Judges 14:1-11: a reflection

1Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2He came up, and told his father and his mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me as my wife.” 3Then his father and his mother said to him, “Isn’t there a woman among your brothers’ daughters, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?” Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.” 4But his father and his mother didn’t know that it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. 5Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and his mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion roared at him. 6The LORD’s Spirit came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat with his bare hands, but he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7He went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. 8After a while he returned to take her, and he went over to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went. He came to his father and mother and gave to them, and they ate, but he didn’t tell them that he had taken the honey out of the lion’s body. 10His father went down to the woman; and Samson made a feast there, for the young men used to do so. 11When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

Samson sees a Philistine woman and demands that his parents get her for him: she pleases me well, he says, brushing aside their objection that he should marry among his own people. It is impulsive, self-willed, driven by what pleases him in the moment. And then the narrator adds a startling aside: his parents did not know that this was of the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.

Hold those two things together, because the passage does. On one side, Samson's choice is genuinely his, and genuinely flawed, driven by appetite, against wise counsel. On the other, God was somehow working his own purposes through it. This is not said to excuse Samson; his self-will is still self-will. But it reveals a mystery: God is able to weave even our flawed, willful choices into his larger purposes.

That is both humbling and reassuring. Humbling, because it means our worst-motivated decisions are not outside God's reach; he is not thwarted by our folly. Reassuring, because it means that even where we have chosen poorly, God is not helpless to bring good out of it. It does not make the poor choice good, and it is no license to do as we please. But if you look back on choices driven by appetite or self-will and wonder whether God can still work through the mess, Samson's story says he can. God's sovereignty is deep enough to run even through our folly.

Lord, your sovereignty is deep enough to work even through my flawed and self-willed choices, as it did through Samson's. This humbles me and does not excuse my folly. Where I have chosen poorly, bring good out of it in your mercy, and teach me to seek your will over what merely pleases me.