The Greatest Riddle Ever Told

by Mark Waters

THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD VS. THE WISDOM OF GOD

od has purposed to overthrow the wisdom of this world. The world through its own wisdom has not come to know God. So, God has devised a plan in which He's going to demonstrate that even His foolishness is greater than the wisdom of this world. Paul teaches us that God's wisdom is fully revealed in His Son on the cross. Christ and Him crucified is the means of the overthrow of the world's wisdom. We see a picture of this in the life of Samson. Samson puts out a riddle to the Philistines. He looks to use this riddle as the occasion of their overthrow. Sure enough, they didn't understand Samson's riddle. To them Samson's wisdom is foolishness, but they are going to see how great it really is.

THE INHERITANCE

Samson is going to Timnath. It is a place that means portion. Timnath implies an inheritance. He is going there to get a bride for himself. Though Samson has many notable shortcomings, he still often pictures Christ as God's deliverer of His people. In Judges 14 he reveals Christ, God's deliverer, as the destined Son coming into the inheritance His Father has given him. That purpose has to do with the rule of God in the earth and a bride for himself. While on his way, Samson is attacked by a roaring lion. We see in this attack that the lion is ready to meet and devour all who seek to come to the place of the inheritance. It is when there is a people that take interest in the inheritance and who seek to move toward the fulfillment of God's purpose for His Son in the earth that provokes the full rage and fury of the adversary! The devil targets all those who seek to participate in the exaltation and glorification of God's Son in the earth.

When attacked by the young roaring lion, Samson, by the Spirit of God, single handedly subdues him. According to I Peter 5:8 and Rev. 12:10,11 the roaring lion is revealed to be Satan, the accuser of the brethren. It was out of this victory and triumph that Samson bases his riddle. The lion that attacked Samson that day was not an old worn out lion. It was a young lion. It was a lion at the peak of its strength. The lion came in his full strength to make an end of Samson, God's deliverer and heir. His greatest weapon is his mouth.

As the accuser, Satan seeks to input blame and guilt onto the Lord's people and so stop them from moving on in God. How many of God's people have sought to move in His purpose for their lives only to give up along the way because they gave ear to the destructive words of the accuser. Through the accusers roar, they became hopelessly fixed on their sense of unworthiness to relate to God or to be loved and used by Him.

THE ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN

1. Revelation 12:10, 11 Accusation is one of Satan's greatest weapons he uses against God's people. The accuser wants to charge God's people with guilt and failure. Accusation will never direct our focus on to God or the hope of the gospel. It focuses us hopelessly on ourselves and our failure. It wants us to believe that God is no longer for us but against us.
2. Job 1:6-12. The accuser seeks to go into the presence of God where the sons of God are going. He goes there, not because he is interested in being with the Lord. He goes there to accuse and to hinder those who want to be with the Lord. When we want to go spend time with the Lord, we don't always go without company. The accuser wants to come too and spoil our time with the Lord. He hopes to so discourage you that you stop going into God's presence all together!
3. Zech. 3:1-4. Accusation can be based on what is true. That's how he gets us. We think that because he's right about us, that we deserve condemnation. But we still should not come under its destructive power. It is true that Joshua has failed! He is in filthy garments. Somewhere Joshua has fallen short. Accusation and condemnation is destructive because it keeps our eyes on what is wrong and not on who the Lord is or what He has done for us. SATAN WILL LEAVE YOU HOPELESS, HE WILL NEVER POINT YOU TO THE LOVE OF GOD AND TO THE SHED BLOOD OF JESUS THAT IS THE ANSWER TO WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE'VE DONE. AS WE SHALL SEE, THERE IS HOPE IN THIS ONE WHO HAS CONQUERED THE ROARING LION. Notice how in these verses the Lord redirects our eyes off the failure and onto His redemptive answer. Yes, it is true that Joshua has failed, but God has an answer! First He rebukes the accuser. The truth is Joshua is a brand plucked out of the fire. In the New Testament God's answer to accusation is found in the work of Christ on His cross. God asks who can condemn those for whom Christ has shed his blood? God had a change of garments for this failing priest.

THE ROARING LION IS DEFEATED

The roaring lion had the audacity to confront God's Son and to seek to take for himself the inheritance the Heavenly Father has given to Him and to those who are His companions. How desperate the accuser is to stop and hinder the Son in His journey to the possession of that inheritance. How prideful the accuser was, that he thought he could destroy the Son and take His inheritance for himself. Instead, however, the attack of the accuser against Samson became the place of the accusers' utter defeat. The roaring lion is defeated by God's chosen deliverer and savior of His people. Because of that triumph we can now be free of accusation and condemnation. The destructive words of blame and guilt have lost their power through the cross of Christ. The accuser’s attempt to abort what God is doing with his blaming words has been destroyed by the savior of His people.

GOD'S ANSWER FOR MAN'S SIN

Romans 8:1,31-33 There is no condemnation for the believer! Who is it that condemns? It is God that justifies. God's answer is in the shed blood. This is our victory over the accuser. We stand in His righteousness not our own. We are not here in the presence of God based on our performance, and how good or how spiritual we think we are. We are here because of another's love and righteousness. We have access to God through the blood. If we come to Him this way, we will always find the door open. Rev. 12:11; 1 John 1:9. We can think, we have to feel this way (condemned, accused) because we deserve it. But we should never come under the destructive power of the devils accusations. The victory of the cross means deliverance from the roars of the lion. We no longer have to live under the tyranny of the destructive words of the accuser! Instead God turns our focus onto the Righteous One who gave Himself for us. If we come to God based on the blood that cleanses, confessing our sin, we will always find the door to God open. We do not come to God because of our performance, neither do we stay away from Him because of failure. He meets us in mercy. In His death, and through His shed blood, God has opened a way to live in the power of His undeserved love, acceptance, and grace. If we do fail, we can keep short accounts with the Lord. We don't have to stay away from Him till we think He is less mad at us. We can come to Him boldly through the blood right now.

