We have often walked down this street before and no fair lady awaited. But somewhere in the town of Zorah a man of the Tribe of Dan waited. Zorah means “town of wasps’ or “hornets”. The man had felt the stings of outrageous fortune in that his wife was barren. Ironically, his name was Manoah, which means "quiet", which had been the state of his unnamed wife’s womb as
What matters is one day the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman. We said earlier in our discussion of Gideon that this was not an ordinary Angel. When we see this term, Angel of the Lord, it is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. We have some further evidence of this in Verse 18 after Manoah asks the Angel of the Lord his name: And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”
And later in verses 19-23, after Manoah has prepared a burnt offering of a goat:
And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.
The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”
We need to back up a bit. Before the burnt offering, the Angel of the Lord had come to the woman and told her she was going to birth a son. This happens to a number of barren women in the Bible who God gave babies to: Sara, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah and Elizabeth. I don’t doubt the miracles at all because this happened to my wife. She was not exactly barren. She could conceive and she did so seven times, but she could not carry a baby and we ended up with seven dead children, either through miscarriage or still birth. The doctors told her she could never have children and no doctor would take her case anymore when she became pregnant again.
But seven is the number of completeness. Upon the death of our seventh child I came to salvation and then through the prayers of some faithful Christians and a Christian doctor who was willing to place faith in God, rather than the opinion of men, my wife delivered, granted nick and tuck, a daughter. We went on to have two more impossible children, but that is all I wish to say about that right now.
The Angel of the Lord told Manoah’s wife.
“Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” Judges 13:3-5.
I’m not sure how well I would have handled such a directive.
Note that Manoah and his wife immediately went to prayer and they asked the Angel of the Lord to return and instruct them. God answered their prayer and returned, but again found the woman alone. Here we see once more the patience of God, just as we had with Gideon when he waited for Gideon to prepare a meal, no simple task in those times. This time he waits while she goes and finds Manoah and brings him back with her.
However, the Angel didn’t wish to wait while Manoah cooked a meal. He had more important things to do. He did explain about being careful about wine and eating any unclean thing, but no meal, a burnt offering would suffice. (Judges 9-16).
Manoah and his wife did not see the Angel of the Lord again, but she did conceive and have a baby son, and they named him Samson. Samson means “sun child” or “bright sun”
Now let me explain what a Nazirite was. Jesus was called the Nazarene, but this just identified him as coming from the town of Nazareth. Nazirite was something different. This was someone with a vow to be concentrated to the Lord. Usually it was a voluntary act, but here it is said Samson was a Nazirite from the womb. We are told that Samson grew and was blessed by God; and then the spirit of the Lord began to stir in him. I think at this stirring, Samson voluntarily recognized his vow.
RIDDLE ME THIS
Samson is known for his great physical strength, but he appears
Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines (pictured right). Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” Judges 14:1-2
Samson doesn’t sound as if he is asking; he sounds as if he is demanding. Was she that sensational looking.
But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.” Judges 14:1-3
Apparently to Samson’s eyes she was that sensational. Well, Samson’s eyes could become a problem for him.
Anyway, we have gotten use to the idea that the Jewish fathers arranged the marriages for their offspring, but here we have this boy making demands against his parents wishes, which is understandable that they would. The Philistines were the Israelites enemy. His father and mother couldn’t believe he couldn’t find a proper wife among their own people, especially since it was forbidden to intermarry with the nations in Canaan. The Israelites were supposed to destroy the peoples of Canaan, but they had failed at that, so certainly they were not supposed to intermarry, but that they did do
In the Midrash (an interpretive book used by the Rabbis, the concensus of the Rabbis was that Samson sinned in even being in Timnah, this Philistine city. The Israelites lived up in the hills; Timnah was down in the valley. That is why the Chapter started by saying “Samson went down to Timnah”. The Rabbis claimed Samson going down to Timnah was the beginning of a “descent entailing moral degeneration”. They specifically noted that on the trip to Timnah Samson and his parents passed through the Philistine vineyard which consisted of plants of different species being planted together, which was against the Law of Moses.
“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. Deuteronomy 22:9
Now the condemnation of the Rabbis may have been unjust and the same for his parents because in Judges 14, verse 4 it says, “His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.”
Still the Rabbis justified their condemnation that Samson sinned because they said despite it being from the Lord, Samson did it of his own inclination. Certainly Samson was drawn to the beauty of this woman. He certainly seems to have had wandering eyes for pretty women, all of the wrong faith.
He marries the woman of Timnah. Her name is never given. She is a Gentile and it appears this religious difference caused some strife between them. If Samson did marry this woman as a means toward getting the Philistines that would be understandable and plausible, and basically it worked.
