Transcription
In this episode of the Tin Ken Dispatch, we talk about grace in the Old Testament, Samson representing Israel, and the bachelor party gone bad. We hope you enjoy this episode.
Hello? Is anyone there? Hello?
All right, welcome and welcome back to the Tin Can Dispatch. I'm Austin Lillard and as always, I'm joined by my co-host Reagan Lillard, who you can see now.
Yes, I finally have a video. We uh fixed the mistake from the last episode. Will not be happening again. Hopefully. Hopefully not. Let's Well, you know, hopefully. So, uh, we were, uh, yeah, I I we got finished with the episode and got to the point where I was collecting the files because we're using new a new program and I realized I did something wrong and that is why Reagan was in a TV last week.
Uh, so if you're listening on Spotify, check out the YouTube and that'll make sense.
Um, no, but uh, I think I think the episode went great last week. I think uh, we got a very good response so far. Um, of course, this is only one day out from the from the release of the last episode. So, we're recording this on a Tuesday night.
Um, but, uh, I was very happy with it. I think it was a great start and I'm very excited to get into it today. Now, I didn't mention this in the last episode, but it is something that I wanted to touch on. The story of Samson is only four chapters, but it actually takes place over the course of about 20 years. And so, in total, there's only, let's see, I think 13, 14, and 15 all only have about 20 something ch uh verses. And uh 15 has 13 14 50 16 has I think 20 I don't want to guess maybe 25 to 28 verses.
So really you're working with with less than 90 verses for the entire story of Samson but it takes place over 20 years. So we're doing a lot of time skipping.
Oh yeah.
Um, so in the last uh chapter, in the last episode, we uh covered the story of Samson's parents and how uh Samson's mother neglected his purpose and how that's probably, you know, one of the factors that led into him kind of being unanchored for his early life. And this is where we find Samson picking up. Uh, it's sort of a um, well, the episode's going to be titled Handsful of Honey, but uh, an alternate title could be Bachelor Party Gone Biblical.
Uh, because it's it's sort of uh, it seems like it's sort of Samson in his kind of young and wild years, right?
Um, but there's a there's an angle I want to look at this from that isn't the most uh, obvious or the most common one. And we're actually just kind of gonna kind of glaze over what would you what you would think would be the most common angle. And that's gonna make sense.
Right? And I was kind of looking at the notes and kind of wondering what angle uh you were planning to take on that. So, I'm looking forward to uh digging into this.
Half of this episode is going to be uh some some theology and some uh talking about the Old Testament, grace in the Old Testament, different things like that. The second half of the episode, I think, is going to be more just like, let's see what how Samson gets himself out of this mess.
Oh, yeah.
Uh because he he gets up some up to some antics. Uh but it's a very very interesting time. Um I will say I'm not going to throw away the uh thing we added in the last episode about having an old friend and having that quote from the old friend. Uh it's not going to be at the beginning of the episode this time though. It's going to be a little bit further down. So, uh, I've tried to introduce some things on the show before and they lasted one episode, some different concepts.
Um, but this one is here to stay hopefully and it is in this episode. Uh, but we will hear from our old friend uh here in a few minutes. And, uh, spoiler alert, it is Charles Spurgeon.
Um, a good friend to have. First time we're gonna A good friend to have. Yeah. And probably not the last time. He's going to be our old friend of the week. So without further ado, well, okay, let me give some ado because last week I said without further ado. Last week I said without further ado and I gave like 15 more minutes of ado.
Uh so legitimately without further ado, let's jump into Judges chapter 14 if you want to read those first few verses.
Verse 14. Samson went down to Timna and at Timna he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timna. Now get her for me as my wife. But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our people that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes."
Okay, so that is our bottle quote for the episode.
Um, do you remember uh what the sort of mantra I don't know if mantra is the right word, what the the ongoing phrase for the entire book of Judges is.
Yeah. And the people of Israel did what was right in their own eyes.
Exactly. And so I think that's our key verse for this entire chapter because Okay. So, um, as I was researching for this episode, one of the, uh, takes, even our, even our boy David Guzzik kind of had this take.
