Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.” 3 Then his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.” (Jdg. 14:1-3)

As the narrative of Samson’s adult life opens we find him travelling to Timnah, land that originally belonged to the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:57) and was later given to the tribe of Dan (Josh. 19:43), and if that were the case at the time in which Judges 14 began our eyebrows wouldn’t have been raised. But Timnah was now Philistine territory! So, then, the immediate question becomes: what was Israel’s prospective deliverer doing traveling down to Timnah? Pursuing Philistines to expel them from the land that God had given to Israel? Nope. At least not at this point. He was either casually walking through it or hanging out in it when he saw a woman who caught his attention: one of the “daughters of the Philistines” (Jdg. 14:1b). Funny how being in the wrong place often leads to temptation. Samson did not know the Lord’s Prayer, but even Christians who are well aware of the fact that Jesus told us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” will sometimes walk right into Timnah without realizing the sin and danger that awaits there. Let Judges 14:1 be a reminder of Proverbs 4:26: “Ponder the path of your feet.” The hope is – you and I will be able to say like the psalmist: “I considered my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies” (Ps. 119:59).

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