Judges 14 Bible Study / Podcast

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Samson marries a Philistine woman, kills a lion and presents a riddle for the Philistines to figure out.

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Alright this morning. We are going to be studying the life and ministry of Samson So this will be part one of a series studying
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The book of Judges chapters 14 through 16 this morning. We're going to look at chapter 14 most people know the state
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I Think most people know of Samson and Delilah But there was there was more to his life than that So most people are aware of the story of Samson and Delilah She was the one who brought about his downfall.
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And if you look at the story of Samson, it's it's really complicated He was a really interesting figure
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Samson women seem to be his weakness. So whether it's Delilah or his Philistine wife just gets him into all sorts of trouble
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And there really appears to be two sides to Samson there is the man who has set apart unto
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God He is led and empowered by the Lord at times But then there is this other part of him who is just making a series of terrible decisions and I think what we learn and What is often relatable is this dichotomy between the spirit and the flesh?
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Samson at times seems to be in the flesh And yet at other times he is led and empowered by the spirit and really this is what every
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Christian deals with today We have the new creation in Christ but then we still have the sinful flesh and the two war against one another and The things that created the problems for Samson whether it be pride lust anger, these are really universal temptations for People today so judges chapter 14 is the story of Samson and He wants to marry a
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Philistine woman, which is a terrible idea It doesn't make a whole lot of sense why he would want to do this
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But you know love is blind people who get infatuated with someone, you know, they tend to make bad decisions
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Right. So Samson in this chapter. He he wants to marry this Philistine woman in The chapter he also as he travels down there to meet her or her family a
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Lion attacks him on the way and he kills a lion with his bare hands And of course some people have a hard time believing the story.
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So we're gonna do a little apologetics work But Samson presents after that lion attacked him he presents to his wife's family a riddle to solve having to do with the lion and Long story short she ends up betraying him, which of course, she's gonna do that.
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She's a Philistine and say Samson is The enemies of Israel the
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Philistines and Samson the Philistines hate him and he doesn't like them. So just a
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Interesting chapter but chapter 15 next time just to give kind of a heads -up or an overview of the life of Samson in Chapter 15 his wife is going to be given to someone else
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So after that betrayal her father gives to Samson's best man her father gives
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Samson's wife away to his best man at the wedding So he takes vengeance on the Philistines and the next chapter.
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He's gonna capture 300 foxes tie their tails together and Attach a torch to and then send them out through the grain fields to burn the fields of the
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Philistines and then after that Samson's gonna slay 1 ,000 Philistines with a jawbone of a donkey and then in chapter 16 you get into the story of him and Delilah and The spirit comes of course.
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She she is his downfall Spirit comes upon him one last time.
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However to do more in his death than all that he did Accomplish over the course of his life. So this is kind of an overview of the life of Samson But this morning we're just gonna get into chapter 14.
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We'll cover this one chapter Of one of the most complicated figures in the scripture.
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So let's begin reading Judges chapter 14 verses 1 through 4 Says now
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Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the
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Philistines So he went up and told his father and mother saying I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the
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Philistines now therefore get her for me as a wife Then his father and mother said to him is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren or Among all my people that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised
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Philistines so clearly his parents don't think this is a good idea and of course it isn't and Samson said to his father get her for me for she pleases me.
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Well but his father and mother did not know that it was of The Lord That he the
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Lord was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines Or at that time the
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Philistines had dominion over Israel so isn't this interesting how it works the sovereignty of God on one side and then
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Samson making a bad decision And the two are actually going to work together. So that's
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That's how God works. He can actually take Bad things he can take things that you do that are wrong and he can actually
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That snow excuse obviously, but he can take even evil and sin and Tragedies and God can take it and work it all together for the good of his people according to his plan
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So it really an amazing thing if you think about it Okay, so we've read through verses 1 through 4
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Samson clearly is making a poor decision. Why because he is what a
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Nazarite from the womb There is this religious vow the vow of a
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Nazarite That one takes course Samson. This was ordained by the angel of the
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Lord before he was even born But Samson, what does it all mean that he was to be completely set apart to God?
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So the idea that he would marry a Philistine woman This is not at all consistent with the call that the
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Lord has placed upon his life Yet God gives people a will doesn't he
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God gives us the freedom to make certain choices
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So God can still work in and through people even when they do the wrong thing, but bad decisions and What is really a terrible decision here goes against everything the
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Israelites stood for Bad decisions the point is they do not frustrate the will of God They do create problems for the people who make bad decisions, but they do not frustrate the will of God So Samson, what is he doing?