And the main takeaway from Samson, uh, wanting a Philistine wife is basically a uh, be careful who you date or be careful who you, you know, you know, that kind of thing.
It's like the It's the standard like youth pastor message for it. It's like, you know, be careful.
Exactly. Okay. So, yeah, that's the youth pastor message. And I think that it definitely can be used in that way.
But I think if we if we go one step deeper with just what scripture gives us, I think we can we can get to a uh not a different conclusion, but a different not a uh hold on, wait. Not a better conclusion, but just a different conclusion.
Um what were you saying?
Well, I was wondering right off the bat um when it says Samson went down to Timno. So, and I don't know much uh honestly about the area that Timna is. Um, but it says Samson went down there and obviously the Philistines were down there because he saw a daughter of the Philistines.
Um, so that kind of makes me wonder what was he doing in that area in the first place cuz you know typically the people of Israel don't get along too well with the Philistines with the track record of Goliath and all that stuff coming up.
Um, so it kind of makes me wonder about the situations he was putting himself in in the first place.
And that's actually a very good point because it says here in a minute, and we'll get to that verse, but it says uh that he was in the vineyards of Timna.
And if we remember his uh his Nazarite vow in the last episode, he wasn't even supposed to touch like a grape, you know, let alone wine. And so he's already putting himself in some into some sticky situations.
Someone with a peanut allergy going into a jiffy factory.
Exactly. So, we can already see Samson's uh character in judgment, right?
And like I said, this is it doesn't give an age for Samson in this chapter, but this is definitely uh it seems like in his kind of younger formative years where he's still kind of firing from the hip, still making some rash I mean, he makes rash decisions I feel like his entire life, but this is uh this chapter is just wild west from start to finish.
Also, it turns out um I answered my own question by reading one verse down.
Oh, what's that?
Verse four. Uh his father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines at which time the Philistines ruled over Israel. So, he was Oh, yeah. Okay. So, I should have read a little further, but so he was seeking out an opportunity against them. Okay. So, that answers my question.
Right? Right. So, uh when Samson says, "Get her for me. She is right in my eyes. This is basically taking the entire idea of the book of Judges and funneling it down into just a couple verses.
Because we Okay, so there's two there's two camps so far that we've that we've outlined. Um I think we've outlined them. If not, I'm about to outline them. There is the camp that Samson uh is does nothing right and the Lord is constantly having to cover for him. He's a he's an idiot. he's brash, he's, you know, he does all these things and uh the Lord is trying to make the best out of bad situation.
Then you have the other camp where they think that every single action Samson does is in some way, shape or form prophetic or uh christoologgical, you know, different things like that.
Um I would probably find myself somewhere in the middle there as we're going to find there are things that Samson does that do directly reflect the character of Christ.
Um, and then there are some things that you can't really account for uh morally or theologically.
Something that is foxes.
And I do want to exactly Samson is basically I feel like in these verses taking on the persona of Israel themselves.
Yeah. Which makes sense because he's the judge of this of this portion. But literally, it's and we've talked about this before and and it's such a it's such a a literal um example of what we've been talking about because we've brought up so many times even in our guest episodes that we're not even talking about judges. We've brought up about how still comes up the Israelites were uh were marrying and giving in marriage to the people um, you know, to the Philistines to those people that were outside of the covenant people of God.
And what is Samson doing here? He, you know, he sees a Philistine that he thinks, you know, would make a good wife. Uh, he goes to his parents and says, "I want this one." Yeah. And his parents say, "Uh, is there no other >> is there anybody else in anybody else?"
Anybody else? Literally anybody. And so, uh, in a way, and I I want to be um, careful on how I parse this out because Samson is taking on the, uh, characteristics of the entire nation of Israel in that he's giving himself away to uh, a foreign people.
Mhm. But you you could look at that and interpret it in a christoologgical way and say that Christ is taking on, you know, our, you know, Christ is the one that took on our sins so that we could be free of the consequences.
