The Deliverer is Rescued from Himself (Judges 14)

Samson had great spiritual privileges and God had special plans for him. Yet those two details do not mean that he always made wise spiritual decisions and we can see in this chapter how he was prepared to do something wrong while simultaneously experiencing the Lord’s power. So we can see right away that being used by the Spirit did not prevent Samson from sinning against God.

1. A day in Timnah (v. 1)

We have to bear in mind that Samson was a Nazarite from the womb. This meant that he had lived a protected life. Yet sometimes those who live such lives are vulnerable to fail in ways that we would not expect. Given the role that God had planned for Samson, which was to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines, it is surprising that Samson’s failures are connected to the Philistines. There is a lesson here that the enemy might do things to damage our calling or our witness that are very near to our particular place of service.

The opening verse reminds us of the danger of doubtful places to go to. Timnah was a place originally given to Judah (Joshua 15), but which now had become a Philistine city. I suppose we could describe them as a community who were not strong enough to resist the enemy and instead of being stalwarts for God they were defeated people. They were not living like Israelites. It is very unlikely that a Nazarite, one devoted to God, would find much spiritual help there.

We all like a day out now and again, and when we have one we normally would have lots to say about it. So it is surprising that the author of Judges does not give many details about Samson’s day out. The silences of Scripture often say a great deal. Perhaps the author is saying that Samson, despite his upbringing, did nothing good in Timnah.

Why did Samson go to Timnah? Did he go to help deliver the Israelites from the Philistines? It doesn’t look like it. Even if he did, he was easily distracted and all he could remember was the girl he had seen. Nothing particularly wrong with that, we might say, but it does not look as if Samson had prayed about the matter. Instead he went by his impulses.

2. Dilemma of doting parents

Samson went home and announced to his parents that he had seen something that he wanted. Perhaps they had expected a little present from their son or at least a brief description of what he had done. Instead they heard a totally unexpected request about them beginning the procedure by which he would get a Philistine girl as his wife. At least, we can deduce from Samson’s request that there was a way of doing this, which means that the Israelites were doing it regularly. Of course, such an activity was against the revealed will of God.

His parents, who probably had done their best to bring up Samson as a Nazarite, immediately saw the problem. They realised that Samson was wanting to marry outside the covenant community – that is why they described the Philistines as uncircumcised. Obviously they knew the truth, but knowing and doing are two different things.

Samson, however, was not going to be hindered. His determination had been strengthened by his disobedience, and having begun the process of disobeying God it was very easy to become resolute in continuing down the wrong path. Here was Samson pursuing a path that could destroy his witness as a Nazarite. He could even end up living in Timnah. The reality is that he has become unteachable and it only took one sin to bring about that attitude.

What about his parents? We see them in verse 5 on the way to meet the future in-laws. So now those affected are not only Samson and the lady, but both their families are going to be involved. Should they have gone? It was culturally acceptable, but in going along with it they were not doing what God had revealed to them to do. They should have refused to participate in a scheme of disobedience to God’s revealed will. At this stage, nothing is fixed, although they are going to do the fixing.

3. The secret purposes of God (v. 4)

At this stage in the story, the author inserts an unusual comment when he says that this ‘was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines’ (v. 4). This comment was inserted for the encouragement of readers who might be perplexed at what Samson was doing. What does it tell us about God?

First, the comment reminds us that God is sovereign. His sovereignty extends to and includes the foolishness of his people. Samson and his parents are engaged in an expression of family disobedience, yet their failure to obey God does not mean that God was hindered in any way. Of course, while it does not affect his secret sovereignty, their actions were against his visible sovereignty.

Second, the comment shows that the sovereign God has a plan. He had a revealed plan for Samson, which he chose to disobey. But the Lord also has a secret plan, which was that his people would be delivered from the very people that Samson at that time was wanting to be friendly with.

Third, the sovereign God’s plan is connected to him being the God of the covenant, which we can see by the divine name Yahweh that is used here. Samson may have been in danger of forgetting the covenant arrangement that Israel had with God, but the Lord could not forget. He remembered his commitments.

Fourth, the author is inviting his readers to admire the wisdom of God. Perhaps we can look at it in this way. Imagine devout neighbours meeting Manoah and his wife and son on their journey and asking them where they are going. On being informed about their destination and their purpose, the neighbours might have assumed that all was lost since even Samson, the Nazarite from birth, was now imitating the ways of those who had forsaken God. Yet all was not lost, because the sovereign, covenant God was there.

