"Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." Judges 14:14

Additional readings: Luke 24:16-53, Psalms 107:1-13, Psalm 108

This text is known as Samson's Riddle. It may be called "The Riddle of Life." The Scripture setting of our text is found in the fourteenth chapter of Judges: "Then went Samson down...to Timnath...and, behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid.... And after a time he returned...and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion… And Samson said, 'I will now put forth a riddle unto you… "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."'"

The Word in the letter throughout is wonderful. Through our knowledge of the letter of the Word the Lord speaks to us. Through our reading of it the Lord's presence and power come into our lives.

The stories of Samson have a strong appeal. They are among the best known of the Bible stories, and are often quoted. Samson is a synonym for strength. His many feats are a marvel—the slaying of the lion, the carrying away of the great gates of Gaza, the pulling down of the temple of Dagon.

We should note carefully that Samson did not perform these deeds in his own strength, for it is written that "the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him." We are familiar with examples of remarkable endurance and of physical strength in apparently weak persons in emergencies and under stress of emotion. And there is this statement in the writings: "Man's thought from his will produces all the strength of his body, and if it were inspired by the Lord through His Divine truth, man would have the strength of Samson" (Arcana Coelestia 10182). It is unwise to set limits on what the Lord can accomplish through the human form brought into the Divine order. We are today very far from what is possible for us in physical as well as in spiritual powers. The literal accuracy of the Samson stories has been questioned, but we should not be among the questioners.

Samson was called a Nazarite, as he took the vows of Nazariteship, and the life and deeds of Samson are prophetic of the Lord's work in His early youth and manhood. As a Nazarite Samson represented the natural humanity of the Lord which, armed with the Divine truth, battled with the hells and overcame them.

Samson's strength is said to have been in his long hair. This is representative. The hair is the outmost of the body, external even to the skin, and represents the very outmosts of our life, the life that is directly in contact with the world.

Translating this relationship to things of the mind, the hair represents our thoughts which we carry out into actions, and in a particular sense the literal meaning of the Divine Word which is its outward sense. Truth is strong and effective when it is brought out and applied directly to the doings of our outward life.

We may entertain many ideas of what is allowable for us to do, but when we consult the commandments, the truth confronts us in the plain practical form of self-denial. And we can devise no ingenious argument which will break the practical force of these laws of conduct. "Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him into powder" (Matthew 21:44). In fact the word Nazarite means self-denying. Said Hannah of her son Samuel, "I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head" (1 Samuel 1:11).

Because the power of literal truth is represented by the hair, Elijah and John the Baptist, who taught obedience to the laws of God, are particularly represented as hairy men. If we keep the precepts of the Word in our outward lives, the Lord can inflow and give us power. No power is exerted by holding truth in the memory and not letting it operate in our lives. It is in the doing of the truth that the Lord's power is manifested in us.

It was not in his own strength that Samson slew the lion. It is written, "And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid." When Samson suffered his hair to be cut, his strength left him. If we take away the outward deeds in which power is embodied and acts, we deprive good and truth of the instrument or means by which they can exert their power.

There is a lesson for us in Samson's slaying the lion. In a good sense the lion, as the king of beasts, represents the mighty power of truth fighting against evil, and especially the mighty power which is in the letter of the Word of God. In this good sense the Lord is called "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Revelation 5:5). But when, as in this story of Samson, the lion is used in a bad sense, it represents the power of truth perverted and turned into falsity, that power within us which wages war against the spirit of Divine truth and stands in our way to prevent our doing what is good in practical life. This lion is the demand to conform to the natural-mindedness and self-seeking of the world. It represents the terrible power of the natural mind when it is working for self-advantage, the destructive power which we see so active in the world today. Such lions are frequently mentioned in Scripture. "They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion" (Psalm 22:13) and "My soul is among the lions" (Psalm 57:4).

There is a time when we should learn the truth and do it simply because it is the truth. A soldier is not made just by giving him equipment. He must learn to use it and to obey. The armor of the spirit has to be proved. And we are assured that if we learn and keep the precepts of the Word because they are from the Lord, He Himself will be with us and give us the victory.

When Jesus sent the seventy forth to preach the Gospel, they returned again with joy saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name" (Luke 10:17). "And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19). Sometimes evils seem too strong for us. They are indeed too strong for us always, but they are not too strong for the Lord, The Spirit of the Lord can come upon us mightily as it came upon Samson.