Yeah. Um but this is sort of an imperfect, you know, there's a reason they call it types and shadows because there's no there's no perfect picture of Christ in the Old Testament.
Um so there is an idea there and a thread we could pull out there. Um, but it is just interesting that Samson literally said because you know scripture says the is Israelites said uh scripture says the Israelites did what was right in their own eyes and he says here get get her for me for she is right in my eyes.
Um so anyway, we'll keep moving.
Uh yeah, pick up at verse four. We'll reread that and then continue down through maybe uh verse seven. His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timna, and they came to the vineyards of Timna. And behold, a young lion came towards him roaring. Then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson eyes. Samson's eyes.
Okay. So, uh, this this part's interesting because there has been nothing up to this point that would point us in the direction of Samson basically having super.
Yeah. Uh, no no buildup whatsoever. No. Um, you know, the angel of the Lord didn't even say that he would have, you know, special powers, you know, anything like that.
But he has this strength. I mean, think about the force it would take and and that's not even the greatest show of Samson's strength that we'll see, but this is sort of the introduction.
Uh, it's we see him literally tear and and it's interesting that that it says like you would tear a young I was I was going to say something about that cuz I don't know about you, but I feel like it'd be pretty hard for me to tear apart a young goat. Now, I you know, I almost wonder if it's talking about uh, you know, when you when you're um uh what's the word? When you're field dressing, you know, something and you're like tear, you know, tearing the tearing the skin off or you know when you're uh, you know, skin. So, I don't I don't know. There's I don't feel like I'm Yeah. So, maybe something like that. But uh I I that did kind of catch my attention because I'm just picturing somebody like going up to a young goat and but uh but no, he literally said he tore the lion in pieces. So not even in half, but in like pieces.
Uh so I mean it was already dead. He was but he did not tell his Right. Yeah. It says but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
Um, so it's interesting that he doesn't uh boast about it because you would think like me personally if I Yeah. Tore a lion in half, that'd be going on Instagram like immediately hitting Instagram live. Check out this tore apart a lion.
Yeah, exactly. I feel like it's interesting that he he didn't find Right. Yeah. So, it's it's very interesting that he didn't immediately go to his father or mother.
Um, then he went down and talked with the woman and she was right in Samson's eyes. So he did not let the uh the interaction with the lion dissuade him from uh going and talking to this woman again.
Yep. So, um and after some days he returned to take her and this is where it gets gets interesting. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion and behold there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion and honey. He scraped it out into his hands and went on eating as he went. and he came to his father and mother and gave some to them and they ate but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.
Um, so this is a complete and total violation of his Nazarite vow because part of the Nazarite vow is you should not touch any dead thing.
Um, now you could you could go in that direction but I'm going to I'm going to put a pin in that for now because now we come to our old friend of the week Mr. Charles Spurgeon.
Um, now this is actually where we pull our title for the episode, too. Um, he had a full sermon, and you can find the full sermon online. This is a this is just a portion of it.
Um, but he had a sermon called Hands Full of Honey, and it's it's a very good read. I highly recommend. I might even link it in the comments.
But uh this was just kind of his opening remarks um after he had read the scripture um kind of setting it up and setting up um the christoologgical significance of Samson pulling the honey out of the uh lion. So I'm going to read this and uh Spurgeon's actually going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for us.
So um the particular part of the incident which is recorded in these two verses appears to have been passed over by those who have written upon Samson's life. I suppose it appeared to be too inconsiderable. They are taken up with his festive riddle, but they omit the far more natural and rec and commendable part uh and commendable fact of his bringing forth the honey in his hands and presenting it to his father and mother. This little scene to which I direct your glances, it seems to me that the Israelitish hero with a slain lion in the background, standing out in the open road with his hands laden with masses of honeycomb and dripping with honey, which he holds out to his parents, makes a fine picture worthy of the greatest artist. And what a type we have here of our divine Lord and Master, Jesus, the conqueror of death and hell. He has destroyed the lion that roared upon us and upon him. He has shouted victory over all our foes. It is finished, was his note of triumph. And now he stands in the midst of his church with his hands full of sweetness and consolation, presenting them to those of whom he says, "These are my brother and sister and mother. Each uh to each one of us who believe in him, he gives the luscious food which he had prepared for us by the overthrow of our foes." He bids us come and eat that we may have our lives sweetened and our hearts filled with joy. To me, the comparison seems wonderfully apt and suggestive. I see our triumphant Lord laden with sweetness, holding it forth to all his brethren and inviting them to share in his joy.