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He's really marrying the enemy, but at the same time God is going to use him we see that Because verse 4 tells us that God was seeking an occasion to move
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Against the Philistines who were the arch enemies of God's people Israel So God is going to use
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Samson to accomplish his will but Samson he's going to pay a price
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One good thing about Samson we can say in this story that he gets his parents involved and just one
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Application for this those of you who are listening maybe you're not married especially young people
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Who might be listening you have Christian parents? This is good advice for anyone Consider what your parents think about the people you date
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You know sometimes when you're young you think you know everything and your parents are clueless And you know, maybe they are about some things.
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I don't know but If you're listen if your father and mother don't think you should get married to a person you should probably listen
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I Mean I suppose there might be exceptions, but generally your parents they know what's best and They're going to see things that you don't they're going to have more wisdom so Samson He gets his parents involved.
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I mean that's good. Hey mom dad You know I want I want to marry this woman, and they're like no son.
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This is a bad idea So I mean that's good. They he got them involved, but the bad thing is he totally he totally ignores their warning and He has the freedom to do it,
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I guess he's gonna do it, but he's gonna pay a price So the Bible teaches us
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What's the scriptural principle the scripture teaches that? God's people are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers
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So a believer should not marry an unbeliever That's how it would shake out today back then an
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Israelite was not to marry a non -israelite Because they worship different gods they had a different manner of life everything so Samson he you know he
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Samson kind of has this way about him where you know he's gonna do what he's gonna do and he figures that he can
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If there's any problems, he'll deal with it. He can fix it and So he's gonna just go through with it anyway in verse 5 as Samson is traveling down to Timna Which is a
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Philistine City? it says a young lion attacked him and Then it says the
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Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he tore the lion apart
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In other words Samson tears the lion apart with his bare hands
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So this is one of several places where we see Samson's super natural strength
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This is a miracle Obviously no man can kill a lion with his bare hands.
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So this is a miracle The way that God chose to empower him
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Is through his long hair, you know long as Samson didn't cut his hair He would have this strength if he cut the hair.
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He lost his strength. That's the way God decided to do it God sits our God sits in the heavens the
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Bible says and he does whatever he pleases. So that's what God determined to do Samson has this supernatural strength and understand it has little to nothing to do with Samson It's not as if Samson is gifted by God because he's so special It's not that Samson got this power because he was the most godly man around.
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In fact, it's Seems to be the opposite at times Samson is one of the most carnal of all the judges
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So the point is this is not Samson's power. This is God's power
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Working through him Samson could only kill the lion with his bare hands because the
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Spirit of the Lord came upon him Mightily so this is God working through Samson So some liberal
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Pastors and theologians when they read stories like this Samson killing a lion with his bare hands
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They they really scoff at stories like this. I would say probably 50 % of the
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Churches, you know, there's buildings that are called the church in this area
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Probably the pastors don't actually believe this happened, you know that these are the churches, you know of the mainline
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Denominations with a rainbow up front. They don't really think that Samson killed a lion They scoff at stories like this, especially in the next chapter when
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Samson takes 300 foxes and ties their tails together and puts a torch in it and that lets them loose in the family
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That's impossible. You can't how can you catch 300 foxes and tie their tails?
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Well, I mean you obviously you could do that Killing a lion is a little
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More of a stretch I suppose but here's the thing with God all things are possible
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You say well, I just don't see how this could happen Well, what about Moses parting the
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Red Sea is That impossible. What about God creating the heavens and the earth out of nothing by simply speaking the word is that impossible?
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you see if a person doesn't believe that God has the power to do these things or That God can't empower a man to do great exploits for the
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Lord if you don't believe These earthly things. How are you going to believe heavenly things?
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So, yeah, there's a lot of people even pastors and theologians People who go to seminary teach in seminary.
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I mean at this point 95 % of seminaries are liberal And they don't actually believe these
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Old Testament stories But here's the thing if you don't believe the stuff in the Old Testament You're probably not going to believe the miracles in the
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New Testament either primarily The miracle of how Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day.
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I mean, yeah a man killing a lion with his bare hands Yeah, but That's impossible barring some
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Sort of miracle. Well a man dying and rising from the dead three days later. That's also impossible barring a miracle so the scripture is presented to us and we will either respond in faith or We won't
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Okay, verse 7 Then he went down and talked with the women and she pleased
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Samson well so Samson is going to take a Philistine woman to be his wife and after some time
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When he returned to get her because it was customary to have to wait a long time maybe up to a year
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Before the marriage actually took place Samson on his way So he goes home and then on his way back down to Timna To receive his wife.
