(Based on a message preached 2-19-23 at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO; not an exact transcription.
(Full disclosure: Sermon Central accepted and posted an earlier message of mine on this text called “Trouble in Timnath” but this message is not the same thing, nor a simple edit.)
Introduction: We’re still in February, the month of love, and we’re looking at another couple, sort of, that didn’t make it. They didn’t even get past the ceremony! What happened? It’s a bit of a long story, but it’s important, so let’s take a look.
The text comes from Judges 14, beginning at verse 1:
Text: Judges 14:1-11, New American Standard Bible (NASV): 1 Then Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 So he came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; so now, get her for me as a wife.” 3 But his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” Yet Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, because she is right for me.” 4 However, his father and mother did not know that this was of the LORD, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. And at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
5 Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, so that he tore it apart as one tears apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. 7 So he went down and talked to the woman; and she looked pleasing to Samson. 8 When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. 9 So he took out the honey on his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had took the honey out of the body of the lion. 10 Then his father went down to the woman; and Samson held a feast there, for the young men customarily did this. 11 When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
1 Just one look was all it took
Some of us remember the “Frasier” show on TV, where at each change of scene, an introductory slide or screen or something that would give a hint of what was going to happen. I couldn’t resist the chance to do something like that here! Hey, it could work, no?
Now, years ago there was a song called “Just One Look”, and it was used for various commercials. You couldn’t miss that ‘Just one look!” jingle, encouraging those who saw and heard the commercial to open their eyes, ears, and wallets to buy whatever it was for sale. I think it was used for cars, but back then, I had trouble affording model cars or Hot Wheel ™ cars, let alone thinking of buying a real one!
Samson clearly didn’t know that song, but he did know when a certain Philistine girl of marriageable age came around Timnath (there are alternate spellings). Timanth was only a few miles from Samson’s home town, but why he went down there is anybody’s guess. It _could_ be that the Philistines had built a garrison of some kind, making Timnath not only a border town but maybe a kind of Fort Jackson or Fort Knox or Philistine base Timnath, some kind of town like that as some might say.
Well, no matter what Samson was doing around Timanth, he surely noticed that one particular young lady. How often he saw her, and how many times, we’re not told, but it’s likely that just one look was all he needed. By the way, his request of his parents, “I like the way she looks, so please get her to be my wife” seems to me to prove he was a spoiled brat! His parents said something like, “Why do you want to marry a pagan? Aren’t there any Hebrew girls who catch your eye? Besides, these Philistines are not circumcised (like us), so why go looking among them for a wife?”
Samson, though, insisted, “I like the way she looks, and that’s good enough for me.” You know, I’ve wondered why it is that during various periods, American men (and I guess it’s true for other nations, too) would tack pictures of various beauties (“pin-up” girls) on their bedroom walls or wherever they could. Oddly, a number of these ladies were known as having, “beautiful legs!” True, legs are important, kinda hard to get anywhere without them, no? Even so, I’ve never met anyone who wants to kiss a pair of legs, especially when these legs are covered with dresses or pants or something like that! No, I think Samson saw a gal with a pretty face—and for him, that was enough. Just one look was all he needed, or so he thought.
Samson didn’t know, though, that he’d be looking at something very deadly, very soon!
2 On the road . . again
We’re never told how many trips Samson made to see this Philistine maiden. I’ve wondered how she could even pretend to be true to him, or even make an attempt to love him, when there was any number of (eligible?) Philistine men around town. After all, as we’ll see, thirty men were found to be Samson’s, ahem, guests or something when the wedding took place. How many men besides Samson found this maiden pretty enough to marry?
Well, for this trip Samson and his parents (no mention of any brothers or sisters at this time) went together down to Timnah. Some think this was to make the wedding arrangements and so on because parents usually did the arranging for marriages like this. But something happened while they were on the way down.
The writer of Judges mentions the “vineyards of Timnah”, which were most likely a good distance out of town. I don’t know much about “grape-ology” or vineyards but from what I’ve heard, these vineyards need space. Lots of space. And they need plenty of TLC from vine keepers, vine dressers, and the husbandmen (not in the marital sense here, although these men may have thought they truly were married to these vines!)
