Samson’s First Step on the Road to Disaster

“I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.”

Judges 14:2

You have to use your imagination to picture Samson. He has been in the weight room, and he looks magnificent. He has bronze skin and deep-set eyes, and his abs are toned to perfection.

One day, this Old Testament hunk is in a town called Timnah, and he sees a Philistine woman. She must have been a stunner, because Samson was absolutely smitten the moment he saw her.

So, he comes home and says to his parents: “Get her for me as my wife” (14:2). He was doing the right thing in wanting to get married, but he was doing it for all the wrong reasons. He didn’t even know this woman. All he knew was what he saw. His father and mother are horrified. The Philistines are the enemy. How can you marry the enemy? But Samson has already made up his mind. He is so smitten he is not listening to anybody. That is his first step on the road to disaster.

Maybe you can identify with Samson’s parents. You pour yourself into raising your son or daughter the right way, but children have a will of their own, and sometimes a stubborn will leads to bad decisions. That can be devastating. You wish you could stop them, but you can’t. All you can do is live with your pain and trust that God will do something remarkable.

God did do something remarkable. He took the self-inflicted pain of Samson’s life and wove it into His purpose. That’s the point of Judges 14:4 where we are told that Samson’s parents did not know that this was from the Lord. Samson’s marriage was a dreadful mistake, and it led to a great deal of pain. But it also led to a chain of events in which God was at work.

Are you refusing to listen to godly counsel? Or can you identify with Samson’s parents?