Let's open with me to Judges, Judges chapter 14. This is the second chapter of the episode looking at Samson, but the one in which we finally meet Samson. And we will be looking at it really with three main headings and three main points. We'll kind of see them as we read along. But Samson will kind of say what he is like compared to the lion. And then as we compare him to Israel, think about him in comparison with Israel and what they are. And then God, what God is doing. Samson and the lion, Samson and Israel, Samson and God. But let us now read together Judges chapter 14. Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife. But his father and mother said to him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? And 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. At that time, the Philistines ruled over Israel. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah, and behold, a young lion came towards him roaring. Then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes. After some days he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. He scraped it out with his hands, and went on eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother, and gave some to them, and they his. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there. for so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. And they said to him, Put your riddle, that we can hear it. And they said to them, Out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet. And in three days they could not solve the riddle. On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us? Samson's wife wept over him and said, You only hate me. You do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people and have not told me what it is. And he said to her, Hold, I have not told my father or my mother. Shall I tell you? She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? 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. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the rule. In hot anger, he went back to his father's house, and Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. I grew up watching nature shows. I lived in a nature area, too, in Alaska, but I always loved watching nature shows of Africa. and especially the lions. The lions were always amazing to me. I longed to go see these big majestic creatures, never mind that we had grizzly bears in our backyard, but these were the real dangers out there. And so I always wanted to go see lions. So whenever I find lions in the Old Testament, I'm immediately drawn a little bit to it. I want to see what's happening. And so, a lion is actually a very important part here, as we're getting to know who this figure, Samson, is. What do we know about him? And the term used here is a little bit interesting. The Israelites, they seem to have known quite a bit about lions. There are at least six different words that they use for lions. And some of them are for various stages of development. There's a term for a lion cub when they're young. And then there's another term, and it's part of what's used here, the doctor translated, this young lion. And this young lion, sometimes they call it sub-adult lion, but it would be almost full-grown, would keep growing. It's reached maturity in that, but it is this transitional time where the lion is no longer the cub in with everybody else, but it's now going out on its own. It's usually leaving the pride in that. And what some have argued is the particular words used here is to characterize this as one of those young lions that has gone out and is now somewhat nomadic. And they do this for a set amount of time, at least that's what the lion people that I've read tell me. And they, during this time, are in many ways the most dangerous. Because they have almost their full strength, and they're a little bit reckless and aggressive as they're out on their own, not settled back into a crime. And so one commentator says it this way, he says, it is a nomadic lion, which is perhaps the most dangerous instance of the world's dominant land predator that one could possibly encounter. And that is the kind of lion that Samson encounters. And what does he do? He meets it barehanded, and he tears it apart. He doesn't just kill it. This term there is used elsewhere, quartering things, where you're actually removing it, tearing parts off of it. He is able to rip this lion, and probably that's what exposes it and allows those beasts to come in later. And so as we read that and see that, we have no chance. Right, of course he does this. But we should be amazed by it, right? This is the first thing, one of these first things we find out about. he faces and he kills this lion that comes out of the boob to attack him. Not, you know, not just barely, he tears it up. And so we should rightly be in awe. Here is one with surely the strength to save Israel, to bring about what they need, fight their enemies. But we should notice here that we probably know more than Samson does, Because we know where that strength came from. As we look, this is in verse 5 there. Verse 6 is where we get the response. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one butchers a young goat. As one butchers a young goat, he tore it in pieces. And so we know it's the Spirit who is giving him his strength. We don't know if Samson recognizes that yet. But I think we could also somewhat say there is a little comparison here. Because Samson's actually very much a similar stage in life to this life. He is full of strength, but he's just leaving his father and mother's house. Going out on his own, a little reckless, a little aggressive, as we'll see late. Maybe we could say he's a teenager, a little bit late-age teenager as they go out. Maybe early 20s, however it was. But he's young. He has his full power of mind and body, and how is he going to use it as he gets ready to leave? And so as we think of that, what really gets set up is a comparison with Israel. And to remember that, we should think about chapter 13 just a little bit. Because in chapter 13, we get a long birth announcement of who is this figure going to be? And we find there that he's set up as a Nazarite. And the Nazarite was an Israelite that devoted themselves to the Lord, dedicated themselves as holy, and thus had distinct rules that they needed to keep. And so he was to be this set-apart, this holy one. And from what we read in 13, it especially emphasizes his mother, even in the pregnancy, couldn't have anything from the vine, any grapes, any wine, any alcohol. And when he comes out, he's not to cut his hair. And also, they're not to eat anything unclean. And so he has all of these rules that are to regulate him and most rightly argue that this is very similar to what Israel. Israel had been established as that holy people, and they had been marked out by God's rules for them to keep them distinct from the nations. And so we will see how he does. But also, he's supposed to save, or begin to save. He's told to his mother that this one will begin to save Israel. I believe it's only his mother that actually knows that, But we also know it as readers. And so, this comes near the end of the book of Judges. There's been an ongoing cycle of all of these Judges as Israel continues to go against the Lord, do what's evil, God raises up those who oppress them, and then he brings saviors. But we found ourselves at the end, and if we read chapter 13, You see the cycle is really broken down because Israel has again done what is evil. God has sinned against them, the Philistines, but they've never cried out. And we'll see that that will be important as we go. And he's going to sin, not a Savior to save, but one to begin to save. So, as we read this story, keeping in line what Samson was supposed to do, we see some of the details, and we begin to see his character. It's not exactly known why, but when he goes into a vineyard, we wonder if he went there to eat some grapes, which would have been prohibited by his Nazarite status. But surely we need to see that after he kills a lion and then he comes back to the lion and in that rotting carcass of the lion there is this beehive with honey and he takes it out. That would have been a forbidden thing. That rotting carcass was one of the sources of uncleanness in Israel and it would have polluted also that honey. And so he was eating what was unpleasing, what had been forbidden, told to his mother that she and he would need to watch out. And lastly on this, what does he do near the end? Well, in our translation, it says he's making a party as he's getting ready for his wedding. What probably is a better translation is it's a drinking feast. that's what it's focused on. It's related to the word for drinking, and that was probably most of what happened at it. And it was a choir. And so, again, we're very much questioning because that was against his Nazirite rule. He is going about all of these things, very much seeming to ignore, to ignore that. But the biggest thing is actually what's right at the beginning. This one raised up to fight, to save, begin to save Ezra from the Philistines. What's the first thing he wants to do? He wants to marry one. He wants to marry the enemy. And as we think on that, God had raised this danger of intermarriage many, many times with Israel. And the problem was assimilation. As God always raises it up, as he puts it before Israel, if you give your daughters to them, you take their daughters, this intermarriage, and you will take over their values, you will take over their beliefs, you will take over their gods. And this is this wife that he's going after. It very much seems that that's what is happening as he's doing Philistine customs to prepare for this wedding. His wife is still calling the Philistines my people versus somebody like Ruth who gave up her people to be part of God's people. And this is really the problem at the beginning of the whole Judges cycle. Judges 3, verse 6 says, And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, speaking of the Canaanites and Israel, and their own daughters they gave to them, the Canaanites, to their sons, and they served their gods. And that was the whole reason that God then sent these various forms of oppression. So as one commentator says, he says, If at the beginning it was intermarriage with Gentiles that got Israel into trouble, so that they needed a Deliverer, at the end, the Deliverer is guilty of the very same thing himself. And so, we find out that Israel's judge is no better than Israel itself. What is Israel going to do with a Savior that himself needs to be saved? How can this story come out right? this dire time