On his return, Samson came upon the carcass of the lion. Using its skeleton as a hive, bees had made honey within it. Then Samson put forth his riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." None could guess this riddle.

It is a riddle to many today. They say, "How can I be happy by doing always what is true and right? How can I gain delight and pleasure by denying myself, by restraining my desires and curbing my passions?" This is a riddle and will always be a riddle to the natural man.

But self-denial does not mean the giving up of the affections and desires with which the Lord has endowed us, but only that we use them as they were meant to be used. Only so can we really enjoy them and only so can the Lord bless us through them. When we cease to misuse and abuse our faculties, when we have put away evil from our doings, we find that we have not lost anything. Our affections remain, and they have been purified and sweetened. The natural affections that stood in the way of our regeneration will be increased in power and allowed full freedom once the desire for evil has been slain.

This is a great truth, namely, that when heavenly love, love to the Lord and to the neighbor, inflow into our affections, cleansing and purifying them, we come into the fullness of life. No good thing does the Lord ever wish to withhold from us. No evil man can possibly be happy. That is why the Lord came into the world to make clear the way of life and to give the power to overcome evil. Evil may promise happiness, but its promises are false; in the end it will curse and not bless. Happiness is the result of overcoming evil.

Of those that walk in the way of the Lord, of those that keep the commandments and precepts of the Word in their outward acts it is written: "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon... And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and. gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:9-10).

4434. 'And his soul clung to Dinah, [the daughter of Jacob]' means the inclination to be joined to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the soul clinging' as an inclination. It is evident that an inclination to be joined is meant because things connected with conjugial love imply in the internal sense the joining together of truth and good, and of good and truth. The reason why things connected with conjugial love imply in the internal sense that spiritual joining together is that conjugial love has its origin in the marriage of truth and good and of good and truth, see 2618, 2727-2729, 2737, 2803, 3132. Consequently the adulteration of good is meant by an act of adultery, and the falsification of truth by an act of whoredom described in the Word, 2466, 2729, 2750, 3399. From these considerations it may be seen that all the details mentioned in this chapter concerning Shechem and Dinah mean nothing else in the internal sense than the joining of truth, represented by 'Shechem', to the affection for truth, represented by 'Dinah', so that the words 'his soul clung to Dinah' mean the inclination to be joined to this affection.

[2] Since the subject in the whole of this chapter is Shechem's love towards Dinah and how he sought to make her his wife, and since things connected with conjugial love mean spiritual joining together, let it now be established from the Word that marriages and things that have a connection with marriages do not imply anything else: In John,

Let us be glad and exult, and let us give glory to Him, for the time of the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Wife has made herself ready. Blessed are those who have been called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19:7, 9.

In the same book,

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. One of the seven angels spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. He carried me away in the spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Revelation 21:2, 9-10.

It is quite evident that betrothal and marriage in these places mean nothing other than the joining of the Lord to the Church, which is effected by means of truth and good. For 'the holy city' and 'the new Jerusalem' mean nothing other than the Church - 'city' meaning the truth of the Church, see 402, 2268, 2449, 2451, 2712, 2943, 3216, and 'Jerusalem' the spiritual Church, 402, 2117, 3654.

[3] In Malachi,

Judah has acted faithlessly, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah, for he loved and married the daughter of a foreign god. Jehovah was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have acted faithlessly. Malachi 2:11, 14-15.

'Loving and marrying the daughter of a foreign god' means joining oneself to falsity instead of truth, which is 'the wife of one's youth'.

[4] In Ezekiel,

You took your sons and your daughters whom you had borne to Me, and sacrificed them so as to be devoured. Was the matter of your acts of whoredom a small one? You are your mother's daughter who loathes her husband and her sons, and you are the sister of your sisters who loathed their husbands and their sons. Ezekiel 16:20, 45.

This refers to the abominations of Jerusalem which, because they were the product of evils and falsities, are described in this chapter by means of the kind of things that are the direct opposite of marriages, that is to say, acts of adultery and of whoredom. 'The husbands' whom they loathed are goods, 'the sons' truths, and 'the daughters' the affections for these.

