Year 1, Day 275: Judges 14

Samson

Okay, bring on the hairy strong man!  Samson enters the stage; what are the first words we hear him speak?  What is our first impression of this judge that God has brought out of two godly people?  Samson says, “I saw a beautiful woman, now get her for me.”   Well, that’s awful self-mongerish of him, isn’t it?  It sounds to me like Samson has a rather healthy ego.

What’s the next thing we hear come out of Samson’s mouth?  After Manoah pleads with him to choose a Hebrew woman Samson says, “Get her for me, for she is right in my own eyes.”  Yep, he’s a self-monger all right.  Let there be no doubt about it.  God’s next judge, Samson, is an absolute self-centered human being like the rest of us when we aren’t living in the spirituality that only God can provide.

Can you hear the arrogance?  “She is right in my own eyes.”  Essentially, Samson is saying, “Dad, I don’t care about your opinion.  And I don’t care about God’s opinion either.  I want what I want come Hell or high water.”

Ha!  Boy does he get it, too.  That’s what I love about God.  Because God’s perspective is big picture and not little picture, God has no trouble working through Samson and still giving him what he wants!  That’s what verse 4 is all about.  God lets Samson have his way.  Verse 4 isn’t saying that Samson’s desire was God’s will; rather it is saying that God can still work through Samson’s choice in spite of it being contrary to the Law.

But we’ll get to God’s judgment later.  I need to focus this morning on the passage at hand, not the passage to come.  Today’s reality is that we have a self-monger on the loose in the Promised Land.  And what’s worse, he’s the one God has called to save His people from the Philistines!

More Self-Mongerism

Continuing in the theme of Samson’s self-mongerism, let’s look at a few of the verbs used around Samson.  Samson told his father and mother about the Philistine woman as opposed to asking about her.  (Judges 14:2)  Samson tells his parents rather than asks them!  I guess it isn’t just this current generation of kids who seem to think they can order around their parents. 

Samson returns to Timnah to take the Philistine woman.  (Judges 14:8)  Samson goes down to take the Philistine woman!  I guess it isn’t just today’s generation that thinks we have the right to take what will please us and not stop to think about how it will affect other people.  Here is more self-mongerism at work.

Lion and Honey

Now let’s look at the lion and the honey story.  I find this story a profound story and a wonderful analogy to life.  God grants Samson the power of His Spirit regardless of the fact that Samson is trespassing all over his upbringing.  Samson sins yet God still grants His Spirit to Samson.  Is that any different than what God does with us?  Are we not sinners and evil-doers?  Yet God grants His Spirit to us who are just as undeserving as Samson.

But then God puts a little test in front of Samson.  As a Nazirite, Samson is not to touch a dead body.  Clearly this lion has been bead for some time if bees have moved in and made a nest of it.  Samson has no trouble touching the carcass so as to retrieve the honey.  Again we see Samson more interested in his desire and not at all interested in God.  Samson is interested in the sweetness of the world more than following God’s ways.

What’s worse is that this act of disobedience to the Nazirite vow is what leads to the tragedy at the end of the chapter!  Samson finds the honey in the lion and thinks it a clever paradox.  So he invents a little riddle to ensnare other people.  Had he honored the Nazirite vow and left the lion alone, he likely wouldn’t have been so impressed with the honey to have come up with the riddle!  Well, truth be told if he had been interested in honoring God’s ways he wouldn’t have been looking for a way to ensnare people and take advantage of them, either.

Tragedy

Here’s the sad part.  30 people who are completely unconnected with Samson and his self-mongerism die to settle a debt he had regarding a woman that he had no business being around and to whom the Bible seems to indicate that he was never completely married anyway!  Samson’s lust for this woman leads to the death of 30 innocent people and there isn’t even the justice of a decent marriage as some caveat.  Oh how our self-mongerism can destroy the lives of others.

The truth is simple.  Samson had no business being among the Philistines in the first place.  He had no business believing he can order his parents around.  He had no business being involved in a Philistine wedding.  He had no business believing he could take what he wanted out of this world without being respectful.  He had no business touching a dead body.  He had no business looking for ways to ensnare the people around them for his own gain.  Samson has no business doing just about everything he does in this chapter.  Yet he does it all anyway because it is his life and he’s going to lead it however he wants to lead it. 

Doesn’t that sound like us and the world?  We cheer on God and His ways, but when push comes to shove we really don’t have much business doing the most of what we do in a day, either.

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As an aside, how often do we lift up Samson to our kids and talk about the hero he was?  We talk about the courage he had when facing the lion.  We talk about the great strength as a sign from God.  But when we do this, are we not teaching our children approval of Samson’s self-mongerism, too?  Are we not teaching our kids to take what they want, to desire strength of God’s ways, and to value lust over God’s love?  I really think we as a Christian people need to reexamine how we talk about Samson.  We make him into a hero when the text gives us no desire or reason to do so.