that Israel was in, this danger with the Philistines around about them, as we said, this problem was that they weren't even crying out. They were not even seeing this as a danger. They were accepting them as rulers. And so it wasn't really this oppression. For some form, that was the problem of that absorption. God's people were in danger of disappearing from this earth. And we should see how Samson goes about this intermarriage. Very much dishonoring to parents. Take her for me. I do not care what you say. As they ask, there's many women amongst our people. And what does he pin it on? He says twice, but we can see it there in verse 3. They said, isn't there somebody amongst them? And right at the end, he says, but Samson said to his father, get her for me, for she is right in my eyes. And as we hear that phrase, it's a phrase that the author is going to pick up in just a few more chapters, As he characterizes this whole time of Israel, it was a time when Israel, everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. There was no king in the land. And so, we know the end of the story. We know where Samson's eyes will lead him. His weakness is once as they take him on this path to destruction. And so, Samson, as we see him here, he's his own man. He has no need for parents, no need for God. He's confident in his own prodigious strength, his own crafty mind. He can do what he wants, and he's going to do it in the way he wants. He has a total disregard for this holy calling upon his life. And it seems like a total ignorance or ignoring of a purpose to serve God's people. And just as we said he was an image of Israel in his calling, he's really an image of Israel in his rebellion. The Samson story was this mirror to put up for Israel to see, to confront their misplaced self-confidence, their self-absorbed interests, relying on their own wisdom. Did they really think they were outside God's control and not dependent upon him? And as we contemplate that and think of that, we all, maybe none of us, can tear a lion with our bare hands. But we are very much like Samson, as we all struggle with the same problems. A rebellion against God, assimilation to the world. God has marked us out as his own. We saw it this morning in baptism. Marked as holy, belonging to God. Yet we're constantly in danger of being sucked in by a culture that's bombarding us on all sides. We're called to be distinctive. Our distinctiveness, it will look a little different from Old Testament. We're not called to go out and make these physical battles, but this distinctiveness is just as real. Our priorities, our hopes, our view of basically everything in this world is to be formed and shaped by our relationship with God. And I want to press that especially on you who are about to go out, who have gone out. that transitional time from your parents' house to establish life on your own. It's a time of many choices. It's a time of many decisions. May you look. May you honor your parents, remember your parents, and may you remember your baptism. God's mark upon you has told you. But God was working. Samson and God. One of the themes we find in this chapter is what is known and what is unknown. Samson hides things from his parents as he kills the lion, sees the honey as he tells that riddle. And yet, this biggest thing that is unknown to the characters in the story that's revealed to us is God is actually orchestrating this whole thing. Chapter 14, verse 4, it says, His father and mother, and I'm surely Samson also, did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time, the Philistines ruled over Israel. This wedding was God's occasion. It was a way in which he was going to pick a fight. God wasn't invited to it, so he was going to crash it. And how does he do that? How do we see that? How does he use this wedding as this way to pick a fight with the Philistines? Well, he really just let Samson be himself. Setting up Samson to sabotage his own party and end in this conflict that would go out. And we can kind of see that in two storylines that are in this chapter. One is very much Samson and him in charge with a plan as he goes about to get this bride that is good in his eyes. He has this plan, and he's carrying it out. And there's this theme in very many ways. If you read it, he's always going down, going down, going down. Certainly there's a physical going down. Most writers see it also as a spiritual, a metaphoric use of it. But there's also something that's outside of his plan. As he's going down on one of those times, he confronts a lion. Now, there were lions around, as we said, but this wasn't an ordinary occasion. It was actually a little unusual. But maybe even more unusual than that is that the next time he goes down and he goes to check out his trophy, his kill, He finds that in that amount of time, bees have taken up and they've made honey. And most commentators see this as a little strange. This is what normally happens. You usually don't find a hive of bees in a carcass of an animal. And so, very much it seems to point to this unusualness of it, this unusual providence of God. Because these two things, they come together in the riddle. Because now he's at this party that has been set up, and he poses this riddle based on what he experienced with the lion and the honey. And what is he doing? Well, based