Samson - Saint and Sinner
(Part 1 - The Making of a Judge in Israel)
Chapter 8

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WE come now to the actual confrontation with the Philistines that Samson experienced. The story is well known. It is told in verses 10 to 20 of Judges chapter 14.

Samson and his parents go down to Timnah for the wedding. Samson was given thirty companions for the celebrations as was the custom. Samson gave his riddle to them to solve. He combined it with a wager or a bet. This was that if the companions could not find the meaning of the riddle by the end of the seven days of the wedding celebrations, then they would have to give Samson thirty linen garments and thirty sets of change of clothing. If they did solve the riddle then Samson would give them thirty linen garments and thirty sets of change of clothing.

These companions could not solve the riddle, so they put pressure on Samson's wife to find out the meaning of the riddle. They threatened her and her family with death. Samson's wife then wore down Samson with her tears and complaints until he told her the meaning of the riddle. She then told the companions, and they gave the answer to Samson.

Samson perceived how he had been deceived by his wife and tricked by the companions and he says these celebrated words, "If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle". I wonder how many wives would like to be called their husband's heifer?

Immediately follows the verse printed at the beginning of this chapter - "Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson with power". This was the immediate result, and the immediate action of God.

There is more in this incident than can be tackled in one chapter, so in this chapter we must seek, by God's grace, to understand what is happening in the history before us. Then in the next chapter we will seek to draw out the spiritual lesson involved.

I find myself in this history on very difficult ground. I must be faithful to the revealed word of God. I must faithfully interpret and understand that revelation, and I must not shirk that truth when it is perceived, whatever the implications, or whether it is unpalatable to human understanding. My prayer is that God has given me a true understanding of this incident. Commentaries generally have been little or no help.

As we go over the revelation in this history, I have no doubt that we shall find ourselves on ground we find unnatural, and far from the way we tend to think in our culture today, both Christian and secular. That is if I have understood God's revelation correctly. May God give us the submission we need as we face the truth here, and the grace to see its rightness, and the will to receive it and believe it. I believe we have an example here that much of our thinking today in the church is not completely subject to the Word of God, nor do we have our thinking truly formed by the Word of God, but rather by the culture of our time. It is all in this 19th verse of Judges chapter 14.

First of all let us note clearly and accurately the action of Samson. We are told he struck down 30 Philistines. We have this same expression in Judges chapter 15 and verse 15, where in the next verse, verse 16, we are told this means that these men were killed. So Samson killed 30 men. He then took their property to pay the wager on the riddle to the companions of his marriage celebration.

Now what is our reaction to this violent action on the part of Samson. Our twentieth century minds, no doubt, will feel horror and shock. Although we live in a very violent age, and dreadful things are done, yet we have the feeling in our culture that such a reaction of Samson to his treatment over the riddle was totally unacceptable, and that his killing these Philistines was barbaric and wrong.

We would say today that such killing is totally wrong and evil. It is not right to take the law into your own hands in this way. Some may even go as far as to say that Samson is no better than the IRA in Northern Ireland today, or the Protestant loyalists who kill in retaliation to the IRA.

We feel the cause of Samson was altogether too trivial to warrant such drastic action. After all it is hardly a capital crime to cheat over a riddle and a bet. Wagers take place all the time, and one action of cheating is hardly a capital matter. In any event, today we have totally rejected capital punishment as an acceptable option in the penal code. We feel it is barbaric, unsafe, and uncivilised in our enlightened civilisation.

Then, no doubt, we would say and feel that Samson had been foolish and stupid. We may say that he was partly to blame. He did not have to give the companions the riddle to solve. Nor did he need to put so much pressure on them to find the answer by attaching a wager to the finding of the answer. As Christians we may even go as far as saying that Samson was wrong to enter into a bet at all.

Then we may bring this further objection, that it was Samson's own weakness that brought on the problem. The companions in no way would have been able to solve the riddle if Samson had not given into his wife's pleading. It was his weakness that gave the companions the answer to the riddle, and therefore he was partly to blame for the result.

Certainly we would tend today to treat lightly the treachery of these Philistine companions given to Samson at his wedding, and their despicable behaviour in threatening Samson's wife and family with death if the answer to the riddle was not provided. Such treachery today is so very common, so we have got used to it and don't think it a very great matter. In such ways our thinking today, which we hold up as so pure and enlightened, is flawed and corrupted.

Further we need to note firmly and clearly what we are told in verse 19 of Judges chapter 14 as to the reason why Samson acted as he did. It is noteworthy to appreciate exactly how verse 19 is expressed. We are not told first about Samson's anger or emotions. These come later at the end of the verse. We are told plainly and unequivocally that the Spirit of God came upon Samson with power. We cannot avoid the implication that the reason for his action in killing these Philistines, and his ability to do so, came, not from himself, but from the power and prompting of God from the Spirit of God coming upon him.

