judges 13 and 14

Read Judges 13 and 14 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions in today’s chapters are:

Jud 13:1 {p} Israel forsook the LORD + the Philistines oppressed them 40 years
Jud 13:2-7 {p} The Angel of the LORD announces Samson’s birth to a woman of Dan
Jud 13:8-14 {s} The Angel of the LORD confirms His word to the woman’s husband
Jud 13:15-18 {p} Manoah’s hospitality, but the Angel suggests a burnt offering instead
Jud 13:19-25 {p} The Angel departs / His word comes to pass + Samson born and grows in the Spirit
Jud 14:1-20 {p} Samson’s wedding to a Philistine woman / the lion and the honey

There are only three other places in Scripture, that I can find, where an angel comes to a barren woman to announce that she will conceive a son: Sarah, that she will conceive Isaac, the son of the promise (Gen 18); Elizabeth, that she will conceive John the Baptist (actually the angel came to Zechariah and not Elizabeth); and Mary, that she will conceive Jesus (although Mary was not barren, both instances are recorded in Luk 1). That is very distinguished company that Samson’s mother finds herself in. Since Samson was born to begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines (Jud 13:5), he is a type of Messiah.

Samson is set apart to God from birth as a Nazirite. The law concerning Nazirites is found in Num 6. “Nazir” in Hebrew means “separate, consecrate.” A Nazirite is someone who makes a vow to God, to be set apart to Him for a certain season, and during that season they do not cut their hair or drink wine; and at the end of the season, when they have completed their vow, they shave the hair of their head, and bring an offering, then they are released from their vow. The purpose of the vow is to draw near to God.

(Please do not confuse “Nazirite” with “Nazarene,” a man of the town of Nazareth. In Hebrew, the words are not related, however “Nazarene” has its own Messianic significance, which we will get to …)

So God declared Samson to be set apart to Him from birth, and the mark of Samson’s consecration is his unshorn hair. His great strength is a supernatural gift to him from the Holy Spirit, as long as he remains in his consecration.

Samson has a character flaw, however: he is impulsive. He wanted what he wanted, when he wanted it, and he did not think it through. The Scripture says the matter with the Philistine woman was from God, in order to find an occassion of war with them, so that Israel can be freed from the Philistine yoke (Jud 14:4). But God in His great wisdom, took Samson’s impulsiveness, his weakness, into account, and worked through him, weaknesses and all, to accomplish His purpose. He knows our frame, that we are but dust! Our gracious Father’s goodness to us is so great!

The chiastic structure of Samson’s wedding:

1a) Jud 14:1-5a, Samson went down to Timnah + requests a Philistine woman for his wife;

1b) Jud 14:5b-13, The Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him + the lion/ honey + the wedding riddle;

1c) Jud 14:14-15, They cannot answer the riddle and threaten Samson’s wife to obtain the answer;

central axis) Jud 14:16-17, Samson’s wife wept on him until he told her the riddle;

2c) Jud 14:18, They answer the riddle and Samson discerns they obtained the answer through his wife;

2b) Jud 14:19, The Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him + slew 30 Philistines to pay his riddle debt;

2a) Jud 14:19b-20, Samson went up to his father’s house in anger + his wife given to his best man.

She should have told her husband the threat she was under, instead of going along with their plan against Samson. By her actions, she let Samson know that her loyalty was with her nation and not with her husband. But what did he expect? He chose his wife based on her appearance and not on her character. See? Impulsive.

The Spirit of the Lord begins to come upon Samson in Jud 14. The history of the Spirit of the Lord working with, influencing, or empowering men, up until this point in the Bible, is:

Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams by the Spirit of the Lord in Gen 41;
We assume that Moses’ power to perform signs is by the Spirit, but it is not specifically stated as such in Exo 4-12 (although Num 11:17 confirms that Moses lived with the Spirit of the Lord upon him);
Bezalel is filled with the Spirit of God to make the beautiful articles needed for the tabernacle in Exo 31:3;
Moses appoints 70 elders to help him judge, who are filled with the Spirit in Num 11;
The Spirit of the LORD turns Balaam’s curse into a blessing for Israel in Num 24:2;
Joshua is said to have the Spirit of the Lord upon him, in Num 27:18 and Deu 34:9;
Othniel the nephew of Joshua delivered and judged Israel by the Spirit of the Lord in Jud 3:10;
Gideon delivered Israel by the Spirit of the Lord in Jud 6:34;
Jephthah delivered Israel by the Spirit of the Lord in Jud 11:29.

That is the entire record of the Spirit of the Lord until Samson. You might say the baptism of the Spirit, with gifts and signs following, is not new with the New Testament, but it is true, and these instances in the Old Testament teach us much about His work and operation, if we will study it.

One last point I want to bring out. In Jud 14:5b-6, Samson kills a young lion with his bare hands, who had rushed upon him without warning. He accomplishes this feat by the Spirit of the Lord. On a literal level, it would require supernatural strength to do such a thing, for such a thing was not heard of; when a lion rushed upon an unarmed man, it was the man who was killed, not the other way around. Leaving aside for a moment the spiritual application, that the enemy prowls around us like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and that by the Spirit of the Lord he is defeated, there is only one other record from the ancient world of a man slaying a lion without a weapon: and that is Hercules, whose first of twelve legendary labors was to slay the Nemean Lion without a weapon, since the lion had magical fur which was impervious to weapons.

According to Ussher, 1137 BC is the year of Samson’s dispute over his Philistine bride. According to the encyclopedia, 438 BC is the earliest production of Euripides’ plays, the Greek writer who provides us with the first written record of the legends of Hercules. I submit to you that Samson is the original hero and deliverer, whose strength was so great, that he passed into legend. The Greeks heard of a great hero with supernatural strength, who had slain a lion with his bare hands, and they borrowed this bit of biblical history (as they did in so many other instances) and made him a Greek hero instead. When the modern critics try to tell you that the history of Samson is a late Hebrew copy of a Greek myth, you can tell them that they have it exactly backwards, for the Greeks copied all their mythology from other sources, as Herodotus is not shy to point out.