Something must have happened so that Samson became separated from his parents. Manoah and his wife aren’t mentioned here and the Scripture does not mention anything further. For whatever reason, Samson was alone near the vineyard.
But not for long. The text tells us a “young lion” came roaring towards him. I checked the Internet and found some cubs go on their first hunt when they’re about 2 years of age. This lion, then, probably wasn’t an old male, as they mostly roar and let the cubs, young lions, and lionesses do the actual hunting and gathering. The lion might have been on its first hunt, but choosing Samson was its biggest mistake!
The lion came roaring towards Samson, but the Spirit of God came upon him. When the Spirit arrived, He gave Samson the power to tear it apart like “one tears apart a young goat”. Opinions differ as to what Samson really did—strangling the lion and then killing it, for example—but all agree that Samson put that young lion out of business for good that day.
Samson seems to just “shake it off”—was there any lion blood on his person or clothes?—and continued on his trip down to Timnah. Someone he really liked was there, and in his mind, she was waiting for him! Maybe? No matter, Samson finally had a chance to speak face to face and heart to heart.
The results: she “looked pleasing” to Samson. The curtain for this scene comes to a close here, but a lot of action took place. Samson, by the way, was one of the few people in the Bible to deal with lions in the wild but nobody killed a lion exactly like he did.
Samson went home for a while but he was going to come back and claim his bride. What happened when he returned?
3 Here comes the groom
Verse 8 tells us that Samson “returned later to take her”, or, it was his wedding day! A word about weddings of those days: back then, it was all about the groom. After an unspecified period of time, generally about a year, he would decide it was time to “seal the deal” and make this official! He would tell a few about it and the word would make its way to the bride’s location. We have a hint of this in the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25. The bride would prepare herself in her very best and then, after any vows were spoken, they were considered married!
Various commentaries give valuable information about this ceremony and I encourage everyone to get as much information as they need!
Before Samson got to Timnah, though, he took a bit of a detour. Remember the lion who went “Samson-hunting” a while before? Nobody claimed the lion’s carcass (except nature) and it seems nothing was left except the bones. I’ve read in a couple of places that bees won’t make a hive where there is bad flesh or bad odors—they’re called very clean animals—so if the carcass was left where it was, like that of some of the deer bodies we see along the road, bees wouldn’t be anywhere near it. The commentators, though, explain that in a hot climate such as Israel, and especially close to the Mediterranean, it wouldn’t take long for any dead body to, well, decay.
Aware of this, Samson grabbed some honey out of the carcass and ate some of it! When he found his parents (this is at least three times he’s left them and gone off somewhere), he gave them some of the honey and they, probably just as hungry as he was, ate it too.
But did you notice a couple of things? Samson hadn’t said a word about killing the lion and he didn’t say anything about where he got the honey! Strangely enough, his parents didn’t say anything about where he got the honey, either. We’ll never know why everybody kept their thoughts to themselves on this journey. After all, this was Samson’s wedding day and his parents might well have been thinking “what has this boy got himself into?”
On they went, on a bittersweet day, to be sure. The good is that their son had found love (we can’t say “true” love, as we’ll see) but the bad news is that he’s marrying a pagan, which no believer should ever do! Eventually they reached Timnah, and as it seems, there was a wedding.
4 Get the answer or else
Verses 10-11 tell how Samson (and his parents, too) put on a feast for the wedding. Sometimes these feasts would last a week or so, and there was probably a whole lot of activity during that time. Of course there would be wedding guests, as weddings were not only a festive time, to rejoice over the couple, but also a feasting time. I mean, where else could you mooch food off of someone else for seven days or so and not get blamed, or even a dirty look, for doing this?
What’s ominous, though, is the mention of thirty “companions” to be with Samson. I could see a couple, maybe a group of 10 or so, but when there’s 30, that may well be cause for concern! Again, several commentators have all kinds of opinions about who these 30 “guests” were, and why they were there. The common thread that I found is that they were there either to spy on Samson (he was a Hebrew in Philistine land, after all) or to keep an eye on him so that he didn’t stir up any trouble. I doubt Samson would have tried to start a war or even a skirmish on this happy day, his wedding day, but you never know about other people.
