Today we're continuing on in Samson's life and we begin in Judges chapter 14. Judges chapter 14. Terry Bresinger wrote this. Our introduction to the appetites and exploits of Samson also exposes us to his character. He is a spoiled child who gives his passions primacy over people. In this chapter, his poor choices lead him into episodes with a lion, a nagging fiance, and a gambling debt that requires him to murder people for their clothes. Even so, while Samson appears to have abandoned God, God has not abandoned Samson. It's quite an overview. Well, what happened? Let's look at the first three verses of chapter 14. It says, And then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. 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. Well, first of all, Probably not the way most of you would like your son to go choose a wife All right Then his father and his mother said to him Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives or among our people that you could go to take a wife? 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. I 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. Now, clearly, everything that Samson liked about this lady was visual. I talked to somebody, and he's going to remain nameless because some of you might know him. He said he went to college. He was in the You know, a young kid in college and he was in the lunchroom and he saw a girl come through the lunchroom and he turned to this guy and says, I'm going to marry that lady right there. He didn't. But, you know, I mean, what was there about that lady? Clearly, he didn't know anything about her. I don't even think he knew her name at that point in time. And it looks like probably Samson in this case as well. But what he did know about her, he knew she was a Philistine, and that may be it. And he liked how she looked. How close did he get to her to see how well she looked? I have no idea. Did he say anything to her? That doesn't sound like it. But in the passage, Samson thought that he was entitled to whatever pleased him. Get her for me, for she looks good to me is a very telling Look into the life and the attitude of Samson It showed that he had no respect for the law or the commands of God and staying away from foreign women God told Israel many times do not intermarry with the pagans well Samson was Nope, I don't care about that one He had no respect for his parents' counsel in marrying within the Israelite nation, as they tried to counsel him. He also had no regard for the feeling of a woman. Now, it was more like a possession. I'm going to go down to the pet store, and I'm going to buy this doggie in the window, because that's not one I want to buy. And basically, that's the attitude. His wants came first. She looks good to me. David Guzik wrote this, God did use Samson mightily, but God used Samson despite his sin, not because of it. It's fair to suppose that God may have used Samson in a far greater way if he made himself a clean vessel, according to the principle of 2 Timothy 2. And I think David Guzik is right. God used Samson. But he could have used Samson much more than he did. This example shows the ongoing issue Israelites had in marrying pagan worshipers. And that caused them to turn again and again and again into pagan worship practice. And that's kind of why they were being controlled by the Philistines at that point in time. Now there's a parallel, I think, between this passage and Christians today. 2 Corinthians 6.14 says this, Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Now as we look at the actions of those who call themselves Christians today, we see a very similar disregard for God's instructions. And as you would expect, these actions have ramifications that many times cause a ton of heartache and a ton of angst. In 2015, this is the most recent one I could find, the Pew Research Center did a survey and they asked or tried to find out how many Americans were tend to marry outside of their faith. In 1950 or 1960 so in the 1950s and before 81% of the people married a spouse that was within their own religious beliefs 81% Pre 1960 11% of Christians married a spouse from a different Christian tradition. Now, I don't know exactly what that means, but it could mean a Baptist with a Episcopalian, something like that. Yeah, you have the general Christian beliefs, but there's some pretty good differences. In what percentage was that one? 11. Okay. In 2010 to 2014, That number of 81% slipped to 61%. And 18% of Christians married to an unaffiliated spouse at the time of the marriage. 