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He turned aside. He's remember last year. He thinks yeah I remember
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I was around this place where I killed that lion. Let's go see if the carcass is still there so Samson goes over and he finds the carcass of the lion and It says behold a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion
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And he took some of it in his hands and went along Eating and he came to his father and mother and he gave some to them and they also ate
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But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion
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So here's the thing part of the Nazarite vow Was that number one you could not cut your hair number two
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You could not drink wine or eat any grapes number three. You couldn't touch a dead body
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Now does that include the carcass of an animal? at best
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It's questionable and probably wrong for Samson to go over to this dead animal and then take honey from inside its ribcage or whatever and Then eat it and then give some to his parents without telling them where it came from This was something that a
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Nazarite shouldn't do presumably right but this is who Samson was he was chosen by God He was used by God.
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He was empowered by God. But at the same time he did all these things that were wrong
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We could say that the Lord uses imperfect people But of course, that's all
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God has to work with I mean, there's a little bit of this in all of us and obviously other
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Old Testament figures You think of David who was anointed by God? But look at some of the things that he did
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So God uses Imperfect people number one because that's all he has to work with Scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but you know
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While that isn't an excuse The reality is
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You know, God can use a person Despite their flaws a person can use someone despite their background.
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God can use someone Even when they make bad decisions
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Again, these things do not frustrate the will of God. God is still going to use
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Samson despite all the wrong things that he does But it doesn't exactly work out well in the end for Samson So there's two sides of it the sovereignty of God the will of man
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God is still going to accomplish his will but you know people have to make
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They're gonna suffer the consequences of their decisions so verse 10 it says so his father went down to the woman and Samson gave a feast there for the young men used to do so verse 11 and it happened when they saw him that they brought 30 companions
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To be with him. So remember the Philistines Were the primary enemy of Israel at the time?
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So if the judge think about this if the judge of Israel was going to marry a
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Philistine woman This in theory could create peace between Israel and the
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Philistines That's how it often worked in those days. If a king wanted peace with another nation
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He would take a woman from that nation to be with it to be his wife
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That's one of the reasons why King Solomon had 700 wives he took them from all the different nations really as a sign of goodwill and It worked in that Solomon Solomon had good relations with all those different kingdoms around him because he took wives from all those different nations
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Well, what was the problem number one? It went against God's law being unequally yoked Israelites weren't supposed to do that and number two those foreign wives led
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Solomon's heart away from God And that's what these women are doing with Samson. I mean, they're getting into into all sorts of problems
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Delilah is going to lead his heart away from God and I only say that because Samson sins against God when he meets these different women
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So by marrying the Philistine on the surface, it may have seemed it's not explicitly stated
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But you know one would assume since this is the way Kings did it.
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He's not a king He's a judge, but it would have looked on the surface that Samson was trying to make peace with the enemy
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If he marries the Philistine woman Maybe Israel and the
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Philistines can have peace Of course, we already read though in verse 4 that the
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Lord was what? Using this he was going to use this as an occasion against them
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God was going to use this as an occasion against his enemies the Philistines Because they worship the false god
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Dagon But both sides both Samson and the Philistines both sides
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Whether there was this, you know on the surface. Hey, we're gonna try to create peace if that's what's happening you just know that Samson really has no intentions of doing that and obviously her family
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His Philistine wife her family would have been Deeply skeptical
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But hey, you know Samson this is the way Samson is he's overconfident So Samson he walks into this situation and you know, he he has all this strength.
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He's the judge in Israel He's he's so overconfident that he is he is toying with them.
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So he gives them this riddle and They in turn create a scheme
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To turn his own wife against him So there's gonna be no peace at all verse 12 then
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Samson said to them. Let me pose a riddle to you if You can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast the wedding feast
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Then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing But if you cannot explain it to me
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Then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing and they said to him pose your riddle
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That we may hear it. So he said to them out remember remember the
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Remember the story with the lion. So this it's based on that. Here's the riddle He said to them out of the eater came something to eat and out of the strong Came something sweet Now for three days it says they could not explain the riddle but it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife
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Entice your husband that he may explain the riddle to us or else we will burn you in your father's house with fire
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Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not what's happening here?
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So Samson's wife now is in this very difficult position Let's say give her the benefit of the doubt
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Let's say she had good intentions to begin with but now her life is threatened. Her family's life is threatened
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Yes, she could have been a backstabber from the start. We're not really sure either way. She chooses her own people over Samson verse 16
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Samson's wife wept on him and She said you only hate me.
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You do not love me You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me
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So she's trying to make him feel bad trying to get him to tell her the meaning of it
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So she just keeps this up keeps it up Eventually Samson just can't take it anymore and he caves in and he tells her the meaning
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Whether or not he thinks he can trust her. I don't know When we get into the story of Samson and Delilah clearly he cannot trust her.
