, showing that it was not too severe, and raising the question as to whether it was severe enough to impress the truth concerning idolatry and all its infamous effects.
Solomon is commonly reputed to have been the wisest of men, and yet it was his love alliances with the strange women of Moab, Ammon, Zidon and the Hittites, these very people, that brought the Lords anger against him and compelled God to charge him with having turned from the Lord God of Israel and in consequence of which God said, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant (1Ki 11:11).
Again and again the kingdom has been lost after the same manner. The present peril of the church is at this point, and by its alliance with the world, the kingdom of our Lord is delayed, and Satan, the prince of this world, remains in power, and instead of 24,000 people perishing in judgment, tens of thousands and millions of people perish through this compromise, and swallowed up in sin, rush into hell.
But to follow the text further is to find their restoration to Gods favor rested with genuine repentance. There are recorded in Judges seven apostasies; they largely result from one sin. There are seven judgments, increasing in severity, revealing Gods determined purpose to correct and save; and there are seven recoveries, each of them in turn the result of repentance. God never looks upon a penitent man, a penitent people, a penitent church, a penitent nation, without compassion and without turning from His purposes of judgment. When the publican went up into the temple to pray, his was a leprous soul, but when he smote upon his breast and cried, God be merciful to me a sinner, his was the instant experience of mercy. When at Pentecost, 2500 sincere souls fell at the feet of Peter and the other Apostles, and cried, Men and brethren, what shall we do, the response was, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and the promise was, Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
When David, who was a child of God, guilty of murder and adultery combined, poured out his soul as expressed in the Fifty-first Psalm, God heard that prayer, pardoned those iniquities, restored him to the Divine favor, and showered him with proofs of the Divine love.
When Nineveh went down in humility, a city of 600,000 souls, every one of whom from Sardana-palus, the king on the throne, to the humblest peasant within the walls, proving his repentance by sitting in sackcloth and ashes, God turned at once from the evil He had thought to do unto them and He did it not, and Nineveh was saved.
The simple truth is, God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He never punishes from preference, but only for our profit; and, even then, like a father, He suffers more deeply than the children upon whom His strokes of judgment fall.
What a contrast to that statement of Scripture, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, is that other sentence, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. The reason is not far to seek. In the first case it is death indeed; death fearful, death eternal. In the second case, death is a birth, a release from the flesh that held to a larger, richer, fuller life. In that God takes pleasure.
There is then for the sinner no royal road to the recovery of Gods favor. It is the thorny path of repentance instead. It is through Bochim, the Vale of Tears; but it were just as well that the prodigal, returning home, should not travel by a flowery path. He will be the less tempted to go away again if his back-coming is with agony, and home itself will seem the more sweet when reached if there his weary feet find rest for the first time, and from their bleeding soles the thorns are picked; if there his nakedness is clothed, his hunger is fed and his sense of guilt is kissed away. Oh, the grace of God to wicked men the moment repentance makes possible their forgiveness!
The court in Minneapolis yesterday illustrated this very point. When a young man, who had been wayward indeed, who had turned highway-robber, saw his error, sobbed his way to Christ and voluntarily appeared in court and asked to have sentence passed, newspapers expressed surprise that the heart of the judge should have been so strangely moved, and that the sentence the law absolutely required to be passed upon him, should have been, by the judge, suspended, and the young man returned to his home and wife and babe. But our Judge, even God, is so compassionate that such conduct on His part excites no surprise. It is His custom! Were it not so, every soul of us would stand under sentence of death. The law which is just and holy and good has passed that sentence already, and it is by the grace of God we have our reprieve. Seven apostasies? Yes! Seven judgments? Yes! But seven salvations! Set that down to the honor and glory of our God! It is by grace we are saved!
THE SUCCESSIVE JUDGES
Evidently God has no special regard for some of our modern superstitions, for in this period of conquest He deliberately chooses thirteen judges and sets them over Israel in turn, beginning with Othniel, the son of Kenaz, and nephew of Caleb, and concluding with Samson, the son of Manoah.
They represented varied stations of Israelitish society. A careful review of their personal history brings a fresh illustration of the fact that God is no respector of persons; and it also illustrates the New Testament statement that Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. With few exceptions these judges had not been heard of until their appointment rendered necessary some slight personal history. That is the Divine method until this hour. How seldom the children of the great are themselves great. How often, when God needs a ruler in society, He seeks a log cabin and chooses an angular ladAbe Lincoln. The difference between the inspired Scriptures and yesterdays newspaper is in the circumstance that the Scriptures tell the truth about men and leave God to do the gilding and impart the glory, instead of trying to establish the same through some noble family tree. There is a story to the effect that a young artist, working under his master in the production of a memorial window that represented the greatest and best that art ever knew, picked up, at the close of the day, the fragments of glass flung aside, and finally wrought from them a window more glorious still. Whether this is historically correct or not, we know what God has done with the refuse of society again and again. Truly
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in His presence * * * * He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (1Co 1:27-29; 1Co 1:31).
Out of these un-named ones some were made to be immortalGideon, Jephthae, Samson, Deborah.
Gideon, the son of Joash, became such because he dared to trust God. The average Captain of hosts wants men increased that the probabilities of victory may grow proportionately. At the word of the Lord Gideon has his hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands reduced to a handful. What are three hundred men against the multitude that compassed him about? And what are pitchers, with lights in them, against swords and spears and stones; and yet his faith failed not! He believed that, God with him, no man could be against him. When Paul comes to write his Epistle to the Hebrews and devotes a long chapter of forty verses to a list of names made forever notable through faith, Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthaethese all appear, and they are put there properly, reason confirming revelation. Barak had faced the hundreds of iron chariots of the enemy, and yet at the word of the Lord, had dared to brave and battle them. Samson, with no better equipment than the jaw-bone of an ass, had slain his heaps. Jephthae, when he had made a vow to the Lord, though it cost him that which was dearer than life, would keep it. Such characters are safe in history. Whatever changes may come over the face of the world, however notable may eventually be names; whatever changes may occur in the conceptions of men as to what makes for immortality, those who believe in God will abide, and childrens children will call their names blessed. Gideon will forever stand for a combination of faith and courage. Barak will forever represent the man who, at the word of the Lord, will go against great odds. Jephthae will forever be an encouragement to men who, having sincerely made vows, will solemnly keep the same; and Samson will forever represent, not his prowess, but the strength of the Lord, which, though it may express itself in the person of a man, knows no limitations so long as that man remains loyal to his vows, and the spirit of the Lord rests upon him.
Before passing from this study, however, permit me to call your attention to the fact that there was made a political exception in the matter of sex. We supposed that the putting of woman into mans place is altogether a modern invention. Not so; it is not only a fact in English language but in human history, that all rules have their exceptions. Gods rule for prophets is men, and yet the daughters of Philip were prophetesses. Gods rule for kings is men, and yet one of the greatest of rulers was Queen Victoria. Gods rule for judges is men, and yet Deborah was long since made an exception. Let it be understood that the exception to the rule is not intended to supplant the rule. The domestic circle is Gods choice for womankind, and her wisdom, tact and energy are not only needed there, but find there their finest employment. And yet there are times when through the indifference of men, or through their deadness to the exigencies of the day, God can do nothing else than raise up a Deborah, speak to a Joan of Arc, put on the throne a Victoria.
I noticed in a paper recently a discussion as to whether women prominent in politics proved good mothers, and one minister at least insisted that they did. We doubt it! The text speaks of Deborah as a mother in Israel, but we find no mention of her children. Our judgment is that had there been born to her a dozen of her own Israel might never have known her leadership. The unmarried woman, or the barren wife, may have time and opportunity for social and political concern; but the mother of children commonly finds her home sphere sufficient for all talents, and an opportunity to reach society, cleanse politics, aid the church, help the world, as large an office as ever came to man. However, let it be understood that all our fixed customs, all our standard opinions, give place when God speaks. If it is His will that a woman judge, then she is best fitted for that office; if He exalts her to lead armies, then victory will perch upon her banners; if He calls her to the place of power on the throne, then ruling wisdom is with her.
In the language of the Apostle Paul, And what shall I say more, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Samson and of Barak and of Jepkthae. They are all great characters and worthy extended discussion. It would equally fail me to rehearse the confusion, civil and religious, that follows from the seventeenth chapter of this Book to the end, but in chapters nineteen to twenty-one there is recorded an incident that cannot in justice to an outline study, be overlooked, for it results in
THE CIVIL WAR
Tracing that war to its source, we find it was the fruit of the adoption of false religions. We have already seen some of the evil effects of this intermingling with heathen faiths, but we need not expect an end of such effects so long as the compromise obtains. There is no peace in compromise; no peace with your enemies. A compromise is never satisfactory to either side. Heathen men do not want half of their polytheism combined with half of your monotheism. They are not content to give up a portion of their idolatry and take in its place praises to the one and only God. The folly of this thing was shown when a few years since the leaders of the International Sunday School Association attempted to temporarily affiliate Christianity with Buddhism. The native Christians in Japan, in proportion to their sincere belief in the Bible arid in Christ, rejected the suggestion as an insult to their new faith, and the followers of Buddha and the devotees of Shintoism would not be content with Christian conduct unless the Emperor was made an object of worship and Christian knees bowed before him. It must be said, to the shame of certain Sunday School leaders, that they advocated that policy and prostrated themselves in the presence of His Majesty to the utter disgust of their more uncompromising fellows. The consequence was, no Convention of the International Association has been so unsatisfactory and produced such poor spiritual results as Tokios.
Confusion is always the consequence of compromise, and discontent is the fruit of it, and fights and battles and wars are the common issue.
Idolatry is deadly; graven images cannot be harmonized with the true God. The first and second commandments cannot be ignored and the remainder of the Decalog kept. It is God or nothing! It is the Bible or nothing! It is the faith once delivered or infidelity!
The perfidy of Benjamin brought on the battle. We have already seen that men grow like those with whom they intimately associate. This behavior on the part of the Benjamites is just what you would have expected. The best of men still have to battle with the bad streak that belongs to the flesh incident to the fall; and, when by evil associations that streak is strengthened, no man can tell what may eventually occur. Had this conduct been recorded against the heathen, it would not have amazed us at all. We speedily forget that as between men there is no essential difference. Circumstances and Divine aidthese make a difference that is apparent indeed; but it is not so much because one is better than the other, but rather because one has been better situated, less tempted, more often strengthened; or else because he has found God and stands not in himself but in a Saviour.
Pick up your paper tomorrow morning and there will be a record of deeds as dark as could be recorded against the natives of Africa, or those of East India or China, Siberia or the South Sea Islands. The conduct of these men toward the concubine was little worse than that of one of our own citizens in a land of civilization and Christianity, who lately snatched a twelve-year-old girl and kept her for days as his captive, and when at last she eluded him, it was only to wander back to her home, despoiled and demented. Do you wonder that God is no respecter of persons? Do you wonder that the Bible teaches there is no difference? Do you doubt it is all of grace?
The issues of that war proved the presence and power of God. There are men who doubt if God is ever in battle; but history reveals the fact that few battles take place without His presence. The field of conflict is commonly the place of judgment, and justice is seldom or never omitted. We may be amazed to see Israel defeated twice, and over 40,000 of her people fall, when as a matter of fact she went up animated by the purpose of executing vengeance against an awful sin. Some would imagine that God would go with them and not a man would fall, and so He might have done had Israel, including Judah and all loyal tribes, been themselves guiltless. But such was not the truth! They had sins that demanded judgment as surely as Benjamins sin, and God would not show Himself partial to either side, but mete out judgment according to their deserts. That is why 40,000 of the Israelites had to fall. They were facing then their own faithlessness. They were paying the price of their own perfidy. They were getting unto themselves proofs that their fellowship with the heathen and their adoption of heathen customs was not acceptable with God.
Many people could not understand why England and France and Belgium and Canada and Australia and America should have lost so heavily in the late war, 19141918, believing as we did believe that their cause was absolutely just. Why should God have permitted them to so suffer in its defense? Millions upon millions of them dying, enormous wealth destroyed, women widowed, children orphaned, lands sacked, cities burned, cathedrals ruined, sanctuaries desecrated. The world around, there went up a universal cry, Why? And yet the answer is not far to seek. England was not guiltless; France was not guiltless; Belgium was not guiltless.
Poor Belgium! All the world has turned to her with pity and we are still planning aid for the Belgians and to preach to them and their children the Gospel of grace, and this we should do; but God had not forgotten that just a few years ago Belgium was blackening her soul by her conduct in the Belgian Congo. Natives by the score and hundreds were beaten brutally, their hands cut off because they did not carry to the Belgian king as much rubber and ivory as Belgian avarice demanded. American slavery, in its darkest hour, never knew anything akin to the oppression and persecution to which Belgium subjected the blacks in the Congo. Significant, indeed, is the circumstance that when the Germans came into Belgium, many Belgian hands were cut off; hapless and helpless children were found in this mangled state. Frightful as it was, it must have reminded Belgian authorities of their sins in Africa and of the certainty and exactitude of final judgment.
We have an illustration of this truth in the Book of Judges. When Judah went up against the Canaanites and the Lord delivered them into his hands, they slew in Bezek 10,000 men. They found Adoni-Bezek, the king, and fought against him, and caught him and cut off his thumbs and great toes. We cry Horror! and wonder that Gods own people could so behave; but, complete the sentence, and you begin to see justice, And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table. As I have done, so God hath requited me (Jdg 1:7).
Think of England in her infamous opium traffic, forcing it upon natives at the mouths of guns, enriching her own exchecquer at the cost of thousands and tens of thousands of hapless natives of East India and China!
Think of France, with her infidelity, having denied God, desecrated His sabbath, rejected His Son and given themselves over to absinthe and sensuality!
Think of the United States with her infamous liquor traffic, shipping barrels upon barrels to black men and yellow men, and cursing the whole world to fill her own coffers.
Tell me whether judgment was due the nations, and whether they had to see their sin in the lurid light of Belgian and French battlefields; but do not overlook the fact that when the war finally ends, Benjamin, the worst offender, the greater sinner, goes down in the greatest judgment, and one day Benjamins soldiers are almost wiped from the earth! Out of 26,700, 25,000 and more perish. Tell us now whether judgment falls where judgment belongs!
Take the late war. Again and again Germany was triumphant, but when the Allies had suffered sufficiently and had learned to lean not to themselves but upon the Lord; when, like Israel, they turned from hope in self and trusted in God, then God bared His arm in their behalf and Germany went down in defeat, a defeat that made their come-back impossible; a defeat that fastened upon them the tribute of years; a defeat that proved to them that, great as might have been the sins of the allied nations, greater still, in the sight of God, was their own sin; for final judgment is just judgment.
God is not only in history; God has to do with the making of history. If men without a king behave every one as is right in his own eyes, the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, will do that which will eventually seem right in the eyes of all angels and of all good men. That is GOD!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THE FALL OF SAMSON
Judges 14-16.
THE eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews is an epitome of history employed in illustration of faith. Many of the great names of the Old Testament are called; and each, in turn, is held before the reader as a hero of trust in God.
A week since we found Jephthah to be in this company. The same Scriptures that include the name of Jephthah hold that of Samson also. And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets This name, then, is in a goodly galaxy. If one wanted to preach a series of sermons on great Old Testament characters he could do no better than to take them in the order of their appearance in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
That Samson should be found in the list indicates that he was something more than a big bully, famed for his brute force. He was that! We have no doubt there are fans of the prize fight who seriously wish that Samson had been a twentieth century product, and that they might have seen him take an evening to bowl over John Sullivan, Corbett, Fitzsimmons, Johnson, Dempsey, Carpenter and Tunney in turn; and then perhaps line them all up and make a clean job of the septette; for, to the superficial reader and thinker Samson was nothing more than the worlds champion of the fighting ring for all centuries.
But a more intelligent study of this Scripture will
illustrate the fact that the history is not recorded to that circumstance at all, but rather to illustrate great and fundamental facts of life. Permit me to lead your study under three statements: Feats of Strength, Folly of Sin, Facts of Salvation.
FEATS OF STRENGTH
Two or three things are made clear in the record of Samsons feats of strength.
He surpasses all his fellows. Until that time the world had not produced his physical equal; since that time it has just as signally failed to present his peer. Immortality inheres in the incomparable. The moment a man is something his fellows have never been, or does something his fellows have never accomplished, he forces himself into the hall of fame. Witness Charles Lindbergh! The whole human race is tired of the humdrum of every-day life, and every-day experiences. The same race is delighted with novelties, and utterly infatuated with the altogether unusual! The trouble with the average man is that he has no more ingenuity than the beasts of the field or the birds of the air! He has seen the behavior of his father and mother and he proceeds after the same manner, or else falls short of even their accomplishments. He creates for himself no occasion of praise. The world recognizes him as he passes, but forgets him the moment he is gone.
The unusual man is the man whose name will live, and it does not require the mastery of the unthinkable to make it so; it only requires a splendid superiority in something, a point at which he will outclass all competitors. The Colgate family is famed in all America. Success in business and the accumulation of a fortune have made it so. When William Colgate, the founder of this house, was met on the towpath (traveling toward New York City) by an old boat captain who said to him, William, if you know how to make soap, remember that a few years hence some man will be the best soap maker in America, and that man might be you, the boy saw the meaning of the words, and shortly put them into practice and founded a great business and secured a great fortune. Emerson may have been a mystic in many ways, but he shows himself sensible and practical when he writes, If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the wilderness, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
What is the lesson? Do not roll along in the rut of life! Whatever you do, do it better than your neighbors and be the one individual of your community; do it better than anybody else has ever done it, and the world will never forget you.
He even surprised himself. I have an idea that when the young lion roared against Samson, and Samson rent him as he would rend a kid, though he had nothing in his hands, it so astonished him as to account for his silence, for the text says, He told not his father or his mother what he had done. There are some events in life that so far surpass what one ever expected to accomplish that he feels ashamed to tell them. There are some experiences that we do not think others would believe, because we know no one ever had them. When I was a lad in Kentucky I saw in the afternoon, just before the sun went down, a shining meteor traveling across the sky in a southerly direction! The roar of it was like a passing train; the blaze following it was yards in length even to my vision, and doubtless hundreds of miles in fact. The smoke that came from it formed a little cloud that held its position in the skies long after the meteor had gone. I had never seen anything like it; I had never heard of anything like it. I went home and maintained an utter silence simply because I feared I would be laughed at and be accounted a Baron Munchausen if I told. But when the next mornings newspaper came, and with great headlines reported that the meteor had been seen by thousands upon thousands, I went then into detail in telling that upon which I had looked.
Samsons strength was such a surprise to him that he kept silent about it, lest he should not be believed. But he made note of it, and from that hour he knew what he could do, and woe to man or beast that challenged him to conflict. He moved to the battle absolutely confident of victory and knew no fear. The trouble with many a young man is that he never discovers himself. He never puts his strength to any sufficient test. He never undertakes a big enough problem, or lays his hand to a hard enough task to learn what his powers are. He kills kids, but does not know that he could throttle a lion. He takes a bath and dresses himself in decent clothes, but never dreams that he could cleanse himself of a bad habit if he tried, and throttle the devil himself if he set himself to the task.
Is it not a profound pity for one to be possessed of splendid talents and never make discovery of them? Leslie M. Shaw, at one time Secretary of the Treasury, once made use of Axtellthe famous race horseto illustrate his point. He reminded his auditors of how Axtell came from a long line of blooded stock, and how his owner was very careful to see that he had the best attention possible. His limbs were rubbed daily that his muscles might be kept in good shape; he was not allowed to run with horses of ordinary breed, but only with blooded and swift ones. The time came for his training, and a man was secured who worked with him for a time and declared there was no speed in him. He was dismissed, and a second trainer secured, with a like result. A third did no better with him. Then the owner himself determined to try what he could do. For weeks he coaxed, and tried every possible way in kindness to get the colt to trot; then he lost patience, and taking the whip in hand, he lashed him again and again. As the keen crack cut into the sensitive flesh of the colt it aroused him. He picked up his feet as he had never picked them up before. He began to trot, and with additional strokes from the whip he went faster and faster Axtell had discovered himself. And from that moment he was master of the ring.
There are too many subjects of a soft and relaxing civilization. The land is filled with too many sleepy lads and lassies, awkwardly gadding their way about the most common tasks. Hardships and even cruelties have roused the worlds greatest men to conscious strength, as the appearance of the lion stirred Samson to the realization of the same. If your lines have fallen to you in pleasant places, pray God to either send His Spirit upon you for inspiration, or to sweep from you every luxury and comfort, that adverse circumstances might accomplish for you what the lash accomplished for Axtell, and the lion accomplished for Samson. No man ever succeeded until he said, I can do it.
He strangled his enemies. We are told of the lion that he rent him as a kid. The men of Ash-kelon he slew and took their spoil; the Philistines he slaughtered with the jaw bone of an ass, and there fell a thousand of them.
You say, Does God approve this? In the study of life do not stumble over difficult incidents. I do not know that God did approve it. That is really not the problem. The question is another one, a far greater one. How shall a man treat his enemies? What attitude shall a man take toward a lion that is in full leap, a lion that has sprung for the throat and will suck his blood? How shall a man behave toward enemies that have first secured his blinding, and then have set upon him to destroy him?
I hold before you Samson as an ensample of proper conduct. There is nothing to do with the furious lion but to rend him if you have the ability. There is nothing to do with furious enemies but to strike them down. To play with the first is to fall under his power and be destroyed; to parley with the second is to have your eyes put out and be flung into prison and made to grind for the sport of sinners.
There is a better way and Samson revealed it slay them! There is the lion of strong drink. What will you do with him? Play with him and he will break your bones. There is a tiger of lust; play with him and he will suck your blood. There are the Philistines of gambling; play with them and they will wrap green withes about your wrists and new ropes about your feet, and shear your hair, and convert you into a pitiful creature of sport, a living mockery. When John Wooley decided to have it out with the liquor business he started in to slay it. That was his only safety.
A friend tells me of a strange bird known to the mountains of the West, commonly called the roadster on account of his custom of getting into the middle of the road and running more rapidly than a horse travels, for hundreds and hundreds of yards ahead of you as you go. Now this bird is said to be the most famous enemy of the rattle snake abounding in the same community. When in his travels he happens upon one, he approaches near enough to get the snake to strike. But with dexterous movement he always escapes the blow. While the snake is still stretched out, and before he can coil again, the bird puts in his sharp bill and picks out an eye. Then he backs off and lets the snake coil and strike a second time. The moment this is done, and before he can recoil, he flies at him and picks out the second eye. Then the hapless serpent is his easy victim, and he thrusts his long beak right through the spinal cord at the base of the skull. This bird is a teacher of men! What shall we do with the enemies of body, soul and spirit? Imitate Samsonstrangle them, slay them! Let not a one that disputes your path live! That is a lesson well worth the learning, and no young man ever put it into practice but it profited him.
And yet we must pass from the feat of strength to
THE FOLLY OF SIN
Our theme as announced for the sermon was The Fall of Samson. There is only one way to fall. Sin marks that way. No man ever committed sin and escaped a fall. When Eve sinned she fell. When Adam sinned he fell. The record of Samsons behavior is a revelation of common experience.
At first his sin was in affection. His love of the woman in Timnath seems to have been a true love, and his intentions honorable, withal. He reports this affair to his father and mother. There was nothing clandestine about it. He asked the privilege of an honorable wedding, as a dutiful son should do. And when the wedding occasion occurred, the young giant stalked in the midst of thirty of the brides friends as the chief entertainer of the evening.
Once in a while you hear of a young man who is famed as a good story teller. In the ancient day they did not put forth stories as we do; they told riddles. The humor was not as good as is our modern method of story telling, but the wit was more in evidence. Arch Dean Farrar brings from Cassel a curious parallel of this instance from the annals of northern Germany. The judge promised a woman he would free her husband if she would tell him a riddle he could not guess. On her way to the courtroom she saw the carcass of a horse in which a little bird had built its nest and hatched its young, and her riddle ran after this manner:
As hither on my way I sped,
I took the living from the dead,
Six were thus of the seventh made quit,
To read my riddle, my lords tis fit.
Unable to explain the riddle, the judge failed, and the husband was set free.
But Samson combined in one a feat of the intellect and some gambling features, all of which added zest to the proposition and hinted the direction in which the lad was, perhaps unconsciously, yet certainly turning his life. Stupidity is not identical with spirituality, and saplessness is not another name for sanctity. A man does not have to be lugubrious because he belongs to the Lord. The love of innocent fun is not condemned in the kid or the lamb; we do not believe it is in the man. But it must be conceded that some features of what men call fun are inimical and dangerous, and it is only a step from them to the most grievous sin. Martin F. Black was a prosperous commission merchant in New York City; his fortune was estimated at $150,000 to $200,000. At the age of sixty-six years, broken in spirit and in health, he appeared before the magistrate Isen-Brown of that city and begged him to send him to the House of Correction, where he could find food and shelter for the winter months. In explanation of his condition, Black said, Five years ago I was one of the respected commission merchants of New York, and with a most comfortable fortune. One day a big buyer paid me a visit and asked me to go out and take a little something with him. I excused myself, saying I never touched liquor. He ridiculed the idea and said, You cannot imagine, man, that a single drink will do you any especial harm. Come along and be a good fellow. I did not want to offend him, and thought to drink with him was a mere matter of fellowship, and so I consented. But the moment the drink was down, it seemed to run through my bones like fire and excited desires I had never known. That very afternoon I went to the saloon and drank myself drunk. A young chap got hold of me, and we went forth to a gambling house. I lost the first day, $23,000. I saw the folly of it, but some smouldering lust for wine and gambling had been roused within me, and I was never able to put it down. Business soon left me and I was ruined!