Wow.
So, Mr. Spurgeon here has uh cracked the case wide open.
Yeah. Yeah. Seems so. And this is this is one of my main uh this is one of my favorite takes of this chapter because there's so much that goes on and like he says in the beginning it is sort of a missable detail that he does go and give it to his parents and there's there's actually one further detail of that that I want to touch on um and go one step further than uh than Spurgeon did, but it's such a great picture of the sweetness that comes from the victory that Christ wrought on the cross.
Um and the grace that Christ wrought on the cross because it's through his sacrifice that we are able to find grace.
Um but it wasn't just us that found grace through Christ's sacrifice. And it because it's not just a forwardmoving grace. It's actually uh backwardmoving grace too.
Um before I get to uh my next scriptures, I just want to sit in that for for just a moment about the the sacrifice that Christ because we can't I I don't feel like we can um uh emphasize that enough. And I just love how he puts it.
Um because you know, scripture talks about Satan as a as a roaring lion.
Um, and this is a picture of the lion being literally ripped into pieces. You know, the lion was no longer I had never thought about that angle, but that Yeah, that's good stuff.
And it's another detail. Um, and he actually talks about this later later on in the message. Um, it's very odd that the lion like that the honey would have been in the lion in the first place. That is a oddity because especially especially in that part of the world, the lion would have been picked clean within no time.
Oh yeah. Um, like bleached like bleached bones picked clean.
Um, and so for the lion to have still been there, you know, and for the honey to have formed and for, you know, all of this, it's a very odd uh very odd picture.
Yeah. So, um I want to talk a little bit about the honey because um when he said uh in verse 9, it says he scraped it out into his hands and went on eating as he went and he came to his father and mother and gave some to them and they ate but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. And so I think this is a really really cool depiction of the grace that comes from the victory on the cross being applied to the faith of former generations.
Um, because the former generations that came uh before the sacrifice of Christ, you know, scripture tells us that their faith was accounted unto them for righteousness and and we'll see that here in a second, but they didn't know where that victory came from. They didn't have the full revelation of the the lion being destroyed at the cross. They didn't have the full revelation of the person of Christ. You know, we talked about the angel of the Lord last week and I loved that discussion.
Um, all they knew was the angel of the Lord. They didn't know the person of Jesus Christ. You know, he said his name was a secret. His name was wonderful that it would be revealed. Yes.
Um, and on at the victory on the cross, that name was revealed. And now we have this sweetness and this grace that comes out of that victory. And uh, I want to read in, let's see, we'll read in Romans, then we're going to read in Hebrews. So Romans 4:1 says, "What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness."
So Abraham had faith and it was counted him counted to him for righteousness. The Lord had uh the Lord had grace and mercy for Abraham.
Um, and you see that throughout much of the Old Testament, too. And you see that in Hebrews 11.
Um, Hebrews 11:32 says, "And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barack, Samson, Jeepa, and of David and Samuel, and of the prophets, uh who through faith conquered kingdoms and forced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were saw into. They were killed with the sword. They were about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all of these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. since God had provided something better for us that apart from us from us they should not be made perfect.
So these people that fully fully gave themselves to the Lord and fully received um, you know, the salvation of God but they didn't have the full promise the full promise wasn't revealed to them because Christ hadn't been revealed yet.
Yeah. You know, that doesn't mean that they're not going to be with us in eternity. That just means that while in their time on earth, they didn't have the full revelation of the person of Jesus Christ.
Um, that's what was promised to us and and that's what we get to uh abide in today. You know, that's that's the revelation we have.
Um, and it's pretty incredible to think about the fact, you know, we read about these people in the Old Testament, these people that were chosen of God, were used of God, were um Samson who was literally given super strength by God to do all these great feats. And we have we are able to have a relationship with God that they weren't able to have in their time on earth because we know we know that third person in the trinity.
Yeah. You know, in the Old Testament it says that the spirit of the Lord moved upon him.
The spirit of the Lord moved upon him. And so there was an awareness of the spirit of God. There was an awareness of the father. And I I I do think excuse me I do think there was a awareness of that there was that third person.
Yeah. um to a certain extent. I think um you can see that in the Old Testament scriptures, but there but they didn't have the full revelation of the Trinity. They didn't have the full revelation of the father, son, and holy spirit um in communion, you know, together since the since the before the beginning of time.
Yeah. Um I just think that's neat.
Yeah, I would say so.
Um, that is my uh that's that that's my favorite part of this chapter is that honey from the carcass because it is such a perfect picture. There it is. Yeah.
Uh a perfect picture of um Christ and that and and like we talked about from the very beginning, the whole idea behind this is to find Christ in the story. And I think we found him today.
Yeah. And I mean that's that's an angle I'd never heard. I I love that you was a you were able to find that uh from Spurgeon uh just that picture of you know in Samson's disobedience um and the you know not following his vow um but still finding that picture of Christ and his grace there and the sweetness in that.
Um, and it's you know, I know I've said it I don't know how many times but I'll say it again, you know, it's Christ on every page. You know, you may I have to dig a little bit, but he's there.
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So, we'll keep moving here. Uh going into verse 10, if you want to pick us up at 10 through uh well, let's go. Yeah, let's go uh 10 through 14.
Okay. His father went down to the woman, and Samson prep prepared a feast there. For so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, "Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. And they said to them to him, "Put your riddle that we may hear it." And he said to them, "Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet." And in 3 days they could not solve the riddle.
Okay. So, here we see uh Samson getting his bachelor party kicked up into action.
Uh, and that's is this basically what it's referred to in a lot of the commentaries that I've seen or what we can sort of relate to.
Right? Um, because uh so he's going through with his marriage to the to this Philistine woman.
And so they're kicking up a party. Uh David Guzzik makes it very clear that this was a drinking party. And uh he said uh he I can't remember I I didn't put his note in here, but he basically said if Samson didn't drink at this party, he got way too dangerously close to it for being a Nazerite.
Um, so we see that he uh and it's funny because Samson is just a very interesting character. He's he's a little bit of a trickster as we'll find later on even here and and and later on.
Um, but it's funny because he he wants to put forth this riddle and it is an like he's the only he's obviously the only one that knows the answer to it. There's no it's not even really a riddle.
And you brought it up the other day and uh I think it's an excellent point of that scene in J.R. Tolken's the Hobbit of when Bilbo meets Gollum for the first time in the cave and Gollum challenges him to a battle of riddles and when Bilbo comes to the end of the game, you know, he he's about to lose. He can't think of another one and he feels the one ring in his pocket.
And so what's he say for his riddle? What is in my pocket? And that's exactly what when you said that uh the other day that's exactly it fits just too perfectly cuz it's like there it's not it's an unsolvable it's an unsolvable it breaks the game like it's an unsolvable riddle.
Out of the eater come came something to eat out of the strong came something sweet because it's so specific to his situation and the events that have led up to that because it's like there's no there's no real answer to it like yeah the answer technically is that the honey came from the lion, but there's no real answer to this river.
Right? Like, who else is going to go see that lion on the road for honey in it?
Right? And so, he makes this uh he makes this bet with the with the men and he's like, "If you uh if you find it out, I will give you 30 linen garments," which is how this ends up is hilarious. It's it's almost not funny, but it's so funny.
Um, so he makes this riddle and in three days they could not solve the riddle. So obviously they couldn't solve the riddle because it's an unsolvable riddle.
