GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 14:1-4
This chapter is presented in three parts. First (vs. 1-4), Samson becomes infatuated with a Philistine girl and demands that his parents get her for him as his wife. This, we are told, was going to be used by the Lord to provoke an encounter with the Philistines. Second (vs. 5-10), the incident with the lion and the honeycomb give Samson the idea for his riddle. Finally (vs. 11-20), Samson’s wife betrays him when her life is threatened, after which he leaves her. The theme of the chapter is trust: Samson’s bride does not trust in her husband, and she is given away to another man.
Samson’s Riddle
14 Samson went down to Timnah and saw a young Philistine woman there. 2 He went back and told his father and his mother: “I have seen a young Philistine woman in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.”
The Soap Operas want us to believe that “the heart wants what the heart wants.” But at the same time, when someone chooses to pursue a relationship that may turn into marriage, would this be good for them over the course of a lifetime, or would this be a challenge?
a, Am I going to be arguing about religion for the rest of my life?
b, Will me spouse want to go to church with me, or resist even if I want to go alone?
c, Am I going to have to change my religion or denomination to please my spouse?
d, What does my spouse’s church teach about Jesus? About how we get to heaven? Do I agree with it? Do they agree with the Bible, or do they shrug off what the Bible teaches?
e, Am I prepared to hold off from having my child baptized because my spouse thinks the child should choose whether or not to be baptized, like a hippie family letting a child choose whether or not he ever wants to wear clothing?
f, Am I prepared never to take the Lord’s Supper with my spouse, or with my children, or perhaps with my family ever again?
g. Depending on my spouse’s denomination, am I prepared to change my lifestyle so completely that we might never celebrate holidays like Christmas or Easter, or even birthdays, ever?
The point is not at all that a religiously mixed marriage cannot work. The Bible give us an example of such a marriage in which a son was raised to be a fine believer who knew and trusted in his Savior (Acts 16:1-3; 2 Timothy 1:5-10). The point is: Would this kind of a marriage be right for you?
Samson thought he was ready for any challenge, physical, spiritual, or otherwise. But he was not ready to be betrayed.
3 But his father and mother said to him, “Isn’t there any young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife? ”
Samson’s parents tried to talk him into finding a nice Israelite girl, from his own tribe, or at least from one of the other tribes of Israel. This is one of many places in the Bible where the Philistines are singled out as the ones who were uncircumcised. Several of Israel’s neighbors practiced circumcision (Moab, Ammon, Edom, etc.) but the Philistines with their Greek connections did not. It was an impolite way of saying that they were Gentiles.
But Samson told his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” 4 Now his father and mother did not know this was from the LORD, who was seeking an opportunity for a confrontation with the Philistines, for at that time, the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
Samson had made his choice, and it would lead to a conflict that would cost Samson some heartache and the Philistines some headache—and some lives. With the priesthood an almost non-functioning entity over in Shiloh and with the people no longer even asking God for help, the Lord was taking matters into his own hands (praise be to the Lord!) to save his people despite themselves.
This is not to say that the Lord was designing or ordaining sins that had to take place in order for his plans to come to fulfillment. God is not and never has been the author of sin, but many people want to make God (or someone else) responsible for their own sins. Adam and Eve did this in the Garden, with Eve blaming the devil for what she did, and Adam ultimately blaming God (Genesis 3:12-13). This was Calvin’s position: that God actually arranged the fall into sin. Luther said simply: “But what, then, is original sin? According to the Apostle (Paul, Romans 3:10-12 etc.) it is not only the lack of a good quality in the will, nor merely the loss of man’s righteousness and ability. It is rather the loss of all his powers of body and soul, of his whole outward and inward perfections. In addition to this, it is his inclination to all that is evil, his aversion against that which is good, his antipathy against light and wisdom, his love for error and darkness, his flight from and his loathing of good works, and his seeking after that which is sinful.” (Commentary on Romans)
The devil sinned first and seduced man, and is responsible for sin in the universe (John 8:44). However, man himself is also responsible for sin and accountable for his own sins. Jesus said, “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come” (Matthew 18:7). But having named the devil and sinning man as guilty, we must each look inward beyond our sinful flesh, because each of us also possesses a sinning soul. This is what Jesus taught when he said: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’” (Matthew 15:19-20). So our active rebellious sins against God do not just come from our sinful fleshly impulses, as if all the world is only made up of teenagers prone to outbursts because of their changing hormones. No, we must acknowledge that we are all scheming, crafty, plotting, planning sinners, thoroughly engaged and complicit in our sins, never missing a single meeting when it comes to our sin, and never once complaining that we’re too tired to sin, too busy to sin, too overworked to sin—or that we just need a break for a while from our sins. We hold up our sinfulness as if the word itself summarizes the “four freedoms,” and we are never afraid to try to improve out sinful skills. We are experts, masters, sin-union members.
Thanks be to God that he is gracious. His love for us overcame even all of this expert sinning of ours, and brought us out of our bondage to sin. As the Lord reached down to save his people in Samson’s time despite themselves, we praise him for reaching down the gospel to save us, too, even though we don’t deserve it. His mercy—such mercy—endures forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota