Judges, Chapter 14 - Strength & Mystery | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome back to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of Judges chapter [music] 14. My name is Jeremy Gimpel and I'm here with Ari Abramowitz broadcasting you from the land of Israel. This series is brought to you of course by [music] the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. Ari, how are you doing? I'm doing great, Jeremy. I'm excited to dive in. Here we're about to go deep into the story of the man who carries the same name as your youngest child. I'm excited to see what's in store. Yep. Yep, me too. It's it has a special place in my heart. >> [laughter] >> All right, well chapter 13 we learned about Samson's backstory before he was born. The oath his parents made to raise him as a Nazirite. And today we dive into the story of Shimshon, Samson. One of the most complicated, intriguing, and misunderstood figures in all of Tanakh. He was a judge in Israel. He was chosen by God, a Nazirite from birth, a man of supernatural strength. And a man who choices they just seem hard to understand. Sometimes his actions look completely wrong, they seem impulsive, dangerous, kind of inappropriate. But beneath the surface we're told that something deep is happening. And so the sages of Israel say that Shimshon judged Israel the way the Holy One blessed be he judges, with complete justice. And they point out that Shimshon's name alludes to the name of Hashem because the root of his name is Shemesh, the sun. The same word the author of Tehillim uses for Hashem, God is a sun and a shield. And so which is is he reckless? Is he righteous? Impulsive or divinely guided? That is the tension within the story. And the answer in chapter 14 is he's both. And understanding how that operates, how Hashem operates through us is the entire point. And so the chapter opens simply, "Vayeira Shimshon Timnata." And Shimshon went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughter of the Philistines. See, he went down. I mean, note that word. The Radak says that when Yehudah went up to Timnah in Genesis chapter 38, something redemptive came from it. Perez, the ancestor of King David, the ancestor of Mashiach. Samson is going down. And that direction matters. Something is descending here and it's not just geography. And so he comes home and tells his parents, "Give me this woman as a wife." And of course they push back immediately. It says verse three, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your brothers and among all of our people that you go take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" And then Shimshon says, "She's right in my eyes. Just get her for me." And his parents here, they seem righteous. And Shimshon here seems impulsive at best. And then right after that exchange, it's almost like a whisper, the Tanakh steps in and says, "But his father and mother did not know that it was from Hashem, for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines." And so think about that. His parents didn't know, but we do. And the narrator tells us directly that it was me Hashem, it was from Hashem. The marriage that looked like a reckless act of passion, it was orchestrated from above. Hashem needed a point of entry into Philistine territory. And the instrument that he chooses was Samson's desire. And the sages say the obvious question, "Well, if it was divinely orchestrated, why does Samson later in life get punished for it?" And the answer is just honest. It says, "Even so, when he went, he was following his own inclination." And so providence and free will acting simultaneously on the same man, it's Hashem's plan, it's Samson's passion. Both are real and both are true. And it's here that I want to like say like his parents didn't know. The text states it explicitly. And Samson never told them. Yeah, so this actually unlocks, Jeremy, something about who Samson is at a at a deep level. Like the the great judges before him, Deborah, Gideon, they explain themselves, they build coalitions, they communicate. Samson operates almost entirely alone in silence from an interior place no one around him can access. His parents don't know like you said, his companions won't know, even his wife won't know. There's a loneliness to Samson mission that none of the other judges have. Right, he really carries it completely by himself. You know, that's just really true. Shimshon is the lone judge. And as we go through the book of Judges we see that the nation deteriorates and the leaders of a deteriorated nation, they reflect the nation itself. And so they go down to Timnah together. This is the continuation of the story to arrange this marriage. And then something happens on the road that the text treats almost casually. And even though it's like pretty remarkable. And this is what it says in verses five and six. And behold, a young lion roared toward him. And the spirit of Hashem rushed upon him and he tore it apart as one tears a young goat. And there was nothing in his hand. Nothing in his hand, bare hands. The Ruach Hashem surges through him and he does something no human being could do. I mean, I once saw this lion that was holding onto a tug-of-war and there were like 20 bodybuilders that were pulling at this tug-of-war thing and the lion wasn't budging. And Shimshon with his own hands