Scripture Daily

Context No. 1571 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 14:12-20: in context

12Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle now. If you can tell me the answer within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; 13but if you can’t tell me the answer, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.” They said to him, “Tell us your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14He said to them, “Out of the eater came out food. Out of the strong came out sweetness.” They couldn’t in three days declare the riddle. 15On the seventh day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you called us to impoverish us? Isn’t that so?” 16Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, “You just hate me, and don’t love me. You’ve told a riddle to the children of my people, and haven’t told it to me.” He said to her, “Behold, I haven’t told my father or my mother, so why should I tell you?” 17She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted; and on the seventh day, he told her, because she pressed him severely; and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 18The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” He said to them, “If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have found out my riddle.” 19The LORD’s Spirit came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck thirty men of them. He took their plunder, then gave the changes of clothing to those who declared the riddle. His anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. 20But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his friend.

At his wedding feast, Samson poses a riddle to the thirty Philistine companions, wagering thirty garments on whether they can solve it in seven days. Unable to guess it, they threaten his new wife: coax the answer from your husband, or we will burn you and your father's house. So she weeps before Samson, pressing him day after day, accusing him of not loving her, until on the seventh day, worn down by her relentless pressure, he tells her the answer, which she immediately reveals to her people. Samson, realizing he has been betrayed, says, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.

The mechanism of Samson's undoing here is worth noticing: he was worn down. His wife did not overpower him or trick him with a single clever move; she simply pressed, and wept, and accused, day after day, for seven days, until his resolve eroded and he gave her what he had determined to keep. It was relentless pressure, sustained over time, that finally broke him. There is a warning in this about the power of persistent pressure to wear down our resolve. We may be firm at first, determined to hold a line, to keep a confidence, to resist a temptation; but under steady, relentless pressure, the daily wearing-down, the repeated appeal, the constant nagging, our firmness can erode until we yield what we were sure we would never give. Samson held out for six days and gave in on the seventh; the pressure that did not overcome him at first overcame him in the end, simply by not letting up. It is worth being aware of this, both in resisting pressure on ourselves and in the temptation to apply it to others. Resolve that stands against a single assault can be worn away by relentless persistence; the line we hold today can be eroded by the steady pressure of tomorrow and the day after. To keep a resolve under sustained pressure requires a firmness that does not simply depend on the pressure letting up, for it may not. Samson's wife plowed with his heifer by wearing him down; and the wearing-down of resolve by relentless pressure is a real and common way that people are brought to do what they meant not to do.

Is some resolve of mine being worn down by relentless, persistent pressure, the daily nagging or appeal or temptation eroding a line I meant to hold, and can I keep firm under sustained pressure rather than yielding, as Samson did, when the pressure simply would not let up?

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