A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at themes that show up in the early part of Samson's story. Today's post continues Samson's story, mostly from Judges 14.
Everyday life under Philistine oppression proceeded for Israel and for Manoah’s family until Samson got to marriageable age...and promptly fell for a Philistine girl. No bueno. God had told His people that they weren’t supposed to marry foreigners, and Samson’s parents tried to encourage him to find an Israelite girl to marry, but Samson wasn’t interested. He told his dad, “Get her for me, because she is right in my eyes.”
If you’ve been reading Judges, hearing that phrase coming from Samson should pull you up short. I mean, as you read the book, there’s been this recurring theme of “there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Throughout Judges, God has been indicating that the main source of trouble in the land was the independent, law-ignoring, I-do-things-my-way spirit among God’s people that led them away from God and into all kinds of evil. And suddenly, the sentiment comes straight from the mouth of the young man that God has promised was going to begin to deliver Israel. It’s rather disillusioning to find out that the promised deliverer has actually embraced the lawless attitude of his culture. Keep reading, though. What comes next is fascinating.
“Samson said to his father, ‘Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.’ His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for He was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.”
What?
Blink twice.
And then keep on reading.
“Samson went down to Timnah...a young lion came toward him roaring….The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces….Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.”
Samson takes a trip to see the girl he’s interested in, gets attacked by a lion, experiences supernatural strengthening by the Spirit of God, kills the the lion with his bare hands, and continues on down to the girl’s town. And the text reiterates: “she was right in Samson’s eyes.” God is definitely making a point here.
What is He communicating to us?
I’m sure that this is not a comprehensive answer, but as I’ve meditated on this passage and others from the book of Judges (similar motifs/sin/failures show up in the lives of the other judges - the deliverers that God raised up for His people), here are some thoughts that have been an encouragement to me:
- God gives an honest portrayal of the human reality that we are all affected by the culture and times that we live in. Every human being gets marked by the date/time stamp of his environment. We all bear some of the earmarks of our culture, and not even the godliest of us escapes being tainted by attitudes and thought patterns that, viewed from God’s perspective, are corrupt and rebellious.
- God’s sovereign purposes continue unhindered. Samson’s disobedience to the law of God and his contamination by the spirit of his culture didn’t “ruin” God’s plan for Samson’s life. God actually worked His plan for His people out right in the middle of mess.
- God uses flawed servants. God has only ever had one perfect Servant. His name was Jesus, and He was the one-of-a-kind Son of God who lived out complete obedience to the will of God. All of the rest of God’s servants are flawed, and God demonstrates His power, grace, glory, and humility by working in and through broken, sinful people.
- God’s ways are inscrutable. Samson is traveling to a Philistine town to pursue something that God has forbidden. Instead of allowing him to be eaten by the lion, God the Spirit empowers him to kill the lion bare-handed (all the while knowing that, in a couple of weeks, Samson would also break part of his Nazirite vow by touching the lion’s dead body). (Also, God is very patient.)
What does this mean for us?
Well...do you find yourself frustrated by your own sin and failure? Have you discovered shards of your culture’s lies and rebellion against God imbedded deeply in your own thought patterns? Does the tension between God’s sovereignty and the existence of evil ever unsettle you? Do God’s perplexing actions and complex patterns of light and darkness wreak havoc on your sense of justice, logic, and the way things “should be”?
Child of God, life in a broken world is hard. Isn’t it? The Bible reminds us that things have always been this way. And for millennia, God has navigated His people through these troubled and troubling waters and given us Himself and His truth to help us chart a steady course. Draw encouragement from Samson’s turbulent life and the truth about God’s character and ways that shine so brightly in the middle of it all. This God is our God, and He will hold us fast.
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