JUDGES CHAPTER 14-15, “Samson Seeks A Philistine Wife And Then Exacts Revenge”

By

Jim Bomkamp

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1.      INTRODUCTION

 

1.1.                     We finished our last study looking at chapter 13 and the introduction to the calling to be a judge of this man Samson

 

1.2.                     In our study today, we are going to look at chapters 14-15 and how that Samson has his parents arrange for him to marry a certain Philistine woman, and that situations then begin to arise in Samson’s life that lead him to exact revenge upon the Philistines.

 

1.3.         The story of Samson has been heard and seen in movies by millions of people for Samson has captured the imaginations of people throughout the centuries.

 

1.4.         The book of Judges shows us that though no other judge had more potential for being used by the Lord than Samson, his life was really just a failure before the Lord.  We will see today where Samson begins to stumble in his spiritual walk.

 

1.5.         We saw previously that in Samson’s day the Philistines were the oppressors of Israel.

 

1.6.         The Philistines didn’t attempt to come in and conquer Israel using force.  They sought instead to assimilate Israel through the tools of inter-marriage and trade.    

 

1.7.         By the time that Samson came on the scene, the sons of Israel were so assimilated by the Philistines that they were content with their life of oppression and didn’t even care to be delivered by the Lord. 

 

1.8.         Samson’s mother could not bear any children and thus her and her husband had prayed for a son and the Lord sent them His angel who foretold Samson’s birth and the fact that he would have a special calling before the Lord.  Samson was called to be a judge and deliverer of God’s people. 

 

1.9.              We saw that the angel of the Lord specified that Samson was to be raised up from birth under a Nazirite vow, which meant that he was to live a life of separation and thus not drink anything made from the vine, touch any dead body, or cut his hair (per Numbers chapter 6). 

 

1.10.    We saw that contrary to popular legend that Samson may even have been averaged size or small because the source of his great strength for which he is known is the Spirit of the Lord, not any innate strength of his own.

 

1.11.    Samson grew up to not really be any kind of a spiritual man and instead of being devoted from the heart to the Lord, his acts against the Philistines were personal vendettas carried out single-handedly by him. 

 

1.12.    Samson was really a very reckless man and he was not really fighting the Lord’s battles, yet the Lord was working through his life, albeit working in spite of him instead of through him.

 

1.13.    We saw that Samson was a big failure as a judge or deliverer of Israel, and his end was a tragic and unnecessary death.  He never once rallied the sons of Israel to go up in battle against their oppressors, the Philistines.  His acts against the Philistines seemed more like immature college pranks than the working of a man of God.

 

1.14.    We saw that Samson was a man who failed in his calling by the Lord because before he went and tried to conquer the world for the Lord, he first hadn’t learn to conquer himself and his own passions.  In the end it was Samson’s own passions which led to his pathetic demise and tragic death. 

 

2.     VS 14:1-4  - “1 Then Samson went down to Timnah and 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; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.” 3 Then 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?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.” 4 However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.” -  Samson went down to the Philistine territory and saw a woman that he wanted for a wife, then came home and talked his parents into obtaining her as his wife

 

2.1.                     In these verses, we see for the first time that Samson stumbled in his commitment to and relationship with the Lord.  Samson with his Nazarite vow of separation from the world and unto God should have known that he was not to be just wandering around in the enemy’s territory.

 

2.2.                     It has been pointed out by commentators that when it says that Samson went down to the territory of the Philistines that he not only went down physically, but he also went down in spiritual decline.  There was no good reason for Samson to go into the enemy’s territory.  Going there Samson was tempting the Lord, requiring Him to protect him from temptation.   

 

2.3.                     Having gone into enemy territory, to the city of Timnah, Samson finds himself tempted and ensnared by sin.  He fell into lust at first sight with a young woman from that city.

 

2.3.1.  Be careful O Christian when you wander through the enemy’s territory. 

 

2.3.2.  We as Christians need to be careful not to go and to flirt with sin because we might end up in the identical situation as Samson found himself on this day, ensnared by sin.  We are to always flee temptations, not flirt with them.