Samson went from fun making to fleshly satiety. The reports of his behavior with harlots reminds one of the conduct of the prodigal son in Luke fifteen. The results of such a life are always and everywhere the same. It may land one man with the swine, and effect for him hunger and rags and disgrace. Another man it may fling into the hands of the Philistines who bind him, bore out his eyes, and send him to the mill to trample the corn as a blind horse is compelled to do! But the one thing certain is that , this sin sooner or later super induces sorrow, visits suffering, turns success into terrible defeat.
Louis Albert Banks gives us a fine illustration of that fact, drawing it from the life of Parnell, the great Irish leader. He says, It is only a short time ago that he was the astute and thoroughly trusted leader of the Irish cause in the English Parliament. He had an eloquence peculiar to himself, seemed to have an unlimited measure of common sense, and above all a masterful will, which made him a governor of others, because he first governed himself. Beginning alone, he fought his way, step by step, until such men as Gladstone believed in him, and respected him, and victory seemed certain for him and for his cause. There was a time when almost any man with a clear eye for historic perspective would have said, Here is a man who will live in history as one of its great figures. In 1882 he was great enough to offer, of his own accord, to Mr. Gladstone to retire from public life altogether, if in the great Englishmans judgment such an act would be helpful to the Irish cause. Then came his secret overthrow. The sin which destroyed Samson undermined him. It was long covered up and hidden; but like all sin, as it grew into mastery and control of the mans nature, it became bold and defiant. In the autumn of 1890 his shame was uncovered before all the world. Then he was asked to retire; he was shown his cause would certainly fail unless he relieved it of his burden. But his sin seemed to have changed his whole nature, and he no longer had the power to be self-denying, or to do great and generous deeds. Justin McCarthy, who had been his dearest friend, says, He seems suddenly to have changed his whole nature and his very ways of speech. We knew him before as a man of superb self-restraint, cool, calculating, never carried from the moorings of his keen intellect by any waves of passion around hima man with the eye and the foresight of a born commander-in-chief. That was the man before he had sold himself to the devil, before secret sin had eaten out his manhood and drugged his conscience and palsied his will; but what kind of a man was he afterward? Hear McCarthy again: We had now in our midst a man seemingly incapable of self-control, a man ready at any moment, and on the smallest provocation, to break into a very tempest and whirlwind of passion, a man of the most reckless and self-contradictory statements, a man who could descend to the most trivial and vulgar personalities, who could encourage and even indulge in the most ignoble and humiliating brawls. You all know the result. As Lucifer fell like a star from heaven to the deepest hell, so he fell from leadership, from the respect of mankind, and died as Samson did, brokenhearted and in shame.
The story of Samson is up-to-date! There are many men and women in Minneapolis tonight who have seen the consequences of their own sin, and to whom the meaning of this story is more plain than the words of any minister can make it to the inexperienced.
But I beg you to reflect upon this picture! It is a splendid photograph of the devils dupeblind, bound, grinding. Oh, God! can a giant be so degraded? Yes, if he sin!
Finally, the Spirit was insulted. The text of Scripture concerning this matter is plain. He awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. God is a long time in giving us up! The Holy Spirit is difficult to grieve away. Patience is a prominent feature in the Divine love, but when the Spirit of God is gone, there is no strength. The Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house.
I know what you are thinking. Did Samsons strength then lay in his hair? No. There wasnt a bit of power in any one of those hairs; there wasnt a particle of ability in all of them combined, and yet, the shearing of it stripped him of strength because that hair represented the fact of his vow to God, and the cutting of it was the breaking of the vow, and the man who has broken his vows to God is a weak man, hence a defeated man; he is a devil-mastered man. The Word of the Lord is plain, When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools.
To be sure there is a difference between outward strength and inward strength. And yet, let it never be forgotten that there is also a kinship between them. This beautiful hair of Samsons had been the visible symbol of a spiritual strength. The strength, however, had begun to fail before the hair was cut. Samson lost a part of it in gambling; Samson lost a part of it in brawls; Samson lost much of it in lust. Truly, sooner or later the outer man and the inner man will get together. The shorn hair and the lost spirit will speak of the collapse of the entire man, external and internal. When I look on a man whose hair is uncombed, whose face is unwashed, I am compelled to believe that this outward appearance is an indication of the spirit within him. External appearances have always been, and will forever remain, indicators. The Nazarite who has no interest whatever in the keeping of his hair has lost his holiness. And when the spirit is removed, no strength remains.
If God be for us, who can be against us? Ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Oh, I know that these are days when the new theologians tell us that God is never angry, and when Christian Scientists harp upon a single string, lulling to sleep with the statement, God is love. What superficial thinking, as if anger of a certain sort was inconsistent with the greatest love. Indeed, writes the great Dr. Dale, the measure of our love for others is often the measure of our anger against them. A comparative stranger may tell us a lie and we may feel nothing but contempt and indifference, but if our own child, whom we love, tells us a lie, there is often intense anger as well as grief. That God is often angry with us is only proof that he intensely loves us. Truly, as Dale continues, To deny that God will be hostile to man on account of sin is to degrade our conception of Him. He is not a mere good-natured God; His righteousness as well as His love is infinite.
THE FACT OF SALVATION
The end of Samsons history is not yet. The blind eyes, the brass manacles, the bolting stonethese are not the end of Samson. There is another day of victory for him, and although it is the day of his death, it is the day of his conquest also. He comes back into favor with the Lord; he comes back into fullness of power; he comes back to the overthrow of his enemies; he comes back in the estimation of his brethren and father.
The fallen man, then, is not necessarily lost! The reason for that is not far to seek. The fallen man is not necessarily a fully abandoned man. The man who grieves away the Spirit of God is not necessarily an utter degenerate. There were great things about this giant of the early centuries. There were features of his life that must have been pleasing to God Himself. One phrase finally suggests it: And he judged Israel twenty years. Joseph Parker, the great preacher, speaking to this fact in The Peoples Bible, urges us not to forget the twenty years of service, the consideration of the necessities of the people, the frown which made the enemy afraid, the smile which encouraged struggling virtue, the recognition which came very near to being an inspiration, and asks, Who knows what heartaches the man had in prosecuting and completing the judgeship? Who can be twenty full years at any one service without amassing in that time, features, folly, all of which ought to be taken into account before pronouncing final judgment? And blessed be GodHe takes them all into account. That is why the prodigal was received when he came home. The father reflected not on his failure only. The father had never forgotten the jubilant spirit he used to see in that child; the father had never forgotten the generosity of heart; the father had never forgotten the depths of soul into which he had seen as nobody else; and so, when with lifted eyes he saw him facing homeward, the very sorrow of his countenance, the very shame of his rags, the very dejection of his spirit, stirred the very soul of his father.
Oh, I wish I could get men to believe in the God of the Bible. I wish I could open their blind eyes to behold the compassion of His face and understand the depths of His affection, His forgiving love; then penitence would follow.
The penitent man is storing up power. The record tells us nothing of the emotions of Samson as he sat at that mill stone, blind, bound, brutalized. But God does not need to write down the last word! We should be able to read between the lines. How would he feel? How would you feel? How would I feel? Had you dallied with sin, had you fallen under the betrayal of some Delilah, had you come into the power of the hosts of the Philistines, had you been blind, bound and set to bolting corn to feed others on bread that you could not touchhow would it affect you? A man would be degraded indeed who did not repent. And the man who does repent is storing up power. He may not be conscious of it. When David was writing the Fifty-first Psalm he little intended it, but as the water streamed from his eyes, strength was coming; and as he poured out his heart in grief, God was coming to him in power. And of Samson it is plainly written as he prayed, O Lord God, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God, his strength came and those limp hands laying hold upon the two middle pillars, compelled them to totter at the touch, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
Can the conquered man come back to power? Yes! Can the man conquered today be himself self conquered tomorrow? Yes! Can the man who was wrecked be more than a match for them all? Yes! How? By penitence and prayer. It is a thousand fold better to be conqueror before you come to death, but is it not gracious that the man who has been defeated may even conquer in death? The poor thief hanging at the side of Christ conquered in death, but he came to his conquest by the same way that Samson did; he was compelled to cry unto Him for help. If this will make a man victorious in death, why should any man be defeated in life, for God is the God, not of the dead, but of the living!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
SAMSONS FIRST DEALINGS WITH THE PHILISTINES
(Jdg. 14:1-20.)
CRITICAL NOTES. Jdg. 14:1. Timnath.] This was a town on the frontier which, like many other towns had been at first assigned to Judah to subdue and occupy (Jos. 15:57), but as Dan had too small a territory for its people, it and other towns were transferred to Dan. It is referred to in Jos. 15:43, also in ch. Jdg. 15:10. It was only a few miles from Samsons mountain home, and though it should have all along belonged to the Israelites, the tribe whose duty it was to subdue it, failed to do so through unbelief: and now the usual bitter fruits are reaped.
Jdg. 14:2. Get her for me to wife.] Heb. Take () Exo. 21:9. Though Samson may have come of age
(18), it was customary for the parents to transact the arrangements, as they had the duty of paying the wifes dowry to the parents of the bride. What is here recorded is a bad beginning for the public life of a man, who was chosen to be a deliverer of Gods Israel from their bondage. It has been suggested that it is only the briefest notices that are here given of his life, and there may (as in Jacobs case), have been in him many exercises of true piety which, if told, would throw another light on his character. This, indeed, is not only possible but probable. It seems at any rate, that the reason for selecting the incidents here related to be put on record, was because this was the first occasion when he had the opportunity of showing himself as the public opponent of the Philistines. Indeed this is hinted at in Jdg. 14:4.
Jdg. 14:3. That thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines.] His parents remonstrated. They were astonished at the proposal he made, and began to reason. It was unnatural in itself, and it was in express opposition to the Divine law (Exo. 34:16; Deu. 7:3-4). But Samson being an only son would in all likelihood have been accustomed to carry all points his own way. For we are told that he prevailed on his parents to accompany him (Jdg. 14:5.)
Jdg. 14:4. His father and mother knew not that it was of the Lord that he sought an occasion against the Philistines.] This applies to Samson. Probably what took him down to Timnath at first was, that now being come of age it was time for him to begin the work he was raised up to do. For he had frequently felt the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord to begin the work. Now, therefore, as soon as he was entitled to go, he went to the camp of the enemy to find some occasion for beginning his work. Badly as the story tells for Samson, it would be to put a needlessly harsh construction on his conduct to say that he went simply on an idle stroll, or that he went in sportive mood. There is an important meaning in the statement that he sought an occasion against the Philistines. He went, not knowing what might turn up, but his object was not merely to enjoy himself or have a little pastime. He wished to find some opportunity of commencing the duties of his high vocation. But he went unguarded against temptation, both as to eyes and ears (Psa. 119:37; Job. 31:1; Job. 31:7).
The Philistines had dominion over Israel.] The crushing character of this dominion and its infinite degradation may be learned from 1Sa. 13:6-7; also 1Sa. 13:19-21.
Jdg. 14:5. And his father and mother.] They went against their better judgment, being overcome by his importunity.
A young lion roared against him.] Being near the vineyards, probably in the valley of Sorek (Ch. Jdg. 16:4), famous for its vines (Jer. 2:21; Isa. 5:2), for the word Sorek means a choice vine.
Jdg. 14:6. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.] Gave him superhuman strength, as a pledge of what he might expect to receive when fighting against men.
And he rent him as he would have rent a kid.] With as much ease, for all power is of God and He can make the human arm stronger than the jaws of the lion. Samson seems to have strayed into the bush, when he may have met the lion perhaps in the pursuit of jackals or foxes, that were often found in vineyards (Son. 2:15). His father and mother were not with him there. Hercules was most formidable in his wrestlings, but it was chiefly with beasts. Samson was raised up to be a conqueror of men. This passing encounter with a lion would never have gained him a high name in Israel even if frequently repeated. He had a mission to deliver Gods Church. It is to be noticed that the word used here for lion does not mean a whelp, but one that has attained its strength, and is full of the natural fierceness. means a terrible lion, one with a bloodthirsty character, or that has all its natural savageness of nature fully developed. Yet he tore its jaws asunder, as easily as he would have rent in pieces so slender an animal as a kid.
He told not his father and mother.] With all his self-will he seems deeply to have loved his parents, and where there is love there will always be some measure of respect. Hence he would not like to horrify them with the recital of so wild a story as the encounter with the lion. It might fill their minds with troublesome suspicions as to what he might do next, and so he would forfeit their confidence. Many would have boasted of such an exploit, and blazoned it abroad through the world. That was not Samsons weak point. No one seems to have known of it for many months, until the solution of the riddle brought it out. He was not killed with vanity. The exploits of other heroes in their lion encounters were better known. Benaiah was known as the man who slew a lion in a pit in the time of snow. Wicker Von Schwabur, a hero in the time of the Crusades, killed a great lion with the sword near Joppa, and Godfrey, of Bouillon, stood his ground against a bear in like manner. The lion fight of the fabled Hercules, in Nemea, is also well known The Arabian Antar conquers a lion although the heros feet are fettered. But these two latter are little better than myths. There is one noble exception to the vain glory which accompanies any such heroic deed, in the case of the youthful shepherd of Bethlehem. But, indeed, both Samson and David might well have been afraid to boast of a power which was supernaturally given, and which showed the gracious protection of their covenant God.
Jdg. 14:7. Talked with the woman.] According to usage free conversation between the parties was not allowed till the affiancing took place. With the interview he had with the young woman Samson was pleased, and wished the arrangement to proceed.
Jdg. 14:8. An after a time.] Betrothing means giving ones troth, or faithful promise to marry a a future time. This time was at least six months, oftener a year, or more, after betrothal, but during the interval the woman was considered as the lawful wife of the man to whom she was betrothed (Mat. 1:18; Luk. 1:26-27). It must then have been either several months, ora whole twelvemonth, after this ceremony, that Samson now went down to take his wife.
He turned aside to see the carcass of the lion.] It could hardly have been a twelvemonth, when the carcass lay there untouched all the time, even though it was not in the beaten path. As the hero passed near the spot the incident came into his mind, and under some pretext he left his parents for a little that he might look again on the scene of his memorable deliverance. This trivial circumstance was the leading of Gods providence, for something great came of it. He found all that was most perishable of the beast long since gone, and nothing but the skeleton left, in which, to his no small surprise, was a swarm of bees. Bees as a rule avoid both dead bodies and carrion. Bees are so careful to select clean spots for their place of settlement, that a dead carcass was about the last place where they might be expected to alight. In the present case, however, everything that was noxious about the dead body bad become long since dried up, both through lapse of time and the intense heat. Nothing of an offensive odour remained. There was no putrefaction.
Honey.] Debash, the ordinary word, or Dvash, as some would make it. Deborah using r for s is the word for bee.
Jdg. 14:9. He took thereof in his hands.] There must have been an abundant supply, for he gave some both to his father and mother, as well as partook of it liberally himself. Had his parents known where it was found, they would have rejected it as being unclean.
Jdg. 14:10. His father went down.] He only is mentioned as the head of the party, but the mother and other friends were doubtless there. Samson made a feast.] There is a time to laugh and a time to dance, as well as a time to mourn and weep (Ecc. 3:4). This feast was on such a scale as to indicate wealth on the part of him who made it. It lasted seven days and embraced a large company. But it was customary, and to observe the custom was reckoned necessary to respectability.
Jdg. 14:11. When they saw him they brought thirty companions to be with him.] These were called the children of the bride-chamber (Mat. 9:15; Mat. 25:1-12). But usually it was young women that went out to meet the bridegroom, while here it is young men that are mentioned. Also they were chosen by the brides friends, not by those on Samsons side. Hence Josephus supposes they were chosen under pretence of doing him honour, while in reality they were meant to be a guard upon him (Josephus, Bertheau, Trapp, &c., &c.) The great strength of Samson must already have been begun to be talked about, and it must have been known, to some extent, that he was raised up to be a deliverer in Israel. This was quite in keeping with the phrase they were with him. They seemed to be friends of the bridegroom, yet may have been spies upon him in reality, and a band of men to overpower him, if any hostility should be displayed by him. This would be in keeping with their conduct described in Jdg. 14:15.
Jdg. 14:12. I will now put forth a riddle unto you.] Biddies were then, as now, much regarded as a means of amusement, or exciting interest on festive occasions. Thirty sheets (shirts) meaning clothes worn next the skin; and thirty changes of garments.] Costly dresses that were frequently changed (Gen. 45:22). To propose such riddles at banquets by way of entertainment was customary among the ancient Grecians. Such clothes are referred to in 2Ki. 5:5; 2Ki. 5:22; Isa. 3:6-7; Mat. 6:19; Gen. 45:22.
Jdg. 14:14. Out of the eater came forth meat, &c.] The spirit of this statement which is antithetical is Food came from the devourer, and sweetness from that which is bitter.
But care must be taken not to push the antithesis too far. We must be guided by the actual fact, and also by the words of the text. The lion, to which the propounder of the riddle referred is distinguished not by bitterness, nor by sourness, but by strength, so that our English translation after all best corresponds with the fact-out of the strong, etc. This, too, is confirmed by the answer given in the solution of the riddlewhat is stronger than a lion? Besides the word in the text () does not mean bitter, or sour, but strong.
Jdg. 14:15. On the seventh day.] For three days they tried hard to solve it but without success. They then gave it up till the seventh, when, as a last resort, they began to press hard on Samsons wife, threatening her with a terrible doom if she did not get the solution from her husband. So doth the devil oftentimes do. Many a mans head he breaketh with his own rib; and this bait he hath found to take so well, that he has never changed it since he crept into Paradise [Trapp], This showed at once the baseness of their spirit, and the atrocious length in wickedness to which, if baffled, they were disposed to go.
Is it not so?] Meaning: You have called us to the feast, that by means of this riddle you might get from us all that we have. Your object has been to plunder us. Is it not so?
Jdg. 14:17. And she wept before him the seven days.] A Jewish mode of speaking, meaning, unto the seventh day, or as some would make it, the rest of the seven days. It might simply mean, that, more or less with tears she asked him to tell her every one of the seven days, her motives being partly curiosisy, and still more, apprehensions of a disastrous issue to their hilarity should no solution be found. This would be intensely increased when, with loud voices, they threatened, as the time drew near, to burn her and her fathers house with fire unless she should find out an explanationhence on the seventh day particularly, she lay sore upon him until lie told her. A womans tears are her arguments, which oftentimes prove more powerful than all the logic of the other sex. They reach the heart by a more direct route than the understanding. Alexander of Greece replied to one who sent him a long letter complaining of his mothers conduct, one tear of my mothers will blot out a thousand such letters.
She told it to the children of the people.] In this she proved a traitor to the interests of her husband, both because she was bound to consult his interests first, and also because she ought to have known that he was well able to defend her from all evil. Her affection was manifestly a mere pretence; but she was a true Philistine.
Jdg. 14:18. Before the sun went down.] Sunset was the end of the day, and so they were within the mark. Their statement meant, that the meat came from an animal that was distinguished for devouring meat, not supplying it, and that the meat supplied was honey, the sweetest of all kinds of food.
If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, etc.] Samson in a moment detected the treachery, for no one else knew anything of the story which he kept studiously concealed; and he pointedly told them it was owing to their plotting with his wife that the discovery had been made. In a case of such palpable unfairness, he might have refused to acknowledge himself to be under obligation to stand by the original terms proposed, but rather than incur the suspicion of dishonour, he nobly resolved to pass by the affront, and to pay the forfeit agreed on, more especially as this would give him occasion to fulfil his mission for the smiting of the Philistines. This tends to raise him in our estimation, if we could get over his capital error in wedding a Philistine at all.
Jdg. 14:19. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.] These impulses came when God had work for him to do, but were not always with him. The prophets had not always the gift of prophecy, nor the apostles always the power of working miracles.(Trapp). Samson seemed to feel that his vocation was to smite the Philistines on every fit opportunity given. Now he felt he had such an opportunity, and he resolved to punish the enemy that had dared to attack the people of Jehovah, and to pour contempt on His name.
Went down to Ashkelon.] There were many nearer at hand, but these may have been ring-leaders in raids made on the homes of Israel, or, more likely, he did not wish to create too great a sensation about the matter by destroying members of families in the immediate neighbourhood. The persons killed must have been high in social rank, when there were so many changes of raiment. That which Israels champion flung at the feet of these vile cheaters was the attire of their own countrymen.
His anger was kindled, etc.] The base treachery of his wife on the occasion of their marriage festivity, the fact that her relatives supported her in her infidetity to him, and the apparent conspiracy of the whole Philistine community to give contemptuous treatment to an Israelitish family; all filled him with indignation, so that in place of returning for his wife he left the whole pack behind him, and directed his steps to his fathers house, a sadder but a wiser man. How sweet is home after a taste of the bitterness of the world! His home was in Zorah, which but for him would scarcely have been known to the world, just as Arpinum was known from its connection with Cicero, and Hippo was famous through Augustine.
Jdg. 14:20. Samsons wife was given to his companion, etc.] As soon as his back was turned, the unprincipled Philistine gave his daughter to be the wife of another manthe very man who had acted as the friend of the bridegroom! Such was the bitter fruit of an unhallowed alliance (Jer. 2:19).
Before proceeding to examine the details of this wonderful history, it may serve a good purpose first to look at it in its leading outlines. The judgment to be formed on the whole character of any man cannot be correct, if founded only on one or two acts of his life, and pre-eminently so in a case like that before us. It will greatly help to a just estimate on this important point, as well as aid us in a correct interpretation of individual particulars, if we first take a general view of the history in so far as it is given, and then take the details in their order.
GENERAL VIEW OF SAMSONS HISTORY
I. It presents to us a puzzling character.
It is a character where opposite and seemingly contradictory phases are continually appearing. In every page of the account, inconsistencies occur so painfully, that we are perplexed what to make of a personality so unique. From the preliminary statement made in chap. 13 by an angel of the Lord, we are prepared to expect a man of peculiar sanctity of manner, of strong spiritual life, and one singularly free from worldly defilement, to make his appearance when he comes forth as Gods servant to do Gods work, under a more than ordinary effusion of the Divine Spirits influence. But instead of that, the man who actually steps forward is one of a lower type than any name in the whole list of those who are called to be the saviours of Gods Israel. It would be hard to say whether he did more good or evil when fulfilling his course, though by profession he stood strongly on the side of good. Instead of being a frequent associate of the righteous, we find him almost constantly in the society of the wicked. For those who look on he is more a beacon of warning than an example for guidance and encouragement.
No good man indeed, is entirely free from faults so long as he remains in this wicked worl. (Ecc. 7:20). Here, however, is the case of a good man with great faults, but without correspondingly great excellences. It was not so with the other good men of scripture history. If David sinned once very grievously in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, and not infrequently said and did things inconsistent with a profession of genuine piety, he left behind him an unmistakable expression of heart-sorrow for his great sin, besides a whole volume of compositions that no man could have penned, whose bosom was not daily filled with the very spirit of heaven. If Jacob showed not a little of cunning and deceit in the early portion of his history, the vision of the ladder and the angels, his wrestling with the angel, and the whole of the latter part of his career, bring out strongly redeeming features of character. But with Samson there are no Alpine heights of excellence, such as to prove beyond doubt the heaven-soaring tendency of the general character. There is only a little eminence now and again rising above the plain, to set over against the morasses and marshy ground which shed a pestilential vapour over the surface.
But undoubtedly Samson had his good points of character, though there was much in his conduct to be condemned. If he had a comparatively low place in the kingdom of God, it would be obviously wrong to suppose that he had no place there at all.