Fifth, can we think of what God would want to happen? Earlier, the parents of Samson had been told that he would begin the process of delivering Israel from the Philistines. So we can expect God to ensure that there would not be peace between the Philistines and Israel. Yet the scene that is described here is that they are at peace. In his amazing wisdom, God is going to use the weakness of Samson to ensure that there would be no peace even although Samson himself wanted to arrange the ultimate symbol of peace, a marriage between him and a Philistine.

4. The God who protects

I suspect this is the real message of this chapter. We see the first example of divine protection in verse 6. Although Samson had begun his journey with his parents, they were not with him when he met the lion. Presumably they had gone to meet the girl’s parents. So Samson was by himself when he was attacked by a lion. But then Samson discovered he was not by himself because the Holy Spirit was with him, and as Paul later wrote, ‘If God be for us, what can be against us?’

There are some lessons we can take from this incident. First, does God speak to you when you are alone? It may have been that the lion was out of sorts, or it could have been that the lion was being used by an even fiercer creature to destroy a believer when it attacked Samson. Samson may have been going down a path to danger, but he was here reminded that God could protect him against any attackers. God spoke to him in a gracious way, and yet he persisted on his journey to meet a girl he did not know. It is striking how often God gives encouragements in order to stop us from going down a wrong path.

Second, are we deaf when God speaks to us from his Word when we are alone? Samson was deaf to a voice in God’s providence, even as he had been deaf to God’s call to have nothing to do with the Philistines. On the day I was preparing this sermon I got a phone call from a person asking me was I interested in having my ears tested. What if the call had been from heaven, and what if the speaker had been asking about the ears of my heart? Sadly, Samson here persists in meeting with the Philistine woman, and if we persist in a wrong action despite God’s warnings then he will let it happen.

What should Samson have done after touching the corpse of the lion? It was forbidden for a Nazarite to touch a corpse. But if he did, there was a ritualistic process for him to go through at the tabernacle in order to be restored to his status as a Nazarite. If Samson had mentioned the corpse to his parents, they would have reminded him of his duty. But he chose instead not to tell them because he at that moment had a priority in his life that would be hindered by obedience to God’s Word – meeting with the Philistine woman. The question that comes to us is if we are putting something above obedience to the clear instructions of the Word of God.

5. The happy week arrives

Some time later, after the marriage week had been arranged, Samson and his parents made their way to the event. It took them past where he had killed the lion. It is possible to misread this event and say that God kindly provided some refreshment for them on their journey. The reality is far different. As we have seen a Nazarite like Samson was not allowed to touch a dead carcase, even if it had honey in it. We could say that it is not a reason to engage in sin because it leaves a sweet taste. The fact that he did not tell his parents where he had found the honey indicates that he knew he had ignored one of God’s laws.

When Samson reaches Timnah, he commences to play with his sinful attitudes by proposing a riddle connected to the dead lion – proposing a riddle was a bit like making a speech in our culture. Of course, he knew that it was impossible for them to work out its meaning. Yet what is obvious is that Samson’s behaviour, instead of causing him to depend on the Lord, had led him into self-confidence and foolish talk. Would it not have been better for him to teach his new wife about God rather than silly riddles?

The young men were facing financial loss and probably social disgrace if they could not answer the riddle. Since the only way to find out was through his new wife, they threatened her and her family if she did not find out the answer. Using all her feminine guile, she persuaded him to tell her the answer, and she told the young men perhaps out of fear. 

We have to ask the significance of having thirty men with him, and why there were thirty men killed in Ashkelon. I think an answer is found in the fact that David had thirty might men around him. It looks as if the thirty men were guards, which suggests that the Philistines did not fully trust Samson. They also had the power to threaten the family of Samson’s would-be wife and burn their home, which points to a form of civil authority

At this moment, the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson in power and enabled him to kill thirty of the Philistines in Ashkelon, perhaps a group of soldiers or police who guarded the location. Why did the Spirit come at that time? I suspect it was to ensure that God’s judge kept his word, and he enabled Samson to do it in a manner that fitted in with his calling, which was to remove the Philistines from the territory of Israel.

Here was an opportunity for Samson to do more, now that he knew he could have supernatural strength, but again he failed. Instead of being the man who could conquer his enemies, he is described as a man who could not control his own temper when he went home in a rage. 

Lessons from the story
There are four lessons that we can mention briefly. First, this incident in the life of Samson shows that his God was a God of grace who showed kindness to him. Second, we learn from the account that God’s heroes have flaws, even big ones. Third, although Samson has flaws, God is not yet finished with him and intends to continue to work in and through him. Fourth, we should be thankful for Jesus, the perfect hero and leader.