Out of the Strong, Something Sweet

Judges 14:5-14 & 18

"So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah.

Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. He took some of it in his hands and went along, eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate though he had not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass. So his father went down to the woman. And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so. And it happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. "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...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."

This is indeed an introduction to Samson's life. We see here Samson's inclinations and tendencies as a young man that will somehow define him throughout his life. Although the Word does not say that Samson ate more than enough of the honey in the Lion's Carcass, it very much symbolizes the pleasure-orientedness of his character in his youth especially in the fact that he gets it from a 'Nazirite-prohibited' source. We see in hindsight that it is this unbridled passion that will be his hubris. There is another man too, much later in history, passionate in his youth and his whole life, who sought what gives life ultimate meaning and he has this to say, paralleling this seemingly minor detail in Samson's story:

Proverbs 25:16

"If you find honey, eat just enough—too much of it, and you will vomit."

Father help us to live lives well-lived. Help us to learn discipline and moderation in the good pleasures of this world. It all comes from You, thank You for letting us enjoy and savor these. And yet Holy Spirit of God, help us to realize that somehow it is not the bad things in life that suck the joy from our lives, but the good, it is the enemy of the Best. Guide us to understand that the ultimate pleasure and meaning is in worship to You alone — it is that which gives us true Joy, Freedom, Happiness and which makes us Complete. Bless us with Your kind of paradigm shift, in Jesus Christ's Most Beautiful Name, amen.

~04.10.2013