Women instinctively know how to use tears as a weapon.
There was a girl I used to see and when I did something she strongly disliked, she’d turn on the tears.
I’d sit there as if my legs had been cut off from underneath me.
It’s one of those few situations where you feel truly helpless.
When it happens, you’re ready to do almost anything to stop the girl from crying.
Guys, can you relate?
The girl I was talking about only cried for a few minutes and she had me feeling all awkward and uncomfortable.
Imagine having to deal with that for a whole day or even more?
So I can understand why Samson finally broke and gave his new bride the answer to the riddle.
I mean let’s give the guy some slack here folks.
You probably would’ve done the same thing in a similar situation.
It’s not like Samson didn’t try at all to resist.
At first, he told his new wife…“Look, I haven’t even told my own parents. So why should I tell you?”.
But the girl’s tears were like Chinese water torture.
They kept hammering away at Samson until he finally gave in and disclosed the information she was begging for.
Afterwards, when to Samson’s shock the men gave him the correct answer to his riddle, he knew immediately his wife had betrayed him.
Samson may have had the character of an unruly juvenile delinquent but he was no dummy.
He was able to put 2 and 2 together and thus replied:
“If you hadn’t plowed with my young cow,
you wouldn’t have solved my riddle now.”
Now overshadowing this whole story is an important takeaway we shouldn’t overlook.
I’m talking about he Lord’s command to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
See, it didn’t matter that Samson and this girl had just become one flesh in marriage.
It was an unholy union from the very beginning.
The girl’s family was Philistines.
Her culture was Philistine.
All of her closest friends were Philistine.
It would have been extremely difficult if not impossible for her not to betray Samson…which is what she ended up doing.
This situation underscores the danger of becoming one flesh with one whose allegiance is not to the God of Israel.
But having said that, this was all playing into the Lord’s plans to disrupt the cozy relationship that had existed between the Philistines and the Israelites up until now.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.
For what do righteousness and wickedness
have in common?
Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
-2 Corinthians 6:14
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