Notice
1. The good features of his history.
(1.) He was specially raised up by God Himself. His very existence was owing to the fact that God had a special work to do, and he was brought into existence to do it. His mother was barren, so that he could not have been born without a special Divine interposition. His very being thus partook of a sacred character. He was indeed a member of the fallen human race and liable to sin like other men, yet being directly provided by God, being commissioned by Him to do a work which he purposed to do, and being specially qualified by Him for the performance of that work, he must have been in a proper sense approved by God. John the Baptist was thus raised up by God (Joh. 1:6). So was Isaac (Gen. 17:19; Gen. 18:11). So was Samuel (1Sa. 1:11; 1Sa. 1:20). All these were holy characters. All inspired men were holy men, whether prophets or apostles (2Pe. 1:21). Also all the judges of Israel appear to have been men who feared God, and wrought righteousness. It is questionable whether God ever called any wicked man into His service to do a work which had for its object the promotion of His glory. Balaam was indeed a wicked man, but he was not raised up by God, nor sent on a commission by Him. He was allowed to go to meet Balak with a wicked purpose in his heart, which God checked by turning the curse into a blessing. Judas was not honoured with a place among those whom Christ commissioned to set up His kingdom on earth, for he had left his Masters side and had gone to his own place, before the commission was given. We have not a single instance of a really wicked man being specially raised up by God and sent to bless the people. This alone is a strong presumption, if not a decisive proof, that Samson, whatever his faults may have been, was at heart a man approved of by God.
(2.) The mission on which he was sent was of a holy character. It was to be the Deliverer and Protecter of Gods peculiar people. In reality he was sent to be the preserver of Gods cause in the earth; for the office of that people was to uphold the honour of Gods name, and to set up a standard for His worship among men. Is it likely, or even possible, that an ungodly man could be chosen by God for this purpose?
(3.) He was a Nazarite from the beginning to the end of his life. (Jdg. 13:5) This implies that he was vowed to the Lord, and that his life itself was a consecration to the service of the Lord (comp. 1Sa. 1:11). This consecration had its roots in living faith, and its outward manifestation negatively, in absence from everything unclean, positively, in wearing the hair uncut. [Keil]. The person of Samson wearing the character of a Nazarite was made use of by God as a picture, to show to His people, that their weakness lay in losing their character as consecrated to Him, and mixing themselves up with unclean persons and things, whereas, by vowing themselves to be His all life through, and jealously avoiding everything that would contaminate them as a holy nation, they would acquire a strength that would make them invincible. Samson was in this sense a parable to Israel. one put into this position by God Himself surely must have had the roots of a genuine religious character.
(4.) He was a child of prayer, and had a pious training. From Jdg. 13:8-9 we conclude, that his father was accustomed to approach his God in prayer, in such a manner that his petitions were heard, for his difficulty he referred to Him, and his desire was granted. His prayer must have been well pleasing to God, and its being so on this occasion is a proof that it must have been so on other occasions. We may feel justified in regarding him as an Israelite indeed, for the whole account bears out that he was a righteous man. Not less so was his wife (Jdg. 5:23). The honour conferred on them by the angels visit, and the special gift bestowed, prove this. Probably the gift of a son was in answer to their prayers, as in the case of Hannah. We may assume then, without being expressly told, that Samson had pious parents who were in the practice of prayer, and that they prayed much for their only son, so specially given.
As to his training, he could see nothing but good in such a household. The fear of God was in that home habitually, and being a mountain home it stood apart from the outside polluting world. The name of the true God alone was worshipped, and His laws were obeyed.
(5.) The Lord specially blessed him. We never hear of God conferring a special blessing on a man who did not bear something of Gods image. (see p. 471.)
(6.) The Spirit of God often came upon him. We admit the important distinction between the natural and the gracious operations of the Divine Spirit, the latter being the peculiar privilege of the righteous, while the former, not relating directly to salvation, might be given to those whose hearts are not right with God. Yet in another aspect of the case, nothing is more sacred than Gods own character, and when even the natural influences of the Spirit are given to preserve that, they are given for a sacred purpose, and so are fitly conferred only on those who are chosen vessels to the Lord.
It is certainly a strong presumption that that man is himself a man of God, on whom the Spirit of the Lord should descend so often as He did on Samson, for purposes which concerned the honour of the Divine name. The cases referred to in 1Sa. 10:11, and Mat. 7:22-23, are exceptional, and do not imply that these persons had a direct commission from God, to vindicate the honourof His holy name as Samson undoubtedly had.
(7.) He lived a life of faith in the God of Israel. This was the whole bearing of his life. Though having so much to do with the worshippers of other gods, it underlies his whole history, that he kept his trust in the one living and true God. He regarded himself as the servant of the God of Israel, and the Philistines whom he slew in such numbers he looked on as the uncircumcised, who had put forth unhallowed hands against the people who were under special Divine protection. There was thus a tone of reverence in the doing of his work. It was done to God, and for the honour of His name. Besides, he did not rely on his own arm for victory or deliverance, though that was exceptionally strong, but he looked to God as his buckler and shield, and ascribed to Him all the glory of the victories he gained. Thou hast given this great deliverance to thy servant (Jdg. 15:18). This an ungodly man was not very likely to do. It is a sure proof of faith, as opposed to mere patriotism. The one has respect to God and His glory, while the other is concerned with our own glory, and that of the community with whom we are associated. The latter, though praiseworthy and to be commended, is of a greatly lower mark than the former.
The principle of his life was that of faith in the God of Israel, and hence we find his name put down in the list of those that are to be had in everlasting remembrance in the Church of God (Heb. 11:32). As the basis of his conduct, he believed in God in all things, and took direction in life from Him, though frequently his practice was at variance with his profession.
II. The bad features of his history.
(1.) He became the intimate and frequent associate of the wicked. It is indeed a modifying element in the case, that his life-work consisted very much in being a scourge to the enemies of Gods Israel, and therefore, that it was his duty to look out for occasions when he might discharge this work, yet it is strange that we never hear of his asking counsel at the mouth of the Lord, for direction in the fulfilment of his duty. In the case of most others who were sent on a special mission by God, we find there was frequent communication between them and their God for direction in the way of duty, before they started on their course. This was the case with Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and Jephthah, not to mention other names. But here there is not a word of intercourse between God and His servant, before the latter embarks on his hazardous course. There is no prayer of any kind, by way of committing his steps into the hands of God, as in the case of Jacob (Genesis 28). Nor do we hear of any precautions taken to avoid the sunken rocks, and dangerous whirlpools of the voyage of human life before him. The instinct of a man whose piety had a healthful tone would have suggested the propriety of doing both these things before he entered on his work.
It was symptomatic of a low state of piety, when Samson, a young man, inexperienced in the ways of the world, went out alone into such a society as that of the Philistines, without special prayer, and without much of the spirit of watchfulness. We might add, he seems to have had no definite plan before him, as to what he should do. The lines are not indeed inapplicable
Satan finds some mischief still,
For idle hands to do.
His visit to Timnath seems to have been aimless and censurable. This would make him all the more likely to catch infection from an evil atmosphere. The best supposition we can make is, that he went to see what God would set before him to do among these oppressors when actually on the ground. But he seems to have heard no voice calling to him in serious tones enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. (Pro. 4:14; Pro. 4:13; Pro. 13:20; 2Co. 6:14-17).
Two things are specially unfavourable in his intercourse with these wicked, of a general kind. one is, that he went among them as one off his guard. This he must have known to be wrong, for no charge was given to parents more impressively, than that they should teach their children to avoid the companionship of the heathen around them. And Samsons parents were least of all likely to forget this in the case of an only son, and one who was a Nazarite from his youth up. The other unfavourable feature is, that he spent the most of his public life among the idol-worshippers. A healthful spirituality of character repels all close intercourse with moral evil. Gather not my soul with sinners, &c. (Psa. 16:3; 2Co. 6:14; Psa. 26:5; Psa. 119:63; Psa. 119:158). He had indeed much to do in the way of chastising these people as a matter of duty; and it is to his credit, that, though he stood among them alone, he was never tempted for a moment to renounce the God of Israel, for the sake of joining with them in their idol-worship. Yet it is a matter of sorrow, that we never hear of this champion of Gods cause associating with any other class of men but these uncircumcised.
(2.) His intermarriage with a Philistine family. (a.) This was a breach of a solemn law laid down by God. Before the chosen people entered Canaan, they were expressly and repeatedly informed, that the inhabitants of the land were to be destroyed judicially because of their enormous wickedness, that they must not associate with them as friends, or even as neighbours, and much less were they to think of associating with them by marriage relationships. This was said especially of seven nations that are specified by name (Deu. 7:1-4; Jos. 23:12-13). See above on Jdg. 3:6-7. The Philistines are not mentioned by name in this list, yet they belonged to the same class of nations, and were guilty of the same sins. All the reasons for keeping aloof from the Canaanites applied equally to these Philistines. Intermarriage with a Philistine therefore, was an act of disobedience to a Divine command.
(b.) It was an express dishonour done to the name of God. All who were jealous for the honour of God, were bound to make a loud protest against the manner in which that honour was laid in the dust by these profane idol-worshippers. To stand by and look on with unconcern, while the greatest indignity was done to the name of the great Jehovah, was itself to incur the heavy expression of the Divine displeasure. Much more heinous was the conduct of those, who should join hands in the fastest friendship with the blasphemers of that holy and dreadful name. There was no middle course in such a case. The friendship of the world was held to be enmity with God.
(c.) It was to bring a blight on ones personal religion. It exposed one to strong temptations every hour of the dayto love the creature more than the Creator. The situation was so perilous to ones stability of principle, that not even the strongest built-up religious character could resist the aggressions of evil influence constantly coming in, without the help of the grace of God in keeping the feet from falling. A mans greatest enemy in such a case was one of his own house, and even of his own bosom. True piety to the God of Israel could not possibly flourish, in a circle where a believer was joined in wedlock with an idolater. No one can serve two masters. And so it turned out, that these unnatural intermarriages always led to apostasy from the living and true God.
(3.) His deeds of blood and revenge. one of these was his visit to Ashkelon, and there putting to death thirty men in cold blood, all of them unknown to him, and who had done him no harm. His only motive was, to find the rich dresses which he required to pay the costs of his wager. Again we see him, in mad anger, burning the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives, over many acres of the best part of the country. On two other occasions he makes a great slaughter among the Philistines, the motives of which are revenge. In these and similar deeds which are recorded, he doubtless fulfilled his vocation so far in punishing that oppressing people for their cruelty to Gods Israel; but, in most cases, the immediate reason he had for these steps was his desire for revenge. In so far as that was his prompting motive, it cannot be justified.
(4.) His licentiousness. This has usually been reckoned the great blot in Samsons character, and on looking at all the facts given in the record, we see no other conclusion possible than that, to a certain extent, he is fairly chargeable with it; not that he was a habitual libertine, but being of impulsive character he was liable to fall before temptation. The account given in Judges 14 is not conclusive, for though he loved a woman in the Philistine city of Timnath, he appears to have acted honourably in wishing to be married to her, according to the rules of propriety then generally recognised. His error in this chapter consisted chiefly in wedding a Philistine. But his conduct as detailed in Judges 16 is altogether inexcusable. Impurity between the sexes is a sin condemned alike by the moral instinct of every rightly constituted mind, and by the express denunciations of the word of God.
That this is one of the grosser sins needs no proof. In regard to no sin has God implanted a deeper sense of shame than this, nor has any been surrounded with a stronger natural restraint to prevent its commission. It implies, too, the subjection of the spiritual element in our nature to the animal, or the ascendancy of the bestial over that which we have in common with the angelic nature. No wonder that a deep shadow falls on the name of Samson, from what is here recorded. But yet serious mistakes have been made.
II. How are we to judge this character?
No mans sins should be looked at in the abstract, or apart from the cloud of circumstances, under which they have been committed. There are always considerations which will either deepen or lessen the criminality of the case in hand, though in no case can the criminality of a really sinful act be entirely taken away.
(1.) It is but a specimen of the conduct, not the whole life that is given in Scripture. We have indeed but nine special acts recorded from first to last each of which could not have occupied much time in the transacting. But he had twenty years of public life, and from these nine acts, we are left to judge of the character of the whole life. Doubtless, in so far as such a small number of acts could indicate the spirit of the mans life, we must hold the selection to be well made; yet, we must not forget, that in so long a history many things must have been said and done, which, if all had been told, would have presented a much wider basis of judgment than is actually afforded. The severest brevity is necessary in a book like the Bible, which, touching on so many points, must yet be compact enough to be portable. What is selected for notice, however, is always such as to give a just idea of the real character. There must, however, have been a much larger number both of good deeds and bad deeds in the whole life.
(2.) We must remember the age in which he lived. It is not easy to ply ones boat against the stream, and especially when the stream has become a rapid current. Those times were greatly degenerate, so much so that the moral mainspring of the nation seemed to be broken. Though severely smitten, backsliding Israel knew not how to return to their God. With the exception of a few little arks of preservation here and there, iniquity, as a mighty flood, had overspread the land. The religious light was dim; indeed, in some places, it seemed as if the lamp of God had gone out, and the nation were groping in darkness. Immorality of all kinds was so common that it was little regarded. It is manifest that temptations to sin in such an age were far stronger than when the moral standard stood high, and powerful restraints were raised up on all hands to any transgression of the Divine law.
(3.) His mission led him to associate much with the wicked. We believe he was too often and too long in the atmosphere of evil, and all too little in the companionship of the good. For though the pure circles were few and far between, they did exist as lights shining in a dark place. Yet if his mission practically, really was to harass the oppressors of Israel, and to be a bulwark against their attacks, it was necessary for him often to meet with them. This exposed him to much danger, and required much prayer and much watching to protect him from the evil influence. His error seems to have been that he placed himself too little under the Divine guidance, and in the Divine keeping. Going down to Timnath for the first time, a perfect stranger, a scene rank with moral malaria, he ought to have prayed without ceasing, in the spirit of the words, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. In an unguarded moment, through the eye the heart is led captive, and quickly he is ensnared to enter into marriage relationship with the member of a heathen family. one has said, it is needful to set a strong guard on our outward senses, for these are Satans landing places, especially the eye and the ear.
(4.) He had certain weak points in his character. Scripture itself speaks of the sin which easily besets us, it may be on account of our natural temperament or disposition, or on account of training or force of temptation. Some have a special tendency to pride, others to selfishness, some to ambition, others to avarice, some are prone to jealousy others to deceit and double dealing, some are inclined to detraction, others to stealing and circumvention, some are given to prevarication, others to evil speaking, some are addicted to excess of wine, others to impurity. This last appears to have been the fatal weakness of Israels defender, which though it does not palliate his sin accounts for its commission. When a man has a constitutional tendency to any sin it requires a greater effort for him to resist the downward tendency. Satan, like a skilful angler, baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish.
(5.) He did not realise the danger of his position. This may have arisen partly, from his youth and unacquaintance with the lures and enticements of the world; partly, from his conscious strength, which led him on no occasion to fear the face of man; partly, from a certain self-willedness, owing to his being an only son, and being accustomed by his parents ever to have his own way; from various causes he seems not to have realised his danger, until he actually fell into the traps which Satan had laid for the unwary bird. How differently it might have fared with him had he daily, and even hourly, come to the Throne of grace, to find grace to help him in the measure of his need. But he seems not to have reflected that he was on an Enchanted Ground, that the poison of the old serpent hung in sparkling drops on every blade of grass, and that every potion he put to his lips was drugged. May God grant that we all have both eyes and ears wide open while we are still treading so dangerous a territory.
III. The need of caution in judging religious character.
To judge of any mans moral or religious character is to tread on extremely delicate ground. The right to pass any judgment at all is more than questionable, and the range within which it may be allowed is extremely limited. Who art thou that judgest another mans servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. But where the right is exercised, in few cases we believe have more shallow, inconsiderate, unjust, and unnecessarily severe judgments been formed of any ones religious character, than in that of the man brought before us in these pages. How many judge him as if he had passed life in the light of modern times, as if he had no, or few disadvantages, and as if there were nothing trying or peculiar in the situation in which he was placed! How many regard him as one of the worst of men, a disgrace to the nation to which he belonged, one who habitually indulged in debasing vices, and altogether unfit to enter into the kingdom of God! Some even go so far as to say, that, because this name stands in the list of the men who became famous through their faith, therefore the whole list must be condemned as not necessarily a list of religious men. In the life of this man they see nothing but dark passions, foul associations, and ungodly practices.
That Samsons character was one, which in many respects is not to be imitated, will be admitted by all; that many of his acts must be severely censured is at once conceded, but that he plunged systematically into all manner of excesses is not on the record. It is overlooked by the censors, that he was commissioned by God Himself to do a great work for His church and people, that, though he was severely punished for his sins, his last cry for help was granted, and that it is a dangerous thing to denounce a man utterly whom God does not cast away. That he had certain bright sides of character is also undoubted.
There is need of caution in this matter, because
(1.) We ourselves are transgressors. This circumstance alone should make us hesitate. Were we pure and spotless like the native sons of light, there might be some propriety in coming forward to denounce those who have blemishes and imperfections of character. But, as the case stands, with what force may it be said in the case of many, Wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself. If we stand clear of the grosser sins in the catalogue, are we not all rebels against Gods authority, and wanting in love to Him with all the heart, soul, strength and mind? Have we not, all of us, reason to be ashamed to lift up our heads before the holy, because of our spiritual vileness and ungodliness? Who among us has not lost character in the universe of the holy? What presumption is it then to come forward as critics of the character of others, when, in the most essential features we have lost our own!
(2.) It is not our province to judge others. We are not judges but subjects of judgment. This is true of all men. It is a species of impertinence of the worst kind. It is more heinous still, when one goes the length of daring to say what ought to be the treatment which should be measured out to a man by the Judge of all the earth, and whether he should be admitted into the kingdom of the holy or not. We fear that were the issues to be according to the verdicts which men pass on each others characters before God, the final heaven would be a thinly-peopled home (Jas. 4:11-12). God alone is Lord of the conscience, and it is by Him that actions are weighed (Mat. 7:1-2).
(3.) It is sinful to judge in a light spirit and without a due sense of responsibility. Many thoughtless people find it so easy, and indeed so congenial an exercise for heartless natures, to sit in the chair of judgment, that it does not occur to them that there is responsibility in the opinions they express. They do not reflect that no more deadly stab can be given to a fellow creature than when they throw out aspersions against his moral or religious character. Those aspersions may be utterly futile in producing any injurious effect, but it is only because of the weakness of the hand that throws them, and not that the weapons used are less deadly in character, or that there is any lack of intention to do evil. Such persons do not reflect that they assume the unenviable office of being the murderers of the characters of others, who are not only unjustly accused by them, but who may be all the while within the kingdom of heaven, while the accusers themselves are standing without. In all cases, great is the responsibility of using an unbridled tongue in speaking of the religious character or conduct of others. What should we think of a man taking liberties with his neighbour by shooting darts into the apple of his eye?
(4.) It is by the whole character that a man is to be judged. In every good man there are faults and also redeeming features. There is the old man, and also the new man. Men are to be estimated by the mass of character. A block of tin has often a grain of silver, but still it is tin, and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin but still it is silver. The mass of Davids character was excellence, but with alloy. It is a very great fault in any man himself when he can see nothing in his neighbour but faults, or when, because of the faults he sees, he presumes that there can be no excellences. Those who busy themselves in finding motes in the eyes of others, generally have a beam of no small dimensions in their own. Perfection even in the best of Gods people, does not exist in this world. Every good man is here in a transition state, The leaven of holiness has begun to work, and in due time will leaven the whole mass, but not as yet; so that, however much to be deplored, and however great the guilt implied, sin may be expected to break out, more or less, through strong temptation, or when one neglects to pray and be on his guard.
(5.) We have a very partial knowledge of the character of others. We look only on the outward appearance, the Lord alone looketh on the heart. Our best practical rule is, by their fruits ye shall know them. Yet that rule applies only for practical purposes in our dealings with men. It does not reveal the motives and aims of action, nor tell the secret thoughts and intents of the heart. A mans character is often misconstrued by his fellow men. There is an inner life going on which is little indicated by the external manner, until a special time comes round, when particularly testing circumstances occur, and bring to light what was never supposed to exist. The secret springs of a mans character are known only to the all-seeing eye. Hence the great need of caution in forming a judgment, lest while looking only at what appears, we should make a serious mistake as to what exists in reality.
(6.) It is not the greatness of a mans sin that finally decides his character, but his impenitence. Sin is never to be otherwise than severely condemned, and the greater the sin is, the more emphatic must the condemnation be. Yet, great as the distinction is between what might be called the least sin, and the greatest sin, that distinction is small compared with the difference between the least sin and no sin. The former is a difference of degree, the latter is one of principle. So great a matter is it to find an expiation for sin in the principle of it, that when that is found, the difficulty is got over in expiating sin in any degree of it. Let a sin be ever so great, it can be expiated by that which suffices to atone for the principle of sin. Hence the greatness of a mans sins, however much they are to be execrated, will not block his way to receive pardon, provided there is suitable penitence.
But we fear there is less likelihood of penitence in the case of wilful and known sin. It is also more provoking to God, and it puts a deeper stamp of reproach on the character in the eyes of fellow man. Yet it would be highly derogatory to the value of Christs blood to say that it could not wipe out the stain of the greatest sin, if the sinner takes refuge in that blood, and turns from his sin unto God, with endeavour after new obedience. It is not the greatness of the sin that finally condemns anyone, but the not repenting of sin. Neither is it the greatness of the breach a man makes in Gods laws that finally determines what his state is to be, but his obstinate continuance in impenitence.
HOMILETIC REMARKS ON CHAPTER 14
I. The need of watchfulness in the enemys country.
(1.) Because the enemy himself is ever awake. Saul would not have slept in the trench had he known that David was so near. Sisera would not have laid down to rest had he seen the nail and the hammer in the hand of Jael. Hannibal is at the gates! was enough to keep all Rome awake; and so the warning, that the roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour, may keep us all, and always on our guard (Mat. 24:43).
(2.) There is much evil latent in the heart. On that evil within a man Satan plants his temptations. Here was his difficulty with the Saviourthe prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in menothing on which to plant his enticements to sin. Were there no traitors in the camp, the danger would be less; but there is gunpowder lying all about in our case, and one spark is enough to create an explosion. There is a secret disposition in every mans heart to sin. Temptation does not fall on one, as a ball of fire on ice or snow, but as a spark or tinder, or lightning on a thatched roof, which is at once on flame (Jas. 1:14.) The fowler lays the snare, but the birds own desire betrays it into the net.
(3.) The beginnings of evil lead to more. A few drops oozing through an embankment may make a passage for the whole lake of waters. Little sins if allowed are the beginnings of great ones. In robbing a house, thieves put in a little boy at the window, whose work is to open the door and let them in; so the tempter, in rifling the soul, employs temptation to some smaller sin, which, little though it be, is sufficient to unlock the bars of conscience, and prepare for the commission of gross crimes. A pore in the body may be a door wide enough to let in a disease.
(4.) The path of duty sometimes leads close to the edges of sin. It was Samsons duty to have to do with Philistines. It required sharp looking round about on all sides, to avoid the darts of the wicked one. It is not safe to bring gunpowder within the reach even of a spark; nor is it wise, however dexterous your driving, to shave with your wheels the edge of a beetling precipice; nor is it without the greatest danger, in the best-built bark that ever rode the waves, to sail on the outermost rim of a roaring whirlpool. Many a duty lies between Scylla and Charybdis. Faith cuts its way between the Mountain of Presumption, and the Gulf of Despair. No truth but has some error next door. Examples in Samson, Joseph, Jephthah, David, etc.
(5.) We must watch all round. The city cannot be safe unless the whole line be kept. It is all one whether the enemy breaks in at the front, flank, or rear of an army; or whether the ship be taken at sea, or sink in the haven when the voyage is over. The honest watchman doth not limit his care to the house or street, but walks the rounds and compasseth the whole town. So the whole man must be watched. A strong guard must be set about the outward sense, for these are Satans landing places, especially the eye and the ear. Neglect of this was Samsons mistake (Job. 31:1; Psa. 101:3; Psa. 141:3-4). There is a white devil of spiritual pride, as well as a black devil of fleshly lusts; and if only Satan can ruin us, it is all the same to him by what engines he does it; it is all the same whether we go down to hell as gross carnal sinners, or as elated self-righteous saints.
(6.) We must watch at all times. There are times of special danger, as for instance after great manifestations of the Divine love. There is danger of being lifted up with pride, and so falling into the condemnation of the devil (2Co. 12:7 etc.; Luk. 22:31-32). As a pirate sets on the ship that is heavily laden, so when a soul has been filled with spiritual comforts, the devil, full of envy, will keep shooting at him to rob him of all. After great services, honours and mercies, there are critical times of danger. Noah, Lot, David and Solomon fell in these circumstances. Satan is a footpad who dares not attack a man going to the bank, but when returning with his pockets full of money.
II. Mans sin often overruled by God for His peoples good.
It was sinful for Samson to form a family connection with these God-despising heathens. Yet God overruled this sinful step to bring about the deliverance of Israel from their oppressors. It was of the Lord to allow Samson to follow his own natural inclinations, that out of the events which naturally followed, occasion might arise for the chastisement of these cruel and ungodly men. Josephs brethren sold their brother into Egypt as a slave. They thought evil towards him, but God meant it for good, etc. (Gen. 50:20). Pilate and the Jewish rulers took with wicked hands and crucified the Lord of glory, to gratify their own malice and sinful purposes, yet God overruled this greatest of sins for the purpose of fulfilling what had been spoken by all the prophets from the beginning of time, that Christ should suffer in mens stead and so open the way for their becoming reconciled to God. All the calamities which befel Israel from time to time, through the invasion of surrounding nations, each a most afflictive scourge while it lasted, though prompted by malice, envy and lust of power, were yet overruled by God to discipline His people, to prevent their falling into apostasy and to preserve them on earth as a God-fearing nation.
