Lion Down
Lion Down
Judges 14:5b-6
And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but I’m not sure which truth is stranger here: that a roaring lion suddenly attacks Samson out of nowhere, or that Samson kills it with his bare hands and doesn’t tell anyone.
For one thing, are lions prevalent in this part of the world during these days? Are attacks like this common? Are there signs on all the roads and trails that read, “Watch out for lions!”, like the many bear signs I see on my ventures through the NC mountains? I find it strange that Judges 14:5 is the very first mention of a lion attack in all the Bible. Moses didn’t record a single instance of the Israelites fending off predatory beasts during their forty years of wandering, neither did Joshua in his account of the conquest of Canaan. Which leads me to conclude that either (a) lions weren’t a great threat to people in these days, or (b) lions had already been hunted out in these territories, which implies that perhaps God sent this raving lion out of the blue.
Regardless, why on earth would Samson keep the feat secret? Think of it: how do you crush a lion with your bare hands and walk away nonchalantly? How do you not tell everyone you meet? I’d be bragging about this for years! I’d have the taxidermy in my living room for all to see. Well, maybe he keeps it secret because he knows that having contact with a dead body is off limits for Nazirites according to Numbers 6, and he’s too lazy to go through the hassle of following ceremonial cleansing laws. Or maybe he knows that his parents are waiting for him to step up as Israel’s leader—they’ve been waiting his whole life—and they’ll get a little too giddy over the news, showering him with words like, “Alas, my son, the time has come! God’s ready for you to lead our people against the Philistines!” And he just isn’t ready to bear that burden.
Samson’s got the strength of a lion, no doubt. But will he have the heart of one?