Hello Everyone,

Another price that Samson paid for his lifestyle was he deserted his promise.
He had taken the vow of a Nazarene vow.
Judges 14:5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him.

'Down' is a geographical term, but it has more meaning than that to me. When you run from God...you're going down!

'Vineyards' = he went to a place he wasn't supposed to be. You say, that's just a little thing...yes! It's the little foxes that spoil the vines.

It is when we are just flirting with sin that the slippery slope takes over.

Judges 14:6-9 ⁶ The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

⁸ Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, ⁹ which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass

'Carcass' = more disobedience. He keeps violating his vows. He is losing his focus. He is sinning in high gear! And it's a downward spiral.

The deeper you go into sin, the blinder you get! Samson was blind long before his eyes were gouged out!

The next price that Samson paid for his low standard of living was he distorted his purpose.
Judges 14:10-14 ¹⁰ Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. ¹¹ When he appeared, he was given thirty companions.

¹² "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. ¹³ If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it."

¹⁴ He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." For three days they could not give the answer.

This is the wedding, and all the guests are Philistines. He's with the wrong crowd.
Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

The riddle he gave was based on his experience with the lion. There's no way they could figure it out without knowing what happened.

So they go to his wife to get her to entice him to give up the answer. They threaten her in Judges 14:15-16. That's when she turned on the tears.

¹⁵ On the fourth^] day, they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"

¹⁶ Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer." "I haven't even explained it to my father or mother," he replied, "so why should I explain it to you?"

And in v. 17 she got her answer.
She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

Samson could stand before an army, but not before a crying woman.

v. 18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?"
Samson said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle. "Note to self: calling your wife a heifer is a big mistake.

More importantly, notice that Samson is playing games with the enemy. He is not fighting God's battles, but his own. He has distorted his purpose.

God gives us good gifts and abilities...so we must not prostitute ourselves and use them for the wrong purposes, but only for God.

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil