Turning Strength into Weakness Part 3

Hello Everyone. 
I'm going to continue the story of Samson tonight.  Now last we looked, Samson had refused tolisten to his parents, even thought they were righteous people.  He had broken at least one vow by touching a dead body and perhaps more.  In the very least we could see that Samson did not take his vows very seriously. 

So as the story continues in Judges 14:5, Samson goes down to Timnah again with his parents, this time to get married.  At the wedding the Philistines provide Samson with thirty companions.  At the party he takes vow-breaking actions and turns them into a riddle.  You are probably familiar with the story.  The riddle has a wager on it of thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.  These thirty companions ultimately threaten Samson's wife, that if she doesn't get the answer for them, they will burn her house down upon her and her family.  Through her tears, she eventually gets the answer and gives it to the Philistine "companions."  So Samson has lost the bet, he goes to a different Philistine town, kills thirty men and takes their clothes, gives the clothes to his "companions" and goes home.

Later, he returns to Timnah to get his wife only to find out that she had been given to another man.  Samson gets angry and gets his revenge.  The Philistines get their revenge by burning his former wife's house down with her and her family in it.  Samson gets even more revenge, including killing a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey.  Samson makes mistake after mistake, all along the way and hundreds die, including the woman he loved. 

After all that happens during and after his wedding, I wondered this:  "Doesn't he have any friends?"  Samson goes to his wedding day, and the enemies of God have to provide people to stand up with him.  Wendy and I have been married for over twenty years, but I still remember my wedding very well.  I had a lot of friends there.  Most people do.  And I believe that if I had been at my wedding reception making a fool of myself, that one of my friends would have pulled me aside and said, "Tom, you're making a fool of yourself."  Samson apparently did not have any relationships like that.  Things might have turned out differently if he had someone there at his wedding to say, "hey bro, maybe this riddle isn't such a good idea.  Making light of your vows to God and turning them into a foolish riddle may not be the way to go." 

So, we have ask ourselves, then, who are the friends in our lives that are helping us move in the right direction?  Are we listening to them?  Samson's story could have turned out very differently had he listened to righteous people.

Tom