9. “The Riddle of Sampson” (Judges 13-15)

There’s a lot of things we know we are supposed to trust God with. Finances: you have to make an expensive repair on our car and money is tight; you feel overwhelmed. But you remind yourself that you can trust God to provide. You don’t know how, but he has promised to care for your needs.

Health: you get a phone call from your doctor, telling you that the result of the tests don’t look good, and it could be cancer. You suddenly feel the whole world shifting; you feel weak, terrified. But you whisper a prayer God, clinging to his promise to care for you. You don’t know how, and you realize God might even choose not to heal you. But he has promised to care for you in the face of sickness. You can trust him.

Finances, health, these things are not easy to trust God with. And yet we know that God has that we can trust him. That he will care for our needs.

But let me ask this: can you trust God with your own sin? When it’s your fault and you did something really harmful, what then? You’ve gotten addicted to sports betting and now you have put your family into huge debt. Or you have a problem with your temper and you said something at work to your boss that is likely to get you fired. You did this to yourself. In a moment of failure like this, can you trust God to be good? Or should you say, this is on me. I shouldn’t expect God to bail me out of this one.

I have a suspicion that in general we have an easier time believing that when bad things happen to us, God will take care of us. But when bad things happen through us, we’re left on our own.

And I want us to see this morning that God’s Word tells us that this is completely wrong. In the story of Samson we are meant to see that amazingly and mysteriously, even in the big mistakes we make, God is still with us, taking care of us, bringing about our good. God’s goodness cannot be thwarted by our sin.

The Tension: God’s Plans and Sinful Purposes

For us to understand the story we’ve read, we need to take a step back and consider the big picture.

Hundreds of years before, in the book of Genesis, very early on in the history of humanity, things were not looking good for us. An arrogant, God-defying humanity was humbled by God at the tower of Babel through confusing their speech. God scattered them across the globe. Now, the human race will be divided, at odds with each other. From this point forward, humanity will experience the horrors of warfare, the horrors of thousands of young men seeking to slaughter thousands of other young men, all in the name of a king, of a nation. So the question that arises at the end of the first 11 chapters of Genesis is this: “Is there any hope left? Has humanity so botched things for this world that death and warfare and famine and poverty will be all it can expect? Has sin permanently ruined God’s good world?

But then, God sets into motion something extraordinary, something that clearly happens only by his power and grace. He takes an elderly, childless couple, Abraham and Sarah, relocates them into a new country, and astonishingly promises that this old and infertile couple will conceive and bear a son. And God goes on to tell them that through this son will come a great nation. And through that great nation, all of this broken and battered world will be saved.” God promised to save the world through the miraculous birth of a child.

And so Isaac was born to 100-year-old Abraham. And from his children and his children’s children, over the course of centuries, the great nation promised by God, the nation of Israel, came into being. From its very beginning, Israel was special. From its very miraculous start, Israel was set apart to belong to God, given the sacred calling of bringing salvation to this world. Israel was God’s rescue plan for the world.

But the book of Judges has brought us face to face with what seems to be an insolvable problem to God’s plan. We know that no enemy nation is strong enough to overcome God’s plans—God can defeat all threats. And we know that God is able to provide for every need of his people. But, what is he going to do about his people’s sin? Israel seems stubbornly intent on turning away from its past and its identity. These people are set apart to be holy, and yet they seek again and again to become like everyone else. They are meant to bring salvation to the nations, returning them to God, and yet instead Israel seeks to join the nations and turn away from God. We know that God has an answer for every threat that stands outside of Israel. But what will he do about Israel’s sin? Will God’s good promise that he made to Abraham to save the world be thwarted by people’s sin?    

It’s a huge question. And it’s the question we’re meant to consider in the story of Samson. Because, you see, the story of Samson in a real sense IS the story of Israel.

In verse 2 we meet a couple who are unable to have children. And God says to them in verse 3, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children. But you shall conceive and bear a son.” Sound familiar? And then in verse 4 we find out that this son is meant to be set apart to belong to God in a special way, and he has a purpose. It says he is “to begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” Do you see? This is Israel’s origin story, all over again. Samson’s birth, like Isaac’s birth, is a miraculous act of grace. He, like Israel as a nation, is set apart as holy, belonging to God. And his calling to bring salvation parallels Israel’s calling to bring salvation to the earth. We are meant to understand Samson as, in a real sense, the embodiment of the people of Israel; his story is Israel’s story.

And there is one other key way he is like Israel. He doesn’t want to be what he is. The very first action we see Samson taking is to leave Israel, to go to the land of the Philistines, not to fight them, but to join them. He sees a daughter of the Philistines and says, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Now get her for me as my wife.” As we will repeatedly see in what follows, Samson has no interest in being holy to God. And he certainly doesn’t want to save God’s people from the Philistines. Maybe he feels overwhelmed or even resentful of the idea that he is supposed to be different and that he is meant to bring salvation. Maybe he just wants to feel in control. For whatever reason, what Samson wants is to turn his back on his calling and become just like one of the Philistines. Here, too, he is just like Israel.