(We can also take the rule against mixing seeds in the vineyard as applying to mixing two different faiths in marriage.)
Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah,
After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. Judges 14:5-9
Good grief, there is mom and pop and Samson just walking down to Timnah to see this woman. His folks went ahead of him into the vineyards and just after a lion comes toward Samson. It seems to be threatening since it is roaring, but not much else is said about it. Was it hungry? Was it Satan wandering about seeing who he could devour? Whatever the Lion was about to do, the Holy Spirit came upon Samson and he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands. He went on his way and never told his folks about the lion. He went down into Timnah and talked with this woman who was so right to his eyes. Then he returned home.
(Frankly, Samson should have avoided the vineyard as a Nazirite. Not only couldn't he drink wine, he was forbidden to eat grapes or grape juice under his vow. He should have avoided any vineyard.)
After some days passed, Samson made another trip to Timnah in order to take this woman. We will presume that meant he planned to take her as his wife. Being the curious sort, he turned aside on his trip to view the lion he had dispatched several days ago, He discovered it’s carcass now had a swarm of bees in residence, and there was honey. Yum, he said. He scooped out some of the honey and ate as he walked. Upon arrival he gave some to his parents to enjoy, but he didn’t tell them where it came from. I don’t know, digging it out of some road kill doesn’t sound real appetizing.
His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.”
And he said to them,
“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.” Judges 14:10-14
Judges gives us a sort of Reader’s Digest version of Samson, fairly condensed. It makes it a bit difficult to follow as far as time is concerned. So we have Samson returning to Timnah after the lion has been dead for a few days and he finds honey in the carcass. He gives some to his folks, then his father goes down to visit the Philistine woman. Samson shows up about the same time and he prepares a feast. I understand there was plenty of bread and honey. It says this was a tradition of young men, possibly this was some sort of betrothal party. Might it even have been the wedding feast, since it lasted seven days and only a few days into that week and by the end the woman is referred to as Samson’s wife. Anyway, the townspeople rounded up 30 companions for him, all apparently Philistines.
Samson is a bit of a braggart and a wise guy, so he makes a bet with these other men. It is a fairly expensive one, too. He bets them 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes that he can tell them a riddle they can’t solve by the end of the feast. Judges 14:10-18.
“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.” Judges 14:14
After three days they were still mystified and getting desperate because this was an expensive loss they faced. On the fourth day they stormed into Samson’s wife home and threatened her and her father with burning down their house. They weren’t very nice guys.
During the entire feast, Samson’s wife began to weep and wheedle, weapons women are very practiced in using. She even pulled out the “You don’t love me” card. She said he had told everyone but her, so he must not trust her. He pointed out that he hadn’t told his mom and dad either, which did little. She just kept on crying and because Samson was no stronger than any man when facing a woman’s tears, after seven days he gave in and told her the answer.
Right away, before the sun went down, she ran to the men and told them. Judges 14:15-17
Things are about to turn ugly.
And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.” Judges 14:18
There is enough insults for everyone in what Samson says. For one he calls his new bride a heifer. In other words, he is comparing her to a young, foolish and stubborn cow. The use of the word heifer here might also indicate that Samson had never consecrated the marriage. He is also telling these guys they were too dumb to have figured it out on their own. He is probably right there. At any rate, this is certainly souring his marriage even before it turns tragic.
It is a strange revenge Samson takes. It says the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, but it still seems a bit unfair. Now he didn’t take revenge directly agains Timnah, but went down to the Philistine coastal city of Ashkelon. This was one of the five cities of Philistines and was the largest and oldest of its seaports sitting along the coast of the Mediterranean, something like 24 miles away.
We must begin to read between the lines. Remember what the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Samson’s mother, when he first appeared to her.
“Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”Judges 13:3-5
Why was Samson born? He was born to this barren woman as a Savior of Israel, one of the Judges. And who was Samson to start, not finish, but start to save Israel from? The Philistines. After this betrayal by his wife he is consumed by the Spirt of God. By the way, I have seen Samson being compared to Hercules. I say he is more compatible to The Hulk. You wouldn’t like him when he gets angry.
This is the beginning of Samson’s calling to his mission. There are some speculations we must make here.
The fine silk clothes that Samson is after are not everyday wear. They are clothes worn for special occasions, such as weddings, but also for feasts honoring the Philistine God Dagon.
Ashkelon would have been a center for worshiping Dagon, the
Samson went to Ashkelon and he killed thirty of the towns men and gave their garments to the thirty young men in Timnah to pay off his bet. He was still seething when he returned to his father-in-law’s house to get his wife. He arrived and discovered his wife had been given to the man who had been his Best Man. Judges 14:19-20
Things are about to get hot.
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