rips a lion apart, it's like something unbelievable. And then what's really interesting is that the lion tells us Shimshon isn't just operating alone. He's operating at a totally different level. Verse six. And he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. His parents were right there. They're walking to the same destination and he didn't say anything. This is ridiculous, unbelievable reality happened and he just keeps it quiet. And so I think the the simplest reason is that touching a carcass, that's not ideal for a Nazirite. You got to tell, you got to confess, maybe that's going to disrupt the wedding prep prep preparations. There's like maybe a ritual detour to to cleanse himself. But he stays silent, but I think there's something deeper. Shimshon keeps secret not just to protect himself, his mission throughout his whole life operates beneath the surface in a register no one around him can access. He's running a long strategic game against the Philistines. And like every silence, like a chess game, it's another move. Right, Jeremy, there's something almost a little bit uncomfortable about this, right? We just watched him tear a lion apart with his bare hands and his response is silence. Not humility even or or modesty, just operational silence. He's not hiding weakness, he's hiding strength. And that's the key to everything that follows. His parents see a young man chasing a a Philistine girl. What's actually happening is a judge beginning to dismantle an empire. And he can't afford for anyone, not even his own family, to see it coming. Exactly. And so the verse continues, you know, time passes and Shimshon returns to the wedding. He turns off the road to look at the lion's carcass and he finds something that's almost impossible inside it, a swarm of bees and honey. And he scoops out, eats it as he walks, and he brings some to his parents. Verse nine. And he gave them some and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken honey from the carcass of the lion. So he gives them sweetness and he withholds the source. They eat, they don't know where it came from. And so to me that symbolizes Shimshon. As strong as a lion, it's maybe impure from the outside, but what comes from it is sweetness. And his parents, just like the nation, they're never going to know that the salvation from the Philistines, as sweet as it will be, was all coming from seemingly this impure lion called Samson. And so he hides these secrets from his parents in the same chapter. And all the while this is all me Hashem, it's all from God. And so at the wedding feast the Philistines, you know, they approach and Samson poses a riddle to the 30 Philistine companions. A riddle no one can solve because no one knows what he knows. And he says, "Out of the eater comes something eat. U me az it simatuk. And out of the strong came something sweet." And so obviously the answer is the lion. The answer is his secret. And because no one knows his secret, no one can answer. But on a deeper level, it's a story of Shimshon himself. It's just his life. Only Shimshon knows. And so if we step back for a moment, we're like 11 judges into Shoftim and this arc is unmistakable. The early judges are communal figures. Deborah sits under the palm tree, the nation comes to her, she speaks openly. Gideon leads the army. There's communication, there's a shared mission. And now there's Samson, a lone figure carrying everything inside himself, not telling his parents, not explaining to his friends, playing riddle games at his own weddings. And it's like I'm not criticizing it, but like what Samson is doing is righteous. But it's also strategic. The method, the isolation, the secrecy, it tells us something about the state of the nation. A judge who can only function in hiding is a judge that's operating in a society that's lost its coherence. You don't need to hide your mission from your own parents in a healthy nation. And so the Philistines, they press Samson's wife. They threaten to burn her and her family alive. And she's crying to him for seven days until finally Shimshon breaks and reveals the secret to his riddle. Of course she immediately tells the answer. They come to Samson on the seventh day and his response is really, I guess, real. He says like this. This is verse 18. "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found my riddle." My heifer, he's calling his wife a cow. It's like the bitterness in that line. The woman he brought into his confidence, the only one he told, used it against him. And then, we see Shimshon HaGibor, Samson the warrior, for the first time. This is now verse 19. And the spirit of Hashem rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck 30 of their men. Jeremy, I just have to say here, I love this story, but what strikes me is the timing, right? The Ruach Hashem, the spirit of Hashem, comes upon him before he goes to Ashkelon, right? Not during the fight, before, which means this isn't Samson losing control and God cleaning up after him. This is God initiating and Samson executing, right? The anger is real, he was genuinely betrayed, but the mission was already in motion before the anger kicked in. And that's what makes Samson so hard to to deal with on some level. You can't separate the man from the mission, and I think that's deliberate. You know, Hashem chose someone whose personal