Samson's Honeymoon

“Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, ‘You hate me! You don’ really love me.  You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.’” (Judges 14:16)

A honeymoon is special.  With all the emotions, dreams, hopes and pent-up feelings imaginable, a husband takes his new bride and they begin their new life together – alone.  Thus did the wisdom of God in his Old Testament law make provision:  “If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him.  For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.” (Deuteronomy 24:5.)  For one year – at home – happiness to the wife!

That depends.  Such depends upon the man, upon the woman, and upon their mutual response to each other, within God’s purpose. (Cf. Psalms 127, 128.)  Sadly, such happy, blessed oneness is not always the case.  It certainly was not, in the case of a notable fellow named Samson.

Samson was one of the judges God raised up to help his people, before the days of the kings.  He was the son of godly parents. His sterile mother  was visited by an angel who promised her a son.  ”…the boy is to be a Nazirite,  set apart to God from birth…”(Judges 13:3-5.)  When she had told Manoah, her husband , he “…prayed to the Lord: ‘O Lord …te
ach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born’  God heard Manoah…”.((vs. 8, 9.)

Samson , blessed by God, grew into an amazing physical specimen.  He could be today’s ‘Friday night hero’, the coveted first-round choice by the pros, the Super Bowl MVP interviewed on ESPN’s prime time Sports Center  - or the Olympic Gold Medalist smiling at us from the cereal boxes.  And, as such, he would have the pick of the ladies.

So, he did.  “Samson went down to Timna and saw there  a young Philistine woman.  When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah.;  now get her for me as my wife.”  No “one night hook-up”.  Samson wants the beauty “as my wife”..  He had been taught well, and he listened…somewhat.

But there is more.   A “young Philistine woman”?  A  woman of the very nation determined to destroy  God’s chosen Israelite nation!  His godly parents protested, but Samson was not listening.  “Get her for me. She is the right one for me.”(v. 3.)  So they did.  And he did. 

But what a honeymoon!   She cried nonstop all week.  He gets mad.  His father-in-law comes after his distraught daughter, “and Samson’s wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding”. His “best man!"  We would do well  to choose our friends, and our spouse with godly wisdom.

Then there’s a wife named Delilah…!(16:4ff.)

Such are the stark lessons from the love-life of Samson.  He scored a “10 “as a physical specimen. But he missed the charts in moral judgment, and in respect for the spiritual counsel of his parents. Such contribute to a memorable honeymoon – but not a desirable one! 

Ted Kell

Brownwood, Texas