As I read through Judges 14 this morning, I expected that familiar story of Samson killing the lion with his bare hands and then going back to the carcass and scooping out a handful of honey, thereby defying his Nazarite vow. He then shared the honey with his parents, in what seems to be an attempt by Samson to spread the guilt evenly throughout his whole family. Although their are numerous lessons about temptation and choices in this passage, one area of the passage really confused me. We see in the beginning that Samson sees a woman and has to have her. (this is a familiar theme with Samson, so no shocker there) What really confused me was that Samson is jonesing over this girl, his parents are dead set against it, but the Lord actually wants Samson to pursue this girl. Now, being joined with another culture is a big no no throughout the Old Testament, so much so that at times God commanded the Israelites to wipe out all the people who were not of Israel. Now we see that God is planning on Samson joining with a Philistine woman, and even mentioned that Samson's parents who were attempting to keep him on the right track were unaware of God's actual plan. This set off warning bells, klaxons, and strobe lights in my mind. Did God really want Samson to go against all that was right for him? While I cannot be sure of God's intentions through my own finite thought process, I can refer to Scripture to help me decipher something that seems contrary to the nature of God. The passage states very clearly that God was trying to set up an "occasion" with the Philistines. The Israelites had been under the Philistine thumb for too long, and God was fed up with it. Does that mean that God actually condoned Samson breaking with Israelite law and tradition? As I digest the story even more, I begin to see parallels between our modern day and the day of Samson. God knew every intimate part of Samson, and new his areas of weakness, just as God knows ours. God did not need to nudge Samson in a direction that Samson's fallen nature was already taking him. In reality, all of the tragedy and triumph of the story of Samson would not have happened had Samson actually been 100% obedient. In reality, there is no Scripture that says, "determine if your particular sin furthers the kingdom of God before entering therein". (I apologize for the pretentious use of therein, I just don;t get many opportunities to pull that out of the bag) The bottom line for Samson and for us it that God knows our predilection to certain types of sin. Him being all knowing, and having the most profound understanding of human nature means that he able to handle our weaknesses and turn them into strengths, or at least moments of impact. He is not surprised or shocked when we do the same thing we have always done, but he is saddened when we turn our backs on Him and pursue our own path. So, in summation, no, we do not have permission to sin. But we will. There are no such things as "sanctioned" sins, no matter how much justifying we as humans do. There is however, a God who has a plan for us which contains full disclosure regarding our fallen nature.
If you have any insights of comments about this issue, please post on FB, so we can discuss. I am still not sure if I have my head wrapped around this one.
