Judges 14 Bible study: Out of the strong came out sweetness

"Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines" (14:1). He comes home and tells his father and mother, "Now therefore get her for me as my wife" (14:2). They ask, "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?" (14:3). He answers, "Get her for me, for she pleases me well" (14:3) (tap pleases). Then the chapter tells you what his parents didn't know: "his father and his mother didn’t know that it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines" (14:4) (tap occasion). And it gives the setting: "Now at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel" (14:4) (tap ruled). The angel had said of Samson before he was born, "He shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines" (13:5).

Judges 14:4→leads toMatthew 10:29

Samson's parents "didn’t know that it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines" (14:4). When Jesus sent out the twelve (Matthew 10:5), he told them, "Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin? Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will" (Matthew 10:29), and "Therefore don’t be afraid" (Matthew 10:31). Jesus doesn't speak of Judges 14, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on the one point both state: what happens is not apart from God's will. Some see 14:4 as one place where Scripture shows that will at work in a choice Samson's parents objected to (14:3). Others read Matthew 10:29 in its own setting, Jesus telling the twelve not to be afraid (Matthew 10:26-31), and Judges 14:4 in Samson's story (13:5), and don't look from one to the other.

חִידָהchidahsay khee-DAH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "riddle, enigmatic, perplexing saying or question". Strong's: "a puzzle, hence, a trick, conundrum, sententious maxim", from the verb chud, which Strong's gives as "properly, to tie a knot, i.e. (figuratively) to propound a riddle". Samson says, "Let me tell you a riddle now" (14:12): in Hebrew the verb and the noun together, achudah… chidah. They answer, "Tell us your riddle" (14:13), chudah chidatekha. The noun comes eight times in Judges, all in this chapter, and seventeen times in the Hebrew Bible. The LORD speaks with Moses "not in riddles" (Numbers 12:8); the queen of Sheba came to test Solomon "with hard questions" (1 Kings 10:1); and Ezekiel is told, "Son of man, tell a riddle" (Ezekiel 17:2). A psalm says, "I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old" (Psalm 78:2), where dark sayings is this word. Matthew says Jesus spoke in parables "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet", and quotes, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 13:35).