And Samson went down to Timnathah, and saw a woman in Timnathah of the daughters of the Philistines.
Samson was a Nazarite: a man set apart to God from birth, raised up to begin saving Israel from the Philistines. Yet the first act we read of is a walk down to a Philistine town, where a woman caught his eye.
The verse begins with a direction: Samson went down.
So when you read that Samson goes down, it means something. The first step he takes is a downward step. He goes down to what is claimed as "a portion" of the Philistines. Once there, he forms an alliance with his enemies. So the first step Samson took was an alliance with the enemies of God.
Samson wanted what he saw. He never weighed it against what God had said.
The desire of Samson showed that the word of God did not have its right weight with him. His parents knew much less of God's purposes than he did, but much more of His word. They said to him: "Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives... that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" The word of God was clear on this point: "You shall not intermarry with them... for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods" (Deut. 7:3-4). Why did Samson not pay attention to this?... In the life of Samson, three women mark the three stages which led to the loss of his Nazariteship. The first pleased his eyes; he formed a passing connection with the second (Judges 16:1), and he loved the third (Judges 16:4).
One look is never a small thing.
This tendency to look for what "pleases the eyes" in the world led Samson into endless trouble. Only the power of God could rescue him. Scripture shows many believers whose first look toward the world brought trouble they could not undo. We have to watch against that with fear and trembling, for we can never predict what pit a single desire may open for us.
His parents object. Samson answers with a preference, not a reason.
Samson asked his parents to get the woman for him as a wife (v. 2). They knew how inconsistent this was, and protested that he ought at least to find an Israelite wife. Samson did not even defend himself in this, but answered, "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes" (v. 3). He showed no sign of seeking God's will in finding a wife, but relied only on his personal feelings.
One step decides the shape of everything that comes after.
All the events spring out of Samson's attempt to connect himself with the very people from whom he is to "begin to save" Israel. That is a sad sign of how his story ends. The alliance is what brings on the conflict. The Philistine and the Nazarite cannot really unite, and trying to do so only shows how far apart they are by nature.
The damage is not only Samson's. The same test falls on us.
But here is a man whose testimony is to be one of separation, and the first thing he does is to link himself with the enemy... A man who can take a Philistine to his heart cannot be an uncompromising witness against them. Let us apply this to our own relationship with this world. Who can take the world into his heart and still bear faithful testimony against it?
Verse 4 says this was from the LORD. What does that mean?
His marriage to the woman of Timnah was of God (Judges 14:4). That is, God used it as an occasion against the Philistines. But the act itself went against God's express command. It is a sign of the condition they were in.
Even so, God saw something real in him.
But Samson was not single-eyed; he brought a divided heart to the work. He tried to combine pleasing his own eyes with his hatred of the enemy of his people. He was holding out his left hand to the world while wanting to fight it with his right. Yet God took note of what there was for Him in this divided heart. "It was of the Lord," who could use even Samson's weaknesses to carry out His purposes of grace toward His people.
- Down. His first step is a step down. He heads for Philistine ground before he ever asks for a wife.
- Sight. Desire came through his eyes. One look opened a pit he could not foresee, and three women in turn cost him his separation to God.
- Self-will. His parents objected. He gave no reason back, only that she was right in his eyes.
- Alliance. The Nazarite and the Philistine cannot mix. Take the world into your heart, and you cannot witness against it.
- Overruled. God used the marriage against the Philistines. He never excused the act, which broke His plain command.
And he went up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnathah of the daughters of the Philistines; and now take her for me as wife.
Samson's first recorded act as Israel's deliverer is an order to his parents: he has seen a Philistine woman and wants her as his wife. How can a man raised up to fight the Philistines ask them for a bride?
Samson had already gone down to Timnah before he spoke to his parents. One writer treats that direction as a moral clue.
When you read that Samson goes down, it is suggestive. The first step that he takes is a downward step. But more than that: he went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath, of the daughters of the Philistines. He goes down to what is claimed as "a portion" of the Philistines, and in going down he makes an alliance with his enemies. So Samson's first step was an alliance with the enemies of God.
The drift started before he spoke a word. Another writer puts it in the heart:
In heart he had already declined from his calling, or he could not have thought of such a thing.
Samson's whole case is what he saw. One writer traces his later troubles back to that first look.
This tendency to seek in the world what "pleases the eyes" led Samson into endless difficulties. Only the power of God could deliver him from them. Scripture gives many examples where a first look toward the world lands the believer in trouble that cannot be repaired. We have to watch against that with fear and trembling. We can never tell beforehand what abyss a single lust may open for us. Grace can keep us, but we must not trifle with it, or imagine we can use it as a cover for our lusts or an excuse for our sins.
