We
go on to Samson. Here we see a child of promise, and one who gave the brightest
promise. We see godly parents, and a true desire to bring their son up as he
should go, “and the child grew and the Lord blessed him.” (Judges 13:24)
The
Mother was apparently the stronger character, but there seems no suggestion
that she acted in a way that was out of her place, or unseemly. If there was
failure on the part of the parents in bringing up the boy, the Scriptures seems
to have drawn a veil over it. The lesson for us parents in Samson’s history
seems to be of a different kind. It is one of those parts of the Word of God in
which parents through the comfort of the Scriptures may have hope.
A
strong, willful, wayward young man was Samson. We might say the parents should
not so easily have yielded to his demand, “Get her for me; for she pleaseth me
well.” (Judges 14:3). And very probably this is true. Is not Samson, just here,
a true picture of modern youth? “She pleaseth me well”, or, “It pleaseth me well”,
is too often sufficient reason for youth (or old age) to act in many things.
They quite forget the One of Whom it is said. “Even Christ pleased not
Himself.”
The
parents may have failed in giving way to their son’s desires, though the
Scriptures do not say so; on the contrary they tell us that “his father and his
mother knew not that it was of the Lord.” (Judges 14:4). And what comfort this
brings to us in our failure, we may see inscribed in golden letters: “Out of
the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” (Judges
14:14). Every effort the enemy made to dishonor the Name of the God of Israel,
He turned to work sorrow for the enemy and glory to His Own Name.
This
in no way excuses Samson for all his willfulness and sin, but it does bring
great comfort to an aching heart to know that the “prerogative of God is to
bring good out of evil” –meat from the eater- sweetness from the strong. He
still “maketh the wrath of man to praise Him”, and the old verse is still true,
“We do know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”
Such are some of the lessons of comfort that the story of Samson would teach us parents. And we do well to remember that Samson’s name appears in the honor lists of Hebrews Eleven.