What does Judges 14:20 Mean?

Context Summary

What strong confirmation is afforded, by Samson's experience, of the misery of a mixed marriage! This Philistine wife had no real love for him, and was more readily influenced by her own people than by her husband. How could she enter into his desire to emancipate Israel? To carry out his life-purpose of freeing Israel, He must break with her. Notice how this poor wife was visited with the very chastisement from which she hoped, by treachery, to save herself. Compare Judges 14:17 and Judges 15:6.

Samson's riddle is constantly being verified. We all have to encounter lions. Happy are we if we rend them in the power of the Holy Spirit! And have we not often discovered that the very sorrow, trial, or temptation which we dreaded most and which threatened to destroy us, has yielded the strength and sweetness, the meat and honey, which have enriched us for all after-time? Samson shared these with his mother and father. Let us never keep to ourselves those glorious lessons and results which we may have won in conflicts and sorrows that only the eye of God has witnessed. Let others share their benefit. [source]

Chapter Summary: Judges 14

¹  Samson desires a wife of the Philistines
⁶  In his journey he kills a lion
⁸  In a second journey he finds honey in the carcass
¹⁰  Samson's marriage feast
¹²  His riddle by his wife is made known
¹⁹  He strikes down thirty Philistines
²⁰  His wife is married to another