The Riddle That Stumps a Life
Without Faith
September 29, 2013
Judges
13:24-14:14 And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed
him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between
Zorah and Eshtaol. And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in
Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and
his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters
of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father and his
mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy
brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the
uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth
me well. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that
he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the
Philistines had dominion over Israel. Then went Samson down, and his father and his
mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a
young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon
him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand:
but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went down, and
talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. And after a time he
returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and,
behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. And he took
thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and
he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the
honey out of the carcase of the lion. So his father went down unto the woman: and
Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. And it came to
pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. And
Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can
certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I
will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments: But if ye cannot
declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments.
And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it. And he said
unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.
Samson posed a riddle around the picture of the situation in which he saw God intervene and provide him with a miracle.
He created this riddle in order to get some articles from them that he wanted.
Samson held a feast for his espousal to a woman of Philistia, and as part of the entertainment he thought of posing a riddle where someone forfeited a prize if they lost the challenge.
He would give the riddle and would win if the people could not guess the answer.
This sort of riddle is different than what we're familiar with.
- It was a mysterious
description which the hearers would solve by describing the situation that it represented.
- Samson had to use words
that would stump the others so they would never guess the answer in order for them to give him
30 sheets and 30 garments.
- The sheets were likely
wrapping robes worn at the time.
The riddle was an enigma.
- An example of the sort
of riddle Samson gave is this ancient one:
“Who gives, and does not give?
Who has not, and yet has?”
This is actually about someone who gives a riddle and about the person who hears it.
- The riddler gives the
riddle, but the words he uses hide the actual picture so that he has not really given anything.
- The hearer has the
riddle in his mind but does not have the solution because it was so obscured by the other that he
cannot solve the picture.
The riddle was created around the picture of Samson slaying a man-eating lion in the supernatural power of God in order to defeat the Philistines.
- God wanted to use him to
overcome the Philistines who oppressed the Israelites.
- And an obstruction came
between Samson and his goal in the form of that lion.
- When God used him to
kill it, he later saw that bees formed a nest in the carcass and Samson took honey from it
for food.
- So the eater is the LION.
- The MEAT from the eater
is the HONEY.
- The STRONG is the lion
as well, and the SWEETNESS is the HONEY.
He used words that were opposite.
- EATER to provide FOOD.
- THE STRONG to provide
SWEETNESS.
- The terms sounded
contradictory, which made the riddle effective.
- And while the words were
so contradictory, they really did correctly represent an actual
situation.
Samson tried to think of something that people would not be able to solve, because they would not be able to think of such a situation.
- His success would be in
the fact that most people cannot imagine a man slaying a lion since
such situations are normally impossible.
- Most people have little
faith.
- Most people cannot
answer a riddle that can only be solved by considering the miraculous.
- He was using a miracle
that God performed through him.
- Since MIRACLES were so
rare, he figured the solution was safe from being given by the
people.
The truth is that MIRACLES should not be so rare by people who are supposed to know the supernatural God of the Bible.
- These people were
Israelites.
- Their ancestors saw The
Lord open the Red Sea and lead them in a desert by a monstrous pillar
of fire.
- They saw miracles like
manna in the morning where there was no natural food for them to
eat.
- They knew all about the
miracles Moses performed by God's power.
- And when someone was
about to see victory over the oppressive enemy Philistines, and a
lion threatened him on his way, and God's power came on the man to
slay the lion with his bare hands and later find honey in its carcass
to take and eat, these people were so unaccustomed to seeing the
miraculous that they would never think of such an answer to the
riddle.
- When the enemy stands to
threaten most believers, most believers look at it as sure defeat
and problems to mount on top of their other problems that the
enemy sent.
- They never call on God
to see God step in and empower them to overcome these enemies, so
they never think of such a victorious outcome ever being possible.
- To them, an EATER come
to threaten them could never be turned into a source of food for a
person!
- To them, something
STRONG as a lion would never be the source of SWEETNESS to someone
who overcame its strength in faith since that requires a miracle,
and they cannot believe they can see God intervene with a miracle.
- So Samson felt his
riddle would win.
People full of unbelief are so limited in their concept of what God can do in their lives, that overcoming a lion in God's power is the furthest thing from anything in their kind of worlds.
This makes life an impossible riddle to solve for most people.
Only someone who knows what it is like to call upon God when the devil comes as a roaring lion, would be familiar enough with the concept of overcoming any EATER that threatens them to be able to answer a riddle that describes a
situation that only a supernatural anointing from God can overcome.
Believers are so full of unbelief today, that they never think to call upon God in faith to see victory over an impossible situation.
- Since they never call on
God, they never give God the chance to perform wonders through their lives.
- They never see the
miraculous in everyday situations where troubles rise up to threaten us .
- These people are prime
prey for riddles that can only be answered with the awareness that God empowers us to
overcome impossible situations.
Such riddles should be easy to solve!
- If people have faith
that God makes a way where there is no way, then these riddles would be
child's play!
When a person never has faith to call on God and see Him step in and anoint them, their worlds are worlds of defeat.