III. The difficult battle which some have to fight in fulfilling their duty to their God.
Samsons lot was to fight these Philistines, and with carnal weapons. At that time too the Philistines had the upper hand, while Samson must combat them all alone. Every man has his post assigned him all over the field. Some like David or Jephthah have to occupy for a long time the position of outlaws, and to show their fidelity to their God at the head of bands of lawless men. Others like Jonathan have sometimes to meet a whole army in the field, though all alone. Others like Elijah have to stand up and reprove a whole nation with their king at their head, and require them to engage in immediate repentance. Still others, like Moses, had to conduct a murmuring and stiff-necked people for forty years through a barren wilderness. And the first preachers of the cross had to stand forth and proclaim in the ears of a proud and rebellious world the most humbling and unpalatable of all truths, as the only road to pardon of sin, and hope for the eternal future. Indeed no lot in Christs service is without a cross. Self denial is the general law (Luk. 14:26-27); but there is a blessed compensation (Luk. 18:28-30).
IV. Those who are in Divine keeping receive special strength amid special dangers.
Just as God encouraged Moses when entering on His service, first by turning his rod into a serpent, and then by turning the serpent into a rod; and, as He encouraged David in like manner, by enabling him to slay both a lion and a bear, as a pledge of future victories in Gods service, so now is Samson fortified against the dangers of his future career. He was destined to have many encounters with human lions, and now a picture is presented to him of the success which would crown his efforts in the fight. The beast came bristling up his fearful mane, wafting his raised tail, his eyes sparkling with fury, his mouth roaring out knells of his last passage, and breathing death from his nostrils at the prey before him. But the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson. He that made the lions to stand in awe of Adam, Noah, and Daniel, now subdued this strong animal before Samson, so that he tore him in pieces as he would have rent a slender kid. And if his bones had been brass, and his skin plates of iron, it had been all one before a man who received the strength of Omnipotence for the moment. [Hall.]
If the roaring lion of hell should find us alone among the vineyards of the Philistines, where is our hope? Not in our heels, he is swifter than we; not in our weapons, we are naturally unarmed; not in our hands, for they are weak and nerveless, but in the Spirit of that God by whom we can do all things, who giveth power to the faint, and, to them that have no might, increaseth strength. There is a stronger lion in the believer than that which roars against him. [Hall.]
God gives assurance of such succour to all His people (Deu. 33:25). Thus it was with Paul (2Ti. 4:17-18; Php. 4:13); with David (1Sa. 17:34-35); with Jeremiah (Jer. 20:11); with Daniel (Dan. 6:22); with the Saviour Himself (Isa. 50:6-7); with all Christs people (Isa. 40:29-31).
V. Those who do the mighty deeds of faith are the least disposed to boast of themselves.
The conquest over the lion was gained we believe through faith. When the Spirit of God came mightily on any of those who were specially commissioned to do Gods work, it was always accompanied by the exercise of strong faith on the part of the chosen instrument. He looked only to God for the needed strength (Psa. 118:6-14; Psa. 18:29-36; Psa. 71:16). Samson himself, though conscious of a far greater than the ordinary measure of a mans strength, yet never boasts of that strength as his own, but on one special occasion expressly ascribes the deliverance given to the hand of God (Jdg. 15:18). That we take as an example of what he always did; for the few particulars recorded respecting him are always to be understood as a specimen of how he did in many other cases which are not recorded. Though it is not expressly mentioned in other cases that he did his exploits through faith, or immediate application to his God for promised strength, the fact that it is expressly mentioned in one case is an indication of what it always was with him. And this is confirmed by the fact that his name is given in the list of those who obtained a good report through faith. He as well as Daniel may be said to have stopped the mouths of lions.
Yet he did not tell the world of this great deed. He felt that the glory was not due to him but to his God. Therefore he was silent, not telling even his parents, but keeping the matter locked up in his bosom as a profound secret for many a day. Most men would have blown the trumpet loud and long, and used every means to get their names inserted in the roll of fame. If there were some degrading elements in this character there were also some that were truly ennobling. It was Christ-like to make little of the worlds applause. After performing His mighty works, our Lord for the most part withdrew into a desert place, or retired to the mountain side, to spend the night in prayer to Goda beautiful index of the direction in which the needle of the heart pointed. Deep waters make the least noise. Samson probably talked of this matter to his God also, unseen by the world. (Compare Pauls keeping as a secret for fourteen years the greatest honour ever conferred on any man in this life as detailed in 2Co. 12:1-12).
VI. God sometimes stores up comforts for His people where they would least expect to find them.
In that typical age every thing was full of instruction. There was a lesson in the discovery made so unexpectedly of honey in the carcass of the lion. After so hard a struggle, in which the Spirit of God came to his help, the result is a feast of honey! Honey is honey still, though found in the lions carcass. In Gods service the bitter comes before the sweet, and that, says Bunyan, makes the sweet the sweeter. Josephs hard lines in being sold, and in leading a prison life for-years, with all its privations and exhibitions of cold-heartedness from those around him, brought in the end a glorious vindication of character and improvement of circumstances. Davids many and great trials furnished him with materials for writing his sweetest psalms, and made him the comforter and counsellor of Gods people in every age. After encountering the fiercest opposition from the enemies of the truth at Antioch, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. Some severe trials are made to turn mens dispositions into sweetness, and all features of excellence. That is honey out of the lions carcass. How precious are thy thoughtsthat is when taking a retrospect of Gods way of leading us!
VII. The perils of the wickeds fellowship.
Samson now sat at a Philistines board. There were suspicious glances all round the table. When they saw himhow strong and well-built, how formidable he might become were any dispute to arise, they set spies around him, consisting of thirty strong young men, to be a guard over him in case of any outbreak. That was a poor stockade of defence against a roused Samson; but the wickeds protection is always a mere wall of reeds. In the language of deceit, which might be said to be the vernacular of Philistine social circles, they called these young men friends of the bridegroom. The company professed to be full of smiles, while their hearts were full of deadly thoughts. It was an easy transition to pass from the friendly queryArt thou in health, brother? to give a stab under the fifth rib. It was an atmosphere of treachery. Their farther conduct in stealing the solution of the riddle proposed, in extorting it from the terrified bride by threats, and in actually determining to burn her and her relatives with fire, showed some of the perils of the wickeds fellowship. But it was worse still when she, whom he was to take as the companion of his bosom, actually betrayed her husband behind his back, and did what, to an honourable mind like that of Samson, was the same as giving him a stab in the very heart. So it is with those who have no fear of God before their eyes.
VIII. The ways of deceit end to the injury of those who practise them.
Samson did indeed act the part of honour in paying the forfeit to those who had nominally won it. But he took his own mode of fulfilling the conditions of the riddle. He paid the forfeit with Philistine blood and clothing (Jdg. 14:19). He virtually said, since you have unrighteously compelled me to pay, I shall do so at the expense of your own countrymen; and so begin the infliction of the heavy blows on your wicked race for their oppression of Gods chosen people. Thus the ways of deceit recoil on those who walk in them (Psa. 5:6; Psa. 10:7-10; Psa. 52:1-5).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Samson and the Woman of Timnath Jdg. 14:1-7
And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
4 But his father and mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
5 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
6 And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
7 And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.
1.
Where was Timnath? Jdg. 14:1
Timnath appears in many different place names. For example, Timnath-serah appeared in Joshua (Jos. 19:50 and Jos. 24:30). A town by the name of Timnath is mentioned in Jos. 15:57 and located in the southern part of the hill country of Judah, some eight miles west of Bethlehem. The Timnath where Samson went to get his bride must have been a town on the northern border of Judah (Jos. 15:10). This place lay between Beth-shemesh and Ekron. This place was assigned to Dan (Jos. 19:43). Being on the frontier, it must have changed hands from time to time. Ahaz took it from the Philistines (2Ch. 28:18), and we learn from Assyrian inscriptions that Sennacherib captured a Tamna after the battle of Alteka before he attacked Ekron. A deserted ruin called Tibneh now stands on the southern slopes of the Wady es Surar, or the valley of Sorek. The spot is thus two miles west of Beth-shemesh, where there are a spring and evident signs of antiquity.
2.
Why did Samson ask his parents to get a wife for him? Jdg. 14:2
It was not customary in the era of the judges for a boy to make arrangements for his own marriage. Throughout patriarchal times the father made arrangements for the marriage of his son. Abraham sent Eliezer to seek a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24), and Jacob arranged with Hamor for Shechem, Hamors son, to marry Dinah, Jacobs daughter (Genesis 34). Such a custom prevails today, demanding that a man have a near kinsman to speak to the father of his intended bride. When the dowry has been arranged, an engagement is announced. After considerable time, a wedding feast is held; and the marriage is consummated.
3.
Why did Samsons parents try to discourage his intentions? Jdg. 14:3
Manoah and his wife called the Philistines by the same epithet used by David when he met Goliath. They looked upon the people as uncircumcised Philistines. There was no stigma upon the Philistines because they failed to practice the rite of circumcision insofar as any physical strength or weakness may have been involved. The stigma arose from the fact of their not being under the covenant which God made with Abraham. Circumcision was a sign of the covenant. Those who were circumcised belonged to God. These Philistines were descendants of Ham and were not a part of the covenant nation of God. As a result, Samsons parents felt it was inadvisable for him to marry such a woman. They would have much preferred his marrying some girl from Israel.
4.
In what way was God seeking an occasion against the Philistines? Jdg. 14:4
Christians believe all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28). Looking back upon many unfortunate circumstances, Christians can still see the hand of God in their lives. Such was the interpretation of the relationship of Samson with the woman of Timnath. The author of the book of Judges declares it was Gods will for strife to arise between the Israelites and the Philistines. Samson was an instrument in Gods hand. This does not mean God approved of Samsons intentions to marry a wife from among the uncircumcised Philistines. God often uses the wickedness of men to bring honor and glory to His Name. He works out His will in spite of the weakness of men.
5.
Were lions plentiful in Palestine? Jdg. 14:5
Samson met a lion on the way down from his home in Dan to the home of the father of his bride-to-be in Philistia. Benaiah, one of Davids mighty men, distinguished himself by killing a lion in a pit in the time of snow (2Sa. 23:20). Such wild animals do not seem to be numerous in the Promised Land, but one of the curses which was pronounced upon the people when they turned their backs upon God was the sending of wild animals among the Israelites (Lev. 26:22). We do not read of the kings of Israel or Judah going on lion hunts or of the people themselves engaging in such pursuits of wild beasts. This indicates the scarcity of such wild animals in Israel. Such a reference as this of Samsons killing a lion is unusual by its very nature.
6.
Why did Samson not tell his parents about killing the lion? Jdg. 14:6
One of the parts of Samsons Nazarite vow was his oath to refrain from touching a dead body. When he killed a lion, he violated this part of his vow. He must have refused to tell his parents about this encounter because he knew of their desire for him to keep his vow. He was not proud of this feat of strength, for he was unwilling to keep his vow perfectly.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) To Timnath.This town, of which the site still retains the name Tibneh, is perhaps the same as that in Gen. 38:12, unless that be a town in the mountains of Judah, as Judah is there said to have gone up not as here, down to it. In Jos. 15:10 it is assigned to Judah, but appears to have been afterwards ceded to Dan (Jos. 19:45). The name means a portion, and is found also in Timnath-serah, where Joshua was buried (Jos. 24:30).
Of the daughters of the Philistines.This was against the spirit of the law, which forbad intermarriages with Canaanites (Exo. 34:16; Deu. 7:3-4). The sequel showed the wisdom of the law (2Co. 6:14).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SAMSON’S MARRIAGE AND RIDDLE, Jdg 14:1-20.
“Samson keeps his vow of abstinence from intoxication,” says Ewald, “but is all the weaker and wilder with regard to the love of women, as if he could here make up for the want of freedom elsewhere; and by a singular sport of chance, or, rather, by the secret revenge of a heart warped by the vow, his love is always excited by women of that very race which the vow urges him to combat with all the might of his arm, and on whose men the weight of his own strength always falls at the right time.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. Went down to Timnath About five miles southwest from Zorah, and identical with the modern Tibneh. To reach it from Zorah one has to “descend through wild rocky gorges, just where one would expect to find a lion in those days, when wild beasts were far more common than at present.” Thomson.
Chapter 14 Samson’s Activities Begin.
This chapter deals with the commencement of Samson’s life’s work, with his courtship and marriage of a Philistine woman, his meeting with a young lion as he went courting, his killing of it with his bare hands, and afterwards of his finding honey in it. It speaks of a riddle which he framed out of this incident and put to his companions at his pre-marriage feast to solve as a bet, giving them seven days to solve it; of their solving it by means of his wife, who extracted the secret from him, which led him to slay thirty Philistines in order to make good his promise of thirty linen cloths and changes of raiment, and then to leave his newly married wife for a while, only to discover that she was then given to his companion.
Jdg 14:1
‘ And Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines.’
There can be no doubt that Samson was to some extent a womaniser, something which he had to battle with all his life. He found it difficult to leave women alone. (Most men of his day married the woman chosen for them by their parents). Timnah was in Judah (Jos 15:57), in the lowlands (the lower hill country), but was under the control of the Philistines, and on a trip there he saw a Philistine woman who took his fancy. The woman would be fairly high born for she was of the ruling class, the Philistines. Thus in seeking occasion against the Philistines he was able to combine business with pleasure.
Jdg 14:4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
Jdg 14:4 Jdg 15:3, “And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.”
Jdg 14:6 And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
Jdg 14:6 Jdg 14:8 And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.
Jdg 14:9 Jdg 14:8-9 Jdg 14:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson’s wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so?
Jdg 14:15 Jdg 16:16-17, “And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
The Preliminary Arrangements
v. 1. And Samson went down to Timnath, v. 2. And he came up, v. 3. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, v. 4. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, v. 5. Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, v. 6. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, v. 7. And he went down and talked with the woman, v. 8. And after a time he returned to take her, v. 9. And he took thereof in his hands, EXPOSITION
Jdg 14:1
Timnath, or, more correctly, Thimnathah, as in Jos 19:43, a town in the tribe of Dan, the name of which survives in the modern Tibneh, about three miles south-west of Zorah (Jdg 13:2, note). It may or may not be identical with Timnath in Gen 38:12-14, and with Timnah in Jos 15:10. It appears to have been in the possession of the Philistines at this time.
Jdg 14:2
Get her, etc. Rather, take her. It is the technical phrase
(1) for a man taking a wife for himself, as Gen 4:19; Gen 6:2; 1Sa 25:39, 1Sa 25:43, and 1Sa 25:3, 1Sa 25:8 of this chapter;
(2) for a man’s parents taking a wife for him, as Exo 34:16; Neh 10:30. The parents of the bridegroom paid the dowry agreed upon (see Gen 34:12; 1Sa 18:25).
Jdg 14:3
Uncircumcised. Cf. Gen 34:14. A term of reproach here added to deter Samson from the marriage. It is particularly applied to the Philistines (see Jdg 15:18; – 1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:36; 1Sa 18:29; 1Sa 31:4; 2Sa 1:20, etc.).
Jdg 14:4
It was of or from the Lord. It was the method decreed by God’s providence for bringing about a rupture with the Philistines. That he sought. Rather, because he sought. The writer explains the purpose of the providence. It is doubtful whether “he” refers to Samson or to the Lord. Most commentators refer it to Samson; but it is contrary to the whole tenor of Samson’s impetuous course, and to all probability, that he should have asked for the Timnathite damsel merely for the sake of quarreling with the Philistines; whereas the statement that Samson s obstinate determination to take a Philistine wife was the means which God’s secret purpose had fixed upon for bringing about the eventual overthrow of the Philistine dominion is in exact accordance with other declarations of Holy Scripture (cf. e.g. Exo 7:3, Exo 7:4; Jos 11:20; 1Sa 2:25; 1Ki 12:15; 2Ch 10:15; 2Ch 22:7; 2Ch 25:20). An occasion. The noun only occurs here; but the verb, in its several conjugations, means, to happen at the right time; to bring a person or thing at the right time (Exo 21:13, deliver, A.V.); to be brought at the right time (Pro 12:21, happen, A.V.); to seek the right time for injuring any one (2Ki 5:7, seeketh a quarrel, A.V. ).
Jdg 14:5
Went down, showing that Timnath was on lower ground than Zorah; it was in fact in the Shephelah. The vineyards of Timnath. The valley of Sorek (Jdg 16:4), so famous for its vines (Isa 5:2; Jer 2:21), from which it derived its name (Sorek, translated in the above passages the choicest vine, and a noble vine), is thought to have been in the immediate neighbourhood. Probably the whole district under the hills was a succession of vineyards, like the country round Bordeaux. Samson had left the road along which his father and mother were walking, at a pace, perhaps, too slow for his youthful energy, and had plunged into the vineyards. Of a sudden a young lion,a term designating a lion between the age of a cub and a full-grown lion,brought there, perhaps, in pursuit of the foxes or jackals, which often had their holes in vineyards (So Jdg 2:15), roared against him.
Jdg 14:6
The Spirit of the Lord, etc.as a spirit of dauntless courage and irresistible strength of body. Came mightily. Hebrew, fell upon him, or passed over upon him, as in Jdg 14:19; Jdg 15:14; 1Sa 10:6, 1Sa 10:10; 1Sa 18:10, etc. He rent him, etc. He “had nothing in his hand,” no weapon or knife, nor even a stick; but he rent him with as much ease as the kid is rent. The Hebrew has the kid, with the definite article, which is not prefixed unless some particular kid is meant, as in Gen 38:23. Perhaps the kid means the one about to be served, which the cook rends open either before or after it is cooked. Unless some such operation is alluded to, it is not easy to understand what the rending of the kid means. He told not his father, etc. This is mentioned to. explain Gen 38:16; but it shows that Samson had wandered some distance from his parents among the vineyards (see note to Gen 38:5).
Jdg 14:7
Went down, as in Jdg 14:1, where see note.
Jdg 14:8
He returned to take her. All the preliminaries being settled between the parents, he returned to Timnath to take his bride by the same road which he and his parents had travelled by before, and, remembering his feat in killing the lion, very naturally turned aside to see what had become of the carcase. And, behold, there was a swarm of bees, etc. This has been objected to as improbable, because bees are very dainty, and would not approach a putrefying body. But as a considerable time had elapsed, it is very possible that either the mere skeleton was left, or that the heat of the sun had dried up the body and reduced it to the state of a mummy without decomposition, as is said to happen often in the desert of Arabia.
Jdg 14:9
And he went on eating, etc. Compare the account of Jonathan finding and eating the wild honey (1Sa 14:25, and following verses).
HOMILETICS
Jdg 14:1-9
The link of the chain.
A swarm of bees light one day in the carcase of a lion which had been killed in the vineyards of Thimnathah. They construct their hive there, and make their honey. It was no doubt an unusual circumstance that the bees should form their hive in such a place rather than in a hollow tree, or the cleft of a rock, but beyond its interest as a fact in natural history nobody would have attached any importance to it. But this action of the bees was linked to curious antecedents, and to peculiar consequences. The lion had been slain by Samson, that mysterious person of gigantic strength, whose life is such a remarkable episode in the history of Israel; and Samson had been led to the spot where the lion was by his ill-regulated love for a daughter of the Philistines, who were the masters and oppressors of his country. And as to what happened after the swarming of these bees, the marriage of Samson to his Philistine bride took place after an interval just sufficient for the bees to have filled their hive with honey, and Samson on his way to the wedding, impelled by a natural curiosity to see the lion which he had killed, had turned aside from his path, and had eaten the honey which was strangely found there. It was the custom of the time and of those people to beguile the long hours of the idle wedding.feasts with curious questions and strange riddles. In the gambling spirit which is such a frequent accompaniment of insufficient occupation, whether among the lazaronis of Naples or the wealthy nobles of modern society, such riddles were made the occasion of wagers, and such wagers often led to deadly quarrels. In the present instance Samson’s double adventure with the lion suggested to him the riddle, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” Baffled in their attempts to guess the riddle by fair means, they set on Samson’s wife to worm the secret out of him and divulge it to them. Samson at once perceived the treachery, broke with his wife, slew thirty Philistines, and took their spoil wherewith to pay the lost wager, and followed up the feud by successive slaughters of his enemies, thus preparing the way for the eventual overthrow of the Philistine domination. The point for our special remark is that a swarm of bees lighting on a particular spot was an important link in the chain of providence by which the destinies of a great people were guided to independence; and the observation is not only a curious one, but has an important bearing upon the difficult subject (see Homiletics, Jdg 3:12-21) of the use made of men, and of men’s actions, in the providential government of the world. Samson in slaying the lion, and the bees in swarming in its carcase, did things which were links in the chain of events which God foresaw, or fore-ordained, as he did also the effects of Samson’s marriage with the Philistine. But just as the bees only followed their instinct in building their hive, so Samson, in fixing his affections on the Timnathite, and in attacking the lion, and in eating the honey, and in propounding the riddle, and in avenging himself for his wife’s treachery, was merely following the bent of his own inclinations and the leading of his own will, though in so doing he was bringing about God’s purpose for the deliverance of Israel. What, however, we have here to notice is the wonderful way in which God brings about his own purpose, and also the infinite foreknowledge of God. We look back, and we can trace the successive steps of causation, as one follows the other, like wave upon wave. But God looks forward from the beginning, foresees the effect of each cause in endless succession, and so orders them as to accomplish his own will. The most trivial events may be necessary links in the great chain; and while men are blindly following their own inclinations, with little thought and no knowledge of what will come of them, God is making use of them with unerring wisdom to work out his own eternal purposes, for the good of his people and for the glory of his own great name.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jdg 14:1-4
Human desire overruled for Divine ends.
This incident in the life of Samson has a universal human interest. He no sooner comes to manhood than his destiny begins to determine itself. He sees a woman of the Philistines, and at once his fancy is captivated, and the strong natural desires of the young man overleap all the traditional restraints of God’s people. He manufactures a law for himself; “she pleaseth me well” may mean, “it is pleasing, or right, in my own eyes.” The perplexity and distress of the parents, unaware of the meaning of this strange freak, so opposed to the future they had been led to imagine for their son. Notice
I. THE FATALITY OF DESIRE. A sudden, unreasoning, and unreasonable passion is scarcely the augury one would expect for the career of a promised deliverer. A crisis in his moral history, a pivot upon which his whole subsequent life must turn. Sexual attachments are amongst the determining factors of human character and life, and the bases of society. Yet there are no circumstances of our life so independent of mere reason, and the power of the subjects of them. Still as a rule the outward realisation of such attachments is within the control of the individual. Recognition should be made of God’s share in producing them, and the matter should be laid before him. He has been blamed for “heavily loading the dice” in this matter for his own universal ends, and for wantonly subjecting the subject of passion to misery and disadvantage. Moral and intellectual progress are thus, it is said, indefinitely hindered. If it could be written, how full of light upon the moral and intellectual history of the race would be an account of the intermarriages of nations, the msalliances of individuals! etc.
II. THE ENTANGLEMENT AND PERPLEXITY IT OCCASIONS. Here it meant connection with the idolatrous and sensual life of the Philistines. The relatives on both sides could not be cordial. A relaxation of moral principles must ensue. Children would bring a fresh discord. How could a man so related lift up his hand against the Philistines? An instance like this throws strong light upon the traditional objection of God’s chosen people to intermarriage with neighbouring tribes and nations. It is not for nothing that it is written of Noah and of one and, another beside, “And he was perfect in his generation.“ “The daughters of Heth” are ineligible in the eyes of the patriarch’s wife for other than mere social reasons. There can be no doubt but that the same caution ought to characterise Christian parents in the alliances they encourage their children to make.
III. THE FURTHER AND HIGHER MINISTRY OF DESIRE. Behind and beyond all this sinister appearance was the Divine purpose,”For he (Jehovah) sought an occasion from the Philistines.“ God’s will is fulfilled in many ways, and by alternatives. When sin refuses to be put under then it can be utilised; and the end more completely served, albeit not to the immediate happiness or advantage of the guilty agent. How often “by a way they knew not” have the sons of men been led by an unseen providence to gracious ends. An ill-assorted marriage is a great calamity, but it may be the determining cause of important spiritual results, and by arranging a new relationship and set of conditions, prepare for a higher and nobler, though less immediately happy, development, of inward character. Thus the whole question of the determining force of sexual desire, which has been a matter of grief and despair to the pessimist, is capable of another interpretation. The past history of our race shows that “where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound.” Let us not therefore despair before these mysterious fatalities and complications, but commit the way of ourselves and children into the hands of him “who seeth the end from the beginning,” and who makes “all things work together for good” to them that love him.M.