18%. All right. Well, one out of five, basically. What this shows is that before 1950, 5% of Christians would marry a non-Christian spouse. Interestingly, my father was one of those. But my mother became a believer. God was gracious. And that moved to 18% in 2010 to 2014. And I got to believe it's more than that now. So we kind of do the same thing that Samson was doing. And it causes problems just about every time, not every time. And there are people who are married to non-believers, but that's because neither were believers when they were saved, or one professed to be a believer when they're saved, and then they found out it was just a profession, and they were duping themselves or their spouse. I don't consider that the same thing like Samson was doing. Samson was one. I like her. Get her for me. Verse 4. This is quite a verse. Verse 4 is just, you know, you can sit there and go, hmm. However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord. For he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. He is the Lord. Now at that time, the Philistines were ruling over Israel. So I'm looking at that verse and going, how do we take that? And a commentator named Daniel Block wrote this. He says, the narrator's interlude in verse four is the key to this episode and indeed the entire Samson account. For here he provides a theological explanation of Samson's escapades. The issues are much more momentous than simply a young man from an obscure Danite town arriving in a neighboring Philistine town, seeing a young woman there and desiring to marry her. The ignorance of Samson's parents is critical. Despite the young man's auspicious beginnings and their knowledge of his calling, because they knew he was a Nazirite, The angel of the Lord came to them and told him they were going to have a son, and he was going to start the process of taking the Philistine oppression away. He goes on and says, they are as insensitive to the ways of Yahweh as they are to many other elements. But the author is sensitive, which reminds the reader that God is at work. God can and God does use sinful activities to bring about his plan. And we see this throughout scripture. But we must be clear, in no way or in no fashion does this commend the sin or make the sin okay. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, right? God used that. Did it make their sin okay? Absolutely not. God's will is not changed or thwarted by any of the sin actions of man. Joseph's brothers didn't change God's plan. If they wouldn't have done that, how he would have ended up down in Egypt, who knows? But he would have. Some of them may. Oh, yeah. Pharisees and Sadducees, you know, meant it for evil. They put Christ to death, but God meant it for good. Well, the Israelites who wanted him crucified. Yeah. I mean, we see that all throughout Scripture. God's will is not changed or thwarted by any action of man. I went to the book that's called The Great White Whale. Bruce knows what I mean. Larry knows what I mean. About like that. Biblical doctrines book. And I got this quote on page 491. It says, While God ordains the evil choices of moral free agents, He does not coerce them. Rather, they act according to their own freedom of inclination, because God is never the efficient cause of evil, and because He always ordains evil for good, He incurs no guilt." Pretty good quote. And one that probably would, you know, you have to read it two or three times to get down to the bottom of it. But like I had written down and Connie just said, a perfect example was the crucifixion of Christ. Those who crucified him meant it for evil, but God used it to complete his plan of salvation. God is the ultimate cause of all things, not the chargeable cause of evil. A lot of people have this question, if God is so good, how come there's evil? That's a cop-out. People try to ask to invalidate the need for God, but all they're doing is showing off that that's the answer they want. That's not really a question they want answered. Yes? The whole thing? Sure. While God ordains the evil choices of moral free agents, He does not coerce them. Rather, they act according to their own freedom of inclination. Because God is never the efficient cause of evil, and because He always ordains evil for good, He incurs no guilt. Flip Wilson was wrong. God didn't make him do it. The devil didn't make him do it. He did it himself. Verses five and six, we go on. Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and his mother and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore as one tears a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. And he did not tell his father or mother what we had done. So Samson went with his parents to Timnah. And this is where the woman that he desired was from. For some reason, we're not told, his parents had become separated from Samson when the young lion rushed him. Why was he not with his parents? We can speculate. No one knows. But one possible reason is that, where'd the lion come out of? The vineyards of Timna. What was Samson supposed to stay away from? Grapes. Wine. Even the seeds of grapes. Even the skins of grapes. So what was he doing in the vineyard? We don't know, but probably wasn't good. Right? It probably wasn't what God told him to do. So it's possible that he wanted to have some grapes or some wine, which is forbidden. Maybe that's why he didn't tell his parents what happened. Right? But on the lion's attack, the spirit of the Lord empowered him to slaughter the lion with his bare hands. One commentator said, Samson apparently took his astonishing abilities for granted. Never did he pause to ask why he should be so gifted or to what divinely ordained use those gifts should be placed. As for the story of the lion attack on Samson, what's that have to do with the story of Samson? Well, at first sight, you think, well, that's kind of irrelevant to the plot. But as we will read, it is critical to the plot as we read forward. This just keeps on