- They could no more think
of God turning an impossible situation that seeks to threaten us from victory on its ear than
they could think of a mere man slaying a lion and finding honey from its dead
body to feed from.
- They do not know what it
is like to see situations where the devils seeks to devour us, but we end up taking food
from him instead, because we know a God
- Whom we can call upon to
give us victory instead!
Only a certain kind of person can answer a riddle like Samson's.
To most people, an EATER sent by the devil is simply going to eat what he came to eat.
- We can only answer
riddles that are supposed to describe a reality that can actually exist in our worlds.
- And if we never reach
out in faith to God in troubles, our worlds do not include the miraculous over threatening
enemies.
If we were accustomed to actually calling on God in faith in times of trouble, then we'd be familiar enough with that kind of situation that a riddle like this would be more easily solved by us.
We'd be able to think of overcoming a man-eating lion and getting sweet honey from its dead body if we were familiar with God moving in on impossible situations and turning them around for us.
- THESE THINGS OUGHT NOT
BE DIFFICULT RIDDLES TO SOLVE!
- But they are because of
PEOPLE'S UNBELIEF and failure to believe God enough to actually ask trust Him to help and stand
back and walking into the naturally impossible situation to overcome and
overcome it!
It's like someone without faith who contemplates sickness.
- The laws of physics
simply don't allow for the situation of someone being miraculously
HEALED, because PHYSICS is restricted to what is NATURAL and anything
beyond that is SUPERNATURAL.
- So the supernatural
cannot occur.
- God made the universe
with the law of Physics that it exists in, and God can ALTER that
law of Physics or bypass it any time he wishes!
Maybe a child come to threaten us could be considered an EATER in his own mind who is turned on its ear to gain SWEETNESS from him instead of being his prey.
- BUT A LION?
- Lions are greater than
men!
- You would not be able to
get honey from a dead lion's carcass to begin with, if there was no
lion slain by a mere man for bees to find and later build a nest
- in and make honey for
the man to take for food.
- And since the common
person cannot conceive enough faith to believe God for a man
slaying a lion in His power, then such a riddle would be impossible to
solve for such people.
It never came to Israel's minds that they could take the promised land since God was with them, because giants and well walled cities were there.
The only way the people were able to get the answer was for them to use the girl Samson would marry to urge Samson to tell her the answer so she could inform
them of it.
- In other words, they had
so much unbelief, which is why the Philistines were successful to begin with in conquering
them and tormenting them, that they could not know the answer through simply
relying on their wits.
- Their wits could not
conceive of such faith to think of God empowering us in our times of troubles.
- After all, they did not
seek God when the Philistines came to conquer them.
Do you know the answer to such a riddle?
- Have you called out to
God and waited in faith instead of fearing in unbelief to see God bless
you with power from on high to conquer your threatening enemy and
take something sweet home with you?
Read how the bible described the times hen God’s Spirit moved upon Samson.
Judges
13:25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp
of Dan between Zorah and
Eshtaol.
The name Zorah means “hornet”.
- Eshtaol means
“Entreaty”, or “an asking for help.”
- And DAN means “a
judge”.
Isn’t it interesting that between a “hornet” and “the asking of God for help,” stood someone who was of the tribe of Dan — someone who is a “judge.”
Timnath, where this woman dwelt, means "APPOINTED".
We will come into situations where we stand between two choices.
We are on our way towards what is appointed by the Lord for us.
- God’s will is what
is appointed for us.
- And this fork of
decision confronts us and will determine if we get what God has for us
or not.
- And we will have to
judge (DAN) which choice to make.
- Either get stung by the
hornet, or reach out to God and ask for help.
- You’re the judge
of your own situations.
- You must decide what to
do when you are in such a fork in the road.
- Each of you will have
many "Timnaths" where God has something appointed for you to obtain.
- Whether you obtain what
He appoints for you is up to your choice.
PHILISTINES literally means "IMMIGRANTS"
- The enemy, the devil,
has moved into our territory and dwells there like immigrants now.
- The earth is give to the
sons of men, not to lying devils.
- God moved upon Samson
when he was in the midst of these choices.
- Samson chose to lean
upon God for help.
- It is just such a time
that we are given in this story when Samson proceeded to do the
will of God, and He chose to reach out and depend upon God for help.
We need to stir ourselves up and step out in faith, believing God to empower us to overcome that which threatens us.
- So we can be familiar
enough with trusting God to empower us to overcome otherwise
impossible situations against us and see victory instead!
- Something like
overcoming a threatening lion ought not be that alien to us that
one could use it as a riddle we cannot solve.
Threats sent by the devil are usually successful to those with little faith.
- Such people could never
answer this kind of riddle without cheating!
Judges
14:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband, that
he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with
fire: have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so?
IN THREE DAYS THEY COULD NOT EXPOUND THE RIDDLE.
- Three days speaks of the
duration of Christ's time in death after the cross before He
resurrected.
- It represents the work
of the cross.
- Those who cannot see God
step in and supernaturally resurrect Christ from the dead in three
days, and understand that they were raised up with Christ by God, are
people who cannot see themselves strong enough in Christ to trust God
to empower them to overcome impossible situations!