We also know, as we have seen already, that the whole sequence of events leading up to this point and this action were events that were fulfilling the purpose of God to bring about a confrontation with the Philistines, so that Samson may commence his work of delivering Israel out of the domination and oppression of the Philistine rule.

We cannot avoid the impact and implication which is embodied in both verse 4 and verse 19 of this 14th chapter of Judges. Verse 4 impresses upon us that not only the marriage of Samson to this Philistine woman, but all the events that led up to it and were at the marriage, were designed by God to bring about the result he had planned. We have seen that this understanding cannot be avoided. God purposed to bring about a confrontation with the Philistines. God is not subject to out human limitations where we may plan something, but are dependent on events, and their random action, as to how we can fulfil our plans. No! God is sovereign and over all. When he plans, this includes all the events which lead up and go into the accomplishment of his plan. God overruled his own wise instruction concerning his people not marrying heathen partners. If he does this we cannot suppose that he is going to leave the rest of his purpose and plan to chance.

Then verse 19 plainly tells us that this action of Samson against these 30 Philistines at Ashkelon was promoted by God. It was after the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, that he went down to Ashkelon. There can be not doubt that it was the Spirit of God that was behind the idea to go to Ashkelon and in the action of killing the 30 men. The idea and the power to execute this action was plainly from God.

What do we learn of God's action in the life of his servant Samson, because Samson was acting as God's servant here?

Firstly, we learn that Samson's action was from God and under the power and direction of God. The action in killing these 30 Philistines was approved by God, and the power to do it was given by God. There was no way in which Samson could have performed this action in his own human strength. This conclusion is the only one we can come to from the fact that we are told that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson in power, and that we are told this first, and that the action of Samson followed the Spirit of God being given.

Secondly, we learn that Samson's action was a demonstration of God's judgement, and was the means which God used to commence the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistine oppression. This conclusion is inevitable from the fact that Samson acted by the power given by the Spirit of God, and from the fact that we have been told that God meant this confrontation to take place so that Samson might begin delivering Israel.

Thirdly, we must understand, therefore, that Samson was not acting in his own capacity as an individual human being. He was not expressing his personal anger, and venting his own spleen against the Philistines. Rather her was acting in the capacity as God's appointed Judge and deliverer. Samson was acting in God's name and bringing judgement from God. This was an act of God, executed through Samson, which expressed the active judgement of God upon sin.

This is not so strange as it may seem at first sight. We hold to this principle in our justice system. When a judge pronounces sentence, and when a jury decides on the guilt of person, we accept the principle that judgement must be made, and punishment inflicted. The judge in the case is a human being like Samson. In this sense he is acting as God's servant. The New Testament teaches this plainly. In Romans chapter 13 and verse 1 and following we read, "The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement upon themselves." Then in Romans 13:4 Paul continues, "For he, (The one in authority) is God's servant ....... He is God's servant, and agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer."

It is no argument against Samson to say that he was not appointed by anyone to be a judge. In fact he had the highest appointment of all. He was appointed directly by God, and that from his birth.

This action of Samson must have been from God, because the action and its result was beyond any normal power of human strength. Samson could have gone in anger to Ashkelon, and in his natural strength taken on these Philistines. He would not have come back unscathed. It would be doubtful if he would have come back at all. Yet Samson not only killed these men, but did it with no apparent harm to himself, and no Philistine power stopped him, or prevented him from taking the clothes necessary to pay his wager. It is plain that Samson was given supernatural power. He could not have done what he did if he had not.

In closing we can see some justifying reasons for Samson's action and God's promotion of it, if we feel that this is necessary.

In the situation of Samson's day there was no law to protect Israel. We today have a legal system, so that if we are suffering injustice or persecution we can go to the justice system and seek justice and help. The Israelites had no such ability or privilege. The Philistines were a law to themselves, and they did what they liked, and used their strength to oppress, and the Israelites had no redress whatsoever. In such a situation extraordinary solutions were necessary. God provided that and gave power for that.

The Philistines were altogether corrupt. This is expressed in the fact that they were ready to kill Samson's wife and her family to get their way. If we understand the story this was no idle threat, and the right understanding of the situation is that they could have done it, and no one would have been able to prevent them. Nor is there any suggestion that there was any curb on such action by the fear of the law catching up with them. There was no law.

These are the facts before us in this historical situation. We must, in fairness to God's Word, face them squarely, and not avoid any of the truth expressed in them. We need in our day to humbly submit to the hand of God. It remains for us in the next chapter to seek to draw out the spiritual truths embodied in this story.