Right? Um, and it says, "On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you in your father's house with fire. Uh, have you invited us here to impoverish us?" And Samson's wife wept over him and said, "You only hate me. You do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people and you have not told me what it is. And he said to her, "Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?" She wept wept before him in the seven days that their feast lasted. And on the seventh day, he told her because she pressed him hard.
Uh, then she told the riddle to her people. And before I read the next verse, I want to say a couple uh commentaries that I that I came across talked about how um one of the follys of Samson is that he, you know, obviously he's with the Philistine woman and part of being somebody being with somebody that's a Philistine. She's going to be loyal to the Philistines and not to God's people.
Uh, I have a little bit of a different take because she sold out Samson because they said we we'll burn you.
Yeah. I mean, and your father at the same Yeah. I mean, it's they they they set the terms pretty strongly there. You know, it's like, are you trying make us go broke? We're we will burn your house down if you don't make them tell us.
Yeah. And and like obviously it's not great that she sold them out.
Right. I'm not saying I I agree, but I understand.
Yeah. I mean, and these guys seem pretty serious. Uh, and verse 18 says, "And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, what is sweeter than honey and what is what is stronger than a lion?"
Uh, and he said to them, "If you have if you had not plowed with my heer, you would not have found out my riddle."
Uh, I have a thought that's pretty self-explanatory. What's your thought?
So I looked over there at the notes and I I saw what is sweeter than honey, what is stronger than a lion? And my brain immediately went to the price is right where these guys are standing up there. What is sweeter than honey? And up on the board and that that's just a thought that went to my brain.
Are you thinking Jeopardy?
Jeopardy. That's the one. Not Price is right. Yeah. My brain went to What is Sweeter Than Honey? What is Yeah, that's that's funny. Alex Tbeck. RIP.
No, but uh but no, that is true. And it is kind of funny. And I thought this is where you were going to go just a second ago, but uh when they're asking, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" It's a rhetorical question.
Uh, but having our New Testament point of view, okay, what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? It would be the grace of God.
The Lord. Yeah. The Lord.
Exactly. Um, and he said to them, "If you have not if you had not plowed with my heer, you would not have found out my riddle." So he's he knows pretty much immediately that his wife sold him out.
Right? Uh, it's it's pretty plain.
Which I mean like yeah, your wife is like, "Babe, you do you not love me? You got to tell me this riddle or else you hate me." And then the next day these girls are like, "We found your riddle out."
I mean, right. Yeah. It's it's pretty easy to connect those dots. Doesn't take that much. No.
Yeah. Yeah. Those dots are pretty are pretty easy to connect. Um, so if you want to read verse uh 19 and 20.
Uh, so this is this is interesting.
And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and he went down to Ashcolon and struck down 30 men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle to those who Yeah. In hot anger, he went back to his father's house. And Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man.
Oh man, you hate to see it. That's that's rough. But I think it's hilarious that he doesn't go against the guys that like No, he kept up his end of the word. He kept it up his end of the bargain.
He kept up his end of the deal, but he goes and just like kills 30 dudes and steals their clothes. Can I have your boots when you're dead?
I don't Rango. Um, yeah. I just I don't know. Anyway, and then if if not to cap off the bachelor party gone bad with literally the best man stealing his girl.
Yeah, but I also wanted to point out where it says the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and he went down and struck down the 30 men.
So, yeah, cuz and you correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that most of the time where he exerts this type of supernatural strength that it does say the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him.
Mhm. So, yeah, I from what I can tell and and this is where the debate with Samson kind of goes along because you have these instances like even earlier where it says uh his parents didn't know the Lord was was basically in on it.
Yeah. Um, I the general consensus is kind of that uh the Lord was you know, even through Samson's uh bad decisions the Lord was still using it as an opportunity to move against like basically using it as a judgment against the Philistines.
Um, I'm trying to think of an example in scripture. There there is times where the Lord will use somebody else's bad decision to cast judgment on a whole an entirely separate person. None of them are coming to mind right now, but it is a concept that we find in scripture.
