The weak strong man 4.
Judges 14:5 -- 9. 05/18/05
This passage we have before us records two trips which Sampson and his parents made to Timnath to bring about the marriage of Sampson to his Philistine girlfriend who lived there. The first trip was to make arrangements for the wedding. This would include Sampson;s parents speaking with the girl’s parents about the girl becoming Sampson’s wife and the paying of money to the girl’s parents. The second trip was for the marriage feast itself. And the conduct of Sampson on these trips was anything but commendable. His actions, in regards to the vineyards of Timnath, and his continued delighting in the heathen philistine girl, revealed a rebellious spirit that ruled his heart and inspired his unholy ways.
Not everyone sees rebellion here. In fact, many people see much good here in the conduct of Sampson. They praise Sampson here for modesty because he kept quiet about telling his parents of his killing the lion in the vineyard during the first trip to Timnath. They also praise him here for sharing honey with his parents, which he got from the carcass of the lion on the second trip to Timnath; they compare his sharing of the honey with the sharing of the gospel to others; and they use this text to teach that we may discover honey, sweetness, in our lion, difficult, experiences.
Now all of these lessons are real good as far as modesty, and the sharing of the gospel and seeing good come out of trials, but they certainly should not be taught from this passage of Scripture. To teach the right lessons here, we need to compare Scripture with Scripture and when we do, we will discover that we cannot possibly complement Sampson for his conduct recorded in our text. Rather, we will see in comparing Scripture with Scripture that Sampson was filled with rebellion. And when we think about this rebellious spirit, we can understand why he was such a flop in delivering Israel from the Philistines. We can also take a great warning from it about the dangers of harboring a rebellious spirit in our own hearts.
So for our first point I want us to see THE PATHWAY OF THE REBEL.
A rebel does not walk on the proper pathway. He will ignore the signpost giving proper direction and will instead travel the route his rebellious spirit wants to travel. But he finds later on it is to his own danger that he does so.
Twice in our text it is reported that Sampson went down. Actually we find in our text stated three times that Sampson went down regarding his traveling to Timnath in only seven verses. The report of his going down of course speaks primarily of the geographic situation. But we don’t want to dismiss geographic references lightly. They do have spiritual significance that any serious Bible student knows. The spiritual implication is obvious; Sampson’s moral and spiritual pathway was down just as was his geographic pathway.
Though the pathway of rebellion only leads one down, we still may gain some worldly prizes. Like Sampson, we may enjoy some pleasures, do some physical exploits, gain in popularity and possessions, or obtain political position and power; but we are still going down. If we do not come to our senses and change the direction of our life, we will one day find ourselves at the bottom not the top and with no way of escape.
Sampson was a Nazarite, and one of the precepts for the Nazarite was to stay away from the fruit of the vine. Numbers 6: 3 says “he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.” Now if the fruit of the vine is off-limits then it would seem only wise to stay out of the vineyards.
Now when Sampson got to the vineyards of Timnath verse 5 says, “behold, a young lion roared against him.” Life-threatening danger met Sampson on his pathway of rebellion.
We may meet with trouble in the path of duty, but we must expect to meet with it in the path of disobedience. Satan flourishes where the path of obedience is left. The lion in Jonah’s rebellion was a terrible storm; the lion for others who have rebelled has been such things as sickness, family and financial troubles, and many other problems. You cannot walk on the path of rebellion without one day coming face-to-face with that which will threaten to devour you. And unless God intervenes, as he did with Sampson, it will devour you.
“And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand, but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.” Verse 6. You cannot view this escape as being anything less than a miracle. Sampson’s great strength was not a result of weight lifting in some gym are doing some other exercise, rather it was a result of the spirit of God coming upon him and performing a miracle of strength through him.
Sampson is not alone in being delivered by a miracle. Every one of us who are saved was saved by the greatest miracle of them all. And much other deliverance we experience can be attributed to God’s miracle working whether we are fully aware of it or not.
Sampson was in the wrong place, a vineyard, and heading for another wrong place, the home of the philistine girl in Timnath, and did not merit escape. Yet, God in mercy delivered him by empowering him with strength to kill the lion. Mercy is always involved in delivering us from dangers we get ourselves into because of our disobedient ways. Mercy brings about our soul salvation. We are taught in the word of God to neglect not the giving of thanks to God for the greatness of his mercy.
We’re told that Sampson told not his father or his mother what he had done in verse 6 in killing the lion. Now why did he not tell them? Because, it makes him unclean at least until evening. This would hamper his activities regarding the business of his marriage proposals if his parents found out, for his parents knew the law. So Sampson kept quiet. He wanted to see that girlfriend of his without restrictions.
We see not only the pathway of the rebel but also THE PLEASURES OF THE REBEL.
The lion belonged in that unclean category. It was an unclean animal for the Israelites. If you even touched the carcass of this dead animal, as we noted earlier, you were unclean at least until evening. In numbers 6: 6 we are told that a Nazarite was not even to come near a dead body, let alone to touch it. The honey was defiled because it was in the carcass of animal that was unclean. And Sampson made himself unclean in getting the honey because he would have to go near the carcass and touch the carcass to get the honey.
Sampson was like many today who say, I am not going to let some old Bible Commandant keep me from having a good time. Pleasures have priority over any holy vows or requirements the word of God would lay upon them.
Finally we see in our text THE POLLUTING BY THE REBEL. “And he took thereof in his hands and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat; but he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.” Verse 9.
Evil people are not content to do evil alone. They want others to do evil, and they often are very aggressive in trying to get others to do the evil. I know you have noticed that they spend millions to advertise evil products in order to pollute others. So Sampson was not content to eat his defiled honey alone. He must bring some to his parents to get them to eat it also. He would bring them down to his level if he could. No wonder Paul told us to “withdraw ourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly.”
Gambling is promoted deceitfully. It is betrayed in the news media as an exciting enterprise that is lots of fun to do and is of much benefit economically to society. Nothing is said about the defiled character of gambling, the wholesale destruction that brings to the character of communities. Like Sampson’s honey, the news media keeps quiet about that if they do talk about it, it is only to tell us the lie that legislation has cleaned up any evil problems associated with gambling. They give the appearance of offering a good product, but in truth they want you to defile yourselves as they have.