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He has to know that So, you know, you sort of have to ask is Samson foolish You know in a moment of weakness, he can't take her nagging him and he just gives in I personally think
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Samson just views himself as invincible like even if she tells him I'll figure something out
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That's how I see this Samson is so overconfident and he's starting now to really trust in himself
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Overtrusting in God so that he figures no matter what happens. He'll find a way To fix it all because it's been happening his whole life
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Samson's been anointed by God his whole life things have always worked out and In a sense this this is gonna work out even when he loses.
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He doesn't really lose So, okay Excuse me
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He tells his Philistine wife the riddle and Then she goes and she tells her relatives
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Remember what the riddle is out of the eater came something to eat out of the strong came something sweet verse 18
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So the men of the city said to Samson on the seventh day before the Sun went down What is sweeter than honey?
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And what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them if you this is kind of a strange response
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He says if you have not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.
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I Think he realized this his wife she must have told them so if you not have not plowed with my heifer
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Basically, what's Samson saying? He's like if my wife didn't tell you you would have never figured that out
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So he's got to be upset about this so since I mean and they were
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Underhanded obviously, so since they used deceitful methods to win this bet
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If there was a truce the Philistines broke it. So now Samson he'll keep his word
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He'll get the linen garments and you know the changes of clothes, but first he's going to go up to another village
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He's gonna kill 30 Philistines and he's just gonna take their clothes and give it to him First 19 then the
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Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and he went down to Ashkelon and Killed 30 of their men took their apparel and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle
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So his anger was aroused and he went back up to his father's house so at this point he just He just goes home and obviously they're gonna hear word that Samson did this then they killed the men
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So, you know, the the honeymoon was really short. Actually, I don't even think there was a honeymoon
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Because the marriage feast things went bad quick okay, now to those who might because Samson goes remember he's
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Anointed by God the Spirit of God comes upon him and then he goes and kills 30 people
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So to those people who might struggle with this idea that the Spirit of the Lord empowered
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Samson to do this Because I know there's somebody thinking right now Well, you know the
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God I know the God that I believe in doesn't want anyone to die I just don't see how
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God could lead Samson to do this terrible thing well First of all, it's true that God takes no delight in the death of the wicked
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The Lord would much rather prefer that the Philistines repent and turn from their evil ways and turn to God.
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I Because God saw that they didn't turn nor were they going to So because God is just and because God will not be mocked
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When people here's the thing when people do evil Continually and they remain unrepentant that eventually
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Invites God's judgment and that's what God is doing here Remember what verse 4 said that the
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Lord was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. So what is God doing? he's punishing his enemies and he's using
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Samson as a tool to accomplish that and let's also remember that while some people read about the
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Warfare and death in the Old Testament. They think oh, this is so Terrible. Just remember the most terrible war and the most death will occur in New Testament times at the end of days
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Right the book of Revelation It's at the end of the New Testament The Battle of Armageddon where the
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Lord wants and for all will put all his and not just the Philistines But the Lord will put all enemies under his feet so The takeaway is this
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You know some people aren't used to reading stuff like this, but It's reality.
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This is what happens. This is what did happen. So the takeaway is this number one
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God gives people A chance God gives people time to repent and turn to him but if they don't
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People who reject God and continue to do evil. The scripture says
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God will repay That's why the
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Lord raised up Samson as an instrument of judgment Against the
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Philistines the Philistines hated God they hated the true God they worshiped Dagon They hated
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God's people Israel they were the enemies of God we cannot have sympathy for the devil, right?
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So that's the first takeaway number two. We learned that God Can also he can use
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Samson and God as the saying goes he can draw a straight line with a crooked stick
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Samson is a complicated figure. He wanted to serve God and he did serve
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God, but Samson had his weaknesses pride and Lust led him off course so in this way
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The scripture can really serve as an example and a warning for all of us of what not to do
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You know, don't let don't allow pride To draw you away from God Okay, well
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God says this but you know, hey I want to do this or I'll be able to handle it Or don't let lust draw you away from the
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Lord. I Mean, these are probably the two most common things that draw people away from God pride and lust
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So this really serves as a warning an example of what not to do so next week
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Lord willing we'll cover judges chapter 15 Things are going to go from bad to worse for Samson verse 19 says that his anger was aroused
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And then he finds out about this That his wife is given to his best man that that's how the chapter closes verse 20
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Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man
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That has to hurt But really if you think about it Samson should have never been in this position to begin with But now he's gonna have to suffer the consequences and instead of learning his lesson in chapter 16
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Samson really just makes the same mistake again for this time even worse
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So the lesson is we should learn from our mistakes We should do things
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God's way don't allow pride Don't allow lust to draw you away from the