 

2.3.3.  We Christians need to also be even more cautious of temptations when we travel out of town where there is no one around us who knows us who would see us if we should be tempted to sin.  Many good men and women have fallen in sin on a trip out of town.

 

2.4.                     Samson begins a life of disobedience.  Samson should never have considered marrying a woman outside the nation of Israel, for the Lord had told His people in Deut. 7:3-4 that they were not to do this, “3 “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 “For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.”

 

2.5.                     I have to fault Samson’s parents in this story here for though they questioned Samson’s choice for a wife from among the Philistines, they did not refuse to arrange this marriage for him. 

 

2.5.1.  It has been pointed out that normally parents of the groom would have held the wedding feast at their own home, however that because they disagreed with this union that they instead chose to require that the feast be held by the family of the Philistine woman.  However, they should have instead forbid the union because it directly violated God’s law.

 

2.5.2.  We Christian parents have a responsibility to raise up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and there are times as parents, even when our children get older, that we need to say, “no,” to them and forbid their actions, that is, as long as they are living under our roof.  When kids move out on their own we as Christians can no longer control their actions and now they will need to make their own choices to follow the Lord.

 

2.6.                     In 2 Cor. 6:14, the apostle Paul wrote to us as Christians to not intermarry with those who do not know the Lord, he writes, “14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?”

 

2.7.                     We see here that though Samson is not obeying and following the Lord closely and that the Lord is working around him, or in spite of him, that the Lord is using Samson’s stumbling in order to find occasion to weaken and attack Israel’s enemies, the Philistines.

 

2.8.                     Samson has no respect for authority.  Samson not only has disrespect for the Lord here in seeking to marry a woman outside of Israel but he also has disrespect for his parents as he insists upon going against their wishes for him in a wife.

 

3.     VS 14:5-6  - “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 The Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.” -  The Spirit of the Lord first comes upon Samson giving him great strength

 

3.1.                     As Samson was going down to Timnah with his parents who were going to arrange a marriage of Samson with this Philistine girl Samson had previously seen, a young lion attacks him and the Spirit of the Lord comes mightily upon him and with his bare hands he tears the lion in half killing it.

 

3.2.                     Again, we see that the strength that Samson had was not innate strength but strength that came when the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him.

 

3.3.                     Samson had no appreciation for his being separated unto the Lord and His purposes for him.  We see here for the first time that Samson apparently breaks his Nazarite vow.  Being under a Nazirite vow he was not to eat anything made from the vine, and yet here we see that Samson went to the vineyards of Timnah.  Sadly, Samson had no appreciation or understanding of the fact that the things that he did with his body affected his relationship with the Lord, either for the good or the bad.

 

3.3.1.  In 1 Cor. 6:19-20, the apostle Paul wrote about how that our lives are not our own but that we have been bought with a price and therefore we need to be careful to only do those things with our body which will bring glory to God, “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

 

3.3.2.  In 1 Cor. 3:16-17, Paul wrote also about how that our bodies are a temple of God and that therefore we must be careful not to corrupt (or “destroy”) that temple of our body by sins that we might commit in this body, “16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”

 

3.3.3.  Samson as we have seen was trying to live his life separated from the world and under the Nazirite vow, however he wasn’t separated unto the Lord.  His life wasn’t consecrated to the Lord to honor, follow, and obey the Lord.  Jonathan Edwards the great preacher of the Great Awakening Revival in America once said the following words in regard to his consecrating himself completely to the Lord to be His person,

 

“I claim no right to myself—no right to this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me; neither do I have any right to this body or its members—no right to this tongue, to these hands, feet, ears, or eyes.  ”

I have given myself clear away and not retained anything of my own. I have been to God this morning and told Him I have given myself wholly to Him. I have given every power, so that for the future I claim no right to myself in any respect. I have expressly promised Him, for by His grace I will not fail. I take Him as my whole portion and felicity, looking upon nothing else as any part of my happiness. His law is the constant rule of my obedience.