going. It begins a chain of reactions that ultimately leads us to chapter 15 and the end of chapter 15 that we'll get to next week. It also appears that Samson didn't either recognize or acknowledge that it was the Spirit of the Lord who gave him the strength to defeat the lion. Instead of humbling himself before the Lord, it seems that Samson thought it was his power and his strength that enabled him to defeat the lion. Look at me. Hey, I'm pretty good. Did he ever pause to think where that strength came from? We have no indication he did. Now you compare that to David. When David slew Goliath, he acknowledged that the Lord was gonna do that. It was 100% from the Lord and nothing from him. So you have a totally different perspective with David and Goliath. Going on in verse seven to nine. So he went down and talked to the woman. First indication that Samson talked to this woman he had chosen for his wife. And she looked good to Samson. 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. So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on eating as he went. And when he came to his father and mother, he gave them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion. Samson talked to the woman for the purpose of marrying her because she looked good. Now that's the perfect reason to choose a wife, right? Now on his return home, he turned to look at the carcass of the lion that he had killed. Again, we don't see that his parents were there, where he got the honey. So he went on that same route again, probably to see what had happened. There are a couple more clear violations of the Nazirite vow here. Two of the three unique guidelines of the Nazarites were violated in these few verses. He was to abstain from wine or any fermented drink, nor to drink grape juices, eat grapes or raisins, not even the seeds or skins. And he was not to go near a dead body because that would make him ceremonially unclean. So verse 8 shows that he didn't just stumble across the corpse of the lion. No, he turned aside to look at it. Was he gloating? Was he feeding his ego? But he was violating the Nazirite vow. And he's going to violate the third Nazirite vow later on. This is why, when he approached his father and mother to share the honey, he kept it a secret from them. Where he got it? Hey, I got this honey. Why don't you take some? Oh, that's great. Verse 10 and 11. Then his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for the young men customarily did this. When they saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. Now the marriage was going to take place, and it was a Philistine custom that the bridegroom made a feast, which was a week-long event that concluded with the marriage between Samson and the woman. If this was a customary feast, drinking would have been included, and very possibly a lot of drinking would have been included, which again was to be excluded from a Nazarite. So Samson was doing these things also in a very public manner. He wasn't trying to hide it. Yep, yep, I'm a Nazirite, I don't care, I'm doing it. Why were 30 companions given to stay with Samson? It's a little unclear. There's a couple possibilities. One reason is that the Philistines had the custom and wanted to maintain it. If that's the case, the Philistines wanted Samson to maintain their custom, which is a dramatic contrast to the custom that Samson was charged with in both being an Israelite and being a Nazirite. You come and adhere to our customs. We don't care about your customs. You got to adhere to ours. Another possible reason for the 30 companions is that this was An attempt, instead of an attempt to maintain their custom, it was more of a hostile act. When they saw Samson, they were afraid of him and had the 30 men to protect themselves. I kind of think the first one, but which one, can't say for sure. Except we need to keep in mind what the text tells us in verse four. Go back to that verse again. 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. I have to keep that in mind when I go through this whole thing. Now we get to Samson's riddle, starting in verse 12. Samson was unfazed by the 30 men, whatever their reason for being there was, and he began to make sport of the situation. But before he presents the riddle, he must determine if the Philistines want to play with him. So he wins their approval by proposing a contest that appears to be stacked overwhelmingly in their favor. If they can solve his riddle within the seven days of the feast, he will provide each of them with a complete suit of clothes consisting of long garments and shorter tunics. If they fail, then they must provide him with 30 capes and 30 suits of clothing. Eager to play this game, the guards invite Samson and say, yeah, let's go. Give us the riddle. So here we have it in verse 12. Then Samson said to them, let me now propose a riddle for 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 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of clothes. But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of clothes. And they said to him, propound your riddle that we may hear it. So he said it to them. And here's the riddle. I don't know about you, but I'm terrible at riddles. Okay? But here's the riddle. Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. Okay? Now, we can figure out the riddle because we were told what happened before, right? It says, but they could not tell the riddle in three days. The wagers that Samson proposed were pretty tempting, because a complete set of clothing was a valuable item, made up of a long garment and a shorter tunic. And it was so tempting that they jumped at the chance to solve it. After all, we have 30 of us. We can figure it out. It's 30 against 1. Samson isn't that smart. And I can imagine that there was a lot of talk. But the riddle consisted of two paradoxes. A consumer produces food, and the strong person produces sweetness. One commentator says, the parallelism suggests an identification of the consumer with the strong and the food with the sweet. But without further data, this is as far as one can go. Samson, however, the commentator goes on, Samson, however, saw this as an opportunity for gain. And his greed triumphed over his good sense. He proposed a gamble on a riddle with 30 to 1 odds against him. Samson knew, however, that he possessed the ace card because only he could possibly know the answer. The riddle was clever and elegant. Out of the eater, something to eat. Out of the strong, something sweet. Commentator goes on and says the first line was mischievous and misleading because it would invite the revelers to call the traditional gluttonous feasts where the guests vomited what they had just eaten in order to eat more. And that's how they ate in these feasts, you know, the Roman feasts and all that stuff. It's kind of disgusting when you think about it. I'm so full I could throw up. OK, well, there's the throw up room over there. Go and do it. And then they come back and eat some more. Anyway, this may have been going on around them at that very time, but this would have been a wrong guess because that was not Samson's meaning. For three days, they couldn't give the answer. I imagine there was a lot of discussion around it. Verse 15. And it came about on the fourth day, after three days of trying to figure this out, 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. Oh, here's some incentive. Have you invited us to impoverish us? That means it cost them a lot of money to fork over the 30 changes of clothes. Is this not so? 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. I can just imagine that, huh? And he said to her, behold, I have not told it to my father or mother, so should I tell you? However, she wept before him seven days. while their feast lasted. Boy, that's just getting pounded with that every time you saw her, right? And on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him so hard. So she told the riddle to the sons of her people. 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 wife? And Samson figured it out, obviously. If you had not plowed with my heifer, I would have not found, you would have not found out my riddle. Now, this gives us quite an insight into Samson, his new wife, her loyalty to her people, and lastly, her ability to coerce Samson to provide her with the answer. She pushed Samson with everything she had for seven days. Seven days of weeping and pressing Samson for the answer. The unrelenting badgering finally paid off on day seven. Boy, what a way to start out a marriage, right? Then when she had the answer, she wasted no time in telling the answer to the sons of her people. I doubt if she told Samson, they want me to tell it to you so they won't burn our house down. I doubt very much if she told him that. Samson showed no resolve in maintaining his secrecy and this is going to show up again with this lady called Delilah All right It'll be years later, but same same Lack of resolve and in verse 18 Sam Samson called them cheats And in doing so referred to his new wife as a heifer and Now, one commentator stated, the use of this term was as disparaging in Hebrew as it would be in English to call your wife a heifer. That's what it meant. That cow. Guys, don't do that. But it was a very disparaging term. Then what happened? Things kind of go crazy. When 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 from his father's house. But Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his friend. Daniel Bloch wrote about verse 19, and I had to look up this word. I knew what it meant just from the sound of it, but I had to look it up, and one dictionary didn't even have it in there. Verses 19 and 20 are epilogic. Kind of epilogue is the conclusion, right? So it's talking about the conclusion. But this is a word I've never read before. Verses 19 and 20 are epilogic and anticlimactic as far as the account of Samson's wedding is concerned. But in the overall plot, they represent the climax of this chapter. Yahweh's determination to stir up the relationship between Israel and the Philistines is bearing fruit. Accordingly, as in verse 6, With his agent facing a new physical challenge, Yahweh's spirit rushes upon Samson, empowering him with superhuman strength. Hurrying down to the coastal city of Ashkelon, which was a Philistine city, Samson slaughters 30 of its male residents and seizes their arms as booty. Carrying these items 20 miles back to Timnah, In a mocking gesture, he presents them to the Philistine gods as their promised