Riddle Me This

 

    What is a riddle?   A riddle is an enigma or a puzzling statement.  It can be a play on language meant to show how clever a person is.  Most have a poetic form, but some can be more sarcastic.  Either way the riddler is basically telling the other person that they are smarter when it basically just comes down to understanding.  That is why it can be called dark speech.  Anything to try to make yourself better than another is not of God.  However, riddles can be used for genuine fun without harm of any kind.

    When Samson was a young man, he met a beautiful Philistine girl in Timnah.  He was raised with expectation, but a little spoiled, so when he decided he wanted her, he had to have her.  He had his parents to the girl's parents to arrange the engagement.  They were not happy about it, but they did as he wanted.  

    One day Samson saw a young lion and killed it with his bare hands.  When he was going to get his young bride he passed it and saw that bees had made a hive in the carcass and he ate some of the honey.  When he arrived to his bachelor party he had 30 Philistine men to entertain him.  It probably felt a little like a treaty party with happy faces, but tension in the air.  The thing is it was not one night or a weekend like we are used to.  It was a week long event.  With one riddle, it all exploded.  Samson ended up killing all 30 of the men.  

    This was not a good thing for the Israelites.  The engagement was called off and Samson went home alone.  He was not too happy when his girl married another man.  His weakness was a beautiful face with soft  curves.  

    The events should have been a good lesson in pride, but God had given him supernatural strength.  He did not know what it was like to feel weak.  Samson grew up with high expectations.  The expectations were probably too high for one person to bare.  He did break the Nazarite code by touching the dead lion to get honey, but the role of the Nazarite was thrusted upon him.  It was not a choice he had made for himself.  Not yet at least.

Judges 14