Samson's Riddle and Revenge

Central Truth: Samson’s actions are destructive, but God’s will is ultimately done.

Scriptures: Judges 14-15

One day the angel of the Lord appeared to a certain woman and her husband Manoah of the tribe of Dan. The couple had no children, and the angel told them they would have a son. He said the child was to be consecrated to God as a Nazarite from the womb. An Israelite taking the Nazarite vow was prohibited from cutting the hair, eating or drinking the fruit of the vine, and eating or touching anything unclean. Men and women might take the vow for a specified time, but this child was to have the vow for life, and even his mother must observe the vow while the child is in her womb.

When Samson was born, he was extremely strong physically. Throughout his life, he encountered the Philistines but never led an army. He killed them single-handedly using his strength. Samson found a woman of the Philistines he wanted to marry, which made his parents unhappy because they wanted him to marry a woman from their tribe. On his way to Timnah, he came across a young lion. The Spirit of the Lord came over him and he killed the lion without using any weapons. On his return from Timnah, he found honey in the mouth of the lion and took it and ate it. 

At the wedding feast, he told a riddle. If any of the guests could declare the answer to the riddle within the seven days of the wedding feast, he would give them thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes. If they could not solve the riddle during that time, they would have to give Samson thirty garments and thirty changes of clothes. The riddle:

Out of the eater came forth meat

And out of the strong came forth sweetness 

(Judges 14:14).

On the seventh day, the guests still had not answered the riddle, so they threatened Samson’s bride. She went to Samson complaining that he did not love her because he has not told her the answer. Samson tells her the answer and she tells her people:

What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?

(Judges 14:18).

Samson was angry. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he went to Ashkelon and killed thirty men, taking their clothes and gave them to the guests who had guessed correctly. Samson was so angry at his bride that he gave her to his companion. When Samson went to visit his wife, he discovered that her father had given her to his companion. Samson then took 300 foxes, tied their tails together and put a torch to each tail. He then turned them loose in the wheat fields, destroying the crop. As revenge, the Philistines then burnt the woman and her family. Samson then took revenge and slaughtered the Philistines.

Bible Scrapbook

Each week the children will be adding to their scrapbooks what they have learned during Sunday School. We continued our character sketches with the lesser-known judges Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon mentioned in Judges 12:8-15 (Inspired by the Judges Lapbook found on Bible Fun for Kids website):

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon - Judges of Israel

We also included Samson in our character sketches:

Samson

I also brought My Creative Bible to demonstrate how to apply bible scrapbooking to a bible journal. I first practiced drawing in our notebook:

Directions to draw this lion can be found on Activity Village website.

And then I added my notes and drawings in my bible along with a honeycomb design (using a stencil of a hexagon and colored pencils):

A close-up of the lion (created using a sharpie pen and colored pencils).