Uh, I just didn't put any in the notes and my mind is going completely blank. But that's kind of the idea is that Samson uh the Lord was using Samson whether he liked it or not, whether he was making wise decisions or not.
In his foolishness, the will of the Lord still is done.
Exactly. Exactly. So, this is and like like I keep saying, this is sort of Samson in his early years. He's still figuring things out. He's making bad decisions, haven't we all?
Yeah. Uh, so, um, but yeah, so this is pretty much where we leave him. Uh, he has lost his wife. Um, it was she was taken by his best man.
Um, and they they cheated, got his riddle. But this this chapter entirely sets up the uh the next two chapters with all of the events that take place.
Because you see that Samson learned absolutely nothing from his mistakes.
Yeah. Uh, and so I hate to say it, but it's a downward downward down downward spiral from here.
Um, but I will say that the Lord does use him against the Phil. Oh, yeah. And that's that's the thing. It's I from what I can see a lot of times it's more um because the people did cry out to God for freedom from the Israelites.
So it's more like using uh wait from the Philistines.
Freedom from the Philistines. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's more like God using Samson's self-destructive tendencies as a tactical nuke against the Philistines, if that makes sense.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, but he still was set apart and I don't know. So, Samson is a wild character because there is such a balance you have to strike between um whether or not, you know, between him being used of the Lord and him uh just wildening out.
Right? Uh, so, yeah. So, that's where we'll leave him. a handsful of honey.
Um, I know it was this is a much shorter episode than what we've been doing. Uh, we're not quite done yet. What were you gonna say?
Well, really quick and that, you know, stretch out a little bit more. I wanted to kind of pick your brain on this. I I was reading this morning in Proverbs uh 22. Um, and this kind of I feel like encapsulates a lot of judges uh in itself and and I guess to a point it's kind of going back to the youth pastorish sermon, but it's uh chapter 22 of Proverbs uh verse 14 out of the Amplified.
Um, it says, "The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit, deep and inescapable. He who is cursed by the Lord because of his adulterous sin will fall into it." And that's kind of I I think is more I mean it's obviously you know be careful who you date.
Um, you know, but I think also it can be about, you know, when uh Israel returned to those uh those false gods, you know, they did what was right in their own eyes.
Um, and they were uh and and they were cursed by the Lord because of their adulterous sin.
Uh, I just what I would get from it. Something interesting about that is so we are the church and Israel are both compared to a bride.
Um, and you know, the Lord is the bridegroom.
Right? Um, and because of that you see when when people are in the right marriage, they're you know, they're blessed in their marriage. And when people leave the Lord, a lot of times the sin that follows is sin in the nature of like a sexual nature of, you know, perverting what the Lord intended for marriage. And so that's what uh when so it's like when when pe when God's people leave the covenant of God, they also leave behind the covenant of marriage.
Yeah. And when people reject the sanctity of God, they reject the sanctity of marriage.
Apply applicable to today. Yeah, I was America started out as a Christian nation. Uh, we we recognized the sanctity of marriage. We recognized what it meant uh to be a family unit.
Yeah. Um, but as America has slid further and further away from the Lord, our sanctity of marriage, not only is our sanctity of our relationship with God at risk, but the sanctity of marriage is now at risk. Completely thrown out the window in a lot of cases.
Um, so there is a direct correlation Um, like we talked about at the beginning, you know, we can talk about uh, you know, dating the right person. We can talk about, you know, the importance of a godly marriage. And it's not necessarily that you have to jump ship from that to talk about Israelites uh, you know, or the Israelites um, unfaithfulness to God because in a way they're one and the same.
Um, it's the same spirit and it's the same uh, sinful spirit that tries to encroach. And like we talked about in the episode with Kagan, you know, um, a lot of times maybe not necessarily that they fell directly into idolatry, you know, directly going against the covenant of the Lord, but you know, maybe maybe they fell first into sexual sin and then idolatry or maybe it was idolatry first and then but at the end of the day, they're they're linked like this.
Yeah. Um, and there's they're you almost you almost are never going to have one without the other.
