Women! Can't live with them, can't kill em! I have no idea why the title of the book isn't Women, instead of Judges.
Samson loved women. I think he especially loved women that he wasn't really suppose to have.
We begin with his first wife. She was a PHILISTINE for goodness sake. His dad was like "are you kidding me!" But Samson demanded and I suppose what he wanted, he got.
Then he kills a lion with his bare hands, our first glimpse of his unusual strength.
On his way to his week long wedding feast he sees the lions carcass and a swarm of bees have taken up residence inside and they have a hive and some honey. And he ate some and he gave some to his parents, whom he did not tell from whens it came (imagine that explanation! Gross-o!)
LOVE 14:10, why that custom didn't stick around!
Then we get the weird riddle, if his new in laws can figure it out then they get a whole new wardrobe and if they can't then he does. Btw, I LOVE linen, so I would be all about this bet.
"Out of the eater (lion) came forth food (honey), and out of the strong came forth sweetness"
Is he the strong? And his love for his wife the sweetness? Or is it just the lion and honey again? Of this I am not sure.
Well nobody can figure it out so the in laws convince the wife to get the answer out of him as the REALLY want that linen underwear.
She does, cause men are sooo easy. Don't we all know what she did? Yeah, we know.
He got mad and said "if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle"!! WHAT!? Ooooh man! that is HARSH!
So he kills em. And takes their clothes. And his dad thinking Samson must hate this woman gives her to his friend.
Samson gets angry a gain and does some weird wacky stuff with foxes and burns down all their grain. Then they get mad and end up killing the girl and her dad.
THEEENNN they capture Samson and he grabs the still moist jaw bone of an ass (yuummmmm) and kills 3000 men with it.
Then he's thirsty.
Ok I need to ask this; Samson being a Nazirite (Nazi, for short? Jk,jk) from birth, he is not to cut his hair, touch a dead body, or something else?? Can't remember the third. Do the lion and the jaw bone not qualify as dead bodies? Just wondering aloud.
Enter Delilah.
After visiting a harlot, he meets Delilah. He falls in love and his doom is set.
The Philistines convince her to play a double agent and find out what is his secret strength all about. So she asked him. Straight out, no beating around the bush, no tricking him.
He obviously knows she's up to something so he lies to her once, twice, three times a mady... And each time the Philistines show up after she has bound him with the rope of the day.
Now I just wonder, at any time does he find it strange that after he tells her that this particular thing will bind him, the Philistines show up in their bedroom??
Ahhhh what we are blinded to by love.
Finally the fool tells her! WHAT!? Fo real?! He tells her God is his strength and that by cutting his hair he will be breaking his convent with God.
So she has him shaved and they come and take him and bore out his eyes. But he asks God for forgiveness and God listens.
He gives him enough strength to cause pillars to fall. Killing himself and all the people gathered on top to watch him be tortured.
I wonder if Delilah was there?
Samson loved women. I think he especially loved women that he wasn't really suppose to have.
We begin with his first wife. She was a PHILISTINE for goodness sake. His dad was like "are you kidding me!" But Samson demanded and I suppose what he wanted, he got.
Then he kills a lion with his bare hands, our first glimpse of his unusual strength.
On his way to his week long wedding feast he sees the lions carcass and a swarm of bees have taken up residence inside and they have a hive and some honey. And he ate some and he gave some to his parents, whom he did not tell from whens it came (imagine that explanation! Gross-o!)
LOVE 14:10, why that custom didn't stick around!
Then we get the weird riddle, if his new in laws can figure it out then they get a whole new wardrobe and if they can't then he does. Btw, I LOVE linen, so I would be all about this bet.
"Out of the eater (lion) came forth food (honey), and out of the strong came forth sweetness"
Is he the strong? And his love for his wife the sweetness? Or is it just the lion and honey again? Of this I am not sure.
Well nobody can figure it out so the in laws convince the wife to get the answer out of him as the REALLY want that linen underwear.
She does, cause men are sooo easy. Don't we all know what she did? Yeah, we know.
He got mad and said "if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle"!! WHAT!? Ooooh man! that is HARSH!