I will fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil to the end of my life. I will adhere to the faith of the Gospel, however hazardous and difficult the profession and practice of it may be.

I receive the blessed Spirit as my Teacher, Sanctifier, and only Comforter, and cherish all admonitions to enlighten, purify, confirm, comfort, and assist me. This I have done.

I pray God, for the sake of others, to look upon this as a self-dedication, and receive me as His own. Henceforth, I am not to act in any respect as my own. I shall act as my own if I ever make use of any of my powers to do anything that is not to the glory of God, or to fail to make the glorifying of Him my whole and entire business.

If I murmur in the least at afflictions; if I am in any way uncharitable; if I revenge my own case; if I do anything purely to please myself, or omit anything because it is a great denial; if I trust to myself; if I take any praise for any good which Christ does by me; or if I am in any way proud, I shall act as my own and not God’s. I purpose to be absolutely His.”

3.3.3.1.      Have you consecrated yourself and your body to the Lord, to be holy and devoted unto Him?

 

4.     VS 14:7-9  - “7 So he went down and talked to the woman; and she looked good 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 scraped the honey into 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 scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.” -  Samson returns from talking with the young woman from Timnah and sees the young lion he had earlier killed and scrapes up some honey from the lion and eats it and gives some to his parents to eat

 

4.1.                     Samson shows how reckless he was for he again breaks his Nazirite vow.  Being under a Nazarite vow, Samson was not to go anywhere near any creature that was dead, however here we see that he grabbed some honey out of the belly of the carcass of the young lion that he had previously killed, and then he ate of it.

 

4.2.                     Samson is really being guided not by the Lord but by his carnal desires and lusts for he wants to marry this woman of Timnah simply because she looks good to him, regardless of the fact that the Lord in His law forbid marriages by the Israelites to the people of the nations around them. 

 

5.     VS 14:10-18  - “10 Then his father went down to the woman; and Samson made a feast there, for the young men customarily did this. 11 When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 Then Samson said to them, “Let me now propound a riddle to you; if you will indeed tell it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes. 13 “But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Propound your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14 So he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of the strong came something sweet.” But they could not tell the riddle in three days. 15 Then it came about on the fourth day that they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband, so that he will tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Is this not so?” 16 Samson’s wife wept before him and said, “You only hate me, and you do not love me; you have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people, and have not told it to me.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father or mother; so should I tell you?” 17 However she wept before him seven days while their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle to the sons of her people. 18 So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey? And 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.”” -  The family of the Philistine woman throws a wedding feast for the marriage of their daughter to Samson

 

5.1.                     Gary Inrig has pointed out that here in verse 10 that this word ‘feast’ is a word that means a “drunken celebration.”  Samson not only went through the vineyards earlier, here we see that he evidently was drinking at this wedding feast and thus yet again breaking his Nazirite vow.

 

5.2.                     Here amidst the raucous of this drunken party, Samson proposes a riddle to the Philistine men who were guests or family members of the Philistine woman Samson was marrying.  He tells them that if they figured out his riddle by the end of the week that he would buy them thirty changes of clothes. 

 

5.3.                     These were rather expensive changes of clothes as was typical in the middle east in this day. 

 

5.4.                     Samson proposed also that if the Philistine men didn’t figure out his riddle by the end of the week then they owed him thirty changes of clothes.  They took him up on his wager. 

 

5.5.                     Proposing such a wager over solving a riddle doesn’t seem to come from a man seeking the Lord’s will, for if he had lost this bet he would have been out of a great sum of money as this was a high stakes bet.

 

5.6.                     I do not believe that Samson was being fair with these Philistine men by proposing this riddle, for the only way they could have correctly guessed the riddle would have been if they had actually been with Samson when he ate the honey from this lion.  As I mentioned earlier, Samson’s acts against the Philistines were more like immature college pranks than the workings of a godly man.