Yeah. Um, but yeah, no, very good thought.
Thank you.
So, I'm Let me see. Uh, did you have anything wrote down for your uh random random thoughts?
No, I hadn't had anything. Uh,
Okay. Let me go back.
Um, I'm just going to I'm just going to go down the list here and I want you to pick one for me to elaborate on.
Okay. We've got everything is a subscription now. uh performative social media aesthetics. Uh blue isn't a good thing talking about Google Earth and uh VBS crumpled paper with money.
See, I don't even understand the last one. That's why that's why it intrigues me.
Okay. Well, well, let me let me elaborate on that one because I was thinking about the other day we went to this do you you know the Rudd Baptist Church? Huh. Uh, maybe maybe I shouldn't dox them, but uh, you can blip it out. It was a a yeah, a church out by our grandparents um kind of on the way to their house and some of our family used to go there. I'm not sure if they still do, but they would have VBS every year. And so we would uh work with our grandpa during the summer and uh in the afternoons we would go to VBS. And two years in a row, I remember um the the guy I I guess he was the pastor probably or you know, one of the leaders, he would get up and as he opened the first service, he'd be he would uh take these crumpled pieces of paper and he go he would go um, you know, uh, every single one of y'all walked past this uh crumpled up piece of paper. Like none of y'all went to pick it up and he he would like uncrumple it and it had like a $5 bill in it or something like that and everybody would be like oh yeah everybody would be like oh man I I didn't pick it up and I I don't know what what reminded me of that the other day but I was thinking about it and I'm like of the times that I've picked up a crumpled piece of paper and thrown it away I don't know how many times I've uncrumpled it to see what it was before I throw it away. That's kind of so I think that's more just a lesson kids to dig through trash.
Well, I think it was a twofold lesson of like if I remember right, he was like, yeah, uh throw away trash when you see it, like take care of the Lord's house. And I think maybe he even took an angle of like even things that are thrown away can sometimes have value or I I don't know too much about it. for a kids lesson, I would say. You know, pretty pretty valuable for a kids lesson, I would guess.
But I I just I just remember thinking about it and I'm being like, if people would have picked it up, they probably would have thrown it away without even looking at it. So, I don't know how much of a So, anyway, that that that shows you what goes on in my head.
Um, we might get to the blue isn't a good thing next week.
But, uh, until then, I think it's been a pretty good episode. We're look looks like we're about 40 some odd minutes after the edit. it's probably going to be right at 40 minutes.
Um, so, uh, I don't think shorter episodes are a bad thing. Um, I've I've actually heard feedback from people that say, uh, the longer episodes make them less likely to click on it.
Really? See, with with me, it's just the kind of opposite cuz if I'm wanting to listen to something, I'm wanting to listen to something where I won't have to pick my phone back up in the next 20 minutes and, you know, change something else after it's over.
Oh, no. It's nothing for me to listen to a three-hour podcast. I I love that stuff. But and I mean it's so it's so easy. Like I know like on going through this separating into parts like that. I feel like we if we really wanted to I feel like we could have done it in two episodes, but they would have been pretty long.
Right? Yeah. No, we we definitely could have done Samson in two episodes, but I wanted to kind of give everything room to breathe.
Right? Um, because I mean it's not nothing for me to sit down and talk for an hour and a half even if we're not recording just you know on Exactly.
So, but I think that about wraps us up for the week.
Um, we will uh uh talking to the audience here. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. Like I said last week, we're never going to ask you for money, but I am begging you to follow us, like us, comment us, and share the episode.
Yes. Uh, we hope you enjoyed the show today. Um, we'll be back next week with uh what's the next one? Jaw-dropper is the next one.
Um, so very excited for that episode. We'll be back uh looking at Samson's antics and uh we're just uh we're just happy to be here. Oh yeah.
So Reagan, you want to sign us off?
Uh, thank you for watching everyone. Uh, like he said, like, subscribe, share, and uh, we greatly appreciate you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. And thank you for listening to the Ten Can Dispatch. We'll see you next time.