Samson knew what the Philistines were doing to Israel. It made no difference to what he wanted.
He knew the Philistines were oppressors of Israel, yet he mixed with them when it pleased him, and he attacked them when he pleased. This strange inconsistency is sometimes seen in the children of God today … He showed no evidence of seeking God's will in finding a wife, but depended only on his personal feelings.
The parents gave way. One writer says they should not have, and sees Samson in the young today:
A strong, wilful, wayward young man was Samson. We might say the parents should not have yielded so easily to his demand, "Get her for me; for she pleases me well" (Judges 14:3). And very probably this is true. Is not Samson, just here, a true picture of modern youth? "She pleases me well," or, "It pleases me well," is too often reason enough for the young (or the old) to act in many things. They quite forget the One of whom it is said, "Christ did not please Himself."
Older translations read "she pleases me well" in verse 3. The ESV has "she is right in my eyes."
Samson's calling was to stand separate from the Philistines. His first move went the other way.
Here is a man whose testimony is to be one of separation, and the first thing he does is to link himself with the enemy. He has settled the whole question of his relationship and testimony at once. A man who takes a Philistine to his heart cannot be an uncompromising witness against them. Let us apply this to our own relationship with the world. Who can take the world to his heart and still bear faithful witness against it?
Was any of this from the Lord? One writer draws a sharp line between the end God intended and the means Samson chose.
Notice! It was not the union that was of the Lord, but the intended antagonism to the Philistines — not the means, but the end. Union there could have been none. The opposite happens. When two opposed things are forced together, the recoil and the built-in differences only show up more clearly. The means Samson chose was no divine way to disarm evil forces. The intention was divine; the means were clearly human. So the marriage never takes place, and yet the intention and the divine desire are fully declared and answered.
- Down. The verse opens with a descent, not a decision. Going down to Timnah was already an alliance with the enemies Samson was raised to fight.
- Seen. What began as a look became a demand. A first glance toward the world can open an abyss no one foresaw.
- Self. "She pleases me well" is his whole reason. Feeling stands in the place of God's will — unlike the One who did not please Himself.
- Silenced. A man who takes the enemy to his heart cannot testify against him. The alliance settled his witness before his work began.
- Sovereign. God's purpose against the Philistines stood. The end was His; the means were Samson's. The marriage never happened, and the purpose still did.
And his father and his mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of thy brethren, and among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the Philistines, the uncircumcised? And Samson said to his father, Take her for me, for she pleases me well.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And his father and his mother did not know that it was of Jehovah, that he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
Samson has just demanded a Philistine wife, and his parents did not know that God had a purpose running underneath it. So how can a wrong step be "from the LORD," and does that make it right?
The last line of the verse explains why Israel needed a deliverer at all.
Two things marked the time of Samson's arrival. God's people were growing more and more corrupt; and "at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel." … The Philistines were not a scourge, a punishment sent from outside. They lived in Israel's own territory, in the land of promise. So to accept their rule was to give up their own title to the land. God's favour had given them that land as an inheritance no one could take away. … One of the main lessons of Samson's life comes from these two facts. God's people may lose the truth of their calling and, through unfaithfulness, submit to the rule of the enemy. Then complete separation to God is the only way of power.
The phrase does not cover everything in the story. Commentators draw a careful line between the marriage itself and the collision it produced.
Notice! It was not the union that was from the LORD, but the intended opposition to the Philistines — not the means, but the end. There could have been no union at all. … The means Samson proposed was no divine way of cancelling out evil forces. The intention was divine, but the means were clearly human. So the marriage never takes place, and the intention and divine desire is fully declared and answered.
Some read the verse as a quiet excuse for Samson. It is not one.
Look at it in detail and you will see he has no thought of God in it. God has His thoughts in it, blessed be His name; He overrules even our follies and mistakes. … But it is one thing for God to have His purpose and quite another thing for me to be accomplishing that purpose. God will accomplish His purposes despite my disobedience. But I can never use His purposes to endorse my disobedience.
The good that followed came from somewhere other than the alliance.
Samson's marriage to a daughter of Timnath was clearly a positive sin, an open breach of the LORD's commands. The blessing the Lord gave him when the Philistines wronged him does not justify it at all. He did not find blessing in his marriage — quite the opposite.
Samson hated the enemy's rule. At the same time, he wanted his own pleasure.
Samson was not single-eyed; he brought a divided heart to the work. He tried to combine pleasing his own eyes with his hatred of his people's enemy. So he held out his left hand to the world while wanting to fight it with his right. Yet God took note of what there was for Him in this divided heart. "It was from the LORD" — He could use even Samson's weaknesses to carry out His purposes of grace towards His people.