Jdg 14:5, Jdg 14:6
The lion in the way.
Very natural is this description. The wild beast in the vineyards, the weaponlessness of the hero, etc; are all in keeping with the character of the times. Local names still extant prove the former existence of lions in Palestine; the particular district was a border one between militant nations, and therefore likely to be less thoroughly brought under; and Israel as temporarily subdued had been deprived of arms. The young lover, full of his mistress, and not on the best terms with his parents, prefers to keep by himself, a little apart. All this is highly suggestive of parallel circumstances in the spiritual life: e.g.
I.. YOUTH IS OFTEN SUBJECTED TO GREAT AND SUDDEN TEMPTATIONS. Our streets, the social circle, sexual relations, etc; all abound with concealed perils. These threaten the destruction of the soul.
II. THESE ARE, FROM THEIR NATURE, GENERALLY ENCOUNTERED ALONE AND IN SECRET. Bulwer Lytton says somewhere, that boys learn many things at school of great value to them through life, that were never bargained for by their parents, or represented in the school-bill. The youthful sense of growing power, and assertion of independence, creates a little world of which guardians are but dimly conscious. There is, too, the inability of age to sympathise with youth; and the natural reticence concerning matters of affection, etc. Every youth is centre of a number of invisible but potent influences that may make or mar him for life; and he ought therefore to he frequently commended to the care of his heavenly Father, and to be treated with gentleness and consideration by those in authority.
III. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAN RENDER TIMELY AND EFFECTUAL HELP. The phrase, “came suddenly upon him,” expresses opportuneness.
The fearlessness and modesty of the spiritual hero are here strikingly illustrated.
I. IF EARTHLY AFFECTION WILL MAKE MEN BRAVE GREAT DANGERS AND INCONVENIENCES, HOW MUCH MORE OUGHT THE LOVE OF GOD!
II. WITH THE SPIRIT OF GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, AND HE MAKES ALL THINGS EASY AND SIMPLE TO THEM THAT BELIEVE.
III. HUMILITY IS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SPIRITUAL HERO.M.
Jdg 14:6
The mystery of spiritual might.
“And he had nothing in his hand.” This is typical of the Christian. Christ’s injunctions to the seventy. In Samson’s case it was probably due to the regulation imposed by the Philistines upon a conquered people. Christians are commanded not to put their trust in earthly equipment or the arm of flesh.
I. THAT OUR CONFLICTS WITH SATAN MAY BE TRUE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES AND NOT MERELY OUTWARD TRIUMPHS.
II. THE INFLUX AND WITHDRAWAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT LIMIT THE AUTHORITY AND SECURE THE HUMILITY OF THE AGENT. HOW helpless even a Samson but for the Spirit! Temptations of our own seeking may be left to our own resources. No enterprise ought to be undertaken without the aid of the Holy Spirit, and the Divine blessing. What God brings upon us he will help us to overcome.
III. THE FAITH OF THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER AND WORKER MUST BE WHOLLY IN GOD.M.
Jdg 14:8, Jdg 14:9
Recalling past deliverances.
In this case Samson is led to do so either by curiosity or the impulse of God’s Spirit. He revisits the scene of the exploit, and meets with welcome but unexpected refreshment. There are various ways of recalling spiritual experiences of God’s saving power in the past. Sometimes an accident (?) may bring up vividly some forgotten circumstance of Divine grace, and we are overwhelmed with the recollections that crowd upon the mind. Soldiers who have fought side by side in famous battles have their anniversaries of fellowship and celebration. Are there no circumstances that justify these amongst Christians? It is a spiritual education and confirmation to recall circumstances and revisit scenes of God’s saving mercies.
I. THE DUTY OF THANKFUL RECOLLECTION OF DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS.
II. THE SECRET AND UNSHARED COMMUNION OF THE SUBJECT OF GRACE WITH HIS SAVIOUR.
III. ITS ADVANTAGE AND BLESSING.M.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Jdg 14:5, Jdg 14:6
Samson and the lion.
I. THE DANGER.
1. It came unsought. It is foolish for the bravest to court danger. We have only ground for meeting it bravely when we have not rashly provoked it.
2. It was unexpected. Had Samson expected to encounter the lion he would probably have chosen another path, or have armed himself against it. One of the worst features of the great dangers of life is that we can rarely foresee and provide against them.
3. It was when Samson was on a pleasurable journey. He went to seek a wife, and met a lion! The greatest trouble may spring upon us at the moment of highest elation. Earthly joy is no safeguard.
4. It was when Samson was acting in a questionable manner. He was seeking a wife among the Philistines. His parents disapproved of this course though their affection sought an excuse for it (Jdg 14:3). His conduct was contrary to the law of God (Exo 34:16). We may meet with trouble in the path of duty, bat we must expect to meet with it in the way of transgression (Jon 1:4).
II. THE TRIUMPH.
1. It was effected in the might of the Spirit of the Lord. Herein is the distinction between Samson and Hercules. The Jewish hero does not trust to his own muscular strength. Strong man as he is he can only do great things in God’s strength. This is the redeeming feature of his character. It shows him as one, though amongst the lowest, of the heroes of faith. If Samson needed the strength of inspiration, how much more do we weaker men need to be clothed in the panoply of God’s might before we can face the dangers of life!
2. The Spirit of God came upon Samson in especial force in his greatest need. God gives us strength according to our requirements. In our hour of weakness it seems impossible to face the future difficulty, but when this comes how wonderfully is the new strength bestowed to meet it (Deu 33:25). We must not, however, abuse this truth and neglect natural expedients. Samson would have been wrong in going unarmed if he had expected to meet the lion. We have only a right to believe that God will help us in sudden emergencies when we are not rashly and negligently increasing the danger of them.
3. The Spirit of God helped Samson by inspiring him to an extraording exercise of his natural powers. It was to Samson the strong, a spirit of strength. God works in us through our natural faculties and helps us differently according to our various gifts. Though the might is God’s, the daring, the will, the effort must be ours. God gave him strength, yet Samson slew the lion with his own hands.
4. After victory, Samson modestly concealed his triumph. It is better to be more than we seem than to seem more than we are. If the source of our victory is God’s strength we have no ground for boasting.A.
CHAP. XIV.
Samson marries a wife of the Philistines: he rends a lion in pieces, in whose carcase he afterwards finds a swarm of bees and honey: he puts forth a riddle to his companions, the interpretation of which his wife enticeth from him: he slays thirty Philistines.
Before Christ 1155.
Jdg 14:1. Timnath See on Jos 19:43.
The opening step of Samsons career: his unlawful desire to marry a daughter of the Philistines overruled by God for Israels good.
Jdg 14:1-4.
1And Samson went down to Timnath [Timnathah], and saw a woman in Timnath 2[Timnathah] of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath [Timnathah] 3of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. Then [And] his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for 4me; for she pleaseth me well [is pleasing in my eyes]. But [And] his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord [Jehovah], that [for] he sought an occasion against [from] the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion [were lording it] over Israel.
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg 14:1. And Samson went down to Timnah. Timnah or Timnathah, the present Tibneh, situated to the southwest of Zorah, at the confluence of Wady Sumt with Wady Surr (Ritter, xvi. 116; [Gages Transl. iii. 241]), on the border of the tribe of Judah (Jos 15:10), was assigned by Joshua to the tribe of Dan (Jos 19:43), but had fallen into the hands of the Philistines.
Jdg 14:2-3. Get her for me to wife. The history of Samson abounds with instructive notices of the social life of the times. The women lead a free life, not shut up, as they are in the East of the present day. The stranger can see the beauty of the daughters of the land. But Samson cannot yet dispense with the permission of his parents. He is yet in their house, unmarried, a . From the choice of Samson, and his mode of life, there comes to view, in the first place, the prevalent, though unlawful, admixture of Israelitish and heathen families and customs. But the barriers raised by difference of nationality are nevertheless manifest. The parents at first refuse their consent to Samsons choice; but they cannot resist his prayer. He is their only son,and such a son! full of strength and youthful promise,therefore it gives them pain.1
Jdg 14:4. And his father and his mother knew not. If the mother kept in her heart the saying that her son would begin to deliver Israel, his strength and gifts doubtless awakened many hopes within her. But his wish to marry a Philistine maiden, seemed to destroy every expectation. He who when in his mothers womb was already consecrated to be a Nazarite, desires to enter into covenant with those who have not even the consecration of circumcision,and that against the law! He who was endowed to be a deliverer and champion of Israel against the national enemies, shall he become a friend of the tyrants, a member of one of their families? For the parents knew not,
That this was of Jehovah, for it became an occasion of assailing the Philistines; and at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. The parents could not but be painfully affected, for they knew not what the consequence would be But although ignorant on this point, they nevertheless yielded. They unconsciously submit to he stronger spirit of Samson; and thus their indulgence united with the unconscious longing of their son to bring about the fulfillment of what the angel had announced.
The career of Samson is an historical drama without a parallel. Its dark background is the national life out of which he emerges. Israel is under Philistine oppression, because of sin and consequent enervation. It is not without resentment against the enemy, but it lacks spirit. It prefers slavish peace to a freedom worth making sacrifices for. It hates the national enemies, but it holds illicit intercourse with them. Such a national life in itself can beget no heroes, nor use them when they exist. And at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. The addition of this remark is by no means superfluous. It serves to indicate the background of all Samsons deeds. The mere fact that the Philistines ruled, demonstrated Israels apostasy and punishment; that they continued to rule, was evidence of Israels powerlessness and inability to repent. It was because they ruled, and Israel was without repentance, that Samson appears so different from Gideon and Jephthah. In the midst of the Philistine supremacy, he enters on his single-handed conflict with them. Notwith-standing that they ruled by means of Israels own sin, the objective power of the divine law and spirit evinces itself in the hero-nature of Samson, almost against his own will.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
[Bush: I wish, says an old divine, that Manoah and his wife could speak so loud that all our Israel could hear them. By nothing is the heart of a pious parent more grieved than by the prospect of the unequal yoking of his children with profane or irreligious partners; for he knows that nothing is so likely to prove injurious to their spiritual interests, and subject them to heartrending trials.Bp. Hall: As it becomes not children to be forward in their choice, so parents may not be too peremptory in their denials. It is not safe for children to overrun parents in settling their affections; nor for parents (where the impediments are not very material) to come short of their children, when the affections are once settled: the one is disobedience; the other may be tyranny.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][Keil: It is true that in Exo 34:16 and Deu 7:3 f. only marriages with Canaanitish women are expressly forbidden; but the ground of the prohibition extended equally to marriages with daughters of the Philistines. For the same reason, in Jos 13:8, the Philistines also are reckoned among the Canaanites.Tr.]
CONTENTS
The history of Samson occupies the whole of this Chapter. His marriage with a daughter of the Philistines: his slaying a young lion: the story of the swarm of bees after this, in the carcase of the beast: his riddle: the stratagem of his wife to solve it: his anger upon the occasion: his destruction of thirty young men of Ashkelon: his wife given to another man. These are the several contents.
Jdg 14:1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
As Samson was a type of the ever blessed Jesus, we may trace some things in his conduct which will best be explained by keeping our eye upon Jesus. Thus we are told in Jdg 14:4 that Samson’s going down to the Philistines was of the Lord. Yes! the Lord overrules all Providences to his own glory and his people’s welfare. So Jesus, taking upon him our nature, in the likeness of sinful flesh, became the ground-work for condemning sin in the flesh. Rom 8:3 .
Jdg 14:1
All transitions are dangerous; and the most dangerous is the transition from the restraint of the family circle to the non-restraint of the world.
Herbert Spencer.
Reference. XIV. 4. J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 369.
Jdg 14:5-6
God never gives strength, but he employs it. Poverty meets one like an armed man; infamy, like some furious mastiff, comes flying in the face of another; the wild boar out of the forest, or the bloody tiger of persecution, sets on one; the brawling curs of heretical pravity, or contentious neighbourhood, are ready to bait another; and by all these meaner and brutish adversaries, will God fit us for greater conflicts. It is a pledge of our future victory over the Philistines, if we can say, My soul hath been among lions.
Bishop Hall.
Reference. XIV. 8, 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1703.
Jdg 14:14
All over Normandy you come upon these fortified abbayes, built for praying and fighting once, and ruined now, and turned to different uses. It is like Samson’s riddle to see the carcase of the lions with honey flowing from them. ‘Out of the eater came forth meat; out of the strong came forth sweetness.’ There is a great archway at the farm at Tracy, with heavy wooden doors studded with nails. There is rust in plenty, and part of a moat still remaining. The hay is stacked in what was a chapel once; the yellow trusses are hanging through the crumbling flamboyant east window. There is a tall watch-tower, to which a pigeon-cote has been affixed, and low cloisters that are turned into outhouses and kitchens. The white walls tell a story of penance and fierce battlings which are over now, so far as they are concerned.
From Miss Thackeray’s The Village on the Cliff.
In the fourth chapter of My Schools and Schoolmasters, Hugh Miller tells how ‘a party of boys had stormed a humble-bee’s nest on the side of the old chapel-brae, and, digging inwards along the narrow winding earth passage, they at length came to a grinning human skull, and saw the bees issuing thick from out a round hole at its base the foramen magnum . The wise little workers had actually formed their nest within the hollow of the head, once occupied by the busy brain; and their spoilers, more scrupulous than Samson of old, who seems to have enjoyed the meat brought forth out of the eater, and the sweetness extracted from the strong, left in very great consternation their honey all to themselves.’
Some of the loveliest of the works of man’s hand seem to come out of utter foolishness and vileness, just as came honey from the carcass of Samson’s lion. Even to exclude the later abomination of Greek sculpture, much of its true work was done in societies putrid to the core in public and private life.
Frederic Harrison.
Compare James Smetham on De Quincey: ‘What a queer, mystic, sublime, inscrutable, fascinating old mummy he is! Throw your mind back to the days when, fifty years or more ago, he wandered in London streets, and what he says of himself in the Confessions then, and fancy that he has lasted on till now, and is winking and blinking yet…. Now the fact is, that man has wasted his life; and one can only, in one’s soul, use him as Samson used the honey out of the dead lion “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”.’
Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them, we shall find a nest of honey within them.
Bunyan, Grace Abounding.
In his essay on ‘The Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places,’ R. L. Stevenson tells how once in a cold, bleak, Northern district he received some singularly pleasurable impressions, owing to the discipline of having to hunt out what was good amid the uncongenial surroundings. ‘And this happened to me in the place of all others where I liked least to stay. When I think of it, I grow ashamed of my own ingratitude. “Out of the strong came forth sweetness.” There, in the bleak and gusty North, I received, perhaps, my strongest impression of peace. I saw the sea to be great and calm; and the earth, in that little corner, was all alive and friendly to me. So, wherever a man is, he will find something to please and pacify him… let him only look for it in the right spirit, and he will surely find.’
Jdg 14:19
Some one once asked Luther what was the difference between Samson and Julius Caesar, or any famous general who had been endowed with a vigorous body and a vigorous mind. The Reformer answered:
‘Samson’s strength was produced by the Holy Ghost animating him, for the Holy Ghost enables those who serve God obediently to accomplish great exploits. The strength and grandeur of soul of the heathen were also an inspiration and work of God, but not of the kind which sanctifies. I often reflect with admiration upon Samson. Mere human strength could never have done what he did.’
I confess there are, in Scripture, stories that do exceed the fables of poets, and, to a captious reader, sound like Gargantua or Bevis. Search all the legends of times past, and the fabulous conceits of these present, and ’twill be hard to find one that deserves to carry the buckler to Samson; yet is all this of an easy possibility, if we conceive a Divine concourse, or an influence from the little finger of the Almighty.
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici.
Jdg 14 (Annotated)
Jdg 14
1. And Samson went down to Timnath [a portion], and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines [such intercourse was forbidden, Exo 34:16 ; Deu 7:3-4 ].
2. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
3. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumciscd Philistines? [a term of the intensest hatred]. And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well [she is right in my eyes].
4. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord [that there was more in it than at first sight appeared], that he sought an occasion [a quarrel] against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
5. Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and behold, a young lion [a lion of lions] roared against him.
6. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him [pervaded him], and he rent [throttled] him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done [absence of vanity].
7. And he went down, and talked with the woman [the requisite betrothal arrangements having been made], and she pleased Samson well.
8. And after a time [an absolutely indefinite period] he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase [rather, skeleton. The burning sun of the East soon dried the body] of the lion.
9. And he took thereof in his hands [a skeleton not being treated as a dead body], and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion [he had not told of the slaying of the lion].
10. So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do [in all ages, Gen 29:22 ; Rev 19:9 ].
11. And it came to pass, when they saw him [perhaps saw him in some new aspect], that they brought thirty companions [paranymphs, children of the bridechambcr], to be with him.
12. And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle [from a word which means “to knot”] unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets [shirts] and thirty change of garments:
13. But if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it.
14. And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.
15. And it came to pass on the seventh day [being in despair], that they said unto Samson’s wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have [to spoil us]? is it not so?
Archdeacon Farrar.
16. And Samson’s wife wept before him [marriage wine made sour] and said, Thou dost but hate me and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee?
17. And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people.
18. And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.
19. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil [armour or suits of armour], and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle [paid them out of their own purse]. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.
20. But Samson’s wife was given to his companion [the chief of the paranymphs: the bride-conductor], whom he had used as his friend [to the companion whose friend she was].
Samson
THE whole story of Samson is romantic, yet many of its lessons are most practical and useful. No such prodigy is known in our days, and indeed, such a man would, in many respects, be out of keeping with our civilisation. We have no room for him; we have no need of him. There are some respects in which history could not repeat itself with advantage in our civilisation. But the temptation is that we should look upon our progress as the measure of human history. We want a wider outlook. We must take in more field, if we would see things in their right perspective and proportion. We certainly did need this very type of man to complete the divine conception of humanity. If Samson had been left out, we might have said, there is one type which God never allowed to come upon the stage of human history. We have had the sanguinary man, Cain; the believing man, Abraham; the cunning man, Jacob; the meek and much-enduring man, yet a man full of enterprise and soldiery daring, Moses; we have had wise men and valiant men, not a few, but a man entrusted with all-abounding strength the man of iron muscle the elephantine man, we have never had in perfection. God leaves out nothing. God will finish the picture if we will not interrupt him with our provoking impatience. We needed just this man huge, overwhelming, mountainous, and in very deed terrible; we needed to see what sheer strength could do, mere bone and muscle and bulk what part they could play in the shifting and urgent drama of human history. We have never met the like of this man before. He does not know himself. There is so much of him that he cannot really take in the whole prospect and meaning. A kind of Adam over again; so new a thing, and such a baby. What will he do? How will he compare with his forerunners?
Physical power is the most rudimentary and imperfect form of strength. Yet it has its uses. It is full of high suggestion, if spiritually interpreted. There is a sense in which God glories in the very make of a man. Sometimes he becomes quite an angel. “Thou hast made him a little lower than God.” God can have no delight in mere weakness for its own sake. He will not make the halt, the cripple, the deformed, the insane, merely as such; he will make use of them in his great economy, and he will sometimes turn disadvantages into advantages. But almightiness can take no pleasure in mere weakness, simply as such. But what is the strongest man known to us? Is there a tiger in the forest or jungle that could not tear him to pieces? What is mere strength sheer physical energy? A man boasts that he has climbed some astounding height; and, behold, when he looked up, the wild goat was fifty feet higher, looking down upon him with a kind of superb and unconscious contempt! The fleetest man is outstripped by the tiniest bird that ever fluttered a wing. Who, therefore, would worship mere strength? Yet without health what is the world to any man? and strength is nothing if it be not expressive of health. Health is a compound term. It means equality, harmony, the fine, happy working of all faculties, so much so that we do not know they are working at all. Who knows that the earth is moving? and why is there no knowledge of the motion? Because the motion is so great, so regular. So it is with health. Whilst, therefore, we pour contempt upon mere strength, taking it singly and alone, we cannot but rejoice in that balance of faculty and motion expressing itself in the sweet, clean word, health a state of being in which every happy influence is felt, responded to, acknowledged as a religious visitation, and turned to religious uses. The reason we dwell upon this matter of strength is that under some form or other, outward and measurable, it exercises a disastrous influence upon the imagination of many men: they judge by bulk, vastness, strength, all of which are as nothing compared with the infinite and the eternal, yet every one of them may be made of use in helping the mind to a larger and truer realisation of that which is infinite and everlasting.
Pitiable is a strong body and a weak spiritual nature. Samson was all force, his strength he played with. How infantile was his mind! It is beautiful to watch this huge elephant-man as he moves clumsily about. He is so pleased with little things. He delights in the very things that are weak. He feels that he is a stupendous contrast to everything that is within reach of his vision. How he was delighted with a riddle! how he shook with internal laughter as he thought he would propound a riddle to his wife and her friends! and when the idea of giving prizes for answers to riddles occurred to him, he was as pleased as a modern journalist. He said to the people about him: I have a riddle, and if you can give me the answer I will give you clothing, and almost anything you like to ask for; and he turned aside to hide the smile of triumph with which he regarded the imbecility of his contemporaries in the matter of answering riddles. Then what fancies he took! dreaming new dreams, and pleased with them as a child blowing blue bubbles from a clay pipe. Oh, how charmed he was with all things little, weak, fanciful! How we do eke out ourselves by taking in all that is contrastive and dissimilar! The man of slow, hesitating speech, whose words all counted do not number more than three hundred, is amazed at the volubility of a man who can speak a long time without stopping. He delights in that man; calls him a phenomenon; regards him as a prodigy. That is exactly what Samson did in relation to the little things and the little people who were round about him: he liked to have them there; they seemed to make up something that was wanting in his own vastness. Now, the other contrast is possible to every one of us. We may have a great spiritual nature, however weak and deformed may be our physical condition. The spirit can be born again. The interior man can be turned, like one of old, “into another man,” so that his friends shall not know him, but shall wonder at his chastened, sweet, loving disposition, and speak of him as men might speak of a heavenly miracle. Wonderful is the providence of God in this direction! We cannot all be great, but we can all be good. All men may not have ah abundance of this world’s wealth, but every man may be rich in faith, and otherwise rich towards God and society. Who may not store his mind with thoughts of the great and bright minds of the days that have gone? With what poetry he may enrich his imagination! With what gems of thinking he may stud his memory! The door of the temple of Knowledge stands wide open, and the poorest man may go in and find himself at home under that lofty and hospitable roof. The body a man may not be able to carry up to Samson’s strength, but the mind every man can cultivate with diligent industry, and patience, and faith, until he find in his own intelligence bread to eat that the world knoweth not of, a comfortable sustenance which hands can never steal. Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that whatever may be the outward man poor, dishonoured, mean the inward man may be full of intelligence, and goodness, and truth. There was One of whom it was said, “There is no beauty that we should desire him;” and of that same One it was said, through his miracles, his graciousness of speech, his wisdom, his love, his Cross, his blood, he should become “the desire of all nations.” The time will come when the nations will not look on bulk, strength, guns, swords, standing armies, and glittering diadems; but upon libraries, good actions, noble beneficences, and in that day all outward strength and pomp shall be considered vanity; for the soul alone shall be valiant for its attainments in the highest lore.
Samson’s strength was quite unregulated. There was no soldierly discipline about the elephant. When he rose he seemed to wonder that he ever sat down; when he sat down he was larger every way than any other man he had ever seen. Who can be trusted with great strength that is ill-regulated? Hardly a man, and not a nation. Only give a nation guns enough, and that nation must quarrel, must fight. Samson, looking round and remembering his huge strength, thought he would tie the tails of about three hundred foxes all together just by way of showing what he could do and light them as a weak man might strike a match, and send them into the growing fields ( Jdg 15:4-5 ). It was an unregulated strength. Only the one man could do that deed, and where that power is not balanced by another which checks it, chastens it, subdues it, nothing can happen but wantonness, destruction, ruin. Then Samson would praise himself; he said, “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself” ( Jdg 16:20 ) all that I want to put on my very best power is to shake myself, as a lion might shake the dew from his mane and hold his great jaw aloft proudly in the air. That is the tendency of all great endowment if it be not held back by spiritual ministry. That is the tendency of all strength unless it has learned the lesson that in the sight of God’s almightiness there is no strength. We must be conquered by omnipotence. There is a great danger in one-sided strength. The great aim of life should be to cultivate an all-round that is, a happily-balanced and harmonious strength; otherwise we shall have eccentricity, erratic experiment, tremendous dash, and pitiable failure. This lesson should be applied to spiritual education. There is a danger of being too strong in this direction, or that, at the expense of equal culture along other lines. What is the consequence? Bigotry, stubbornness that is stupid, and self-opinionatedness that is, self-idolatry. No one man knows everything; no one church is the Church. When all Churches are brought together, with their strength, weakness, and every possible variety of thought, attainment, and purpose, you begin to see the Church, complete as the rainbow which is round about the Throne. Until that time come, we are parts of the Church little parts, awaiting the upcoming of our stronger brethren and our weaker brethren, that we may be all one in Christ. The danger is, too, that men boast of ill-regulated strength. They say, in dubious terms, Whatever I may be in this or that direction, I am, at all events, strong at this point. That may be an impious boast. The boasting, if any, should take effect in a different direction namely: being comparatively strong at this point, thank God, I must go on to be equally strong through the whole series. Then the triumph divinely ascribed may be the beginning of a complete and lustrous manhood.
