Judg 14:15 | KingComments | STEP | The way in which the Philistines work to find the solution to the riddle shows their merciless character. They threaten Samson’s wife with burning if she doesn’t take the solution from him and pass it on to them. The woman shows that, despite a connection with Samson, she has remained essentially a Philistine woman. Her contact with him did not affect her heart. She still feels one with the Philistines and speaks in of “the sons of my people”. She blackmails him with one of the strongest weapons a woman has: her emotions. The strong Samson is not resistant to this. He becomes a poor, weak Samson who cannot keep secrets. This will happen again later and then it will be fatal to him. From both cases we can learn that something that we allow as an illicit ‘partner’ – in the sense of illicit ideas, behaviors, connections – in our lives, becomes the traitor of our secret. Betrayal here is hooking up with the enemy. The betrayal consists in the application in this, that we know the meaning of the riddle as a believer, but that we treat it the way the enemies treat it. So it does not bring about any real change in our lives. Samson did not have much joy at the whole feast. There’s nothing festive about your wife trying with tears to fidget a secret you want to keep to yourself. The whole relationship makes it clear that they both live for themselves. Yet the most affected person in this story is the woman. She did not look up Samson, but he wanted her. Through his performance he makes sure that the feast is not an undivided pleasure to her either. That’s still the practice today. When a believer and an unbeliever marry, the victim is the unbeliever. The unbeliever thinks to marry someone with whom he/she can have fun in life. Such a person does not marry a Christian but a wife/husband. Soon it turns out that the believer, if he still attaches any value to the faith, does not want to go to all kinds of occasions or friends where the unbeliever wants to go to. Of course, this was discussed in the time before marriage, but the reality only really presents itself when one is married a bit longer.

‏ Judges 14:15

How the Riddle Is Solved

The way in which the Philistines work to find the solution to the riddle shows their merciless character. They threaten Samson’s wife with burning if she doesn’t take the solution from him and pass it on to them. The woman shows that, despite a connection with Samson, she has remained essentially a Philistine woman. Her contact with him did not affect her heart. She still feels one with the Philistines and speaks in Jdg 14:16 of “the sons of my people”.

She blackmails him with one of the strongest weapons a woman has: her emotions. The strong Samson is not resistant to this. He becomes a poor, weak Samson who cannot keep secrets. This will happen again later and then it will be fatal to him. From both cases we can learn that something that we allow as an illicit ‘partner’ – in the sense of illicit ideas, behaviors, connections – in our lives, becomes the traitor of our secret.

Betrayal here is hooking up with the enemy. The betrayal consists in the application in this, that we know the meaning of the riddle as a believer, but that we treat it the way the enemies treat it. So it does not bring about any real change in our lives.

Samson did not have much joy at the whole feast. There’s nothing festive about your wife trying with tears to fidget a secret you want to keep to yourself. The whole relationship makes it clear that they both live for themselves. Yet the most affected person in this story is the woman. She did not look up Samson, but he wanted her. Through his performance he makes sure that the feast is not an undivided pleasure to her either.

That’s still the practice today. When a believer and an unbeliever marry, the victim is the unbeliever. The unbeliever thinks to marry someone with whom he/she can have fun in life. Such a person does not marry a Christian but a wife/husband. Soon it turns out that the believer, if he still attaches any value to the faith, does not want to go to all kinds of occasions or friends where the unbeliever wants to go to. Of course, this was discussed in the time before marriage, but the reality only really presents itself when one is married a bit longer.