‘There was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion’, Judg. 14. 8

‘There was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion’, Judg. 14. 8

It is Judges chapter 14 that introduces us to the enigma that is Samson. He is a man whom the Lord blessed, 13. 24, and whom He moved to deliver Israel from their Philistine oppressors, 13. 1, 25, yet his initial steps are hardly in the direction that we might expect. He ‘went down’, 14. 1, 5, 7, 19; 15. 8. Although his association with a woman of Timnath was because ‘the Lord … sought an occasion against the Philistines’, 14. 4, Samson did not seek the mind of God in the matter, nor did he consult with his parents, except to command them to ‘get her for me; for she pleaseth me well’, v. 3.

It is in that mission to secure his Philistine bride that Samson encounters a lion. It is hardly surprising that when separated from his parents, and in the vineyards of Timnath, he should encounter an adversary. Proverbs encourages us to ‘ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established’, 4. 26. What a pity that Samson had omitted to follow similar advice! Yet in this extremity, ‘the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon’ Samson and he rent the lion ‘as he would have rent a kid’, Judg. 14. 6.

After this initial meeting and conversation with the woman, Samson returned to Timnath some time later to obtain his bride. It is at this point that he discovers that what is left of the lion had become a hive for a swarm of wild bees. No doubt the activity and noise of the bees would have attracted his attention, but it is the honey that becomes the focus. It is telling that Samson did not stop to think about what the Spirit of the Lord had wrought by him, but rather how his fleshly appetites might be satisfied.

Not only had Samson chosen a Philistine bride, but he had also become associated with the vineyards of Timnath, and now the dead body of a lion. As Constable also notes, ‘When he scraped the honey out of the lion’s carcass with his hand … he broke part of his Nazirite vow … By giving them [his parents] some of the unclean honey without telling them that it was unclean, Samson callously led them into defilement. His parents had previously sanctified him, but now he desecrated them’. In a land that ‘floweth with milk and honey’, Deut. 31. 20, how sad to see that which was a divine promise and which should have been a blessing being used to defile!