We cannot read the life of Samson without being struck with the perishableness of all outward strength. “Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth?” Herein Samson plays the gigantic baby. He tantalises the people, and then smiles at them. But he is lured, and persuaded, and conquered. He has won in two or three instances. When they bound him with green withs that were never dried which he himself proposed as an experiment “he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire” ( Jdg 16:9 ). Then he smiled at the lords of the Philistines. Then another experiment he would try: “If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread” ( Jdg 16:11-12 ). Then he told about his hair: “If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web” ( Jdg 16:13-14 ). And then he told her about the vow. He came to the religious mystery the mystery that holds everything in a great cloud. “He told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man” ( Jdg 16:17 ). And it was so. “He awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself” ( Jdg 16:20 ). He went out, and he shook himself; but having lost his religion, he had lost his power. When a man loses his character, all the life-house that he has been building falls, and great is the fall thereof! He may conduct a few experiments, and thereby may mock the malice of many who have watched him with envy and despair: so long as his character remains he is a mighty man; but when he breaks his vow, the other breaking is a matter which an infant can accomplish. When a man tears down the altar, his house follows in the tremendous collapse.
How much strength there is that is only outward! We say of Samson that his strength lay in his hair, and therein we do not represent the whole truth: but is there not much strength that is only external beauty, which is said to be but skin-deep at the best; money, which may take to itself wings and flee away; great bodily strength, which time can suck out of a man, so insidiously and imperceptibly, that he will not know until he is a tottering pilgrim within a step of the tomb? But the point which is often overlooked in connection with Samson is, that his strength was not in the hair, but in that which the hair represented namely, constancy to a vow, faithfulness to a period of consecration. The hair was nothing: there was no strength in that; but it was symbolical of a grand religious process which had been accomplished in Samson, and, having been faithful to God, God was faithful to him. “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” Let a man take care how he treats his vows. “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools.” Who has not entered into a vow? Who has not in some time of loneliness said, If God deliver me, I will be his slave in love and service evermore? Who has not said, If the Lord deliver me out of affliction, my life shall be a daily consecration? Who has not said, when men pressed heavily against him, and the best friend of all human friends deserted him, If God will give me another chance in life to make an honest livelihood, I will give him a tenth of all that I possess? Every man must remember his own vows, bring them into full view, apply to them searching and godly criticism, and know exactly what position he occupies. When we talk about times that are depressed, business that is paralysed, circumstances that are but so many impediments and obstructions in the way of progress, we are talking about effects and not about causes. Until we find the fount and origin of the evils which we mourn, the evils will but multiply under our lamentation. If we heal our hurt slightly; if we daub the wall with untempered mortar; If we cry “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace, God will not deliver us out of the consequences of our mad infatuation.
Where, then, shall strength be found the true, abiding, generous, beneficent strength? One man answers the question: he says, “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” The same man says, “If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Another man, writing to a dear friend, says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth,” not that the soul may be as the body, but that the body may be as healthy as the soul. But in these expressions we lack definiteness. The expressions themselves are grand, no doubt copious in meaning, certainly very musical in utterance, but there is something wanting to centralise and define them. Then let the same man who spake the first two sentences speak again: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” That is what we wanted the Name, the living Name, the redeeming Name. There will be periods when our strength goes down. Christ himself was weak in Gethsemane. There appeared an angel unto him, “strengthening him,” fortifying him, holding him up, lest he dash his foot against a stone. Do not be afraid, then, if times of weakness beset our own Christian life times when the devil seems to play with us, and have it all his own way with us when he mocks us, taunts us, runs around us in laughter filled with contempt, and challenges us to repel or subdue him; such are times of darkness, times of weakness, times of fear the very power and agony of hell. In that hour, oh that Paul would speak to us! His word would be as a resurrection voice. Let us remember this word in our wilderness temptations and Gethsemane agonies “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” “Mighty Saviour, dwell with me!”
Prayer
Almighty God, we know thee by thy sweet name of Love. Surely it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But we know thee in Christ Jesus, forbearing, patient, continually seeking us that we may be saved and made like unto thyself. We remember thy word concerning the terrible things in righteousness which thou didst to those who lived long ago. Surely then thou didst shake the heavens and the earth, and thine anger burned like a fire; it was then a fearful thing to behold thy face, for thy jealousy and thine anger burned there against the sins of men. But now thou art coming to us day by day by the way of the cross. Thou dost on beholding the city weep over it; thou dost send gospels of grace to those even who are furthest away; thou dost keep the door open that the prodigal may re-enter and establish himself in his Father’s house. Thou art a gracious God, a loving Father. Behold, thine hand is stretched out towards us, not in wrath, but in welcome, and we would answer thy appeal as thou mayest inspire our hearts. We bless thee for the great words thou hast taught us, for they lift up all other speech, and sanctify all other intercourse. We find them nowhere but in thy Book, and finding them there we run unto them as unto a strong tower; they are part of thy very self; therein we read of thee as the eternal, the everlasting, the gracious Lord, the pardoning and forgiving God, the Lord of mercy and of might, the God of love. We feel that we in very deed are now on strong ground, building our life upon a rock, and that all we are and do is under thy control. So now we leave all that is below and mean and unworthy of us, and we ascend unto the hill of the Lord, standing upon the high and lofty places, overhearing the music of heaven, and catching early intimation of thy will. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Help us to live in the spirit of these gracious truths, that we ourselves may be gracious, having large-hearted feeling towards all the children of men, and even those who have strayed the most and are the most obdurate. Fill us with the spirit of redeeming pity. May we long to save the souls of men; may this be our burning concern, our daily zeal, growing in intensity and compelling us to many an act of sacrifice. Again and again we plead for one another that necessity may be relieved, that the pressure of heavy burdens may be mitigated, that those who are weary and ill at ease may be lifted by thy gracious hands, and enabled to prosecute their journey with renewed strength and hope. We pray for all who have great plans before them, daring schemes, new enterprises, which touch the imagination, and sometimes stun the ear, though, alas! sometimes ignoring the conscience. The Lord look upon such: give them wisdom in the day of sudden temptation; enable them to consult the heavens before committing themselves to the exactions of earth. The Lord be with all those who cannot be in the open sanctuary; make a little chamber for them at home, a secret altar, a place of wordless communion, where tears will be speech and sighs will be eloquence; the Lord grant this favour: then shall all thy people rejoice with a great gladness, and there shall be Sabbath day all the world round. Amen.
Samson Light and Shadow
Judges 14-16
IT would be unjust to consider this as a finished picture of the man of strength. In all that we have said we have endeavoured to establish by good reasoning and clear reference. But it would be unjust to pronounce upon any life after merely looking at a few incidental points in its course. That is a danger to which all criticism is exposed. We are prone to look upon vivid incidents, and to omit all the great breadths and spaces of the daily life, and to found our judgment of one another upon peculiarities, eccentricities, and very vivid displays of strength, or very pitiful exhibitions of weakness. This is wrong; this is unjust. Samson has indeed done many things that have startled us. We have been inclined to say now and again in the course of our study, This is the man the whole man; in this point, or in that, we have the key of his character. Now the reality is that Samson is a greater man than the mere outline of the romantic part of his history would suggest. There was another man than that which we have just seen pass before us the great giant, the man who played with things that were burdens to other men, the man who was infantile in mental weakness on many occasions; there is another man within that outer man, and until we understand somewhat of that interior personality we cannot grasp the whole character of Samson. We must judge men by the mass of their character. Who would not resent the idea of being tested by the incidents of a few months, rather than being judged by the level and the general tone and the average of a lifetime? Man does not reveal himself in little points, except incidentally and illustratively: hence we must live with the man, and so far as history will allow us to do so we must become identified with him: when we get to understand his motives we shall begin to comprehend his conduct, and when we put together the night and the day, the summer and the winter, the fair youth and the white old age, then we may be in some degree prepared to say what the man in reality was. When this rule of judgment obtains we shall get rid of all pettish ness of criticism, all vain remark upon one another: before pronouncing the final judgment, and especially a harsh verdict, we shall say: We do not know enough about him; we have only seen a few points in the man; he seems to be a greater and fuller man than he disclosed himself to be on the occasions when we saw him; had we seen more of him, and known more of him, we should have come probably to a more generous conclusion. That is the rule of Christian charity, and whoso violates it is no friend of Christ. He may show a certain kind of critical ability, and the very malice of hell in the power of sneering, but he knows nothing about the agony and the love of the Cross.
Is the life of Samson, then, comprehended within these few incidents which have just passed before us? The incidents upon which we have remarked might all have occurred within a few months. What was the exact position of Samson in Israel? He judged Israel twenty years. How often is that fact over” looked! we speak of the great strong man, the elephantine child, the huge monstrosity, but who thinks of twenty years’ service the consideration of all the necessities of the people, the frown which made the enemy afraid, the smile which encouraged struggling virtue, the recognition which came very near to being an inspiration? Who knows what headache and heartache the man had in prosecuting and completing the judgeship? Who can be twenty full years at any one service without amassing in that time features, actions, exhibitions of strength and weakness, sagacity, folly, all of which ought to be taken into account before pronouncing final judgment? Thus may it be with us, or it will go hard with us in the day of partial and prejudiced criticism. Who will condemn you for one little month in your life? Then you were in very deed a fool; you know it; you own it: you broke through the sacred law; you did things you dare not name; you reeled and stumbled and fell, but were up again in a moment. Shall he be judge of your life who saw the reeling and the falling? or shall he be judge who knows that for ten years, twenty, or more, you walked right steadily, a brave soul, charged with generous thoughts, and often doing good with both hands? So it must be with all men. But we are prone to break that rule. How small we are, and unjust, herein; we will turn off a friend who has served us twenty years because of one petulant word which he spoke! Who has the justice, not to say generosity, to take in a whole lifetime, and let little incidents or great incidents fall into their proper perspective? Until we do this we cannot ply the craft of criticism: we are ill judges, and we shall do one another grievous injury.
Some physical constitutions are to be pitied. Samson’s was particularly such a constitution. He seemed to be all body. He appeared to have run altogether into bone and muscle. He was obviously only a giant. How seldom we see more than one aspect of a man! call up any great name in Biblical history, and you will find how often one little, or great, characteristic is supposed to sum up and express the man. We call up the name of Moses, and think of nothing but his meekness: whereas, there was no man in all the ancient gallery of portraits that could burn with a fiercer anger; he brake stones upon stones, and shattered the very tablets written by the finger of God. We say, Characterise Jeremiah, and instantly we think of his tears, and call him the weeping prophet: whereas who concealed an eloquence equal to his? a marvellous, many-coloured eloquence, now so strong, and now so pathetic: now all lightning, and now all tears. We must beware of the sophism that a life can be summed up in one little characteristic. Herein God will be Judge. Some men cannot be radiant. They may think they are, but they are only making sport for the Philistines when they are trying the trick of cheerfulness which they cannot learn. Other men cannot be wise. If they have conceived some plan of so-called wisdom, and submit it to you, and take it back again, they set it upside down, and forget exactly where it began and where it ended. They are to be pitied. Weakness is written right across the main line of the face; weakness characterises every tone of the voice. They are not to be judged harshly. Blessed be God, the judgment is with himself, and what if the first be last, and the last be first?
Is there hope of renewal for overthrown men? One would hope so: “Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven” ( Jdg 16:22 ). Is this real renewal or only apparent? It was not the hair that was in fault, but the soul. We have seen that the strength lay not in the hair, but in the vow which that hair represented and confirmed. If the matter had been one purely of person adornment, the hair might have grown again on the strong and noble head, and covered it as luxuriantly as before; but it was the soul that was shorn of its honour; it was the spirit that parted with its oath. How difficult to renew a broken character! Thank God, it is not impossible. It cannot be done mechanically, that is to say from the outside, by skilful manipulation, by obedience to tabulated rules and orders, “Ye must be born again:” it is not enough to renew the profession, to rehabilitate the reputation, to seem to be just as you were before, “Ye must be born again.” Samson’s hair comes, the locks are as raven-like as ever, but has the soul been renewed; has the strong man cried mightily unto God for the restoration of his character? That is the vital point, and to trifle with it, pass over it hurriedly, is to lose the wisdom and the music of the occasion. Looking at men outwardly, we say, They seem to be as before; all the outer semblances are excellent, but who are we that we should judge what has taken place within? Outwardly the circumstances may be as before, but the man himself should take care as to what has happened within his soul. He should hold himself in severe and close monologue upon this matter, saying, These people form a good opinion of me; they think now I am a sober, upright, reliable man; I am regular in my church attendances, I keep up with the foremost in the public race, and the general impression seems to be that I have recovered myself, but have I done so? I will not look at the outer man, but at the heart. Is that steadfast toward God constant in holy love, burning with pure zeal for righteousness and truth? Man must not judge me in these matters I must therefore judge myself the more austerely and exhaustively. Blessed are we if we can apply such criticism to ourselves; and blessed if outward appearances dimly typify a spiritual life, an unseen and undying probity of mind.
Samson died a curious death. He prayed in his blindness that he might yet show himself a strong man. The Philistines would have sport: Samson would that the occasion of sport might be turned into an occasion of what appeared to him to be just vengeance. Said he: Let me touch the pillars of the house; lay my poor hands on the pillars of this unholy place. And the giant’s hands were lifted and put upon the pillars, and Samson cried mightily towards the heavens and shook the pillars, and the house fell, and he himself died with innumerable others. It was a poor way out of the world. But judge nothing by the death scene. In many instances the death scene amounts to nothing. Many a man has gone to heaven straight from the act of suicide. Many a man has died into heaven about whom we are prudently silent, because of some little or great incident which has disturbed our judgment of his character. It is not enough to leave the last transaction to be completed in a few moments of words without sacrifice, of profession without possible realisation. And some may have died and gone to heaven about whom we have our secret fears. Let us entertain no such apprehensions about any man whose twenty years of life lies open for public judgment. Nothing was said at the last; nay, more, the poor man got wrong within the last year of his life: he slipped, he fell, he was laid up a long time; what happened then between him and his Lord we cannot tell; but we have before us an instance or two of such secret and unreported interviews. The man who saw his Lord and plunged into the water, and came to him, had a talk with Christ all alone, and after that he became the most fervent of the apostles. The man is not to be judged by what he did in the last week of his life. It is the life that God will judge the tone, the purpose, the main idea of the life. What is life indeed but a main idea a grand central thought and aspiration? We shall delude ourselves and do injustice to others by thinking of collateral circumstances, things on the surface, things that come and go. Many a man has stolen who is no thief. Many a man has been overcome by strong drink who is no drunkard. Many a man has been guilty of innumerable weaknesses who is a strong man in the soul and heart of him. That these generous constructions may be perverted is perfectly possible; but I would rather that wicked men should pervert them than that the men who need such encouragement should go away in despair. We cannot tell what the dogs will do, but the children must nevertheless be fed. If any man should leave this study of Samson saying that licence has been given to do this or that which is wrong, he but aggravates his profanity by a final falsehood. On the other hand, many a man must be cheered, or he will be overwhelmed in despair, and we shall never hear of him any more. What is the central purpose of your life? what is the main idea? Answer that in the right way, and God will be merciful to you.
We have still to notice the most important point of all, which, in the mere matter of literal sequence, ought to have come earlier. Samson said he would go out and shake himself as at other times “and he wist not that the Lord was departed from him “( Jdg 16:20 ). All the outer man was there, but it was a temple without a God. The giant was as grand to look at as ever, but his soul was as a banqueting-hall deserted. And Samson knew it not! that is the painful point the unknown losses of life, the unconscious losses of life: power gone, and the man not aware of it, is there any irony so humbling, so awful to contemplate? We may be walking skeletons: we may be men without manliness; we may be houses untenanted: yet the eyes are where they always were, and just as bright, the voice is as vibrant as in olden time; and yet the divinity is dead. And for a man not to know it! We have had experience of this in other than merely religious directions. The writer that used to charm thinks he writes as well as ever, and only the readers are conscious that the genius is extinct: the right hand has forgotten its cunning; the writer does not know it; having filled his page, he says, That is as bright as ever: I never wrote with greater facility: in my old age I have become young again; he wist not that the spirit of genius had departed from him. So with the preacher. He supposes he preaches as energetically and as happily and usefully as ever; he says he longs for his work more than he ever did; and only the hearers are conscious that the man has been outworn by all-claiming, all-dominating time. The statesman, too, has lost his wizardry: he cannot see afar off; yet he supposes himself to be as great as in his most lustrous prime. All these are common incidents, and are referred to simply to show that they point towards the most disastrous effect of all that a man may have lost the Spirit of God, and not be aware of his loss. Others look on, and pity him. The prayer has lost its pleading tone; the tears which stream from his eyes are but common water; the upward look sees nothing but cloud; the universe has become a great blank space: the stars glitter, but say nothing; the summer comes, but creates no garden in his soul; and the man does not know it. Who dare tell him? This points towards a possible ghastly condition of affairs. The Church is as large as ever, but Ichabod is written upon its door. The old words are all said, one by one with formal pomp and accuracy, but they are only words no longer bushes that burn and are not consumed. Again and again remember that the point is that the man did not know it. Had he known it, he would have been a better man; had he really felt that the Lord had gone out from him, he might have begun to cry at last like a child, if he could not pray like a priest How is it with us? Put the question right into the very centre of the soul. We may have more words, more dogmas, more points of controversy, more little orthodox idols; but what are we in the heart, the spirit, the purpose of the mind? Seeing that this great danger is before us, there is one sweet prayer which every day should carry to heaven from our pleading soul. A child can pray it; an angel cannot add to it. That deep, high, grand, all-inclusive prayer is “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me,” take health, take friends, take happiness, take all the world values as good and necessary, but take not thy Holy Spirit from me! “Holy Spirit, dwell with me.”
Prayer
Almighty God, our hope is in thy Son; other hope in very deed we have none. We have hewn out unto ourselves cisterns, but we have found them to be cisterns that could hold no water. So by this experience, so sad and deep, we have come to know that there is no help for man but in the living God, the Saviour of all, who will have all men to be saved. We lay down our arms of rebellion, we renounce our various inventions, and we now come to thee, empty-handed, full of sin in the heart, conscious of great and aggravated wickedness, and casting ourselves upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we say each for himself, God be merciful to me a sinner! We know thine answer; it is a reply of love: where sin abounds, grace shall much more abound; wherein we have grieved thee, we shall be mightily brought back again to thy side, to take part in thy praise, and to be active in thy service. May the time that is past more than suffice; may our inquiry be about the few days that remain; with earnestness, simplicity, fidelity, may we gird ourselves to the work that lies before us, and with all-burning zeal, most constant love, may we do thy will gladly, hoping only for a reward in thine own heaven. Help us in all our life. Its necessities are as numerous as its moments. Our life is one crying want. Let our life be turned into a sacred prayer, by being lifted upwards towards the all-hospitable heavens, and no longer left to grope in the earth for that which can never be found there. As for our burdens, we shall forget them if thou dost increase our strength; our sins shall be cast behind thee, our duty shall be our delight, and our whole life a glowing and acceptable sacrifice. Guide men who are in perplexity; soothe the hearts that are overborne by daily distress; save from despair those who think they have tried every gate and beaten upon every door without success or reply: save such from the agony and blackness of despair; at the very last do thou appear, a shining light, a delivering day, wherein men can see what lies about them, and address themselves to their tasks with the help of the sun. Be round about us in business; save us amid a thousand temptations; direct us along a road that is sown with traps, and gins, and snares; take hold of our hand every step of the journey, and in thine own good time bring us to rest, to death to life. Amen.
XXX
SAMSON
Judges 13-16
Contrast the history of Samson with that of the other judges.
Ans. (1) It is every way more minute and circumstantial in its details and more extensive.
(2) It resembles the cases of Ehud and Shamgar as a record of individual exploits, but seems to have even less national significance.
(3) Othniel, Barak, Gideon, and Jephthah led armies, fought pitched battles, conducted great campaigns and achieved results of national and lasting importance. They were men differing, indeed, in character from one another, but all men of a high order of intelligence and administrative capacity, but Samson not only manifests no such intelligence and capacity in a general way, but is weak in judgment and weak in character. He is merely an individual champion in the direction of physical strength, and like the prize fighters of all ages, susceptible to temptations which appeal to flesh passions.
(4) Unlike all others he was a Nazarite.
(5) Unlike the others his history commences with his father and mother and, like Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptist, his very birth was the result of a miraculous power.
(6) His history is a history of miracles and prodigies, more than all the others.
2. What legendary hero of the classics most resembles Samson, indeed whose mystical story is supposed by some to be a heathen outgrowth of the Bible story?
Ans. Hercules.
3. How do you account for the marvelous hold of Samson upon the imagination of all succeeding ages?
Ans. The personal hero, the man of individual exploits, always impresses the popular mind more than the ripest statesmanship or the greatest generalship. More of the common people have ever gone to witness the feats of a gladiator, a bullfighter, or a prizefighter than would assemble to hear an orator, poet, statesman, scholar, or inventor. With the exception of the orator perhaps, the fame of the others will most likely be posthumous instead of contemporaneous.
4. In the case of men like Moses, Samuel, and John the Baptist it is easy to account for the Spirit’s circumstantial record of their birth and youth, so largely do their lives and influence affect all succeeding generations, but how do you account for the minute prologue concerning Samson all of Jdg 13 and the relative extent and circumstantial detail of his history?
Ans. We may not be able to philosophize profitably concerning the matter, but we suggest:
(1) The infinite variety of the Scriptures as a whole is designed to present something circumstantial about all phases of individual life. We need the circumstantial record of Moses the law-giver, Samuel the founder of the school of the prophets, David the psalmist, Job the patient, Jonah the reluctant foreign missionary, Peter the impulsive, John the meditative theologian, Paul the world moulder in doctrine and aggressive propagandism, and so we need one circumstantial record, the power of physical prowess, as a special gift of God. A child’s mind easily takes hold of the simple catechism: Who was the first man, the oldest man, the meekest man, the strongest man, the wisest man, etc.?
(2) There are lessons to be learned from the history of Samson of invaluable use to all ages, lessons far more significant than his exploits in themselves considered, and this is the governing thought in the fulness and variety of the Holy Scriptures. (See 2Ti 3:16-17 .)
5. According to Oliver Wendell Holmes, where does the education of a child commence?
Ans. “With his grandmother,” Timothy’s grandmother a case in point. (2Ti 1:5 ; 2Ti 1:3-15 .)
6. In this case show how Samson’s education commences with his mother.
Ans. “Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: for lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come upon his head; for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of Philistines.” “And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass; what shall be the ordering of the child and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of Jehovah said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe,” (Jdg 13:4-5 ; Jdg 13:12-14 ).
7. What is a Nazarite, and the token of one?
Ans. (1) The law of the voluntary Nazarite is found in Num 6:1-21 . The dominant idea is consecration or devotedness to Jehovah for a limited period or for life. The token is the unshaved hair. The requirements are total abstinence from intoxicating liquors and even the fruit of the vine and from contact with any defilement, and holiness of life.
(2) But in the case of some either the parents or God himself decreed them Nazarites for life from the womb, as Samson (Jdg 16:17 ), Samuel (1Sa 1:11 ), John the Baptist (Luk 1:15 ), and the Rechabites (Jer 35 ).
(3) A passage in Lam 4:4 , shows the requirements of holiness and the beneficial effect of an abstemious life.
8. In what other scriptures is abstinence from intoxicating drink required of consecrated men?
Ans. “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes to say, Where is strong drink? Lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice due to any that is afflicted,” Pro 31:4-5 , and in I Timothy pastors and deacons should be “not given to much wine.”
9. Unto what nation was Israel subject in the days of Samson?
Ans. See Jdg 14:4 – The Philistines.
10. From whom do all Samson’s troubles come?
Ans. From two Philistine women Jdg 14:15-17 ; Jdg 16:20 .
11. Did these women entice him to evil of their own thought or were they used as tools by the Philistines?
Ans. In both cases the Philistines brought pressure to bear on the women.
12. Distinguish between the pressure on the one who was his wife and the one who was a harlot.
Ans. On the wife by a threat of burning her and her father’s family, on the harlot by bribery.
13. Did the wife and her father escape the burning by her yielding to the threat?
Ans. No.
14. Describe the character and power of the temptation in each case.
Ans. See Jdg 14:16-17 ; Jdg 16:15-16 . It was in both cases persistent from day to day; in both cases they asked the secret as a proof of love. In the first case with persistent tears, in the second case with accusation of mocking and lies, nagging, nagging until his soul was vexed unto death; a woman’s seven days’ weeping; a woman’s seven days’ nagging; tears and nagging.
