Religion & Spirituality
Because the nation of Israel continued to disobey God, He let them be ruled by the neighboring Philistines to the south. Samson, who lived at a border town called Zorah, crossed over to Timnah and married a Philistine woman. At the wedding feast, the guests threatened his wife to get the answer to Samson’s riddle and, in a rage, he went and killed 30 men to satisfy his part of the deal (Judg. 14:19, 20). Rather than returning to his wife, Samson returned to his father’s house to cool down. Consequently, his wife was given to his best man by her father. Bad decisions are often made worse by anger at bad outcomes (Ps. 37:8: Prov. 14:29; 19:11; James 1:19, 20)! Regretting embarrassing his family and for what he did to his wife, Samson returns to Timnah with a peace offering. At the house, Samson attempts to go have sex with his wife to consummate their marriage but is stopped by her father. Hearing she is his friend’s wife now, Samson leaves in a rage to go home. Restraint reduces regret!