Here’s the tension of our story. God has miraculously brought Samson life, made him special and called him to bring salvation. But Samson wants to reject all this and do what is right in his own eyes. Given this, how can God’s plan possibly succeed? This is the key question that both Israel’s story and Samson story poses. And it’s the story we’re considering in our own life. Can our sin thwart God’s goodness?    

A Story at Two Levels

Samson makes a demand to marry the Philistine woman. That this is a bad idea is quite clear from the reaction of his parents. “Why take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” By calling them “Uncircumcised” his parents are reminding him that these are not part of God’s covenant. They’re not the people he is to join; they’re the enemy. But he responds, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”  Viewed at one level, this single choice to do what is right in his own eyes will plunge Samson’s life into unending betrayal, violence, and chaos.

Verse 5 tells us that one day as Samson travels down the road to have a date with his fiancée, something strange happens along the way. A roaring lion attacks him. And here’s when we learn something else about Samson. God has given him miraculous, unimaginable strength. Rather than running away like every other human being in the world would, Samson, in a fury of destructive strength, tears apart the lion into pieces with his bare hands. And then, catching his breath, he walks away, not telling anyone, no big deal.

If that’s not strange enough, some days later he walks by what remained of the lion’s carcass and says, “Would you look at that—there’s a beehive in it,” and he puts his hand in and scoops out some honey, and eats it—which by the way is not just unsanitary but also very ceremonially unclean, but he doesn’t care about that, and later gives some to his parents.

So the time comes for Samson and his fiancée to have a Philistine wedding in the Philistine town with Philistine guests, and it would seem that Samson is very close to getting what he wants: to lose his distinctiveness and become like the nations. But perhaps you noticed a kind of strange statement in verse 11: “As soon as the people, that is, likely the family of the bride, saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him.” In other words, they saw that this Israelite was a massive hulk of a man, and they didn’t trust him. He might want to become one of them, but they’re not quite so ready to take him in. They figured the smart thing to do would be to get 30 “friends” to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t get out of hand.

And, it would seem, this bugs him. Why should he need a baby-sitter, let alone 30? So he makes a bet with them, and it’s a bet that is designed to make these Philistine “companions” fail and look stupid. The winner gets 30 pairs of clothes, and the contest is over a riddle. “Out of the eater came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet.” Only Samson knows about the lion and the honey—it’s a sure thing!

And this attempt to assert dominance, to show he’s the alpha is going to start a chain reaction of destruction. The “companions” approach the Philistine wife and say, “We’ll burn your family to death if you don’t tell us the answer to the riddle.” They do not want to be shamed by this Israelite! Samsons’ wife agrees to betray Samson; she manipulates him into revealing the answer and then relays the info to the 30 companions, who on the very last day come back to Samson with a satisfied smirk and say, “Samson, what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?”

And, well, this makes Samson Very. Angry. He departs the group and again in a frenzy of destructive strength goes to the Philistine city of Ashkelon and kills 30 men, grabs their clothes, and brings them back to the companions saying, “Here’s your payment for winning the bet.”

And furious, feeling embarrassed before the Philistines and betrayed by his own wife it says that Samson “in hot anger returned back to his father’s house.” Unhappy and thwarted, Samson returns home.

You might have noticed earlier that I said “viewed at one level this choice will plunge Samson’s life into unending chaos.” There is another level to what has happened here. In fact, if you’ve been looking closely at the passage, you might notice that I haven’t been telling the whole story.

There are two other aspects to this chapter that we need to notice. First, while it’s easy to think of Samson as this wild, immoral pleasure-seeker, there’s a detail we’re given about him that complicates this picture. Notice how at the end of 13 it says that as the boy Samson grows, the Spirit of the Lord, of Yahweh, began to stir him. A better translation might be, “began to disturb him.” Almost as if there’s a war inside Samson. Part of him might want to abandon himself to this world. But there is also a part within him that feels God’s rage against evil. And at certain times we see this holy rage empowering him. When the lion roars at him, it says that it’s the Spirit of Yahweh that empowers him to tear it apart. When he feels wronged by the 30 companions, it’s the Spirit of Yahweh empowering him to attack the other Philistines. Somehow even in the tempest of Samson’s soul, the Lord is at work.

And that brings us to the other very important detail in our story. When the parents are distressed over Samson’s request for a Philistine bride, we are told that Samson’s request was “from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.” What an extraordinary statement! In this choice to go down to the Philistines, Samson is actively trying to reject God’s purpose for him and just live a life like the other nations. At a human level it appears that Samson is derailing God’s plans.

And yet what is really happening is that God is choosing to use this sinful inclination in Samson to bring about what God wants. What ends up happening? Samson wants to become like the Philistines, but what does he end up doing? He shames and attacks the Philistines. He wants to live with them, but where does he end up? In his father’s home. Remarkably, mysteriously, in what appears like chaos with lions and honey and sin and betrayal and violence, God brings about his purposes.

And in case you miss it, it happens all over again, to an even greater degree, in chapter 15.

