Sunday Sermonette: A holy man of God

So were in the basic Judges Groundhog Day situation: the Israelites have displeased God, so he's sold them -- or in this case apparently given them away -- to another people, in this case the Philistines. And now, to repeat the story for the 7th or 8th time, God needs a champion to massacre the oppressors and free the Israelites. In the case of Samson, however, it does get a bit more complicated. Remember that Samson is a Nazirite, dedicated to the service of God, who appears to have some surprising moral standards for his servants. Spiritually enlightened this guy is not.

14 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. ² When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”

³ His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”

But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” ⁴ (His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)

Normally God starts a plague or strikes people dead or whatever when they miscegenate, but in this case it's all part of a plot to get Samson good and mad so he'll murder some Philistines. 

⁵ Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. ⁶ The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

⁸ Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. ⁹ He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

¹⁰ Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. ¹¹ When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions.

¹² “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. ¹³ If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”

¹⁴ He replied,

“Out of the eater, something to eat;
    out of the strong, something sweet.”

Why did they accept this deal? 

For three days they could not give the answer.

¹⁵ On the fourth^[a] day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property?”

¹⁶ Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”

“I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” ¹⁷ She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

¹⁸ Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,

“What is sweeter than honey?
    What is stronger than a lion?”

Samson said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
    you would not have solved my riddle.”

"Plowed with my heifer" is widely considered to be a sexual innuendo, although it doesn't seem to be justified --- they actually threatened to murder her and her entire family. In any case, it doesn't seem nice to call his wife a cow.

¹⁹ Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home.

Right, so the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, inspiring him to murder 30 innocent men for their clothing. God works in mysterious ways.

²⁰ And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.

Footnotes

1. Judges 14:15 Some Septuagint manuscripts and Syriac; Hebrew seventh