Riddles
By
Shelby G. Floyd
During
the period of the judges, when
"You are sterile and
childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other
fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will
conceive and give birth to a son. No
razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazarite,
set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of
In the providence
of God, Samson chose a wife from among the Philistines (Judges 14: 3-4). On his way to Timnah
to select his wife, a young lion came roaring against him and the Spirit of the
Lord came upon him and he killed the lion as one who would kill a young goat
(Judges 14:6). Later he returned to
marry his wife and he turned aside to take a look at the carcass of the
lion. In the carcass he found a swarm of
bees and plenty of honey. He scooped it
out with his hands and both he and his parents ate the sweet honey.
Samson
made a great customary feast when his father came down to see his wife,. At this feast he
gave everyone present a riddle with rewards to be handed out if they could
answer the riddle within 30 days. Here is the riddle:
"Out
of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet."
After
three days, no one could answer the riddle.
The Philistines warned Samson's wife that they would burn her and her
father's house down unless she could coax her husband into explaining the
riddle. She tried several times, but he
would not tell her. Finally after seven
days she wore him down and he told her the answer. Before the sun went down on the seventh day
the men of the town came to Samson and gave him the answer: “What is sweeter
than honey? What is stronger than a
lion?”
Then
we have Samson's classic reply: “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you
would not have solved my riddle."
At
various times riddles are popular among the people. And then after a while they fall out of
favor. Here are a few riddles that some
of you might enjoy trying to solve:
1. “What is it that you can keep after
giving it to someone else?”
2. “I killed one fourth of mankind. Who am
I?”
3. “I crawl on four legs in
the morning, walk upright on two legs at