The verse tells the failure plainly and offers no apology for it.
If man had written the story, would he have dared to speak out this plainly? Without inspiration, I doubt any believer would have wanted to write that verse, or many others, as God has written them. … Now I am far from denying that it is right for us to feel the pain and shame of Samson's ways. But God's Spirit always assumes one thing — the perfect goodness and unswerving holiness of God.
One part of Samson's motive is worth copying.
Mixed as Samson's motives were, "he sought an occasion" in a time of ruin. And why? To deliver Israel by striking the enemy that held them in bondage. May this motive be ours also. "Redeeming the time" (seizing opportunities), says the apostle, "because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:16). May we then, set apart to God ourselves, have hearts filled with tender pity for our brothers and sisters still in bondage under the world's yoke. May we seek an occasion, in love and the energy of the Spirit, to deliver them from it. … His desire was so intense that it found the occasion, where the lazy and indifferent, meeting an obstacle in their path, would have turned back.
- Occasion needed. The Philistines ruled from inside the promised land. Israel's danger was not a scourge from outside but a master they had accepted at home.
- Occasion sovereign. What was "from the LORD" was the clash God intended, not the union Samson proposed. The end was God's, not the means — and the marriage never even took place.
- Occasion divided. Samson hated the enemy's rule and pleased his own eyes at the same time. He held out one hand to the world and fought it with the other. God still used what was for Him in that divided heart.
- Occasion no excuse. God's purpose runs on despite our disobedience. But no one may use that purpose to excuse it. The blessing came after the wrong, never out of it.
- Occasion ours. Copy Samson's one good motive. In a ruined time, look hard for the opening to free others from the world's yoke, where the indifferent would turn back.
And Samson went down, and his father and his mother, to Timnathah; and they came to the vineyards of Timnathah. And behold, a young lion roared against him;
Samson's first act of strength happens on a road he should not have been walking. He is going down to a Philistine town to take a wife, and a young lion meets him on the way.
Commentators take the word "down" as more than geography. One writer reads the journey as a step onto enemy ground that God still held inside His purpose:
Samson was called by God to be a true Nazarite — a man set apart to God — but in the life that was meant to display that Nazarite character he failed. "He went down to Timnath" is a worrying beginning. It was a step in the wrong direction. He stepped onto the territory of the enemy to enter into an alliance with the Philistines... Timnath means "portion assigned." He left his occupation to seek a portion with the Philistines. Yet it was of the Lord in the sense that He permitted it for a wise purpose. And on that wrong course he came to the vineyards of Timnath and met the roaring lion. The lion is a picture of Satan (Amos 3:8; 1 Peter 5:8). He roared at the Nazarite, as Satan still roars against anyone who bears the marks of separation to God.
Commentators differ on how much blame the journey itself carries. Another writer stresses that God Himself moved Samson against the oppressors, whatever his own motives were:
Whatever Samson's motives and conduct may have been, it was the Holy One, as we are told, who prompted him against the aggressors of Israel... So there was an arrest on the road. We know that a spirit of ease and self-indulgence is quick to find a lion in the way. It can invent one where none exists. But here was a real lion, and it roared against the self-willed young man.
The lion was no random hazard on the road. One writer ties the attack to the reason Samson was born at all:
Keep in mind that Samson came into the world for one express purpose: to overthrow the Philistines and so set God's people free. Since this was his mission, it is not surprising that a young lion — a picture of Satan's power — roared against him.
A roar is noise before it is teeth. One writer draws out the tactic behind the noise:
Nothing is more terrifying than the roar of the lion. Satan tried to frighten the holy soul of Christ, to make Him abandon the divine path that led down to the sacrifice. In the power of the Holy Spirit, and in perfect dependence on His Father, the Lord withstood him in the garden on the Mount of Olives... In just the same form Satan presents himself to the children of God. "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). If he does not succeed in luring us, he tries to frighten us. Now the young lion faced Samson, coming up against him from the country of the Philistines. Here his Nazariteship showed its full power, and that power is the power of the Spirit of God.
Samson is unarmed, and that empty hand is taken as the lesson of the scene. The point drawn is about method — how the Philistines are to be beaten at all:
Here the Lord teaches him that it is not by an unholy alliance with evil, but by outright opposition to it that he must overcome; and in the long run he practically comes to this.
The same writer presses the contrast between the weapon Samson did not need and the marriage he thought he did:
God appears to be teaching him this. His Spirit can enable him to overcome the direct enemy without any help, for he had "nothing in his hand." How much more can He do it without any human plan of an unholy union. Unaided, Samson faces this terrible enemy and succeeds so completely that through God he "tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat."
