by Theodore Wright.
No, I do not speak about goats here from my own personal experience. Actually, this is what happened to someone which the Holy Bible speaks on. It was Samson, the son of Manoah, that came up with this to help smooth out his own marriage problems. Often when we hear about Samson we are told only about Delilah. Who we do not hear often about is Samson’s wife.
Do you suppose that perhaps it worked? To bring a goat to the bedroom?
Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.” – Judges 14:1-2 (NKJV)
After marrying this Philistine woman, Samson held a common seven-day feast afterward. Then, he posed a riddle to his Philistine guests with a bet of clothing. They could not solve the riddle, therefore they threatened Samson’s wife with a death threat to her own family for her to find out the answer to the riddle and tell them. Samson’s wife pestered Samson until he told her the answer to the riddle. She then told the Philistine young men who later replied correctly to Samson.
Samson perceiving they got the answer from his wife resulted in Samson staying away from his wife for a short season.
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing, to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house. – Judges 14:19 (NKJV)
This was just the beginning of Samson lashing out vengeance against the Philistines. It continued on again and again afterwards. This was all before he ever later met Delilah. A read of Judges chapter 14 will tell you the details of this event with his wife. Unknown to Samson until later, this happened…
And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. – Judges 14:20 (NKJV)
After this, the sordid tale continues when Samson returns with a present for his wife. Yes, a goat!
Please read this verse carefully…
After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.
– Judges 15:1 (NKJV)
Wait a minute! Samson wanted to go into his wife’s room with the goat?
The strange part of this verse is that you never hear about Samson first placing the goat in the corral outside the house or anything like that. Apparently, Samson wanted to bring the goat kid into the house and even into the bedroom! Hey, did you ever have a sharp disagreement with your wife and think of some strange way to seek to patch things? It seems as though Samson’s solution to this was a bit kinky.
Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.” And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” – Judges 15:2-3 (NKJV)
This romantic(?) reunion of Samson with his wife never happened. Samson lashed out revenge against the Philistines by burning their standing grain with another one of his unusual ways…
Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
The Philistines did not like this, yet they considered that Samson did have grounds for his vengeance. In order to still Samson’s temper on the matter, the Philistines thought they would take control of the matter. At least that is what they thought. Would what the Philistines did next satisfy Samson? Let us see…
Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. – Judges 15:6 (NKJV)
The Philistines did not burn the father’s new son-in-law who also committed the adultery together with Samson’s wife. Perhaps the Philistines should have thought of burning him instead? There was no mention about him getting fried. Maybe he would just move on and just find some other man’s wife to marry.
My friends, there are better ways to handle marriage issues regarding intimacy and fidelity than performing extremes.
Consequentially, you also don’t need a goat…
1 It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
– 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 (NKJV)
Are you still Feeling crabby? Learn the secret to a happy marriage…
