possession of Dan, but at the time held by the Philistines. This was the scene of Samson's first exploits.

The "occasion" was his desire to wed a Philistine maiden. Against such union, as presumably contrary to

the Divine will (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3), his parents remonstrated, not knowing "that it was of

Jehovah, for he was seeking an occasion from (or on account of) the Philistines." Strictly speaking, the text

only implies that this "seeking occasion on account of the Philistines" was directly from the Lord; his

proposed marriage would be so only indirectly, as affording the desired occasion. Here then we again come

upon man's individuality - his personal choice, as the motive power of which the Lord makes use for higher

purposes. We leave aside the question, whether or not Samson had, at the outset, realized a higher Divine

purpose in it all, and mark two points of vital importance in this history. First, whenever Samson consciously

subordinated his will and wishes to national and Divine purposes, he acted as a Nazarite, and "by faith;"

whenever national and Divine purposes were made subservient to his own lusts, he failed and sinned. Thus

we perceive throughout, side by side, two elements at work: the Divine and the human; Jehovah and

Samson; the supernatural and the natural - intertwining, acting together, influencing each other, as we have

so often noticed them throughout the course of Scripture history. Secondly, the influences of the Spirit of

God upon Samson come upon him as impulses from without - sudden, mighty, and irresistible by himself and

by others.

The misunderstanding and ignorance of Samson's motives on the part of his parents cannot fail to recall a

similar opposition in the life of our Blessed Lord, even as, reverently speaking, this whole history

foreshadows, though "afar off," that of our great Nazarite. But to return. Yielding at last to Samson, his

parents, as the custom was, go with him to the betrothal at Timnath. All here and in the account of the

marriage is strictly Eastern, and strictly Jewish. Nay, such is the tenacity of Eastern customs, that it might

almost serve as descriptive of what would still take place in similar circumstances. But, under another

aspect, we are here also on the track of direct Divine agency, all unknown probably to Samson himself. To

this day "vineyards are very often far out from the villages, climbing up rough wadies and wild cliffs."  310 In

one of these, precisely in the district where he would be likely to meet wild beasts, Samson encountered a

young lion. "And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him," or "lighted upon him," the expression

being notably the same as in 1 Samuel 10:10; 11:6; 16:13; 18:10. Samson rent him, as he would have torn a

kid.311 This circumstance became "the occasion against the Philistines." For, when soon afterwards Samson

and his parents returned once more for the actual marriage, he found a swarm of bees in the dried skeleton of

the lion. The honey,312 which he took for himself and gave to his parents, became the occasion of a riddle

which he propounded, after a custom usual in the East, to the "thirty companions" who acted as "friends of

the bridegroom." The riddle proved too hard for them. Unwilling to bear the loss incurred by their failure -

each "a tunic" and a "change-garment," 313 these men threatened Samson's wife and her family with

The woman's curiosity had from the first prompted her to seek the answer from her husband. But now her

importunity, quickened by fear, prevailed. Of course, she immediately told the secret to h er countrymen, and

Samson found himself deceived and betrayed by his wife. But this was the "occasion" sought for. Once

more "the Spirit of Jehovah lighted upon Samson." There was not peace between Israel and the Philistines,

only an armed truce. And so Samson slew thirty men of them in Ashkelon, and with their spoil paid those

who had answered his riddle. In his anger at her treachery he now forsook for a time his bride, when her

father, as it were in contempt, immediately gave her to the first of the "bridegroom's friends."

This circumstance gave "occasion" for yet another deed. Samson returns again to his wife. Finding her the

wife of another, he treats this as Philistine treachery against Israel, and declares to his father-in-law and to

others around: 314 "This time I am blameless before the Philistines when I do evil unto them."

The threatened "evil" consists in tying together, two and two, three hundred jackals, tail to tail, with a

burning torch between them, and so sending the maddened animals into the standing corn of the Philistines,

which was just being harvested, into their vineyards, and among their olives. The destruction must have

been terrible, and the infuriated Philistines took vengeance not upon Samson, but upon his wife and her