The encounter is read as God speaking to His servant at the exact moment his heart had already wandered:
But when the young lion roared against him, "the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat." This was surely God's voice to His servant, reminding him that he would be above all the enemy's power as long as he walked in keeping with his call and mission.
His parents were on the road with him. One writer notes what Samson told them, and what he did not:
Samson's victory over the lion of Timnath was not only a proof of strength; it was a secret between him and God. When his eyes were drawn to the daughter of the Philistines, he told his parents about it; about his victory he told no one... All that, kept unbroken between his soul and God, was for him the only means of following a path of blessing in this world.
- Down. The road to Timnah took Samson onto enemy ground — yet God permitted it for a wise purpose.
- Roar. The lion pictures Satan's power. When he cannot lure us, he tries to frighten us.
- Spirit. The strength was not Samson's own. The Spirit came on him, and there his separation to God showed its full power.
- Empty. He had nothing in his hand. He needed no weapon — and far less the Philistine marriage he was travelling to make.
- Secret. The victory stayed between him and God. One writer calls that hidden communion his only way to walk a path of blessing.
and the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he rent it as one rends a kid, and nothing was in his hand. And he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
Samson is on his way to Timnah to marry a Philistine woman when a young lion roars at him. The Spirit of the LORD then rushes on a self-willed man, and the verse closes with a secret he keeps from his parents.
The verse describes power arriving from outside the man, not a permanent indwelling. One writer calls this amazing, given where Samson was going, and he separates it from what believers know now.
A young lion roared at him, so there was an arrest on the road. We know that the spirit of ease and self-indulgence easily finds a lion in the way. It can even make one where there is none. But here was a real lion, and it roared at the self-willed youth. Then "the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him" — an amazing fact to some minds, given the circumstances. This is the agent of divine power at work. It is in no way the seal of redemption or the pledge of the inheritance, as we know Him dwelling in us now, since Jesus shed His blood.
The verse notes that Samson was empty-handed. One writer reads the whole scene from there: an open attack is less dangerous than a seduction, and no weapon shared the credit for the win.
Satan appears here in one of his many forms. The seduction may lead into the ambush, and the ambush into open assault. But in open attack he is less to be feared than elsewhere. The soldier of Christ is more easily lulled to sleep than beaten in battle. The Spirit of the LORD comes on Samson at once, and he wakes up to his strength. He tears the lion without a weapon in his hand, as easily as one would tear a young goat. It is the power of God, but worked out in the living energy of a man stripped bare of all other help. With such help the mightiest foe goes down as easily as the weakest. There is no need to measure difficulties. Just be sure of this: the greatest opposition means the greatest triumph. And it is the glory of the clay jar that the power's excellence belongs to God and not to us.
Samson was travelling toward a marriage with the enemy. The lion met him on that very road. The way he won taught him how to deal with the enemy.
Here the Lord teaches him how he must overcome. It is not by an unholy alliance with evil, but by direct opposition to it. And in the end he does come to this.
Another writer hears God's voice in the same event, with a condition attached.
But when the young lion roared against him, "the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat." This was surely God's voice to His servant. It reminded him that he would be stronger than all the enemy's power, as long as he walked in keeping with his call and mission. "The lion," as another has said, "has no strength against one who belongs to Christ."
The verse ends with Samson saying nothing to his father and mother. That silence fits a pattern in his life.
Samson's victory over the lion of Timnah was not only a proof of strength; it was a secret between him and God. He told his parents about the Philistine woman who had caught his eye. About his victory he told no one. Samson's life was full of secrets and at the same time full of acts of power. Even his Nazarite separation was a secret, a link between his own soul and the LORD that no one knew about. This link is for us communion.
The same note sounds again and again in Samson's story: the Spirit of the LORD rushing on him. It never measures the man himself.
When we see these words we may be sure that the conflict is entirely according to God and without mixture. We can also win such victories. Our victories do not depend on a temporary action of the Holy Spirit coming on us from outside. They rest on redemption: God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of power. Still, we cannot measure the moral worth of a man of God by the greatness of his gift. Nowhere in Scripture do we find a stronger man than Samson, nor one weaker morally.
- Spirit — The strength was not Samson's. The Spirit rushed on him from outside, as the agent of divine power, not as the seal of redemption believers now have.
- Empty-handed — He held no weapon, so nothing could share the credit. The greater the opposition, the clearer it is that the power is God's.
- Straight on — The Lord taught him on the road to a Philistine wedding: beat the enemy head-on, never by alliance.
- Secret — He told no one. That hidden link between his soul and God is what communion means.
- Gift is not character — No man in Scripture is stronger than Samson, and none is weaker morally. A great gift is no measure of the man.