Thoughts on Judges 14

Today’s reading: Judges 14; Acts 25

There is an odd little note at the beginning of Judges 14 that feels a little troubling. When Samson is insistent on marrying the Philistine girl and his parents can’t talk him out of it, the author tells us, “His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.”

I say this is a little troubling because it sounds like God was pushing Samson to sin because He wanted to take out the Philistines. But how could God lead Samson into sin?

First off, the reason I would call this a sin at all is because God forbade the Israelites from intermarrying with the people of the land lest they be led astray from faithfulness to Yahweh by their non-Israelite spouses. The people refusing to listen even during the wilderness wandering when God was present among them as a pillar of fire was already a problem on this front and resulted in many people dying, and it continued to be a problem after they were in the land. So while it’s obviously not generically sinful to marry someone from a different nation than yourself, for Israel, it was, since this was a direct command from God. So was God enticing Samson to sin?

I’m going to say no. God does not cause us to sin or lead us to sin, so we can say with confidence that is not what’s going on here. I think this is more like Pharaoh in Exodus. We see over and over again throughout Samson’s story that he has very little regard for the Law. He believes in Yahweh and relies on Him for his strength, but that’s about where his concern generally seems to end. So it’s not really surprising to think that he would want to marry this Philistine woman even though the Israelites are not supposed to intermarry with the Philistines. So when it says that this was from the Lord, I am betting that the Lord strengthened Samson’s heart to do what he already wanted to do, just like the Lord strengthened Pharaoh’s heart in the face of the plagues to continue on in his opposition. So it’s not that God caused Samson to sin, but that when Samson had this desire and pushed for it, maybe it was God strengthening his heart to continue after it rather than backing down to his parents’ opposition.

I once heard someone make the analogy of God as a master chess player. He is not sitting up there dictating everything that happens such that everything happens exactly according to His will. God has enemies that are at work trying to thwart His plans and He has given us free will which we regularly exercise against His will for us. So while God is not sovereignly making everything that happens happen exactly as He desires, He does have His plans and He is at work bringing them to fruition. So when it says that God was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines, I think it means exactly that, He was looking for an opportunity. God didn’t ordain Samson’s sin to bring about His plans, but He did use Samson’s sin to that end. If Samson had chosen to be faithful to God’s instruction and marry within Israel, God, as the master chess player, would have found another opportunity for Samson against the Philistines. Samson was God’s judge to rescue Israel from the Philistines, so God was seeking an opportunity to bring about deliverance for His people through Samson, and Samson’s sin simply provided the avenue for God’s ultimate plan for Samson to bloom.