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- About an hour south-west from Zorah, down^309 the rocky mountain-gorges, lay
Timnath, within the tribal possession of Dan, but at the time held by the Philistines.
This was the scene of Samson's first exploits.
The "occasion" was his desire to wed a Philistine maiden. Against such union, as
presumably contrary to the Divine will (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3), his parents
remonstrated, not knowing "that it was of Jehovah, for he was seeking an occasion from
(or on account of) the Philistines." Strictly speaking, the text only implies that this
"seeking occasion on account of the Philistines" was directly from the Lord; his
proposed marriage would be so only indirectly, as affording the desired occasion. Here
then we again come upon man's individuality - his personal choice, as the motive power
of which the Lord makes use for higher purposes. We leave aside the question, whether
or not Samson had, at the outset, realized a higher Divine purpose in it all, and mark
two points of vital importance in this history. First, whenever Samson consciously
subordinated his will and wishes to national and Divine purposes, he acted as a
Nazarite, and "by faith;" whenever national and Divine purposes were made subservient
to his own lusts, he failed and sinned. Thus we perceive throughout, side by side, two
elements at work: the Divine and the human; Jehovah and Samson; the supernatural and
the natural - intertwining, acting together, influencing each other, as we have so often
noticed them throughout the course of Scripture history. Secondly, the influences of the
Spirit of God upon Samson come upon him as impulses from without - sudden, mighty,
and irresistible by himself and by others.
The misunderstanding and ignorance of Samson's motives on the part of his parents
cannot fail to recall a similar opposition in the life of our Blessed Lord, even as,
reverently speaking, this whole history foreshadows, though "afar off," that of our great
Nazarite. But to return. Yielding at last to Samson, his parents, as the custom was, go
with him to the betrothal at Timnath. All here and in the account of the marriage is
strictly Eastern, and strictly Jewish. Nay, such is the tenacity of Eastern customs, that it
might almost serve as descriptive of what would still take place in similar
circumstances. But, under another aspect, we are here also on the track of direct Divine
agency, all unknown probably to Samson himself. To this day "vineyards are very often
far out from the villages, climbing up rough wadies and wild cliffs."^310 In one of these,
precisely in the district where he would be likely to meet wild beasts, Samson
encountered a young lion. "And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him," or
"lighted upon him," the expression being notably the same as in 1 Samuel 10:10; 11:6;
16:13; 18:10. Samson rent him, as he would have torn a kid.^311 This circumstance
became "the occasion against the Philistines." For, when soon afterwards Samson and
his parents returned once more for the actual marriage, he found a swarm of bees in the
dried skeleton of the lion. The honey,^312 which he took for himself and gave to his
parents, became the occasion of a riddle which he propounded, after a custom usual in
the East, to the "thirty companions" who acted as "friends of the bridegroom." The
(^)