life would become the battlefield, not despite the mess, but through the mess, if you know what I'm trying to >> Exactly. Exactly. On the surface, people just saw raw anger, betrayed at his own wedding. Samson storms into Ashkelon and kills 30 men to pay a debt that he now owes because of the riddle that he gambled away. It's impulsive, it's disproportionate, it's hard to really justify. But if you look closer, the Radak points out a detail that's really important. Samson takes Chalifot U'Gedim, expensive expensive changes of clothing, garments that are associated with men of standing. These were not just random villagers in Ashkelon, these were significant Philistines. These were the leaders, these were the men of the ruling class. Samson didn't just lash out blindly, he struck them precisely. It's just like how in Israel initiated the attack against Iran with a surprise attack that took out Khamenei and Iran's top 30 or so leaders before the war even began. The Ruach Hashem, the spirit of God, came upon him before he went. And Hashem didn't empower random violence. The Malbim says, Samson is operating now on two levels simultaneously. There's genuine human anger, and there's also the divine mission. The emotion is real, the mission is real, and Shimshon's story, you can't ever really separate them. That's what makes him so interesting. And so, it's this strategic genius inside the fury. He confuses the Philistines the same way that he's confusing us. They can't retaliate now against all of Israel because one volatile man struck 30 of their own. So, he's like this rogue volatile loner operating inside Philistine territory, not like a judge of Israel, he doesn't represent the nation, he just represents his own passions and his own desires. So, Israel stays protected, and the war has begun, and the enemy doesn't even know it yet. And so, in the end, his wife is given to another man, which only confirms, by the way, that the chapter was kind of hinting to this all along. Samson was never really there to build a family with a Philistine woman, he was there to infiltrate, create friction, and then strike at their leaders. And the chapter then, you know, it ends in this betrayal and violence, and everything that began as a divine mission, left Shimshon right now isolated, and he's truly upset. And so, every one of these moments are all min Hashem. The desire, the marriage, the lion, the honey, the riddle, the betrayal, the 30 men leaders dead in Ashkelon, it's all something being set into motion, a war of liberation that Shimshon didn't announce, that no one around him understood, and he's carrying out completely alone. Like we've never seen a leader like this in Israel, and maybe that's the prophecy this chapter holds for us today. Because there'll be a time before the arrival of David, before the arrival of the king of Israel, where Israel will be like Samson in the eyes of the world. They will just never understand us. Every military operation, every targeted strike, every difficult decision that we make in this fog of this existential war for our survival, the world that's inclined to hate Israel, they're going to watch and they will never understand. They'll see recklessness, they'll see a disproportionate force, they'll see a people that's just following their own eyes, and they just don't have the context. And they'll see the action, and they're going to miss our mission entirely. And what Israel is doing now is literally bringing sweetness and salvation to the entire world. And you know, verse four, his father and mother did not know that it was all from Hashem. The world is always Samson's parents in this verse, watching, they're objecting, they're certain they understand what's happening and missing the deeper reality. And so, there's also one more layer. The riddle itself, out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet. Like that's not just a clever puzzle about a lion and a beehive, that is the pattern of all of Jewish history. It's the shape of Jewish survival throughout the generations. Out of Egypt came the revelation at Sinai and the Torah. Out of Babylon came the sages of Israel. Out of the Spanish expulsion came the golden age of Safed, of the Arizal, of the Shulchan Aruch. Out of the Holocaust came the state of Israel. The most devastating moments in our history became the greatest flourishing. And so, the eater becomes the meal, the destroyer becomes the beehive. Sweetness comes from exactly the place that threatened to consume us, and that pattern isn't finished yet. We're living inside it right now. The wars, the pressure, the ballistic missiles, the isolation, they feel like the lion is roaring at us on the road to Timnah, overwhelming and terrifying. But Samson's story is teaching us the lion is not the end of the story, the lion is the beginning of the honey. Out of the strong, something sweet is coming, my friends. So, chazak u'baruch, b'ezrat Hashem, we'll see you tomorrow for Judges chapter 15. And if you want to delve in deeper, and you want to connect more with Ari and what we're doing around the world, you should really look into our global community, the Land of Israel fellowship, at the landofisrael.com. If you're enjoying this, you will >> [music] >> absolutely love what we're doing at the Land of Israel fellowship. All right, see you tomorrow.