So he kills em. And takes their clothes. And his dad thinking Samson must hate this woman gives her to his friend.
Samson gets angry a gain and does some weird wacky stuff with foxes and burns down all their grain. Then they get mad and end up killing the girl and her dad.
THEEENNN they capture Samson and he grabs the still moist jaw bone of an ass (yuummmmm) and kills 3000 men with it.
Then he's thirsty.
Ok I need to ask this; Samson being a Nazirite (Nazi, for short? Jk,jk) from birth, he is not to cut his hair, touch a dead body, or something else?? Can't remember the third. Do the lion and the jaw bone not qualify as dead bodies? Just wondering aloud.
Enter Delilah.
After visiting a harlot, he meets Delilah. He falls in love and his doom is set.
The Philistines convince her to play a double agent and find out what is his secret strength all about. So she asked him. Straight out, no beating around the bush, no tricking him.
He obviously knows she's up to something so he lies to her once, twice, three times a mady... And each time the Philistines show up after she has bound him with the rope of the day.
Now I just wonder, at any time does he find it strange that after he tells her that this particular thing will bind him, the Philistines show up in their bedroom??
Ahhhh what we are blinded to by love.
Finally the fool tells her! WHAT!? Fo real?! He tells her God is his strength and that by cutting his hair he will be breaking his convent with God.
So she has him shaved and they come and take him and bore out his eyes. But he asks God for forgiveness and God listens.
He gives him enough strength to cause pillars to fall. Killing himself and all the people gathered on top to watch him be tortured.
I wonder if Delilah was there?
3 comments:
I agree, the Book of Women. Samson takes a Philistine for a wife, which is a no no, but God uses his disobedience anyway so He can deal with the Philistines. So this is kind of my point earlier that if you love and serve God, although you are still human and prone to make mistakes, you never have to worry about those mistakes (no sins) because God will still turn them around for His will.
Samson does have extraordinary physical strength, but I think kind of inferior mental strength. Like you said, Why doesn't he get that these women are always setting him up.
Btw, Samson didn't kill his first wife's family. He went out a town and killed a different 30 fellers and used their linens to pay his in laws. I'm not sure what the men of Ashkelon did to deserve this smoting (or smiting?), but they got dealt with anyway.
I've never thought about trying to figure out the riddle or at least how it makes sense in the way Samson explained it.
My favorite verse in this, and I'm sure that all of the men reading this (believers and non alike) can appreciate and attest to....16:16 "And when she pressed him day after day with her words and urged him, he was vexed to death." Been there, done that. Nag, nag, nag, nag, nag. Alright! What do you want to know, for crying out loud!? And then we tell them just to get them to shut it.
I'm not sure about the jaw bone and lion. Maybe it's cause they were dead awhile or maybe cause they're animals. I don't know. I'll look. Or maybe Samson just did something he wasn't suppose to....like he did when he married the Philistine. You think they had a beer garden on that roof where all of those people were watching from? Was that like box seats nowadays?
And the foxes, I can just hear the PETA nuts now. Although, I must admit that is a lot of foxes. Is that real fur? Ohhh, boy.
Samson was disobedient from time to time, had a bad temper, and wasn't that bright, but God was still able to use him. Definitely, definitely, not about perfection. We are made perfect in Christ, not of ourselves. That doesn't mean we're going to be perfect once we accept Him into our lives, but rather he's the "supplement" that makes us perfect, and holy unto the Lord.
And lastly, I wonder, too if Delilah was there. I hope so. And why didn't Samson snap about his best friend getting with his wife. That's some extra info. I'd like to have. If Samson were your best friend would you go around sleeping with his lady?
Numbers 6:1-21 explains about the Nazirite. No drinking wine (or even grapes), no cutting their hair, and no dead bodies. I think after re-reading it is definitely human bodies. Also, all of these are for a time, then, after his time is finished, the Nazirite brings a special offering to the Lord and he is release from these rules, I guess. Can't believe you didn't remember the drinking one. That's one I thought you'd remember right off.
Tomorrow is Judg.17-21
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