Judges 14 and 15 are full of strange details: a lion with honey inside, a riddle, three hundred foxes and a donkey's jawbone. They are not random. Each one shows something about what God was doing.
A seven-day feast. “And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so” (14:10). Weddings in Bible times lasted a whole week.
Thirty companions. The Philistines “brought thirty companions to be with him” (14:11). They were the groom's friends for the week of the wedding.
The prize. Samson bet “thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing” (14:12). Linen was costly cloth, and good clothes were almost like money.
The riddle. “Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of the strong came something sweet” (14:14). The eater and the strong one was the lion. The sweet thing was the honey.
Why no one could solve it. Nobody else had seen the lion. The answer was Samson's secret, and the secret came from breaking his Nazirite promise.
Pressure. The men threatened, “Entice your husband… or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire” (14:15). Samson's wife was caught in the middle, and she was afraid.
The answer. “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” (14:18). They answered with two questions.
Plowing with a heifer. Samson said, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, You would not have solved my riddle!” (14:18). A heifer is a young cow. He meant that they had used his wife.
What was God doing? “He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines” (14:4). An occasion is a reason or a chance. The wedding became the spark that started Samson's fight against the people ruling Israel.
God's ways are higher. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord (Isaiah 55:8). God can work through strange and even messy events.
Sweet from strong. God often brings good out of hard things. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28).
What we learn. God was at work at a wedding feast where nobody was thinking about Him. He is at work in your everyday life too.
What to do. Tell Samson's riddle to your family at dinner. Then talk about how God was working even when Samson made bad choices.
Samson's fight with the Philistines is full of surprising tools: foxes, torches, ropes, a jawbone and a spring of water. God used ordinary and weak things to show that the victory was His.
Harvest time. It was “the time of wheat harvest” (15:1). The grain was dry and ready, so a fire would spread fast.
Three hundred foxes. Samson “caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails” (15:4).
A whole year's food. The fire burned “the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves” (15:5). Shocks are bundles of cut grain. The Philistines lost bread, grapes and olive oil.
The cleft of Etam. Samson hid “in the cleft of the rock of Etam” (15:8). A cleft is a crack high in a rocky cliff, a hard place to reach.
Two new ropes. The men of Judah “bound him with two new ropes” (15:13). New ropes are the strongest kind.
Like burned flax. But “the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire” (15:14). Flax is a plant used to make linen thread. Burned flax falls apart at a touch.
A fresh jawbone. Samson “found a fresh jawbone of a donkey” (15:15). A fresh bone is heavy and hard. An old one would crack.
A strange weapon. A donkey's jawbone is not a sword. God used a weak, ordinary thing so that everyone would know the power was His.
A song. Samson sang, “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps” (15:16). In Hebrew, the word for donkey sounds almost like the word for heap.
Jawbone Hill. He threw the jawbone away and “called that place Ramath Lehi” (15:17). Ramath Lehi means the hill of the jawbone.
Caller's Spring. When Samson was dying of thirst, “God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out” (15:19). He named it En Hakkore, the spring of the one who called.
What was God doing? God was beginning to rescue Israel, just as He had promised (13:5). He did it His way: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6).
Living water. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). Samson's spring helped one thirsty man for one day. Jesus gives life that lasts forever.
What to do. Name one ordinary thing you have, like your voice, your smile or your hands. Ask God to use it for Him this week.
Complete all sections to finish!
Read each section and answer the questions correctly.