on what we know of him, it very much seems like he's trying to dominate. He likes the focus of attention to be on himself, and he's sending a message to his new family that he's not one to trifle with, and he will get his way. He won't be intimidated. Many commentators have said this is very much a provocation on his part, Because he's basically giving them a riddle that's unsolvable. You need to know his unique experiences, something that he just had happen. And he says, this is perfect. I have them trapped. I can give this experience. I can use this as this way to get the upper hand. The little bit of hostility that is maybe there already is sort of somewhat seen in verse 11. You get this unusual phrase, he's making this beast, and it says, as soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. It doesn't seem like it was trying to place friends by him, maybe more a little bit bodyguards to keep him in check. They're a little worried about what this guy will do. and so he ups the ante a little bit he tells them this riddle with this wager on it and they very much see it as unfair and we can see that there in verse 15 as they take his unfair riddle and then use an unfair way to gather the answer entice your husband they say to his wife tell us what this riddle is or it will burn you. Have you invited us here to impoverish us? They see his brittle as this way to impoverish him. So they take whatever means they can to counteract him. And it pays off. It works. His wife works on him the whole week. And he caves and gives in. It tells her the answer. And in their response, notice it's given again as questions, it's a little what, it's its own riddle. Verse 18 there, they respond to him and say, what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And so it's clearly alluding to what he said, but many have said it also is a little bit of a needle, a little push on him. Because one answer to that, what is sweeter than honey, what's stronger than a lion, could be love. What overcame Samson himself, as his wife got the answer from him, who said, don't you love me, you hate me. And so, what does this lead to? Well, as we said, Samson, reckless and aggressive, this triggers his anger. It triggers his anger right away. His revenge, his rage is brought out. And so what does he do? He goes down and kills 30 Philistines in order to get what is needed to pay. And again, it's the Lord, as we see there. Verse 19, And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and he went down to Ashkelon and struck 30 men. And he brought their spoil back. And then he storms off back to his father's house. And this is a cycle of enmity that will then continue on in chapter 15 and in 16. This hostility that will build and build between Samson and the Philistines that pour over to Israel. And so God, he's using Samson to start this fight. He's using Samson to create enmity between his people and the Philistines. And Samson has no idea. Samson was beginning to save, but without knowing he was saved. And he was beginning to save a people who had never even asked to be saved. So one commentator, he says, With brilliant irony, the narrator describes a free spirit, a rebel driven by selfish interests, doing whatever he pleases without any respect for his parents and with no respect for the claims of God on his life. But in the process, he ends up doing the will of God. God is sovereign behind us. And if we continue to look on, we see that God was at work in Samson and in Israel. It is a process where Samson actually begins to learn of his dependence upon God. He sees that most at that end of his life when he actually can't see anymore. He's been blinded by those Philistines. But it's also this continued work with Israel. As Philistine oppression under Samuel and then especially under David will drive Israel to express and turn to God their repentance. And it will show what sort of a savior they really need. They need the one who is not about himself as we kept reading. We see Samson continues in that way. But they need that savior who will serve his people. the one who would ultimately lay down his life for his people. And as we close here, I've often told people to ask me, what's your favorite book of the Bible? I often tell them the book of Judges. I'm surprised. And then I get to tell them why. And it's not just the great stories of battle and intrigue. More so, it's the depiction of what was in many ways Israel's darkest days. And it's the story that God was working then. And it gives us confidence that God is still working now. We can be comforted, comforted that God takes the initiative to save his people. We would never seek him on earth. that we would continue in our own path of destruction that he has sought us out. And it gives us comfort that God accomplishes his purposes despite, sometimes even through, our own sin. He worked through Samson. He can work through you and me. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the confidence we can have in your word. We rejoice and thank you for the salvation of Christ, your love of us while we were your enemies, and we rejoice that you choose to use us. We pray broken as we are. May we in that walk, not in our own strength, but knowing that it is you who works through this. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.