[5] In Isaiah,

Sing, O barren one that did not bear; resound with singing and cry out for joy, O one that has not been in travail, for the sons of her that is desolate will be more than the sons of her that is married. You will not remember any more the reproach of your widowhood, for your Maker is your Husband, ¹ Jehovah Zebaoth is His name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth He is called. For Jehovah has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when she is put away, said your God. All your sons are taught by Jehovah, and much is the peace of your sons. Isaiah 54:1, 4-6, 13.

Since 'a marriage' means the joining together of truth and good and of good and truth, one may see what is meant by husband and wife, sons and daughters, widows, women who have been put away, and by bearing, giving birth, being desolate, and being barren; for all these expressions have some connection with marriage. The meaning in the spiritual sense of each of these expressions has been shown many times in the explanatory sections.

[6] In the same prophet,

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. You will no more be called Deserted, but your land will be named Married, for Jehovah will take His pleasure in you, and your land will be married. Forasmuch as a young man will marry a virgin, your sons will marry you; and there will be the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, your God will rejoice over you. Isaiah 62:1, 4-5.

Anyone unacquainted with the internal sense of the Word may suppose that such imagery in the Word is simply an employment of comparisons like many of those used in everyday speech, and that this is the reason why the Church is compared to a daughter, a virgin, and a wife, and so why matters of faith and charity are compared to things which have some connection with marriage. But in the Word everything is representative of that which is spiritual or celestial, and it is a real correspondence; for the Word has come down from heaven, and because it has come down from there it is in origin something Divinely celestial and spiritual, to which everything in the sense of the letter corresponds. Consequently things connected with the heavenly marriage, which is good and truth joined together, pass into those that correspond to them, and so into those which have some connection with marriages on earth.

[7] This also explains why the Lord likened the kingdom of heaven - that is, His kingdom in heaven and His kingdom on earth, which is the Church - to a certain king, who arranged a wedding for his son and invited many to it, Matthew 22:2 and following verses, and also to ten virgins who took lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom, Matthew 25:1 and following verses. The Lord also referred to those who belong to the Church as 'the sons of the wedding',

Jesus said, Can the sons of the wedding mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. Matthew 9:15.

[8] For the same reasons the affection for good and the affection for truth are called 'the joy and gladness of a bridegroom and bride', for heavenly joy is the product of those affections and resides within them, as in Isaiah,

Your sons will marry you; and there will be the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, Jehovah your God will rejoice over you. Isaiah 62:5.

In Jeremiah,

The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those that say, Give thanks ² to Jehovah, for Jehovah is good. Jeremiah 33:11.

In the same prophet,

I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land will turn into a waste. Jeremiah 7:34; 16:9; 25:10.

And in John,

The light of a lamp will not shine in Babylon any more, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will not be heard in it any more. Revelation 18:23.

[9] Since marriages on earth correspond through truly conjugial love to the heavenly marriage which is that of good and truth, the laws laid down in the Word concerning betrothals and marriages correspond completely to the spiritual laws of the heavenly marriage, such as the law that men were to marry one wife only, Mark 10:2-8; Luke 16:18; for in the case of the heavenly marriage the situation is that no good can be joined to any but its own truth, or truth to any but its own good. If joined to any truth other than its own, good could not possibly be held together but would be torn apart and so would perish. In the spiritual Church 'wife' (uxor) represents good and 'man' (vir) represents truth, but in the celestial Church 'husband' (maritus) represents good and 'wife' (uxor) truth. Furthermore - and this is an arcanum - they not only represent those things but also in actual fact correspond to them.

[10] The laws also concerning marriages which have been laid down in the Old Testament have in a similar way a correspondence with the laws of the heavenly marriage, such as those in Exodus 21:7-11; 22:15-16, 17; 34:16; Numbers 36:6; Deuteronomy 7:3-4; 22:28-29; and also the laws about the forbidden degrees of affinity, Leviticus 18:6-20. In the Lord's Divine mercy these will be dealt with individually in some other place. The fact that the degrees and laws of marriages have their origin in the laws of truth and good which belong to the heavenly marriage and with which they correlate is evident in Ezekiel,

The priests the Levites shall not take as wives for themselves a widow or a woman that has been put away, but virgins from the seed of the house of Israel; only a widow who is the widow of a priest may they take. Ezekiel 44:22.

This refers to the holy city, the new Jerusalem, and to the heavenly Canaan which clearly mean the Lord's kingdom and His Church. Consequently 'the Levites' do not mean Levites, nor do 'a widow and a woman who has been put away' mean a widow and one put away, but the kind of things they correspond to.

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