The Sweetness of the Slaughtered Lion Text: Judges 14:5-9
Introduction: God's Crooked Sticks
The book of Judges is a book of glorious, bloody, and often baffling deliverances, carried out by some of the most flawed heroes in all of Scripture. And perhaps none is more baffling, more of a walking contradiction, than Samson. He is a Nazarite who can't keep his vows, a judge who seems more interested in his own appetites than in justice, and a man of God whose life is a series of carnal blunders punctuated by explosions of divine power. He is, in short, a theological mess. And this is precisely why he is so instructive for us.
We live in an age that wants its heroes sanitized and its theology tidy. We want men of God to be respectable, consistent, and predictable. But God has always delighted in using rough men for rough jobs. He is not a celestial bureaucrat looking for pristine resumes. He is a sovereign warrior who picks up whatever instrument is at hand, whether it be the jawbone of an ass or the brawling judge of Israel. The story of Samson is a stark reminder that God's purposes are not frustrated by human sinfulness. In fact, in His inscrutable wisdom, God weaves our sins, our follies, and our lusts into the very fabric of His redemptive design. He draws straight lines with crooked sticks.
This is offensive to the tidy-minded, but it is a profound comfort to sinners. If God only used perfect people, He would have a workforce of one, and that one is in Heaven. The fact that God used a man like Samson should give us great hope, not because it excuses our sin, but because it magnifies His sovereign grace. God is not wringing His hands over our failures. He is ruling. In this passage, we see this principle in high definition. Samson is walking in disobedience, pursuing a forbidden marriage, and yet it is on this very path of disobedience that God orchestrates a mighty deliverance and provides a profound picture of the gospel.
The Text
Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and they came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. And the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him mightily, so that he tore it as one tears a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. So he went down and spoke to the woman; and she was right in the eyes of Samson. Then he returned later to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. Then he went to his father and mother, and he gave some to them, and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
(Judges 14:5-9 LSB)
The Spirit and the Carnal Man (v. 5-6)
We begin with the sudden confrontation and the divine empowerment.
"Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and they came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. And the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him mightily, so that he tore it as one tears a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done." (Judges 14:5-6)
Samson is on his way to arrange his marriage to a Philistine woman, an act his parents rightly questioned. He is walking in self-will. He is driven by what is "right in his own eyes," which is the sad refrain of this entire book. And it is here, in the midst of his compromised journey, that the enemy attacks. A young lion, the very picture of ravenous, destructive power, comes roaring at him. This is not just a random wildlife encounter. This is a spiritual ambush. The devil, like a roaring lion, seeks whom he may devour, and he loves to attack us when we are straying from the path.
But God's purpose overrides both Samson's folly and the lion's fury. "The Spirit of Yahweh came upon him mightily." This is key. The strength Samson displays is not his own. It is not the result of his diet or his workout regimen. It is a sudden, overwhelming, supernatural endowment from God. The Holy Spirit is not a polite, impersonal force; He is a Person, the third Person of the Trinity, and He comes in power to accomplish the Father's will. He rushes upon this thick-headed Nazarite and turns him into a giant-killer.
The description of the kill is almost casual in its brutality: "he tore it as one tears a young goat." This is not a desperate, prolonged struggle. This is an absolute demolition. It is meant to show the infinite gap between the power of God and the power of any created thing. When the Spirit of God anoints a man for a task, the most fearsome enemy becomes as nothing.
But notice Samson's reaction. He keeps it a secret. "He did not tell his father or mother what he had done." Why? This is not humility. This is the sullen pride of individualism. Samson is already operating as a lone wolf, detached from the counsel and authority of his parents. He is God's man, but he wants to be his own man. He is breaking the fifth commandment, dishonoring the covenantal structure of the family. This secrecy is a spiritual sickness. It reveals a heart that wants the power of God without the accountability that comes with being part of a people. This is the seed of his downfall. He wants private victories, which will lead to private sins, and ultimately to public humiliation.
The Riddle in the Rot (v. 7-8)
Samson continues his disobedient quest, but God has already laid the groundwork for His lesson.
"So he went down and spoke to the woman; and she was right in the eyes of Samson. Then he returned later to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion." (Judges 14:7-8 LSB)
Verse 7 reiterates the problem: the woman "was right in the eyes of Samson." The standard of judgment is his own sight, his own desire. This is the essence of autonomy, the original sin of Adam. He is not asking what is right in the eyes of God, or his parents, or the covenant. He is a law unto himself.
