Given To Another

Given to Another

Samson’s Bride

Read: Judges 14:20–15:6

Of all the dramatic scenes in the 2000 movie Castaway, one stands out in my mind. Tom Hanks plays Chuck, a workaholic who survives a plane crash and finds himself stranded on a remote island. After four years, Chuck strikes out on a makeshift raft, is spotted, and returns to family and friends who assumed that he was dead. His girlfriend, Kelly, opens her door to see the “love of her life” alive and well—but now she is married to another man with whom she has children.

Samson’s bride knew something of what Helen Hunt’s character felt. Her marriage to Samson may have been of the type where the bride lived with her parents and the husband periodically visited her, but when Samson learned that his bride had revealed the riddle’s answer, he left before the marriage was consummated on the seventh night. The woman’s father considered this an annulment and gave her to another man.

She probably assumed that she would never see Samson again, but one day, he shocked her by showing up as if nothing had happened. When her former groom discovered that his bride now belonged to another, his explosive temper ignited a chain of retaliations that resulted in her and her father being killed by their countrymen.

The New Testament often calls believers the bride of Christ and urges us to keep ourselves pure until he comes for us. Meanwhile, we live in a world that desperately tries to lure our hearts away from our first love. If we don’t stay on guard and nurture our relationship with Jesus, we can give our affections away without realizing it. Samson’s bride had no choice in her situation; her father made the decision to give her to another man. We choose whether or not we will be found faithful to our Groom when he comes for us.

May you be completely faithful to the LORD our God.

1 Kings 8:61