They too did not ask | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: May 15, 2024 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 7, No. 1

“Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.” (Judg 14:8-9NIV)

Who is the bible referring to in our opening text? It is Samson. He was the one that scooped out some honey from a lion’s carcass and ate it. Of course, as the story goes, he was the one that had killed that lion sometimes before that particular day. But did that make it right for him to eat honey taken from its carcass? No!

According to what God says to the children of Israel in the law of Moses, it is wrong of them to eat any animal that He has referred to as unclean for them. And even if they have to touch the carcass of such an animal, they will be unclean till the evening of the day and will have to take a ceremonial bath to make themselves clean. Then if the carcass of such an animal touches anything with water in it that can be eaten, that food becomes unclean and must be thrown away. In fact, if its carcass touches a cooking pot or oven, it has to be broken and thrown away. It is as serious as that. (Cf. Lev 11)

The question now is, “Is a lion unclean for the Israelites to eat?” Yes, according to the Law of Moses, a lion is unclean for them to eat. That is because it walks on its paws (Lev 11:27). That being the case, it was wrong of Samson to touch the carcass of that lion, not to even talk of take honey from it to eat.

But he took honey from its carcass, ate it and did not bother at all about the fact that doing so made him ceremonially unclean before God. And did he eat that honey that day because he had no alternative and was fainting? No! The bible does not tell us that he was fainting or dying when he saw that honey. Also, the bible does not tell us that an emergency necessitated what he did. On the contrary, the bible shows us that he was on his way to marry a woman in the land of the Philistines that day. So, he did what he did that day because he did not have much regard for the law of the Lord. The only thing he had any regard for at all was the special anointing of might that the Spirit of God had given him.

Sadly, there are still many like Samson today. They have no serious regard for the word of God. Why? For the most part, it is because they think that certain gifts of the Spirit that they have, perhaps healing gifts, prophetic gifts, teaching gifts or miracle gifts, are a substitute for the word of God. But no spiritual gift, however useful it may be, is given to take the place of the word of God in our lives. On the contrary, if we are going to please God in using whatever gifts He gives to us, we must use them in line with what He has said to us in His word. Otherwise, as it was the case with Samson, we may end up messing up His work, our lives and even others’ lives in using those gifts.

Well, apart from the fact that Samson made himself unclean that day by eating honey from a lion’s carcass, he also made his parents unclean by sharing the honey with them to eat as well. As we see in our opening text, this young man did not tell his parents where he had gotten the sweet honey he was eating from. Why? He knew that they would not have joined him in eating it but would have reprimanded him. So, he kept quiet about its source and just gave them to eat. And they ate it and were made unclean, even though it was unknown to them at the time that they had been made unclean.

Now were Samson’s parents guiltless because they did not know the source of the honey their son had given them to eat? No, they were not. They would have been guiltless, if they had asked him where the honey had come from and he had told them a lie. That means they would have eaten the honey in good conscience.

But they too did not ask him a thing. They just collected the honey from him and started eating it. Why? Maybe they trusted him too much to think that he would give them something that would make them unclean to eat. Or maybe they felt it was totally irrelevant to do so. In short, there may have been several reasons they did not ask him for the source of the honey he gave them to eat.

One thing, however, is clear, which is that by not asking him for the source of the honey that their son gave them to eat, they exposed themselves to spiritual pollution. And if it was a matter that God was going to judge immediately and severely, they would have had only themselves to blame.

In like manner, we can expose ourselves to uncleanness, danger or the destruction of our reputation by not asking relevant questions about the source of what people are giving to us or sharing with us. Yes, we may trust someone with our lives because of our history or relationship with them. But if we are not clear about the source of certain good things they are enjoying or sharing, we should ask relevant questions. That is because even an anointed man or woman of God may deliberately ignore the word of God and allow greed or lust to take over her life for a moment. And if we partake of the reward of her lust, simply because we choose to be ignorant of what she is up to, even if it is a human that is judging the matter, he will most likely not fail to hold us guilty.

There are parents today that are enjoying with their children the riches that they got from robbery, kidnapping, money rituals or some other vices. And there are people enjoying with their spouses, friends or siblings their ill-gotten gains. Yes, these people will not tell them where their wealth is coming from. But they too will not ask. And they will not ask because they have chosen to be ignorant. But on the day that trouble will come upon these people, they too will surely have their own share of it. Then their claim of ignorance will not move anyone or make sense to them.

So, before you settle down with anyone, however close they may be to you, to enjoy riches or honour that you don’t know its source, you had better remember this story and let it be your wisdom. And may God keep you from foolishly or ignorantly making yourself a partaker of others’ sins or trouble, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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