Household & Heritage Vespers

 Household & Heritage Conference Vespers

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Rathdrum, Idaho

August 8, 2026

Text: Judges 14

In the marriage rite, the pastor admonishes the couple and congregation that “marriage is not to be entered into inadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purpose for which it was instituted by God” (namely, mutual companionship, procreation of children, and that husband and wife take delight in one another).  “Therefore, all persons who marry shall take a spouse in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust, for God has not called us to impurity but in holiness.”

Those words were written for a guy like Samson.  If the refrain in the Book of Judges is that “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (17:6; 21:25; ESV), Samson puts that maxim into practice when it comes to love and marriage.  His great argument for why he should marry the Philistine woman?... “she is right in my eyes” (14:3).  Not, “she is a good and godly woman.”  Not, “she would make a pious wife, and a good mother for my children.”  Not, “we share the same faith and values, and you would really love her, Mom and Dad.”  No.  “She is right in my eyes.”  That is, “she’s a looker, and I’ve fallen in lust with her.  She titilates me.  What more do you need?  She appeals to my baser nature.  Get her for me, Mom and Dad.”

Mom and Dad, for their part, advise against it.  Kind of.  Their advising seems sheepish, rather than strong.  Moms and dads don’t always know what to do when their grown kids make mistakes.  They try to redirect their boy.  “Why not someone from our own people… the Covenant people (Israel)?  A nice girl who calls upon the LORD, rather than a pagan idolatress?  Remember Esau’s marriage to those two Hittite women?  They made life exceedingly bitter for their in-laws, Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 26:34-35).  Please, son.  Please.”  But, nothing doing.  He wants her.

Entering into marriage inadvisedly and lightly… against the advice of his pious parents, and for superficial reasons.  Reverently?  No, God has nothing to do with it, as far as Samson is concerned (although, unbeknownst to everyone involved, the thing is from the LORD, for the defeat of the ungodly Philistines… thank God, even when we make a mess of things, the LORD works all for the good of those who are called according to His purpose [Rom. 8:28]!  And note that God can harness even sin for the defeat of His enemies.  Though, that does not excuse sin and ungodliness, nor does it prevent much suffering as a consequence of our stupid, selfish, rebellious willfulness).  Deliberately?  Oh, Samson is very deliberate, but not concerning the purpose for which God instituted marriage.  For his own lustful desire.  Because she is right in his own eyes.  As we read in subsequent chapters of Judges, it is lust that drives Samson, to the bitter end.  He is strong, yes.  But lust brings him to the end of his strength.  To the breaking of his Nazirite vows.  Shorn of his glory.  Bound (the Philistine bondage, a sign of his bondage to lust and sexual impurity, bondage to sin).  Eyes… perhaps appropriately… gouged out (“If your eye causes you to sin…” [Matt. 18:9; cf. 5:29]).  Forced to perform like a circus animal, for the entertainment of his captors.  According to Peter, that is the lot of “those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority” (2 Peter 2:10).  Could Samson be in the back of Peter’s mind?  They become “like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed… destroyed in their destruction” (v. 12).  Bad news.  Bad news.  

So, here is wisdom.  Don’t be like Samson.  Crucify the passion of lust in you.  Do what it takes.  Avert your eyes before they are plucked from you.  Set aside your glowing rectangles, if necessary.  Put accountability software on your devices.  Call your pastor.  Confess, and be absolved.  Eyes and ears on the Scriptures.  Run to the Gospel, and especially the Holy Supper.  Pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10).  “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (Ps. 119:37).  Do not give your passions free reign.  Drown old Adam again in the blest baptismal waters.  Repent.  Samson’s sins are written down for your learning.  

For the unmarried… Not only should you not do what Samson did.  Do, also, what he should have done.  Seek a spouse in holiness and righteousness.  A good and godly spouse, baptized into Christ, and walking in the Spirit.  One who shares your confession of faith, and who, therefore, shares your values, for a lifelong one-flesh union, with the purpose of raising children (should God so bless) in the fear and admonition of the LORD.  And be that for your future spouse.  Seek counsel.  From your pastor.  From godly parents and wise Christians.  Look for a spouse who is right in God’s eyes, with whom you may enter into holy matrimony reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purpose for which it was instituted by God.  And, in the meantime, while you wait, and pray… for as long as God gives you to be single… walk with all patience, in purity, not impurity.  Control your members.  Do not present them to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but your very selves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members as instruments for righteousness (Rom. 6:13).  Where you’ve been impatient, and impure, you know what to do.  Confess it, and be absolved.  And start again, by God’s Spirit, living the new life of Christ, who is within you.  Every day is a new day to emerge and arise to live before God in the righteousness and purity of Christ.