 

5.7.                     Finally, as it seemed that the Philistine men were not going to be able to solve this riddle, they go to Samson’s wife to threaten her that if she doesn’t find out and tell them the answer to Samson’s riddle that they are going to burn her and her father’s house down.

 

5.8.                     The crying day after day during the feast of Samson’s wife because he wouldn’t tell her the answer to his riddle just about drove him crazy.  Finally, on the last day of the wedding feast, Samson breaks and tells his wife to be the meaning of his riddle.  She then tells the Philistine men the answer.

 

5.9.                     When the Philistine men tell Samson the answer to his riddle, he accuses them of plowing with his heifer.  This is to say that he accused them of unfairness for getting the answer out of his wife to be.

 

6.     VS 14:19-20  - “19 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. 20 But Samson’s wife was given to his companion who had been his friend.” -  Samson goes to Ashkelon and kills 30 Philistine men and takes their clothes to pay off his debt from the wedding feast of thirty changes of clothes

 

6.1.                       We see here that Samson fought single-handedly with the Philistines.  He didn’t raise up an army from Israel to go up and attack them, but rather this act against the Philistines was one of taking out personal vengeance against them.

 

6.2.                      We see also that Samson’s marriage arrangement was strange for rather than taking his new wife into his house he was planning to go and to visit her periodically there at her father’s house.

 

6.3.                     Samson goes back to his own home in order to cool down after venting his anger by killing the thirty Philistine in order to pay off his debt for 30 changes of clothes. 

 

6.4.                     Little does Samson know that he has been cheated by the bride’s father.  Samson had paid to the father of the woman he was to marry the agreed upon dowry and thus she legally belonged to him as his wife, however instead of her being given to Samson, her father gave her to Samson’s best man at the wedding. 

 

6.5.                     Evidently in the culture of the people of Timnah it was a disgrace for a marriage to not be followed through with after a wedding feast.   Therefore, this woman’s father gave her to Samson’s best man.

 

7.     VS 15:1-5  - “1 But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat, and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. 2 Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours instead.” 3 Samson then said to them, “This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.” 4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. 5 When he had set fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves.” -  Samson catches 300 jackals and in pairs ties their tails together around a torch which he sets on fire, and the pairs of jackals run off into the grain fields of the Philistines and burn them down

 

7.1.                     Samson desires to come and to visit his wife and consummate their marriage, however he finds out that she has been given to his best man at the wedding.

 

7.2.                     Samson brings a kid as a special present to his wife.

 

7.3.                     The young woman’s father tells him that he thought that Samson no longer desired his daughter as a wife since he left and went home however that Samson can have her younger sister who is more beautiful as his wife.

 

7.4.                     Samson is really mad at the Philistines now for his having been defrauded and he decides to seek personal revenge on them.

 

7.5.                     This word used in these verses for ‘fox’ is a word that can also be translated “jackal,” and since jackals tend to run in big herds Bible commentators have felt that it was most likely jackals not foxes that Samson caught and used to burn down the crops of the Philistines.

 

7.6.                     It is interesting in verse 3 here how that Samson reveals some blame for his prior actions in proposing the unfair riddle at the drunken party and then killing thirty men to gain thirty changes of clothes in order to pay off his wager, for he says, “This time I shall be blameless.”

 

7.7.                     The Holy Spirit gave Samson truly amazing abilities.  No matter how you look at this act of revenge by Samson, it is an amazing supernatural feat.  Just to catch 300 of these animals would be a huge task.  Then, to even be able to tie two of their tails together would be difficult.  But to tie each pair up around a torch, light the torch, and then have the jackals go and burn down all of the crops of the Philistines is an unbelievable feat.  Ripply doesn’t have any feats by men recorded that are any greater than this one by Samson.

 

7.7.1.  It is just as amazing of a supernatural feat as Samson performed here on this day with these jackals as it is for us Christians to truly be able to walk in a way that truly pleases the Lord being filled with the Spirit and having victory over the flesh.  Only the Holy Spirit can do this work in our lives, and He will do this if we will just yield our lives to Him in obedience and rely upon His power alone to fill and empower us to live for Him.

