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.