God Works Through Weakness

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're going to continue on the story of Samson. We're looking at Judges chapter 14. Did you know he had a bow before Delilah? Who was Samson's girl before Delilah? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray. We'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for giving us true stories, true people, real hard things, things that make us scratch our heads, but also, Lord, that we're able to see ourselves. Please, Father, help us to know and to walk in your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, we are at Judges chapter 14.
Now Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now, therefore, get her for me as a wife. And his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of the brethren or among all my people that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me well.
But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, that he was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand.
But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were on the carcass of the lion. So he took some of it in his hand and went along eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave them some to them, and they ate also. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of a lion. So his father went down to the woman, and Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so. And it happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
Then Samson said to them, Let me pose you a riddle. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing." And they said to him, "'Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.'" So he said to them, out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. Now for three days they could not explain the riddle. But it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband that he may explain the riddle to us, or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire.
Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so? Then Samson's wife wept on him and said, You only hate me. You do not love me. You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me. And he said to her, Look, I have not explained it to my mother and my father. So should I explain it to you?
So she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her because she pressed him so much. Then she explained 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 lion? And he said to them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father's house, and Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man."
We'll stop there. We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this in? C, what are we called to do? So what's this about, right? So Samson grows up, right? We just had his backstory in chapter 12. Now we're at chapter 13. And what is this? What's going on here? Well, Samson wants a girl. He's got his eyes on a girl down in the Philistine. She's a Philistine. She's down in Philistia, and he sees her. He thinks she's pretty.
Does it matter that this is against God's law? Does it matter that he's a Nazirite? He's supposed to be devoted to the Lord? None of this matters, right? He's a young guy. He's a strong guy. He sees that girl. He wants that girl. He's got a pretty wealthy dad. He says, go get me that girl. Mom and dad, hold on. Come on. You really got to go to the uncircumcised Philistines? He says, yeah. Yeah, I do.
And they go along with it. But then we get this interlude story of this whole, you know, he kills a lion with his bare hands, and he comes back later, and there's the carcass and the honey, and he takes it and eats it, doesn't tell Mom and Dad. Then the Philistines provide 30 companions, party friends, for the festival. And in this kind of festival, what does Samson do? Hey, I got a riddle for you.
And it's quite a bet. 30 sets of clothes. Now, you know, we in the West don't think that much about this because clothes are clothes, right? A lot of us get our stuff from Salvation Army or whatever, right? But clothes in antiquity were crazy expensive. I mean, crazy, crazy expensive. We don't even have to go that far in antiquity. We just go to the 1700s, right? A book that most people might think would bore them to tears, but I found it fascinating, was The Making of Clothes in Colonial America. That's not the title, but that's basically what it was.
It was how these, especially housewomen, would raise flax, and as they raised flax, and they would do all the the work of kind of breaking apart the fibers and putting them together. And each person might get like one piece of clothing a year. And it was backbreaking, laborious, hard work happening all throughout the night. It's hard to make clothes. People used to spin clothes. Moms and grandmas used to sit there and knit and crochet for a reason, because most things were handmade. I'm going to say there's 30, 30 outfits for people. That's big.
And if it goes the other way and they have to pay him equally big, it's a big bet. And so they threaten his bride. They threaten her. Hey, we're going to murder you and burn down your father's house. You brought this foreigner in here and now he's going to do this and you think you're just going to get away with it? And so they threaten him. They threaten her and she cries and cries and cries to her husband. Understandably so, right? These guys are vicious men.
They threatened her life and she's pleading with Samson and he's caught in a rock and a hard place. And so finally on the seventh day, he breaks, tells her what happens. It's amazing how much can erode from just a dripping bit of water out of a faucet. And so he, he tells her, they come and tell him the truth. And he says, you know, you wouldn't have had one to solve my riddle if you hadn't plowed with my heifer, right? You, you took, you took my wife and you, you did this. So what does he do? He goes and he kills 30 of their own people. The interesting thing with all of this is what it had said in the beginning. When his parents had fussed about this, and rightly so, They say, God says in verse 4, this is where it's helpful to get kind of a heavenly influence here.
We get an insight. See, God works through even sinful people in situations. We see this even in the life, death of Jesus. In Acts chapter 2, when Peter is preaching, he says, you put him to death by lawless hands, but it was according to God's foreknowledge. God predestined this. God knew this was going to happen, but you are still responsible for what you did. This is what Joseph says in the book of Genesis, right? You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Samson's chasing after his own heart. He's doing his own thing. He's kind of a wishy-washy all over the place. He's a young guy. I think he's chasing after this hot girl, and he finds himself just doing...
Yeah, it's just not good. And yet the Lord works in mysterious ways through situations like this. This is not a good text to give us like, oh, God doesn't actually care if you go and have unyoked marriages. That's not what this is getting at. That's not what the lesson is here. But God is working.
Thank God he works even through sinful people. But even as the people are going to be looking to Samson. He's a strong man of Israel. He is the avenger against the Philistines. Praise God. One better than Samson would eventually come. A true Nazarite, Jesus Christ himself. Father, we thank you that you work through even sinful situations. Lord, you have a plan.
It's mysterious to us. Your ways are higher than our ways. We often sit like Job, covering our mouths, saying this knowledge is too great for us. Lord, we don't want to speak out of ignorance. So Father, please, please help us. Help us to trust even in our own lives when things are going sideways. Teach us, Lord, to walk in your ways. Give us faith.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Though you have not seen him, yet you love him. May you go in the same way as that great shepherd of the sheep. May you keep his commands and follow in his ways. May you love others well. I'll see you next time. Bye.