15. What proverbial question have the French when a man goes to the bad?
Ans. “Who was the woman?”
16. What secrets should a man withhold from his wife?
Ans. That depends on the nature of the case, and the disposition of the wife.
17. Who, perhaps, was the only man known to history that fully and fairly answered all the hard questions put to him by a woman?
Ans. Solomon.
18. What infamous and notorious chief of police used a woman to trap men, and what great novelist devoted a section of a romance to a description of the method?
Ans. Fouche, the chief of the Parisian police, and Balzac is the romance writer in that book of his, Les Chouans. Now, he has a section of that book headed with these words: “The Notion of Fouche,” showing how he wanted to get hold of the enemy that he could not capture on the field.
19. What chapter of the Bible is devoted to warning against women like Delilah, and quote its last two verses. Cite another passage to prove that the author of this chapter had ample experimental qualifications for the warning.
Ans. Pro 7 . See Pro 7:26-27 . 1Ki 11:1-8 proves that Solomon, the author of Pro 7 , had the experimental qualifications for this warning.
20. Cite in order the exploits of Samson.
Ans. (1) Slaying the lion, Jdg 14:5-6 .
(2) Slaying the thirty Philistines, Jdg 14:19 , to get the changes of raiment to pay his wager.
(3) The use of foxes in burning the harvest fields of the Philistines for giving his wife to another, Jdg 15:4-5 .
(4) The great slaughter to avenge the burning, Jdg 15:7-8 .
(5) The slaying of a thousand with the jawbone of an ass, Jdg 15:14-15 .
(6) Carrying off the gates of Gaza, Jdg 16:1-3 .
(7) The breaking of the seven green withes, of a new rope, and the carrying away of the pin and web in which his hair had been woven, Jdg 16:7-14 .
(8) The pulling down of the Philistine temple and his consequent destruction, Jdg 16:29-31 .
21. In what power were all these achievements wrought?
Ans. “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.”
22. In a noted book, Types of Mankind, by Drs. Nott and Gliddon of Mobile, what different rendering is given of Jdg 15:4-5 , and what do you say of the merits of their rendering?
Ans. Turn to Jdg 15:4-5 . This is the way they translate this passage: “And Samson went and took three hundred sheaves of grain and took firebrands and turned them end to end and put a firebrand in the midst between the two ends. And when he had set the brands on fire, he threw them into the standing grain of the Philistines, . . .” What is the merit of this translation? I say, none at all. It is just one of those ways by which men try to evade the marvelous features of scripture.
23. Hither to we have considered Samson as only an embodiment of physical strength, but what proof in the record of his much higher endowments?
Ans. The feats of physical strength make the most vivid impressions on the mind, but there is evidence sufficient in history to show his higher endowments. It is said, without giving details, “he judged Israel twenty years.” The exercise of this function called for knowledge, judgment, and fidelity to God’s law.
His propounding a riddle shows training in Oriental wisdom and his proverbial reply to his enemies who treacherously found its solution shows not only quick discernment but racy humor. His readiness to locate the source of all the hidden assaults upon him indicates a shrewd knowledge of human nature.
We may not assume his inability to lead armies and conduct great campaigns because through the abject spirit of his people there were not only no armies to lead, but there was even that despicable meanness on the part of the people to surrender their own deliverer in bonds to the enemy at their demand. There was no material for an army in a people who thought it necessary to take 3,000 men to arrest one man, and then were afraid to arrest him without his consent. The national cowardice of both Israel and Philistia forms the dark outline of his sublime and solitary courage.
He seems to have been the only brave, absolutely fearless man in the two nations, and stalks among them like a Titan among quail bugging the covert or ready to take flight at the mere sight of him. His life deserves its prologue to which reference has been made. His sin of going unto harlots was the sin of his age characterizing great men of his nation before and after him. He never led Israel into sin like Gideon, nor offered human burnt offerings like Jephthah. He never went into idolatry. It is true that like other and even greater men he could not withstand the persistent tears or continual nagging of a woman, yet he never himself wronged a woman.
His sense of the stern justice of the lex talionis taught in his law and his logical mind are both evident in his reply to his own abject countrymen who rebuked his heavy strokes against the common enemy: “As they did unto me, so I have done unto them.”
For his one great sin against Jehovah he patiently bore the penalty, and, in penitence and prayer, found forgiveness. He wag truly a great man, deserving no help from contemporaries and stands like a solitary mountain on the dead level of a plain.
This, with the pathetic tragedy of his death, gives him his place in human memory and appeals to the imagination of succeeding ages. A mere gladiator or prizefighter would never have awakened the muse of Milton. Therefore we greatly misjudge him if we count him simply a prodigy of physical strength. He stands in the New Testament roll of the heroes of Old Testament faith.
That he was a man of prayer as well as of faith appears from Jdg 15:18 , and Jdg 16:28 . His celebration of his great victory, Jdg 15:16 , his riddle, Jdg 14:14 , and his poem Jdg 16:18 , show him a poet, and his reticence about killing a lion with his naked hands show that he was no braggart even in his own family. You may contrast this with the publicity given to Roosevelt’s lion killing, armed with weapons so deadly that at a distance the lions had no chance.
24. What Old Testament riddles precede Samson’s?
Ans. None.
25. Was Samson a wilful violator of the Mosaic law of marriage in insisting on taking a Philistine wife against the protest of his father and mother, Jdg 14:3 ?
Ans. No, God can make his own exceptions, and this marriage was of the Lord to furnish occasion for smiting the enemy under their own provocation, Jdg 14:4 .
26. What do you learn of the methods and customs of courtship and marriage at that time from Jdg 14:1-18 ?
Ans. (1) The son selects the wife “she pleased his sight.”
(2) The father and mother conduct negotiations.
(3) The son does his own courting “she pleased him in conversation.”
(4) The prospective bridegroom gives a seven-days’ feast in the bride’s city to which her family invites thirty young men.
(5) At the entertainment there is the feast of reason and flow of soul in which riddles are propounded, wagers made, and racy humor employed.
27. What the great sin of Samson?
Ans. In yielding through weariness to the nagging of a bad woman in the disclosure of the secret of his strength after she had thrice demonstrated her purpose of using it to his destruction, and then putting himself in her power. It was telling the Lord’s secret to a harlot, fulfilling the words of Jeremiah:
“Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets:
Their skin cleave to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.” (Lam 4:7-8 .)
28. Did Samson’s strength reside in his hair?
Ans. No, but in keeping his Nazarite vow, of which the unshaved head was the token.
29. What the pathetic elements of the tragedy which followed?
Ans. (1) “He wist not that the Lord had departed from him,” and that he was as any other man. This time, though he shook himself as before, he could not break the bonds.
(2) The enemy took him and put out his eyes.
(3) Bound him in fetters of brass.
(4) Made him grind in the prison house.
(5) On the day of their sacrifice claimed him as the captive of their gods.
(6) Caused him to be exhibited in sport.
30. What indication of God’s mercy appeared in prison?
Ans. His hair began to grow.
31. Cite his possible reflections.
Ans. I preached a sermon on that once, a sermon to backsliders, that Spirit power is given for the good of others, for the deliverance of others, and this man through sin had lost the Spirit power, lost spiritual sight. He was becoming a slave to the enemies of God. While he is grinding in the mill, he hears coming from the valley the cry of a young woman as the Philistines snatched her and she cries out, “O Samson, appointed of God to deliver Israel, help me.” And Samson is blind, powerless. Another story comes from the mountains from an old gray-haired woman, a grandmother, whose old age is put to shame. In a quivering voice she cries, “O Samson, appointed of God as our deliverer, come, help us.” I draw this picture for you as his possible reflection and the way any preacher will feel who loses hi? Spirit power and becomes like other men.
32. What proof of his penitence?
Ans. His humble prayer to God.
33. What evidence of his unselfishness?
Ans. “Let me die with the Philistines; I don’t ask to live and be tried again; I have proven myself unworthy. Just forgive me and deliver these people who have put out my eyes to vengeance and let me die with them.”
34. How may he illustrate the backslider and the final preservation of the saints?
Ans. That is exactly what he was, a backslider. You have to kill them sometimes to bring them back. They get so far off that they grow indifferent and have to be killed to be brought back.
35. Cite Milton’s words in his great poem “Samson Agoites,” illustrating the answer to his last prayer.
Ans. After Samson’s prayer, Milton says in his poem this:
This uttered, straining all his nerves he bowed:
As with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars’
With horrible convulsion to and fro.
Now you are prepared to understand the place of Samson with the other judges. It is the object of this chapter to show that he was a great man and a good man; that he was a man of intelligence; that he was a poet; and on wonder the whole world from that time until now thinks about Samson.
Jdg 14:1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Ver. 1. And Samson went down to Timnath. ] Whether to the market, or the sports, or some great feast, &c., it is not recorded; but God had an overruling hand in this journey for the punishment of the Philistines, though Samson cannot be altogether excused; for he went “after the sight of his eyes and lust of his heart.” Ecc 11:9 Ill guides.
And saw a woman in Timnath. a In Apolog.
Chapter 14
NOW Samson went down to Timnath ( Jdg 14:1 ),
Which was a Philistine city and there he fell in love with one of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came home and he said to his parents, “I want you to go down and make arrangements for me to marry that girl.”
And they said, “Awe come on, Samson. All these beautiful Israeli girls around here, why do you have to go down and fall in love with a Philistine?” Now they didn’t know that God was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
Samson is a self-willed young kid, he said, “Hey, don’t give me a bad time. Just go down and make the arrangements.”
So his parents went down to make the arrangements and Samson was tagging along behind them and a lion jumped him. And the spirit of the Lord came on him and he took that lion and ripped the thing in two just like it had been a little goat or something. Tossed the carcass over the bushes, dusted off his hands, didn’t tell anybody. The parents went on down to Timnath and he got to see his girlfriend. They made all the arrangements for the dowry and so forth so that he could marry her.
And so the time for the wedding came and so they were on their way back to Timnath. Again his parents went ahead of him and curious, he got to the place where he tossed the carcass in the bushes and he wondered what that old carcass looked like by now. And so he went over to see what the carcass looked like, the degree of deterioration and all at this point, and he saw that bees had made a hive in the carcass. There was a honey cone there. So he grabbed it, began to eat the honey, caught up with his parents and gave them some of the honey to eat. Still didn’t tell them what happened, went on down to Timnath, started the whole wedding festival.
Now, in those days they really did a big number for weddings. It was a seven-day kind of a feast prior to the wedding, really celebrated, the last of your single days. So they appointed thirty of the Philistines to be his companions during this period of revelry, the partying and all prior to the wedding.
And so Samson said to these thirty Philistines, I’m gonna give you a riddle: and if you can tell me the riddle by the time of the wedding day, then I will give you thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments: But if you can’t tell me the riddle at the end of the seven days, then you gotta give me thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments ( Jdg 14:12-13 ).
The guy says, “What’s your riddle?” And so he gave to them the riddle.
And he said, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And these guys for three days hassled with this thing ( Jdg 14:14 ).
Out of the eater came forth meat. Out of the strong came forth sweetness. And after three days and they hadn’t gotten anywhere with it they came to his bride-to-be and they said, “What a rat you are. You’re just trying to rip us off. That’s why you chose us to be his companions. Trying to get thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments out of us for your trousseau or whatever, no way.” They said, “You better find out what that riddle is or we’re gonna burn you and your dad’s house.”
And so, she came to Samson and said, “You really don’t love me.”
He said, “What do you mean I don’t love you?”
“Oh, if you love me you would’ve told me what the riddle is.”
He said, “No, what are you talking about? I haven’t even told my parents what the riddle is.”
“See I told you, you didn’t love me.” And she started this always with tears and day after day you know, here’s this bride to be always in tears. “You don’t love me.”
And finally Samson had it. Couldn’t stand the tears no more and said, “Awe, it means nothing.” He said, “I killed this lion and out of his carcass there was a honeycomb so out of the eater there came forth sweets. So, she told these guys. The day of the wedding came so Samson said, “Okay, what’s the riddle fellas?”
And they said,
What’s stronger than a lion and what’s sweeter than honey? And he really got angry and he said, You haven’t been plowing with my heifer, you’d never found out ( Jdg 14:18 ).
That’s an interesting, I imagine, colloquial kind of a phrase in those days calling your wife a heifer. “You’d haven’t been plowing my heifer, you’d never known.” And he got upset. And he went down to Ashkelon, one of the Philistine cities along the coast of the Mediterranean. Got a hold of thirty Philistines, cracked their skulls, took their shirts and their clothes, came back and paid off his debt and went home. After he cooled down he came back to see his wife and that’s where the next problem began.
We’ll get into that in our next week study as we move along with Samson. Interesting character. I have a lot I want to share with you about Samson but we’ll wait until we get the full story next week and then we’ll draw some interesting observations and analogies from Samson. “
This is the record of tragic things. The boy Samson had grown to manhood’s estate full of strength and passion. Going to Timnah, he saw a woman of the Philistines and desired to take her to wife. His parents attempted to dissuade him, but he allowed himself to be swept by his passion and determined to realize his own desires. All through the transactions connected with this woman, he is seen as a man of animal strength, bold, adventurous, determined, and of sporting propensities. There is nothing to admire in him in all his doings.
Two things, however, in the course of the narrative arrest our attention. First, the statement, “His father and his mother knew not that it was of Jehovah” (verse Jdg 14:4) ; and, second, the declaration, “The Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him” (verse Jdg 14:19). In these statements the fact of the overruling of God is clearly revealed. The phrase, “It was of Jehovah,” is used in the sense in which we find it in Jos 11:20. God makes even the wrath of man praise Him as He compels it to contribute to the accomplishment of His own purpose. This fact, however, in no sense justified the sin of Samson in seeking a wife of the Philistines in violation of the expressed commands of God. The impetuous passion in which he slew thirty men of the Philistines to pay his sporting debt was utterly reprehensible. Yet this also contributed to the purpose of God in the destruction of the Philistines.
a Self-willed Youth
Jdg 14:1-14
Timnath lay just across the frontier, in the Philistine country. It was a bad match and the beginning of life-trouble. Young people cannot be too careful as to their first love-match. Pray over it before you let your heart go. Take the advice of parents and friends. Whatever you do, marry only in the Lord. For a Christian to marry one who is destitute of the divine life, is not only to set Christs law at defiance, but to incur the misery of perpetual discord. It is impossible to have perfect fellowship with one who is not agreed with you in your deepest nature, 1Co 7:39.
This young lion, on the path between the vineyards, seems to have been the means of awakening Samson to claim that divine strength which had awaited his appeal but until that moment had been undiscovered. May it not be that lions have been allowed to roar at you, that you might be driven back upon God, and compelled to avail yourself of those infinite resources which reside in the ever-living Savior?
CHAPTER 14 The First Deeds of Samson
1. The woman in Timnath (Jdg 14:1-4)
2. The killing of the young lion and the honey in the carcass (Jdg 14:5-9)
3. The marriage feast and the riddle (Jdg 14:10-14)
4. The riddle answered (Jdg 14:15-18)
5. Thirty Philistines slain by Samson (Jdg 14:19-20)
Samson was called of God to be a true Nazarite, but in his life which was to manifest the Nazarite character he failed. He went down to Timnath is a foreboding beginning. It was a step in the wrong direction. He stepped upon the territory of the enemy to enter into an alliance with the Philistines. He meets one of the daughters of the Philistines, a woman in Timnath. Two other women we find in Samsons life, an harlot of Gaza and Delilah. They are alike, representing the wiles of the devil. They lead him down and ultimately accomplish his downfall and death. Timnath means portion assigned. He left his occupation to seek a portion with the Philistines. Yet it was of the Lord in the sense that He permitted it for a wise purpose. And in that wrong course he came to the vineyards of Timnath and met the roaring lion. The lion is the type of Satan (Amo 3:8; 1Pe 5:8). He roared at the Nazarite, as Satan still roars against any one who bears the marks of separation unto God. Then in the power of the Spirit who came upon Samson he rent the lion as a kid. Then he saw the woman and she pleased him well. Strange contrast! In the power of the Spirit he tore the lion and then falls victim to the enemy in another form. How often this is the case in the experiences of Gods people. Afterwards he found in the carcass of the lion the swarm of bees and the honey, which he ate and also gave to his parents. Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. Our blessed Lord has conquered Satan and as the result of that mighty overthrow and victory, accomplished on the Cross, we have our meat, our sweetness, our salvation and blessing.
Another application besides the above and also of the believers personal experience in conquering by faith the enemy and receiving sweetness through it, has been suggested: The occurrences which took place when Samson visited Timnath, the residence of the woman (the lion, and the honey afterwards found in the carcass), were highly significant, and adapted to instruct both him and his people. He seems himself to be aware, in some degree, of their importance, as he introduces them in his riddle. The lion, namely, is an image of the kingdoms of the world which are hostile to the kingdom of God; the attack, the struggle, and the victory thus acquire a symbolical meaning. The riddle also includes a truth of great importance, the evidence of which is furnished in manifold ways by the history of the world, and which admits of an appropriate application even to our times. The attack of the lion was an image of the Philistine invasion; the eater famished Israel with meat and sweetness, the destroyer brought salvation and blessings with him; for the yoke of the Philistines was a chastisement, designed to lead the people to repentance, and terminate in their renewed acceptableness before God.
Then he is in very bad company. He went down to Timnath alone. He met the woman, then he made a feast and was surrounded by thirty Philistines as companions. He had allied himself with the enemy. And this compromise, this mingling with the enemies of the cross of Christ, is the common thing today and has led to the grieving of the Spirit and the loss of power. For example, the modern system of revival–to which our Samson, in his failure, so closely answers–in which, whilst there doubtless often is more or less of true faithful service, yet to effect the end an alliance even with the enemy is sought; the aid of the world is sought in obtaining deliverance from the world! Fleshly attractions, eloquent speakers, exquisite music, cunning schemes for gathering crowds to attract crowds; all the churches closed except one, thus awakening a natural excitement; all these are daughters of the Philistine, very fair, all serving religion and pleasing us well; but very, very dangerous. For whilst at first they may not appear serious, they point to the possibility of their becoming so in the future; nor do they ever radically aid, but always hinder, the Nazarite.
He gives the riddle to the Philistines and makes a wager. The woman, now Samsons wife, wept and continued till he told her the secret, and she told the riddle to the children of her people. Here was his weak point, which eventually resulted in his shameful downfall and humiliating experience. He could not keep a secret. But it was all the results of his going down, forming an alliance with the enemy he was called to overcome. He did not see that he had stepped in the wrong direction. He blamed the Philistines and not himself. If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. Then he slew thirty Philistines to make good his promise and thus openly declared his hatred and antagonism to the enemy for the first time.
Timnath: Gen 38:12, Gen 38:13, Jos 15:10, Jos 19:43, aw, Gen 6:2, Gen 34:1, Gen 34:2, 2Sa 11:2, Job 31:1, Psa 119:37, 1Jo 2:16
Reciprocal: Gen 49:17 – shall be 2Ch 28:18 – Timnah Eze 25:15 – to destroy
Samson found a daughter of the Philistines in Timnath that he wanted to marry and asked his parents to make the proper arrangements. They did not approve of marriage to one not of God’s people and asked if he could not find an Israelite girl for a wife (compare Exo 34:11-16 ; Deu 7:1-6 ). Of course, his parents did not know that God was going to use this marriage to produce an opportunity to deal a blow to the Philistines ( Jdg 14:1-4 ).
Jdg 14:1-2. Samson went After he was come to mature age; to Timnath A place not far from the sea. Get her for me to wife Herein he is an example to all children, conformable to the fifth commandment. Children ought not to marry, nor to move toward it, without the advice and consent of their parents. They that do, as Bishop Hall speaks, unchild themselves. Parents have a property in their children, as parts of themselves. In marriage this property is transferred. It is, therefore, not only unkind and ungrateful, but palpably unjust, to alienate this property, without their concurrence. Whoso thus robbeth his father or mother, stealing from them himself, who is nearer and dearer to them than their goods, and yet saith, It is no transgression, the same is the companion of a destroyer, Pro 28:24.
Jdg 14:1. Timnath, situate in mount Ephraim, often taken and retaken in successive wars. To form a matrimonial connection with the Philistines, or with any of the idolatrous nations, was a violation of the Jewish law. Exo 34:16. But truly, as Ovid says, Amor est ccus, love is blind.
Jdg 14:5. A young lion roared against him. To kill a lion placed a man among the first of heroes. He, like Hercules, mostly wore the skin as a proud trophy of victory. Old neas says, that he threw a vest around his neck, and covered his shoulders with a tawny lions skin.
Latos humeros subjectque colla Veste super, fulvique insternor pelle leonis. N. 50. 2. 5:721.
Jdg 14:8. After a time, when the air had dried the skeleton, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase, the mouth, or breast of the lion. Bochart mentions swarms of bees settling in tombs, and in human skulls, and forming their combs. Hieroz, part. 2. lib. 4. cap. 10.
Jdg 14:12. I will put forth a riddle. The human kind were not in that age come to maturity of intellect. Xenophon, in his Cyropdia, (travels of Cyrus,) represents that prince as diverting himself with his generals, by each in his turn putting forth a riddle. Antiquity abounds with examples, that the heathens, merry in their feasts, diverted themselves with riddles and tales.Thirty sheets. Many of the ancients wore a sheet of cloth knit at the corners, and thrown over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm free for action. Leurs habits sont aiss faire; car, dans ce doux climat, on ne porte quune pice dtoffe fine et lgre, qui nest point taille, et que chacun met longs plis autour de son corps pour la modestie, lui dormant la forme quil veut. Telem. livre 8.
Jdg 14:18. Plowed with my heifer, a delicate adage to designate an inconstant woman. See Jezebels character, in 1 Kings 21. He who betrays the truth, under whatever threats, forfeits the confidence of society.
REFLECTIONS.
We now enter on the chequered life and heroic deeds of this extraordinary man. He was raised up of God, an interior scourge to the Philistines, that they might be so humbled and awed by the signal exertions of his strength, as to leave the Israelites in quiet and repose. And he was graciously raised up in an age when the spirit of his country was broken; when they were disarmed, and in servitude; when the tribes were disunited in their councils; and when Eli the highpriest had no spirit to reform religion, or to direct the operations of the people. Hence Samsons mission differed from the mission of Barak, and Gideon. It was singular; and his vengeance on the enemy was so conducted as not to involve his helpless country in the blame.
The first effusions of his noble soul were love, and love solely guided by passion and inclination. It was so impetuous as not to be restrained by the prohibitions of the law, nor by the dissuasions of his parents. Deu 7:3. Exo 34:16. He had seen a beauty, and that had fettered his soul, which could not be held by any other bond. He never once thought how a Nazarite of Israel could live with a heathen wife destitute of virtue, nor how his soul could be saved in attending the festivals of Philistia. Love is blind; and surely to him the adage was applicable in the extreme.
Scarcely had this Nazarite forced his conscience in the violation of his vows, scarcely had he tasted the mutual joys of a pagan compact, or indulged in the pleasures of a sensual feast, than all his joys are changed into treasons, anguish, tears and divorce. Going from Timnath to Ashkelon, his anger disdaining all fear, he slew thirty men, and brought the plighted raiment to his faithless friends. He returned to his parents, taking nothing back but the reproaches of a wounded mind. And if Samson, mighty Samson in some sort, lost all interest in the divine favour at a Philistine feast; who has grace to bear a carnal marriage, and to keep a pure conscience in a profane festival? If this was impossible for Samson, what can our weakness expect from marriages and festivals with the wicked but total destruction? Learn then, oh my soul, to shelter thy feeble faith from gazing on carnal beauty, and from rioting at the unhallowed board.
Let us fix our eye on this hero, with regard to his return. He enters his fathers house destitute of wife, companion, and money. Hear how he afflicts his parents by the sad tale, that he had now realized their remonstrance, and found in Philistia, beauty to be corruption, and faith to be perjury. See how restless and dissatisfied he is with himself. Instead of enjoying the Elysium of delight, promised by impetuous passions, his breast is torn with blasted hopes, his family is pierced with grief and fear, and all good men now regard him as an apostate from the true religion. Happy, that God did not forsake him, but that he yet had hope in the omnipotent arm.
Mark well, how providence took occasion from the errors of Samson to punish Philistia, and so far to relieve Israel. That God often brings good out of evil, and takes occasion from the crimes of men to do his people the greatest good, not only the sacred writings, but all history abound with examples. This is among the most astonishing mysteries of providence; and it should lead us to study the ways of God, and to place unlimited confidence in his care. The lawless passions of our Henry 8. led to a breach with Rome, and greatly accelerated the reformation of religion in this united kingdom. Equally so, the ingratitude of Maurice of Saxony, towards the emperor of Germany, led to the protection of the Lutheran church. But because providence takes advantage of the crimes of men to do good, let no man presume that crimes are pleasing to God. Let us never do evil that good may come. Wicked men sin with evil views; and God will punish them as he punished Assyria with the rod of his anger, and the staff of his indignation. So Isaiah has exemplified the subject: Isa 10:5-7.