The verses following the text tell of Samson’s riddle to the 30 guests. This was dangerous, not because it was a riddle—this was part of the culture and ceremony, according to several commentators—but because of the wager or bet. In so many words, Samson said, “If you can’t guess this riddle, you owe me 30 changes of clothes, but if you do, I’ll owe you”, probably thinking the riddle was so abstract they couldn’t figure it out or else so simple they would stumble over it.
The text is a bit confusing as translated in the KJV but what seems to be the order goes like this: on day 1 of the feast, Samson told the riddle and the terms of the bet. The other people spend three days trying to figure it out, but they can’t, and being selfish (who wants to lose a bet?) they decide to get the answer by any means necessary.
That “means” was Samson’s new bride. The others, probably in a group, come to her, and I’m guessing they put on their meanest, most angry faces and told her to get the answer to Samson’s riddle—or else. That “else” meant being burned to death with or by fire. Clearly, this young woman wanted to live, and who doesn’t, so she decides to get the answer. Again, this meant by any means necessary.
Most of us know a woman’s best weapon is her tears. Of all times, and during what seems to be the most joyous time of her life, she turns on the tears because she doesn’t know the riddle’s answer and she’s under pressure to get it! She starts weeping (and that should have been a red flag for Samson), pouting, I guess, too, and says “You don’t love me! You just hate me! You told my people a riddle (red flag number 2, she was his wife now) and you didn’t tell me! Waaah!”
Samson just shrugged it off, saying, “Well, I didn’t tell my own parents so why should I tell you the answer?” Oh, that wasn’t enough for her. She could have told him what the others had planned for her (fun for now, fire for later, if she didn’t get the answer) but no, she just kept on crying and weeping. I don’t know how she did it; maybe somebody slipped some onions into her food so the onion fumes would make some tears (this does happen, by the way!).
Finally, Samson had enough and told her. What did she do? She promptly (and, by the way, I think the tears disappeared quickly) told her people. Who didn’t love whom? And just before sundown on day 7, here they came, heading for Samson.
Samson may have wondered, “Where are the clothes? And why are they coming to me at this time of the day?” They came and told him the answer to his riddle, probably saying to him, “I wear a size 15” or “I wear men’s medium” or something like that. Oh, they probably thought they had him right where they wanted him.
Samson was likely furious at this. His reply could be put into a rhyme, “If with my heifer you didn’t plow, you wouldn’t have known the answer by now! (that’s a paraphrase from Moffat’s translation of the Bible)”. True to his word, he goes to another place, kills 30 other Philistines, and then brings these clothes to his “guests”.
But he was so furious that he leaves everything and everyone there. He went back to his father’s house and stayed there for a while. Even so, in one last act of treachery, his wife decides to marry the “companion” or friend of the groom. We’d say the “best man” at the wedding and indeed the custom for the “best man” is that if anything happened and the bride could not or did not marry the groom, she got the “best man” instead.
So ends the story of Samson and his wedding day blues but there’s just a bit more to the story.
5 If the outside’s hot, there could be inside rot
People have used the word “hot” to describe a beautiful person, at least outwardly, for many years now. It goes without saying that there is nothing wrong with desiring an attractive mate. Isaac’s wife Rebekah was “very beautiful” and Jacob himself was blown away when he saw how pretty Rachel was. The danger, though, is that simply being hot on the outside cannot hide the “rot” on the inside. Samson’s wife was pretty, but also petty, throwing away a chance at love just to please some of her own people. “Samson,” she might have said, “I love you but I love them more than you. Thanks for the answer!”
We could go on with looking at Samson’s mistakes but the text explains it better than I can. Some of you are approaching the age where you’ll need to make life choices and life changes. If you don’t follow the Lord and His guidance, you will never have the best success in life. Our world measures success a whole lot differently than the Lord does.
And finally, never marry someone who doesn’t share your faith. You will have more problems than peace in your home if you do. Always look to God for His plan, His purpose, and His provision. Samson might have had a lot different life if he had done this.
Let’s have our closing prayer now.
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