But then, on his return trip, God draws him aside. He is compelled to look at the evidence of his previous victory. He sees the carcass of the lion he tore apart. And here we find one of the most potent gospel pictures in the entire Old Testament. Inside the body of the dead predator, inside the place of violence and death, he finds a swarm of bees and honey. Out of the eater comes something to eat. Out of the strong comes something sweet.
This is not just a strange biological anomaly. This is a divine parable. The lion is a type of death, sin, and the demonic realm. It is the devouring enemy. Samson, empowered by the Spirit, is a type of Christ, who single-handedly confronts and defeats this enemy. The carcass, then, is a picture of the cross. It is the place where the curse was met and conquered. It is the dead body of our defeated foe. And what comes out of this defeated foe? Honey. The sweetness of salvation, the joy of resurrection life, the spoils of a victory we could not win.
God is teaching Samson, and all of Israel, a profound theological lesson. The greatest sweetness comes from the site of the greatest slaughter. The greatest victory comes through death. The world believes that strength is everything. But God shows that out of the defeated strongman comes the honey of life. This is the logic of the gospel played out in a lion's corpse. Christ crushed the head of the serpent, and from His death and resurrection flows the sweet honey of eternal life for His people.
Unclean Hands, Unclean Grace (v. 9)
Samson's interaction with this gospel-riddle is, like the man himself, deeply compromised.
"So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. Then he went to his father and mother, and he gave some to them, and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion." (Judges 14:9 LSB)
To get the honey, Samson had to reach into a carcass. As a Nazarite, he was strictly forbidden from touching any dead thing. It would make him ceremonially unclean. So here is the paradox: to obtain the sweetness, Samson must defile himself. He knowingly, willingly, breaks his vow of separation. He wants the fruit of victory, but he gets it with dirty hands.
This is a picture of our salvation. The honey of the gospel is free, but it is not clean. It comes to us through the bloody, unclean work of the cross. Jesus, our perfect Nazarite, was made unclean for us. He who knew no sin became sin. He touched death itself, He became a curse, so that we might receive the sweetness of righteousness. Samson partakes of the honey, but in doing so, he violates the law. We partake of the honey of salvation precisely because Christ fulfilled the law and took our violation upon Himself.
But Samson's sin does not stop with himself. He takes this unclean honey and gives it to his parents. And once again, he does it in secret. He deceives them. He leads them into his own defilement. This is a catastrophic failure of spiritual leadership. Sin is never a private matter. It contaminates. Samson's individualistic pride and his disregard for God's clear commands result in the defilement of his own household. He shares the sweetness, but he hides the sordid source. This is what happens when we want the blessings of God without the obedience He requires. We end up offering a compromised, unclean grace to those we are supposed to lead.
Conclusion: The Better Samson
The story of Samson is the story of a flawed savior, a broken vessel through whom God's power flowed in startling ways. He killed the lion, but then became entangled by his own lusts. He tasted the honey, but did so with unclean hands. He was a signpost pointing to the kind of deliverer Israel needed, but he was not that deliverer himself.
The riddle of the lion and the honey is ultimately not about Samson. It is about Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true and better Samson. He faced the roaring lion of Satan, not in a vineyard, but in the wilderness and on the cross, and He did not just tear him apart, He utterly crushed him. He did this with nothing in His hand but perfect obedience to His Father.
And from His victory, from the carcass of death itself, He has brought forth the sweetest honey of the gospel. He offers us the spoils of His victory. But unlike Samson, He did not become unclean in His own sin. He was made sin for us. He touched death so that we who were dead could live. And He does not offer this honey in secret. He proclaims it from the rooftops. He invites us to the wedding feast, not a compromised feast with Philistines, but the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Samson's story is a warning and a comfort. It warns us against the pride of individualism, against the folly of doing what is right in our own eyes. But it comforts us by showing that God's plan is bigger than our failures. God takes the wreckage of our sinful choices and uses it to display His glory. He brought honey from a carcass, and He brings salvation through a cross. He used the brawling, compromised Samson to prepare the way for King David, and He uses flawed sinners like us to build the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great Lion-killer, the one who brings the truest sweetness.