 

8.     VS 14:6-9  - “6 Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, “Since you act like this, I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will quit.” 8 He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam. 9 Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi.” -  The Philstines burn up the woman of Timnah and her father because of what Samson had done in destroying their crops

 

8.1.                     The Philistines held the woman of Timnah and her father responsible for what Samson had done to their crops because she had brought Samson into their community having planned to marry him.

 

8.2.                     We read here that Samson avenges the murder of his wife and her father by ruthlessly slaughtering the Philistines.

 

8.3.                     After this, we read that Samson, evidently because he was depressed at his loss of wife and father-in-law, went away and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.  He lived under a rock!

 

8.4.                     The Philistines took this opportunity of Samson’s absence however to spread out more into Israel, camping in Judah and Lehi.

 

9.     VS 14:10-17  - “10 The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.” 11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me.” 13 So they said to him, “No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not kill you.” Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. 14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds dropped from his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it. 16 Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men.” 17 When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.” -  A group of Philistines come to Judah and want to capture and bind Samson, and the men of Judah form an army of 3,000 men and they go and capture Samson and bring him to the Philistines

 

9.1.                     We see here the only army that was every formed by Israel during the time of Samson’s reign as judge, and this was an army to help the Philistines come and arrest and bind Samson, Israel’s judge.

 

9.2.                     The nation of Israel had become so assimilated by the Philistines that they had no desire whatsoever to be delivered from their oppressors, the Philistines.

 

9.3.                     The men of Israel are now mad not at their enemy the Philistines, but rather Samson, because he has upset the apple cart and caused their oppressors the Philistines to be angry with them.

 

9.4.                     Notice here how that by saying ‘Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?’ that the children of Israel at this point in time were completely willing and content to be in bondage and oppressed by the Philistines.

 

9.5.                     It is amazing how congenial and consenting Samson is here when the sons of Israel come to bind him and hand him over to the Philistines.  It is thought that this is the beginning of Samson’s humbling of himself before the Lord.

 

9.6.                     When Samson is brought into the Philistine camp and he hears the Philistine men shout triumphantly seeing that they have captured this infamous and powerful man, the Spirit of the Lord again comes upon him mightily and as a result his muscles bulge out so much that the rope they had bound him with burns in two and drop off of him.

 

9.7.                     Next, we see an amazing feat performed through Samson.  With the jawbone of a donkey he kills a thousand Philistines.  This jawbone Samson used as a weapon was a new jawbone and thus it wasn’t brittle so as to break when he used it as a fighting weapon.

 

9.8.                     Because of this incredible feat of killing 1,000 Philistines with a jawbone, Samson names the place Ramath-lehi, which means “height of a jawbone.”

 

10.            VS 14:18-20  - “18 Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, his strength returned and he revived. Therefore he named it En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. 20 So he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.” -  Samson becomes thirsty and prays to the Lord for water

 

10.1.                After this incredible battle in which Samson single-handedly killed 1,000 Philistines, he becomes very thirsty.

 

10.2.                Samson, as we saw, was not a very spiritual man though he was called to a life of separation to the Lord.  This is the first prayer that we see him ever praying.  Some Bible commentators have said that this prayer was actually the high point of Samson’s spiritual walk.  Samson even acknowledges that it was the Lord alone who gave him victory in killing the 1,000 Philistines.

 

10.3.                We read here that it was for 20 years that Samson judged Israel.

 

11.            CONCLUSION:

 

11.1.                Samson performed great works for the Lord, however because he was not truly consecrated to the Lord in his own heart, the Lord was resigned to working around or in spite of him. 

 

11.1.1.                     Have you yielded up your body and life to the Lord to be consecrated completely to Him? 

 

11.1.2.                     Is it your commitment to not allow anything in your heart nor done by your body that would not glorify God with that temple which is your body?

 

11.1.3.                     This morning, lets learn from Samson’s mistakes and sins and commit our hearts to purity and our bodies to holiness and sanctification unto the Lord.                    

 

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