Hovering over Judges 14 and 15 this morning. Talk about your unequal yoking! But then again, 2Corinthians 6:14 specifically defines being unequal yoked as a partnership with unbelievers. And though you could argue Samson was a bad believer, he had been set apart from birth (Judges 13). Thus, I guess the unequal yoking I’m chewing on just may be another example of unparalleled grace. Because who’s Samson yoked to? The Spirit of the LORD.

Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

(Judges 14:1-3 ESV)

Right in my eyes . . . That rung a bell. A bell of foreboding. For later in Judges, the author of the book will summarize the depths of Israel’s depravity during this era as those days when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Samson sees one of the daughters of his oppressors, the Philistines (Judges 13:1) and wants her to be his. Never mind that she’s of the people who have their foot on the necks of Israel. Never mind that God had specifically commanded Israel not to intermarry with the idol-serving nations around them. Never mind all of that. Because having this girl is what he wanted. For she is right in my eyes.

But wait. There’s more!

His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for He was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

(Judges 14:4 ESV)

It was from the LORD. What?!? God was gonna use Samson’s crummy character, his rebellious nature, and his uncontrollable libido to accomplish His purposes? Apparently. Sounds like an unequal yoking to me.

But wait, it gets worse (or maybe better, depending how you look at it). It’s not like God somehow uses Samson at an arms length. But God intimately intertwines Himself with this ingrate.

When Samson comes across a lion on his way to woo the woman who would be his wife . . .

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.

(Judges 14:6 ESV)

And when he decides to settle his wedding feast bet with the Philistines with the lives of Philistines . . .

The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house.

(Judges 14:19 ESV)

And then — so as to establish a matter by three witnesses and not just two — it’s made clear how Samon is able to take out 1,000 Philistines by himself with but the jawbone of a donkey in hand.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.

(Judges 15:14-15 ESV)

Three times! Three times it’s made clear that the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him.

The Spirit of the LORD. The Holy Spirit. The Third Person of the Triune God who dwells in unapproachable light (1Tim. 6:16). He comes powerfully upon Samson. The sinful Samson. The first person of the only person who in his own eyes really matters, one who walks about in darkness and will only come to really see the light after the Philistines physically blind him. That Spirit of the LORD partners with that Samson.

Hmm . . . See why it seems to me to be an unequally yoking? But also see why it cries out of unfathomable grace?

Grace is not due to our goodness. Grace is not dependent on our potential. What makes grace grace is our undeservedness (is that a word?). And what makes grace so irresistible is that it is bound up with God’s purposes and promises, independent of our propensity to want to live according to what seems right in our eyes. And so, by such unimaginable grace, Jesus, the Second Person of the Triune God, is also willing to be in a seemingly mismatched partnership as He offers not just to rush on me but to live through me.

“Take My yoke upon you. ” ~ Jesus

(Matthew 11:29a ESV)

An unequal yoking.

By His grace. For His glory.