change of clothes. Here's your clothes, guys. Oh, it came from your countrymen down in Isaacon. After Samson did this, we find when he returned home, he found that his wife, the one whom it said in verse 7 that she looked good to him, The one who had pressed him for seven days with weeping and who knows what else to get the answer to his riddle, only to betray him by providing the answer to her fellow countrymen, was gone. She had been given to a companion who had been his friend. That's about all we know about this companion guy. Gary Phillips wrote of this, it said, in order to avoid ridicule and also hopefully cement ties with his townsman, the father of the betrothed girl gave her in marriage to the chief among the companions. Consider the sovereignty of God. Samson planned to live with the enemy, but God intervened. Rather than securing an alliance with the Philistines, Samson would be at enmity with them, and God was stirring the pot. This causes us to remember what the angel of God told Samson's mother in Judges 13.5. He shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines. We must never forget the sovereignty of God. I got thinking about that, especially with the news and stuff that's going around today. Did the gunman just miss Trump's head by a half an inch? Did God intervene? No, that's the sovereignty of God at display. Bruce's favorite website, gotquestions.org. I looked up lots of places to try to find some stuff on sovereignty. It says this, and I'd like just to have a little discussion on it for just a little bit when we get to the end of this because we'll have a few minutes. God is described in the Bible as all-powerful and all-knowing. We see that in Psalm 147. He's described as outside of time. We see that in Exodus 3 and in Psalm 90. And God is described in the Bible as responsible for the creation of everything, Genesis 1 and John 1. These divine traits set the minimum boundary for God's sovereign control in the universe which is to say that nothing in the universe occurs without God's permission. Nothing in the universe occurs without God's permission. God has the power and knowledge to prevent anything he chooses to prevent. So anything that does happen must, at the very least, be allowed by God. At the same time, the Bible describes God as offering humanity choices, Deuteronomy 30. Holding them personally responsible for their sins, Exodus 20. And being unhappy with some of their actions, Numbers 25. The fact that sin exists at all proves that not all things that occur are the direct actions of God, who is holy. The reality of human volition and human accountability sets the maximum boundary for God's sovereign control over the universe, which is to say there is a point at which God chooses to allow things that He does not directly cause. Again, you've got to read this slow, right? It goes on, and I cut a bunch of it out. It says, God has the ability to do anything, to take action and intervene in any situation, but He often chooses to act indirectly or to allow certain things for reasons of His own. His will is furthered in any case. God's sovereignty means that He is absolute in authority and unrestricted in His supremacy. Everything that happens is, at the very least, the result of God's permissive will. This holds true even if specific things are not what he would prefer. The right of God to allow mankind's free choices is just as necessary for true sovereignty as his ability to enact his will wherever and however he chooses. Now, we're at the deep end of the pond there. Okay, but that's good stuff. We need to understand that. Well, we're not going to understand it completely, but there's a member of this church who was talking to me about his brother who is had some conversations with him and he's following some Eastern mystic. And a lot of where his brother gets tripped up is over the sovereignty of God. Over the allowance of sin and evil. And a lot of people choose to get tripped up over that. The sin and the evil in the world and the existence of hell. They choose to get tripped over that. And it all goes back to a lot of this stuff. And if you want that quote, I'd be happy to send it to you. Just let me know. Or you can go to GotQuestions.org and read it for yourself on God's sovereignty. Turn to Ephesians 1, would you? Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 verse 11, which speaks to the sovereignty of God. Excuse me, I'm going to start in verse 9 if you'll let me do that. He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him. with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. In him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. You want to underline that that's a good spot to underline who works his purpose to work all things after the counsel of his will. Verse 12 to the end that we who were first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. Him you also after listening to the message of truth the gospel of your salvation Having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with the view to the redemption of God's own possession Again, we have that phrase to the praise of his glory How does all God's sovereignty work in? we know it's going to end to the praise of His glory. That's the purpose of the sovereignty of God.