Don’t Plow with Samson’s Heifer
This set-apart stuff can sure go to a guy’s head.
Make a guy a Nazirite and give him awesome hair, and Wham! The whole world revolves around him.
It started with a harmless riddle between a bridegroom and his wedding party.
It turned into death threats, a sobbing bride, and Samson kicking the snot out of 30 guys so he could take their clothes and pay his wager.
All because an arrogant fool couldn’t grasp his calling.
::
While Samson’s dad met with his bride-to-be, Samson arranged for the customary seven-day feast with his 30 companions. But rather than lounge around and enjoy the feast for a week, Samson set about to mess with his companions’ heads. He put to them a riddle whose answer lay locked up in the mystery of the lion he killed and the honey made inside it.
“Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”
“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”
He replied,
“Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.”For three days they could not give the answer. (Judges 14:12-14)
Samson, from a position of power, toyed with his companions, making a wager they could not win. He had knowledge they simply could not, for none other than Samson knew of the lion and the honey inside.
They worked the puzzle for three days. When it was no longer amusing, they enlisted — rather, coerced — Samson’s new Philistine bride to assist. They too acted from a position of power, threatening to burn her, her home and her father to the ground.
His bride pleaded with him to tell her the riddle. He shut her down and shut her out, suggesting that he hadn’t even told his own parents the answer. Why should he tell her?
[Insert Rabbit Trail: Anybody feeling prophetic enough to see Samson's failure to "leave and cleave" as a sign of likely marital discord in this lovely young couple's future? But that's a different story . . .]She cried for four days.
Four days.
All day, every day.
And Samson was more invested in his riddle than his new wife.
The wife he insisted his parents procure for him.
He’s already moved on to more interesting things.
::
When he could stand to listen to the weeping no longer, he told her the riddle’s key.
And the woman scorned wasted no time in telling the townsfolk the answer. There was clearly no saving her young marriage. But perhaps she could save herself and her father.
She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”Samson said to them, ”If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.” (Judges 14:17-18)
::
Samson, enraged, went down to another town and attacked 30 men. He took what they had and delivered the 30 garments to pay his wager.
Still angry, he left his own wedding party and stomped to his father’s house.
And his bride? Who would want to waste a perfectly good wedding feast? Especially when all the guys had shiny new clothes?
Her father gave her to Samson’s companion instead.
::
Samson, this called-out one, had such promise. God had great purpose for him. And all he could ever see was how to make himself happy.
He used his strength for his own gain.
He set up his own bride for calamity. And didn’t lift one of his strong fingers to rescue her from the angry men.
He used his set-apart status to manipulate his parents. He used his strength to dominate those around him. And when God’s Spirit crashed down on him in power, he used it for revenge.
::
I’m thinking, there was another Who was set apart.
One Who was given all power and all authority.
And rather than use His status and His strength to dominate and manipulate, He flexed his powerful pipes and muscled His way underneath us.
His strength, displayed in His humility, bore a cross on His back.
The weight of my sin on His shoulders.
Being in very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. (Philippians 2:6)
He took on our likeness. He bore our shame.
His strength does not bear down on us, but rather raises us up.
::
Related: Posts in the Samson Series His Body, Broken
I’m wondering, do I use my strength to raise others up or bear down on them. I definitely know how I want any strengths the Lord has given me to be used. Definitely to build others up. Thanks for the heart-check.
2009/09/15 at 7:58 PM
Nancy, I wondered the same thing as I wrote this. Well, not about you though. I imagine you use your strength and gifting to do just that, encourage and lift. But I wondered about me. Do my stronger areas and gifting serve as a launching pad for me to get what I want or to serve others and elevate them? Looking in the mirror, this is a hard thing.
2009/09/15 at 8:52 PM
Wow–I must really be needing to hear this message, because my study over the past 2 days has taken me to David in 2 Samuel 7 where David asks God to do what God promised–build him up to be a great nation forever…but he asked God to do this for GOD’S glory, not for his own.
God “built up” Samson, made him so strong that he could have done great things for the Lord. You have such an awesome way of describing how he chose to use his strength for his own personal, selfish desires and glory (if you want to call it that…calling one’s wife a heifer and letting her bawl for 7 days isn’t too glorious).
Really makes me think twice about asking God to do great and wondrous things through me and my children I pray daily for God to seek their hearts so that they, too, can do mighty works for the kingdom. Will I turn out like Samson? Will they? God forbid. I think I’ll be adding a phrase to all those prayers from now on–”for your glory alone, God. For your glory.”
2009/09/15 at 9:15 PM
Jennifer, great addendum to your prayer. If we can keep that part straight it goes a long way. Powering over can start so subtly; I too pray that I use what little I have to get underneath and build up.
2009/09/16 at 6:48 AM
You swing the bat with this: “He used his strength for his own gain.”
And then you knock one out of the ballpark with this: Jesus, sweet Jesus.
He’s the One who used His strength not for His gain, but for OUR gain. For OUR gain!
The beautiful irony of our faith drops me to my knees every time.
So insightful, Lyla.
2009/09/16 at 11:32 PM
Me too.
Me too.
(And who knew you were such a baseball fan?)
2009/09/17 at 6:48 AM
Lyla:
You are too old now but if you ever get a hobby horse, you will have to name him Samson. He has really taken a verbal beating and rightly so. But the insights and applications you draw from his life are so illuminating to this humble reader. Samson has become so much more than long hair, super human strength and Delilah. He has become an object lesson and a vivid reminder that God still cares about his children, regardless of the disappointments that we constantly present to him. Your regular commenters have it right, you have an amazing talent for drawing applications and insight from the lesser known occurences of the Old Testament.
Dad
2009/09/17 at 2:23 PM
Hey Dad, and as you reminded me, he still made it into the Heb. 11 Hall of Faith. Somewhere along the line, some faith kicked in and it was counted to him as righteousness. I’m still looking…
Meanwhile, I’ve finally cracked Judges ch. 15, so we slog forward. But you’re right, there’s a whole lot more to Samson than I remembered…we haven’t even gotten to Delilah yet…
2009/09/17 at 3:51 PM
You brought out excellent points in this study. i originally was looking for some info on the “heifer” comment Sampson made about his wife because i remember a minister expounding on the fact that plowing was done with oxen, so there was also an underlying meaning to this that i couldn’t quite remember. i came here googling for that when i found your blog. You brought points out of this story i had NEVER considered before! May you know God’s Perfect Will for your life and His Grace and Mercy rest on you and your house…
2010/03/17 at 4:24 AM