A Second Story at Two Levels

We won’t have as much time to explore the details, but even in broad strokes we see the same pattern. Later on after some months of cooling off, Samson starts feeling all amorous again and decides that now is the time to begin to enjoy marital bliss with this Philistine woman. But as he travels into the Philistine village and knocks on the door of his father-in-law, goat in his huge hand meant I guess as a romantic gift?—what better way to woo a woman than a bleating goat—the girl’s father stops him at the door and says, “Well, you left, so I married her off to your best man. But you can marry her sister—she’s better looking anyway.”

And by now you probably know that Samson’s not going to be super chill about this. No, he somehow gathers 300 foxes, sets their tails on fire, and spreads them throughout the Philistine grainfields, destroying lots of their food. Which then leads to the Philistines going and burning his wife’s family. Which then leads, once again, to Samson attacking and defeating a bunch more of those Philistines that he was, you know, trying to join. Grumpily he heads back to Judah, once again, to his own people, to go hide in a cave there.

But the chain reaction of events isn’t over. As you might imagine, the Philistines are now feeling even less friendly toward this man who previously sought to become one of them. Before, they threatened Samson’s wife; now they threaten the people of Judah saying we’ll harm you if you don’t give us Samson. And so now Samson’s own fellow Israelites betray Samson, binding him and handing him over to the Philistines.

Verse 14 gives us the climactic battle scene of chapter 15: there Samson is, tied to a tree, bound hand and foot. A huge Philistine army at the top of the hill, confident of victory charge at Samson with a battle cry. And once again, the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon him, enabling him to break his bonds as if they were nothing. He finds the jawbone of a dead donkey and once again, filled with power, he goes into this destructive frenzy. He kills them all. And then, throwing down the donkey jawbone he composes a song to celebrate his awesomeness. Verse 16: “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of a donkey have a I struck a thousand men.”

Which is not only a dumb song but a mistaken one. Because it’s not him—it’s the power of the Lord.

And then the story of chapter 15 concludes in quiet. At the end of all of this, Samson is spent. He is overwhelmed with thirst, so much so that he is afraid that he will die before escaping the Philistine land. And in his moment of weakness, notice what he does. He calls upon Yahweh for help and acknowledges the truth: “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” He identifies with the God who has called him and rejects the Philistines using the word his father did at the beginning of the story: they are the uncircumcised. And it says “God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.”

Here it is again. Samson goes down to the Philistines seeking to join them. But somehow God is able to work in and through Samson’s sinful choice and a whole bunch of mess and chaos and lead Samson to bring destruction to the Philistines, just as God had intended. In all of this, Samson begins to save Israel from the Philistines, just as God said. And what’s more, even despite all the power of sin within Samson’s soul, in the end, God brings Samson back to himself.

Conclusion

There’s more to the story, more that we will consider next week. But do you see the point? As bad as it is, is not enough to stop God in his purposes to do good. When we do what is foolish and dishonoring to God, yes, we will often experience painful consequences, just as Samson’s choices brought him so much misery. But our sin is not enough to stop God’s grace. When God is for you, he is mysteriously able to work even in and through your sin to bring about his good purposes. You can trust him even with your sin.

Close with two descriptions of how this works, one rather trivial, and one very much not.

When I was in college, I very much wanted to be an RA. But when I interviewed for the position, I messed up. I came off as arrogant, because, well, I was, close-minded, because I kind of was that too, and not the kind of guy you’d want to lead a bunch of freshmen experiencing college for the first time. Because of my own sinfulness, I failed, and I felt really dejected after.

But what I didn’t realize was that what I needed was a group of guy friends who would help me come into my own, which is what I got next year on the floor I lived in because I wasn’t an RA. What I didn’t realize is that the extracurricular activity I would do instead of being an RA in my junior year would lead me to getting to know a woman who would later become my wife. Precisely in my own failure, brought about by my immaturity and sin, God brought about good.

That’s the trivial example. But if we need to be convinced of this, there’s one much greater even than the story of Samson. Consider the worst, most terrible thing that humanity has ever done. When God our Creator became one of us in Jesus, humbling himself to bring us back to him, to heal us, to give us life, what did we do? We rejected him. We hated him. We did everything we could to strip Jesus of dignity, killing him in the very worst, most brutal way, on the cross. And yet there, in that most unspeakably evil of acts, God in that very moment was doing what is unimaginably, inexpressibly good, taking away our sin and death, giving us new life and bringing us back to him.

Do you see that? Our sin, no matter how big, is never big enough to stop God and his gracious purposes. You can trust God, even with your sin. Yes every instruction God gives to us is for our good, which means yes, disobedience will bring negative consequences, as it did with Samson. And yet we also see that all of the sin and chaos of Samson, all of the sin and chaos of Israel is not enough to stop God from saving and doing good to a people that he loves. And that means that all of the sin and chaos inside you is not enough to stop God either. You can trust God to care for you and do good even in the midst of your own failure. Even with your sin.

And so, let’s turn to the loving, forgiving God we can trust even here and confess our sins to him.