Judges 14. Samson part 3 – God allows Samson to marry a Philistine in order to begin the conflict.

Title: Judges 14. Samson part 3 - God allows Samson to marry a Philistine in order to begin the conflict.  

 

JDG 13:17 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, "What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?"

 

JDG 13:18 But the angel of the Lord said to him, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?"

 

So we can see what the Lord would so plainly ask a man like Manoah, a man like any one of us, "Why do you seek my name as if I am just another creature like you? You shouldn't be asking me like that. You should go with your wife's initial response to My appearance, awe and fear. She didn't know who I was and she felt like that, now imagine how you should properly respond to Me when you actually know who I am."

 

Manoah wanted to honor Him as a prophet, when he should worship Him as God.

 

The same word is used for the Son of God by Isaiah.

 

ISA 9:6

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

 

Only used for God, "wonderful" (pele) belonging to God alone means beyond full human comprehension.

 

JDG 13:19 So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on.

 

"wonders" is from the same root as pele, and so the one called wonderful now does something wonderful.

 

Whatever these wonders are, we are reminded of when Gideon placed the offered meal on the rock and the Lord ignited it with the edge of His staff. If we have eyes to see, the works of God will cause awe and worship in us.

 

As He did for Gideon, the Lord made flame come from the rock to consume the offering. The type is that God would bring the judgment for sin upon the one sacrifice, who would be Jesus.

 

JDG 13:20 For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord  ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

 

Manoah and his wife fall to the ground in worship of the Angel of the Lord

 

JDG 13:21 Now the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah or his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord.

 

JDG 13:22 So Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, for we have seen God."

 

JDG 13:23 But his wife said to him, "If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time."

 

Manoah's wife also reveals her faith and spirituality.

 

JDG 13:24 Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him.

 

Samson - strong and daring one.

 

Yavah blessed his upbringing and at some point the Holy Spirit began to move him according to divine will, which has nothing to do with Samson's spirituality, but only that Samson is being prepared to enter into conflict with the Philistines.

 

JDG 13:25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

 

As Samson grew up in this area of the land of Dan with his parents, at some point the Holy Spirit began to stir him, a word that means to thrust.

 

The Holy Spirit was moving Samson to begin conflict with the Philistines.

 

Left to himself, Samson likely would not have gotten involved in God's program against the Philistines. As with the other cases in the OT, the Spirit doesn't work upon an individual because he is spiritual.

 

In the OT, the Spirit of God works in order to perform a certain task with an individual of His choice who may or may not be spiritual. In the church, the Spirit only works through persons who are spiritual. He fills those who pursue His will.

 

Israel had grown to accept a certain level of slavery and chose to coexist with the Philistines while under their rule. Without the Spirit thrusting Samson into this conflict, the Israelites would have continued this way and would have never tried to free themselves.

 

Individuals must ask themselves, how much slavery are you willing to accept in your soul? We can't always release ourselves from physical slavery but no one can enforce their will in our soul unless we give them permission. The Lord is our only Master.

 

Samson was a spiritually weak man, fluctuating between acts of faith and acts of the flesh. Some try to find ways of explaining away his acts of weakness, trying to in fact reveal them to be acts of strength.

 

Samson is being used by God as a message to Israel and their enemies and not because he is strong spiritually.

 

JDG 14:1 Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.

 

Timnah was a city allotted to the tribe of Dan (JOS 19:43) but they never took the city and at this time it was occupied by the Philistines.

 

The marriage sets the stage for Samson's coming wars with the Philistines.

 

JDG 14:2 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."

 

Marriage was negotiated by the parents, so it was necessary for him to get his parents to get for him the Philistine girl.

 

His desire for her was based on sight alone.

 

JDG 14:3 Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, 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."

 

"Why can't you find a nice Jewish girl?"

 

God did not force Samson against his will. Samson would have only ever looked for a wife based on overt beauty. God simply moved Samson to make the bad choice, which he was certain to make in any case, with a Philistine woman.

 

His only criterion was that she looked good to him. Such is the shallowness of the fallen human race.

 

1JO 2:16

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

 

Samson would eventually lose his eyes to the Philistines. The same would happen to Israel of whom Samson is a type.

 

ISA 6:10

"Render the hearts of this people insensitive,

Their ears dull,

And their eyes dim,

Lest they see with their eyes,

Hear with their ears,,

Understand with their hearts,

And return and be healed."

 

This blindness would reach completeness when the Messiah presented Himself to Israel.

 

MAR 4:10 And as soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables.

 

MAR 4:11 And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside get everything in parables,

 

MAR 4:12 in order that while seeing, they may see and not perceive; and while hearing, they may hear and not understand lest they return and be forgiven. " 

 

MAR 4:13 And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables?

 

A parable is a call to come to the Messiah in order to be healed of blindness. Initially it is confusing, so in order to understand one must ask the Messiah as the disciples did.

 

The same blindness was upon the disciples, but Jesus would cure them of it as He did the man born blind.

 

MAR 8:16 And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.

 

MAR 8:17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?

 

MAR 8:18 "Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, 

 

MAR 8:19 when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They said to Him," Twelve."

 

MAR 8:20 "And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they said to Him, "Seven."

 

MAR 8:21 And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

 

JDG 14:3 Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, 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."

 

JDG 14:4 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.

 

Samson would not move on the Philistines on his own, but this marriage would throw him into the fray and so the Lord arranged this marriage.