For those married… Same thing!  Now, you’re already committed.  You’ve made vows before God and the state.  So, even if you married for Samson-like reasons, you should stay married.  But the point is, even if you did things wrong, and made mistakes, and generally made a mess of the whole business, don’t forget what the Lord can do with that.  Namely, work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  So, stop the wrong now.  Change course.  Turn.  Repent.  And become, now, you and your spouse, what God has given you to be for one another.  Redeemed, baptized, godly, faithful Christians who treat matrimony as holy, with reverence, deliberately seeking God’s purposes.  You, too, even now, may take counsel and advice in the company of godly parents and wise Christians.  Make use of Confession and Absolution, and pastoral care.  See, Christ’s blood redeems even your marriage, whether it’s a relatively happy one (and I pray it is, but it still needs the redeeming blood of Christ), or one with significant challenges.  Believe this Gospel of redemption in the blood of Christ.  Rejoice in it.  And even as God’s love in Christ covers over your sins with mercy and forgiveness (and it does!), so do that for one another.  And begin again.  Right now.  And each day.

Well, you get it.  There is a great deal of wisdom for marriage in this chapter, especially in terms of showing us what not to do.  But we still haven’t arrived at the main point of it.  Smack dab in the very middle of our text, a riddle.  It is a strange one.  The slaying of a lion.  Carcass dripping with honey.  Samson eats, and he is refreshed.  He gives to his parents, and they eat, and they are refreshed.  “Out of the eater came something to eat.  Out of the strong came something sweet” (Judges 14:14).  And the riddle cannot be solved until after three days.

But see, this is the key to the whole Samson saga.  And it is the key to our marriages, and sexual ethics, and our very lives.  Sure, there’s the stupid wager over the riddle, another example of a thing we should avoid (though, by it, mysteriously, and in spite of Samson, God gets His victory over the Philistines).  The riddle, though, is an image of truth most profound.  What does the lion picture?  The Church fathers don’t always agree.  Is it Satan?  Is it death?  Is it Jesus Christ, Himself, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5)?  And what is the honey?  More agreement on this one.  The Gospel.  Especially the Eucharist.  Salvation.  Eternal life in the Promises of God.  In some ways, you don’t have to connect every detail to a specific fulfillment.  Because, the point of the image in its totality is, that in the death of Christ, death itself is defeated, along with Satan, and all the hordes of hell.  And our sin.  All of it.  All our impurity.  All our selfish, foolish rebellion.  We, ourselves, are redeemed.  Along with our relationships and vocations, our marriages and families.  Just taste a little of the sweet drippings of the Gospel, and you’ll know.  And believe.  And so, live.  

Samson himself is a picture of this, in the manner of his death.  Do you remember this?  God’s enemies, gathered in triumph over Samson, cheering and jeering God’s chosen redeemer.  What happens?  Samson prays.  Don’t miss that.  What does that indicate?  Repentance and faith.  And the Spirit of God comes upon Samson once again.  And he stretches out his hands between two pillars (and what does that look like?), and he brings the whole house down.  So that, in his death, he defeats more enemies than in his life!  Out of the eater, something to eat.  Out of the strong one, something sweet.  

So it is with Jesus.  Crucified for your sins.  On the third day, risen from the dead.  

And here is the surprise ending.  In that, Jesus, too, takes for Himself a spouse.  Reverently.  Deliberately.  In accordance with God’s purpose.  Those words, included in the marriage rite, describe Jesus.  What does He do in His death, stretching His hands out upon the cross-beams, but obliterate His enemies, and take His Church… you… to be His lawfully wedded wife.  His beloved Bride, covered with His blood and death, such that He may present you to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy, and without blemish (Eph. 5:27).  You.  Yes, you.  Even after all you’ve done.  You and Samson, and even me.  He takes us, and makes us His own.  And then… well, you know.  The nuptial Feast!  Where, out of the eater, something to eat.  Out of our Strong One, something sweet.  Oh taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.