SAMSON IS MORE THAN A CONQUEROR

To kill the lion is to be a conqueror. To be fed by that which was out to destroy us is to be more than a conqueror. Romans 8:37. This was not the enemy’s intentions. He never would have dreamed that God would take his attack and make it the place where life is given. The lion's attack should have been the bitter end of God's man. But it was not. God took what the enemy meant for evil and turned it to good.

He got something sweet out of that which was meant to destroy him. Hard things will either make you bitter or they will make you better. It is as the cross works in us that this happens. God is using all the bitter things we go through, and all our tragic losses to serve His own purpose in His people.

This is a most unexpected benefit from an animal that intended to harm him. He would have torn Samson apart if he was able. Instead, out of that same animal there comes food. Satan roars and threatens us and we can think he has the victory over us. We can feel defeated and insufficient. We might even feel depressed over our poor performance and wonder what hope do we have? As we turn to God's word, we read what Christ has done for us at His cross. He has defeated this roaring lion and He wants to minister that victory to us.

We must never surrender to the roaring accusations of the devil. We must never base our relationship with the Lord by what Satan roars against us. We don't have to agree with the accuser over our lives. Why? Because we are good? No! It's because another has given His life for us, and in the shedding of His blood He has removed the accuser's ground in our lives.

It is a hard thing for us to learn, but it is something we must learn. We can have victory over the roaring lion. Jesus, our greater than Samson, has triumphed over the lion and He wants to bring you into the blessing of that victory too. He was forsaken of the Father as He paid the debt we owe. As He did, He subdued the roaring lion. Satan's intensions over your life and mine, as the accuser, have been foiled through the finished work of Christ on His cross.

SAMSON TAKES THE HONEY AND SHARES IT WITH HIS FAMILY

All that the enemy seeks to do in our lives can become the place where the goodness of God is made more real in us. We can become more and more rooted in His love and in His triumph over the accuser. The enemy may still attack but instead of being destroyed we are fed and strengthened through what Christ has done on the cross for us. How frustrated the accuser must be because what he has hoped would take us down has instead lifted us up and made us strong in the Lord! How great is the wisdom of God!

Just like Samson took the honey out of the lion's carcass and served it to his family, the Lord wants to make His victory over the accuser real in our lives. When we see the goodness of God revealed at Calvary, it all becomes sweet to us. What the devil has intended to make us weak and defeated has made us strong and triumphant. This truth teaches us that if there will ever be a people who will move with Christ to the fulfillment of God's purpose in the earth for His Son, they will do so as those who've received from the Lord the tokens of His victory. God's plan is to have a people who will move forward to the fulfillment of their destiny in the power of the cross. They will be those who have learned that all they have ever done, they have never done. It is God who has done the work in and through them. In this way, the wisdom of God has secured the glory of God. He alone gets the credit.

WRESTLING FOR THE ANSWER

"Out of this eater came forth something to eat. Out of this strong one came forth something sweet."

Samson has put before the philistines the greatest of all riddles. It's the greatest riddle ever told. It contains in it the wisdom of God. Though not understood by those who heard it, the riddle is about the victory that he had won over the roaring lion, and its effect that victory would have on his people.

But the riddle can't be understood by the wisdom of this world. Its secret will never be known by mere intellect. The true meaning of Samson's riddle is veiled to the natural mind. Another wisdom must capture their hearts. If they are going to see it, they will have to see it by revelation.

The Lord puts this riddle before us and asks us to declare to Him the meaning if we can. We all have to wrestle with this question; what does all this "wisdom of Samson" mean? What is the significance of this riddle? The truth is we can never understand the work of the cross, and who Jesus is as our Savior apart from Him revealing it to our hearts. We cannot come to its true meaning by our own wit. It can only be known by revelation.

Do you know where to get the answer to this riddle? From the bridegroom himself. He not only asks riddles, He solves them for us. He alone must show us the meaning. Samson revealed the meaning of the riddle to his bride. When we know the meaning of this riddle by the revelation of the Spirit, we will have the answers to all life throws our way. See 1 Cor. 1:26-31 again. We will have the sweetness of forgiveness of sins as well as the sweetness of His acceptance and goodness in our lives. We will be made more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

Have you seen this riddle? Have you come up with the right answer? It has to be a personal matter. We must all get the answer to this question. He wants us to see who He is by the spirit of revelation, not merely intellectually. The riddle is given that we might discover Him, who He is, what He has done. It is the great secret to how God will realize His purpose for His Son in the earth and in all our lives. The enemy has attacked the Son and His inheritance, but God has a secret through which His Son will come to the full possession of that which God has promised Him.

"What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" That's the answer to the riddle the Philistines gave to Samson. Notice their answer still comes in the form of questions. "What is sweeter than honey?" "What is stronger than a lion?" These questions can be answered with one word--Christ!

It all converges in Him. He is the answer! He is the wisdom of God. He is the one the riddle is all about. The Philistines couldn't figure it out. It is foolishness to them. But to those who believe, He is the power and wisdom of God. There is nothing greater than this one who has laid down His life in obedience to the Father. It is in union with this one who will be to us all we need that we will come to see the fulfillment of God's purpose in the earth and God's foolishness is proved to be wiser than the wisdom of this world!