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5Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. 6Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.
8After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.
10His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. 11As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12And Samson said to them, "Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, 13but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes." And they said to him, "Put your riddle, that we may hear it." 14And he said to them,
"Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet."
And in three days they could not solve the riddle.
15On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, "Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?" 16And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, "You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is." And he said to her, "Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?" 17She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. 18And the 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?"
And he said to them,
"If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
19And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
The lion attacking Samson functions as a "symbolic prelude" to Samson's conflict with Philistia. This is evident from a synopsis of 14:5-6 and 15:14: (1) Samson comes to a certain location; (2) the enemy roars/shouts upon meeting him; (3) the Spirit of God comes upon him with superhuman power and amazing results. The killing of the lion foreshadows Samson's exploits against the enemy, which reach their first climax at the end of ch.15.
But the picture that presents itself to the judge upon his return to the scene is even more prodigious. It bears the signature of God. Bees are not known to settle in a carcass or cadavers undergoing decomposition. This is highly irregular. In the midst of decay Samson discovers a "congregation" (Hebrew ´ēdâ) of bees producing sweetness to the world around. The typology of this situation should not be missed. Samson had killed the beast with superhuman strength, just as Israel would defeat their enemies through the Lord's empowerment (Lev. 26:8; Deut. 7:17-24). The completion of the conquest of Canaan would issue in Israel's taking possession of the divinely allotted territory, which is sometimes described in terms of the sweetness of honey (Deut. 8:7-8). Also, the cadaver was an unlikely host for a "community" of bees. But so was Canaan for Israel. Although rich in natural resources, the land was unclean when Israel entered it on account of the inhabitants' idolatrous practices (Lev. 18:24-27). The land would become habitable for God's holy community by turning it into a death zone. Both the sedentary population and its idolatrous sites had to be carved out. The bees in the dead lion is a picture of the completion of the conquest that would not come until David put down all enemies, the Philistines included.
Does Samson's riddle (14:14) as a poetic reflection on the strange sight not also say something about the salvation of God in general, and his plan for the world? The church of Christ has always been called to be "sweetness" in the midst of decay. God has planted the colony of his people in the midst of a world that is falling apart, or as 1 John 2:17 says, "passing away."
Jesus Christ himself came into this world as one who offered life in the context of death and decay. He founded a colony of people who are no less unusual than the bees in the cadaver. In fact, he himself said that we are "not of this world" (John 18:36). Therefore, when we forgive one another for Christ's sake, when we bear one another's burden, when we choose Christ rather than sin, when we speak the truth in love, when we worship God, then there is sweetness in the midst of a world of decay.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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