Jdg 14:1-4. Samson at Timnath.Samsons adventures are all bound up with his relations to Philistine womenone in Timnath, a second in Gaza, and a third in the valley of Sorek. The name of only one of them is given, and it has become synonymous with an evil enchantress.
Jdg 14:1. Timnath (p. 31) is the modern Tibnah, 3 m. to the SW. of Zorah.
Jdg 14:2. The young mans parents objected to a marriage with an alien (cf. Gen 24:3; Gen 26:34 f; Gen 27:46).
Jdg 14:3. Among the neighbours of the Israelites the Philistines alone did not practise circumcision, and all the racial hatred of those dreaded rivals is put into the opprobrious epithet, the uncircumcised (1Sa 14:6, etc.).
Jdg 14:4. Even the best Israelites (among them the writer J) assumed that Yahweh was against the Philistines, and that He sought an occasion for a quarrel with them.
2. Samson’s intended marriage to the Timnite ch. 14
Chapter 13 describes Samson’s potential: his godly heritage, supernatural birth, calling in life, and divine enablement. The Israelites enjoyed each of these privileges, as does every Christian. Chapter 14 reveals Samson’s problem and God’s providence.
"Despite all these advantages and this special attention, Samson accomplishes less on behalf of his people than any of his predecessors. Perhaps herein lies his significance. . . . Though Samson is impressive as an individual, he turns out to be anything but a military hero. He never leads Israel out in battle; he never engages the Philistines in martial combat; he never experiences a military victory. All his accomplishments are personal; all his victories, private." [Note: Block, Judges . . ., p. 420.]
Samson’s decision to marry a Philistine 14:1-4
Timnah was only about four miles southwest of Zorah. The word "woman" in Jdg 14:2 is in the emphatic position in the Hebrew text. Samson described her to his parents as the ideal woman from his viewpoint. Dating as we know it in the West was unknown in Samson’s culture. The parents of young people contacted each other and arranged for their children to meet and eventually to marry.
Samson’s godly parents’ response to his desire was undoubtedly a mixture of brokenhearted grief and anger. Instead of opposing the Philistines he now wanted to ally with them in marriage. His intention reveals disregard for his divine calling in life (Jdg 13:5). The reference to this woman as an "uncircumcised Philistine" stresses the fact that she was an unbeliever in Yahweh. Circumcision was the rite that identified believers in God’s promises to Abraham (Genesis 17). It was inappropriate for Israel’s deliverer to marry someone who did not share a common faith and purpose with God’s people (cf. 2Co 6:14).
"Mixed marriages were uniformly disastrous early (Gen 26:34-35) and late (Neh 13:27) in Israel’s history. Moreover, the Philistines were the one nation near Israel that did not practice circumcision of any kind. In Egypt, Moab, and elsewhere, circumcision was often associated with reaching puberty or with premarital rites; but at least it was circumcision." [Note: Wolf, p. 466.]
Evidently the appeal of this woman was her external appearance only. Jdg 14:2-3 paint Samson as an oversexed, very strong-willed child.
"It is true that the only marriages expressly prohibited in Ex. xxxiv. 16 and Deut. vii. 3, 4, are marriages with Canaanite women; but the reason assigned for this prohibition was equally applicable to marriages with daughters of the Philistines." [Note: Ibid., p. 409.]
Samson’s parents viewed his plan to marry the woman as unwise, but it was "of the Lord." This means that God permitted it, though it was not a marriage that He preferred. It did not violate the Mosaic Law, and it was a situation God would use to punish the Philistines (Jdg 14:4; cf. Jdg 14:19). This fact did not mitigate Samson’s guilt, but it shows how God providentially overrules human folly and brings His will to pass in spite of it (cf. Psa 76:10; Rom 8:28).
"Jdg 14:4 is not only shocking, but it is also the key to chaps. 14-15. Accordingly, although Yahweh is largely absent from the narrative, in one way or another his agenda is being achieved in Samson’s life. At the same time, while Yahweh’s agenda is being achieved, the course of Samson’s life is all downhill, a fact reflected by the fivefold repetition of the verb yarad, ’to go down’ (Jdg 14:1; Jdg 14:5; Jdg 14:7; Jdg 14:19; Jdg 15:8)." [Note: Block, Judges . . ., p. 422.]
5
SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE
Jdg 13:24-25; Jdg 14:1-20
Or all who move before us in the Book of Judges Samson is preeminently the popular hero. In rude giant strength and wild daring he stands alone against the enemies of Israel, contemptuous of their power and their plots. It is just such a man who catches the public eye and lives in the traditions of a country. Most Hebrews of the time minded piety and culture as little as did the Norsemen when they first professed Christianity. Both races liked manliness and feats of daring and could pardon much to one who flung his enemies and theirs to the ground with god-like strength of arm, and in the narrative of Samsons exploits we trace this note of popular estimation. He is a singular hero of faith, quite akin to those half-converted, half-savage chiefs of the north who thought the best they could do for God was to kill His enemies and bound themselves by fierce oaths in the name of Christ to hack and slaughter. For the separateness from others, the isolation which marked Samsons whole career the reasons are evident. His vow of Nazaritism, for one thing, kept him apart. Others were their own men, he was Jehovahs. His radiant health and uncommon physical energy even in boyhood were to himself and others the sign of a divine blessing which maintained his sense of consecration. While he looked on at the riot and drunkenness of the feasts of his people he felt a growing revulsion, nor was he pleased with other indications of their temper. The frequent raids of Philistines from their walled cities by the coast struck terror far and wide-up the valleys of Dan into the heart of Judah and Ephraim. Samson ashe grew up marked the supineness of his people with wonder and disgust. If he did anything for them it was not because he honoured them but in fulfilment of his destiny. At the same time we must note that the hero, though a man of wit, was not wise. He did the most injudicious things. He had nothing in him of the diplomatist, not much of the leader of men. It was only now and again when the mood took him that he cared to exert himself. So he went his own way an admired hero, a lonely giant among smaller beings. Worst of all he was an easy prey to some kinds of temptation. Restrained on one side, he gave himself license on others; his strength was always undisciplined, and early in his career we can almost predict how it will end. He ventures into one snare after another. The time is sure to come when he will fall into a pit out of which there is no way of escape.
Of the early life of the great Danite judge there is no record save that he grew and the Lord blessed him. The parents whose home on the hillside he filled with boisterous glee must have looked on the lad with something like awe-so different was he from others, so great were the hopes based on his future. Doubtless they did their best for him. The consecration of his life to God they deeply impressed on his mind and taught him as well as they could the worship of the Unseen Jehovah in the sacrifice of lamb or kid at the altar, in prayers for protection and prosperity. But nothing is said of instruction in the righteousness, the purity, the mercifulness which the law of God required. Manoah and his wife seem to have made the mistake of thinking that outside the vow moral education and discipline would come naturally, so far as they were needed. There was great strictness on certain points and elsewhere such laxity that he must have soon become wilful and headstrong and somewhat of a terror to the father and mother. Lads of his own age would of course adore him; as their leader in every bold pastime he would command their deference and loyalty, and many a wild thing was done, we can fancy, at which the people of the valley laughed uneasily or shook their heads in dismay. He who afterwards tied the jackals tails together and set fire brands between each pair to burn the Philistines corn must have served an apprenticeship to that kind of savage sport. Hebrew or alien for miles round who roused the anger of Samson would soon learn how dangerous it was to provoke him. Yet a dash of generosity always took the edge from fiery temper and rash revenge, and the people of Dan, for their part, would allow much to one who was expected to bring deliverance to Israel. The wild and dangerous youth was the only champion they could see.
But even before manhood Samson had times of deeper feeling than people in general would have looked for. Boisterous, hot-blooded, impetuous natures grievously wanting in decorum and sagacity are not always superficial; and there were occasions when the Spirit of the Lord began to move Samson. He felt the purpose of his vow, saw the serious work to which his destiny was urging him, looked down on the plain of the Philistines with a kindling eye, spoke in strains that even rose to prophetic intensity. At Mahaneh-Dan, the camp of Dan, where the more resolute spirits of the tribe came together for military exercise or to repel some raid of the enemy, Samson began to speak of his purpose and to make schemes for Israels liberation. Into these the fiery vehemence of the young man flowed, and the enthusiasm of his nature bore others along. Can we be wrong in supposing that in various ways, by plans often ill-considered, he sought to harass the Philistines, and that failure as a leader in these left him somewhat discredited? Samson was just of that sanguine venturesome disposition which makes light of difficulties and is always courting defeat. It was easy for him with his immense bodily strength to break through where other men were entrapped. A frequent result of the frays into which he hurried must have been, we imagine, to make his own friends doubt him rather than to injure the enemy. At all events he became no commander like Gideon or Jephthah, and the men of Judah, if not of Dan, while they acknowledged his calling and his power, began to think of him as a dangerous champion.
So far we have the merest hints by which to go, but the narrative becomes more detailed when it approaches the time of Samsons marriage. A strange union it is for a hero of Israel. What made him think of going down among the Philistines for a wife? How can the sacred writer say that the thing was of the Lord? Let us try to understand the circumstances. Between the people of Zorah and the villagers of Timnah a few miles down the valley on the other side who, though Philistines, were presumably not of the fighting sort, there was a kind of enforced neighbourliness. They could not have lived at all unless they had been content, Philistines for their part, Hebrews for theirs, to let the general enmity sleep. Samson by observing certain precautions and keeping his Hebrew tongue quiet was safe enough in Timnah, an object of fear rather than himself in danger. At the same time there may have been a touch of bravado in his rambles to the Philistine settlement, and the young woman of whom he caught a passing glance, perhaps at the spring, had very likely all the more charm for him that she was of the strong hostile race. History as well as fiction supplies instances in which this fascination does its work, family feuds, oppositions of caste and religion directing the eye and the fancy instead of repelling. In his sudden wilful way Samson resolved, and his mind once made up no one in Zorah could induce him to alter it. “The thing was of the Lord; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines.” Perhaps Samson thought the woman would be denied to him, a straight way to a quarrel. But more probably it is the outcome of the whole pitiful business that is in the mind of the historian. After the event he traces the hand of Providence.
As we pass with Samson and his parents down to Timnah we cannot but agree with Manoah in his objection, “Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that. thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?” It was emphatically one of those cases in which liking should not have led. An impetuous man is not to be excused; much less those who claim to be exceedingly rational and yet go against reason because of what they call love-or, worse, apart from love. General rules are with difficulty laid down in matters of this sort, and to deny the right of love would be the worst error of all. So far as our popular writers are concerned, we must allow that they wonderfully balance the claims of “arrangement” and honest affection, declaring strongly for the latter. But yet such a difference as between faith and idolatry, between piety and godlessness, is a barrier that only the blindest folly can overleap when marriage is in view. Daughters of the Philistines may be “most divinely fair,” most graceful and plausible; men who worship Moloch or Mammon, or nothing but themselves, may have most persuasive tongues and a large share of this worlds goods. But to mate with these, whatever liking there may be, is an experiment too rash for venturing. In Christian society now, is there not much need to repeat old warnings and revive a sense of peril that seems to have decayed? The conscience of piously bred young people was alive once to the danger and sin of the unequal yoke. In the rush for position and means marriage is being made by both sexes, even in most religious circles, an instrument and opportunity of earthly ambition, and it must be said that foolish romance is less to be feared than this carefulness in which conscience and heart alike submit to the imperious cravings of sheer worldliness. Novels have much to answer for; yet they can make one claim-they have done something for simple humanity. We want more than nature, however. Christian teaching must be heard and the Christian conscience must be rekindled. The hope of the world waits on that devout simplicity of life which exalts spiritual aims and spiritual comradeship and by its beauty shames all meaner choice. In marriage not only should heart go out to heart, but mind to mind and soul to soul; and the spirit of one who knows Christ can never unite with a self worshipper or a servant of Mammon.
Returning to Samsons case, he would possibly have said that he wished an adventurous marriage, that to wed a Danite woman would have in it too little risk, would be too dull, too commonplace a business for him, that he wanted a plunge into new waters. It is in this way, one must believe, many decide the great affair. So far from thinking they put thought away; a liking seizes them and in they leap. Yet in the best considered marriage that can be made is there not quite enough of adventure for any sane man or woman? Always there remain points of character unknown, unsuspected, possibilities of sickness, trouble, privation that fill the future with uncertainty, so far as human vision goes. It is, in truth, a serious undertaking for men and women, and to be entered upon only with the distinct assurance that divine providence clears the way and invites our advance. Yet again we are not to be suspicious of each other, probing every trait and habit to the quick. Marriage is the great example and expression of the trust which it is the glory of men and women to exercise and to deserve, the great symbol on earth of the confidences and unions of immortality. Matter of deep thankfulness it is that so many who begin the married life and end it on a low level, having scarcely a glimpse of the ideal, though they fail of much do not fail of all, but in some patience, some courage and fidelity show that God has not left them to nature and to earth. And happy are they who adventure together on no way of worldly policy or desire but in the pure love and heavenly faith which link their lives forever in binding them to God.
Samson, reasoned with by his parents, waved their objection royally aside and ordered them to aid his design. It was necessary, according to the custom of the country, that they should conduct the negotiations for the marriage, and his wilfulness imposed on them a task that went against their consciences. So they found themselves with the common reward of worshipping parents. They had toiled for him, made much of him, boasted about him no doubt; and now their boy-god turns round and commands them in a thing they cannot believe to be right. They must choose between Jehovah and Samson and they have to give up Jehovah and serve their own lad. So Davids pride in Absalom ended with the rebellion that drove the aged father from Jerusalem and exposed him to the contempt of Israel. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth, the yoke even of parents who are not so wise as they might be and do not command much reverence. The order of family life among us, involving no absolute bondage, is recognised as a wholesome discipline by all who attain to any understanding of life. In Israel, as we know, filial respect and obedience were virtues sacredly commended, and it is one mark of Samsons ill-regulated self-esteeming disposition that he neglected the obvious duty of deference to the judgment of his parents.
On the way to Timnah the young man had an adventure which was to play an important part in his life. Turning aside out of the road he found himself suddenly confronted by a lion which, doubtless as much surprised as he was by the encounter, roared against him. The moment was not without its peril; but Samson was equal to the emergency and springing on the beast “rent it as he would have rent a kid.”
The affair however did not seem worth referring to when he joined his parents, and they went on their way. It was as when a man of strong moral principle and force meets a temptation dangerous to the weak, to him an enemy easily overcome. His vigorous truth or honour or chastity makes short work of it. He lays hold of it and in a moment it is torn in pieces. The great talk made about temptations, the ready excuses many find for themselves when they yield, are signs of a feebleness of will which in other ranges of life the same persons would be ashamed to own. It is to be feared that we often encourage moral weakness and unfaithfulness to duty by exaggerating the force of evil influences, Why should it be reckoned a feat to be honest, to be generous, to swear to ones own hurt? Under the dispensation of the Spirit of God, with Christ as our guide and stay, every one of us should act boldly in the encounter with the lions of temptation. Tenderness to the weak is a Christian duty, but there is danger that young and old alike, hearing much of the seductions of sin, little of the ready help of the Almighty, submit easily where they should conquer and reckon on divine forbearance when they ought to expect reproach and contempt. Our generation needs to hear the words of St. Paul: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” Is there a tremendous pressure constantly urging us towards that which is evil? In our large cities especially is the power of iniquity almost despotic? True enough. Yet men and women should be braced and strengthened by insistence on the other side. In Christian lands at least it is unquestionable that for every enticement to evil there is a stronger allurement to good, that against every argument for immorality ten are set more potent in behalf of virtue, that where sin abounds grace does much more abound. Young persons are indeed tempted; but nothing will be gained by speaking to them or about them as if they were children incapable of decision, of whom it can only be expected that they will fail. By the Spirit of God, indeed, all moral victories are gained; the natural virtue of the best is uncertain and cannot be trusted irk the trying hour, and he only who has a full inward life and earnest Christian purpose is ready for the test. But the Spirit of God is given. His sustaining, purifying, strengthening power is with us. We do not breathe deep, and then we complain that our hearts cease to beat with holy courage and resolve.
At Timnah, where life was perhaps freer than in a Hebrew town, Samson appears to have seen the woman who had caught his fancy; and he now found her, Philistine as she was, quite to his mind. It must have been by a low standard he judged, and many possible topics of conversation must have been carefully avoided. Under the circumstances, indeed, the difficulty of understanding each others language may have been their safety. Certainly one who professed to be a fearer of God, a patriotic Israelite, had to shut his eyes to many facts or thrust them from sight when he determined to wed this daughter of the enemy. But when we choose we can do much in the way of keeping things out of view which we do not wish to see. Persons who are at daggers drawn on fifty points show the greatest possible affability when it is their interest to be at one. Love gets over difficulties and so does policy. Occasions are found when the anxiously orthodox can join in some comfortable compact with the agnostic, and the vehement state churchman with the avowed secularist and revolutionary. And it seems to be only when two are nearly of the same creed, with just some hairsbreadth of divergence on a few articles of belief, that the obstacles to happy union are apt to become insurmountable. Then every word is watched, each tone noted with suspicion. It is not between Hebrew and Philistine but between Ephraim and Judah that alliances are difficult to form. We hope for the time when the long and bitter disputes of Christendom shall be overcome by love of truth and God. Yet first there must be an end to the strange reconcilings and unions which like Samsons marriage often confuse and obstruct the way of Christian people.
There is an interval of some months after the marriage has been arranged and the bridegroom is on his way once more down the valley to Timnah. As he passes the scene of his encounter with the lion he turns aside to see the carcase and finds that bees have made it their home. Vultures and ants have first found it and devoured the flesh, then the sun has thoroughly dried the skin and in the hollow of the ribs the bees have settled. At considerable risk Samson possesses himself of some of the combs and goes on eating the honey, giving a portion also to his father and mother. It is again a type, and this time of the sweetness to be found in the recollection of virtuous energy and overcoming. Not that we are to be always dwelling on our faithfulness even for the purpose of thanking God Who gave us moral strength. But when circumstances recall a trial and victory it is surely matter of proper joy to remember that here we were strong enough to be true, and there to be honest and pure when the odds seemed to be against us. The memories of a good man or good woman are sweeter than the honeycomb, though tempered often by sorrow over the human instruments of evil who had to be struggled with and thrust aside in the sharp conflict with sin and wrong. Very few in youth or middle life seem to think of this joy, which makes beautiful many a worn and aged face on earth and will not be the least element in the felicity of heaven. Too often we bear burdens because we must; we are dragged through trim and distress to comparative quiet; we do not comprehend what is at stake, what we may do and gain, what we are kept from losing; and so the look across our past has none of the glow of triumph, little of the joy of harvest. For mans blessedness is not to be separated from personal striving. In fidelity he must sow that he may reap in strength, in courage that he may reap in gladness. He is made not for mere success, not for mere safety, but for overcoming.
We are not finished with the lion; he next appears covertly, in a riddle. Samson has shown himself a strong man; now we hear him speak and he proves a wit. It is the wedding festival, and thirty young men have been gathered-to honour the bridegroom, shall we say?-or to watch him? Perhaps from the first there has been suspicion in the Philistine mind, and it seems necessary to have as many as thirty to one in order to overawe Samson. In the course of the feast there might be quarrels, and without a strong guard on the Hebrew youth Timnah might be in danger. As the days went by the company fell to proposing riddles and Samson, probably annoyed by the Philistines who watched every movement, gave them his, on terms quite fair, yet leaving more than a loophole for discontent and strife. In the conditions we see the man perfectly self-reliant, full of easy superiority, courting danger and defying envy. The thirty may win-if they can. In that case he knows how he will pay the forfeit. “Put forth thy riddle,” they said, “that we may hear it”; and the strong mellow Hebrew voice chanted the puzzling verse:
“Out of the eater came forth meat
Out of the strong came forth sweetness.”
Now in itself this is simply a curiosity of old-world table talk. It is preserved here mainly because of its bearing on following events; and certainly the statement which has been made that it contained a gospel for the Philistines is one we cannot endorse. Yet like many witty sayings the riddle has a range of meaning far wider than Samson intended. Adverse influences conquered, temptation mastered, difficulties overcome, the struggle of faithfulness will supply us not only with happy recollections but also with arguments against infidelity, with questions that confound the unbeliever. One who can glory in tribulations that have brought experience and hope, in bonds and imprisonments that have issued in a keener sense of liberty, who having nothing yet possesses all things-such a man questioning the denier of divine providence cannot be answered. Invigoration has come out of that which threatened life and joy out of that which made for sorrow. The man who is in covenant with God is helped by nature; its forces serve him; he is fed with honey from the rock and with the finest of the wheat. When out of the mire of trouble and the deep waters of despondency he comes forth braver, more hopeful, strongly confident in the love of God, sure of the eternal foundation of life, what can be said in denial of the power that has filled him with strength and peace? Here is an argument that can be used by every Christian, and ought to be in every Christians hand. Out of his personal experience each should be able to state problems and put inquiries unanswerable by unbelief. For unless there is a living God Whose favour is life, Whose fellowship inspires and ennobles the soul, the strength which has come through weakness, the hope that sprang up in the depth of sorrow cannot be accounted for. There are natural sequences in which no mystery lies. When one who has been defamed and injured turns on his enemy and pursues him in revenge, when one who has been defeated sinks back in languor and waits in pitiful inaction for death, these are results easily traced to their cause. But the man of faith bears witness to sequences of a different kind. His fellows have persecuted him, and he cares for them still. Death has bereaved him, and he can smile in its face. Afflictions have been multiplied and he glories in them. The darkness has fallen and he rejoices more than in the noontide of prosperity. Out of the eater has come forth meat, out of the strong has come forth sweetness. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” The paradox of the life of Christ thus stated by Himself is the supreme instance of that demonstration of divine power which the history of every Christian should clearly and constantly support.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The influence of this national life is evident in Samson himself. He has unequaled spirit, strength, and courage; but he is alone. The young man finds no sympathy, at which to kindle himself. There are no patriots in search of heroes. There is no national sorrow, that waits longingly for deliverance and a deliverer, and in consequence thereof recognizes him when he appears. On the contrary, luxury and sensuality prevail, eating away the heart of the rising generation; for national character also is wanting, by which, conscious of their power, Israels youth might clearly recognize their proper goal. Samson too had perished in sensuality, which does not distinguish between friend and foe; but his genius has a seal that cannot be broken. The consecration on his head preserves in his soul an impulse that cannot miss its goal. The law of this consecration is freedom. For freedoms sake, it lends him strength and spirit. Hannibals father made him when but a boy swear everlasting war against the Romans. Samson, as Nazarite from his birth, is borne onward, less consciously, but even more surely, to a hatred with which he is not acquainted, and to wrath and battle for the freedom of Israel.
Samson is without an army, without a congenial popular spirit, without sympathy and courage on the part of his countrymen,not even Gideons three hundred are with him; he has no teacher and spiritual leader; he is alone, and moreover exposed to every temptation to which gigantic strength and corporal beauty give rise; but in his consecration to God he has a guidance that does not lead astray. Hence, that by which others are fettered and subjected, becomes for him the means of attaining his destiny. The paths on which others go to destruction, for him become highways of victory and of strength. It is an act of national treason, when he takes a Philistine wife; and yet for him, it becomes the occasion for deeds in behalf of national freedom.
There is no historical drama in which the nobility and invincible destiny of a great personality, reveal themselves so luminously as in the life of Samson.
It is well known that in the history and fiction of all nations, as in the heroic poems of all ages, love for women has formed a chief motive for conflict and adventure. Even the circumstance which throws so great a charm over the lives and contests of the heroes to whom it appertains, that their love breaks through the confines of their own nation or party, and attaches itself so women who live within the circle of the enemy, is constantly recurring. But in those narratives, as also in the Persian legend, where Rudabe, the mother of Rustem, is the daughter of her Iranian lovers hereditary foeman, and as in Tassos Jerusalem Delivered, in Romeo and Juliet, and in the dramas of Schiller,love is the central point and principal motive. Political barriers, national hatreds, ancient passions, all must yield to love, whether it ends in joy or tragedy. How different is its position in the history of Samson! The antagonism between Israel and the Philistines is justified and commanded. Truth cannot intermix itself with idolatry. The over-leaping by sensuality of the spiritual barriers between the two, is the cause of Israels sunken condition. That love through which Samson desires the maiden of Timnah, can be no joyful goal. Hence, the relation of his inborn heroism to love shows itself to be very different from that which obtains in heathenism and romance. There, the exploits of heroism become the occasions of love; for Samson, romance becomes the occasion of heroism. There, love overleaps the lines that separate nationalities; in Samsons case, it becomes the occasion by which he becomes mindful of the separation. Elsewhere, weakness, sensuality, enjoyment, become the snares which bind the inflamed hero; but for Samson, they become only the occasion for rending asunder the fetters, and for understanding the purpose for which he is endowed with divine strength.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary