honey and lion

RE: judges 14:14
Saturday, November 13, 2010 9:58 PM
From: "Carlos Burman"
To:
Dear Eiko,

i apologise once again for a late email.

I know when i last saw you that i said i will send you an email back "soon" but its longer than soon now.

Please accept my apologies.

The reason i took long just to write this one email is because since i have just 2 months before i leave,i have many things to prepare and pack ..apart from this i have the usual
work,meeting assignments and family duties to care for as im sure you will understand as a family man also.

anyway,although moving can be stressful and tiring,right now im not so bad..i think the last month will be worse.

so,how are you? i should ask

I hope you are fine...please let me know.

Im writing in this email about Judges 14:14 and the honey and samson

Im actually surprised that you know Tate & Lyle..where did you see it? or do you just remember it from when you lived in UK?

Well,you have a good memory because,yes, the picture on the side is of this particular bible scripture and is illustrating a riddle that Judge Samson once posed to his enemies.

This riddle is straight forward to understand and is not too difficult and i think much of the population of Uk do not even notice this picture on the side of the Tate & Lyle brand name.

Anyway,below i have sent you an extract from one of our watchtowers speaking aliitle bit about the context behind Judges 14:14. The main points are underlined:

Samson, on returning past the lair of the lion, “turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion, and there there was a swarm of bees in the lion’s corpse, and honey. So he scraped it out into his palms and walked on, eating as he walked.” (Judg. 14:8, 9) Down to this day, the Samson class find sweet sustenance as they reflect on Jehovah’s use of them in theocratic warfare, even to exposing and slaying the Protestant “lion” with his Word of truth.—Eph. 6:17; Ps. 77:11, 12.



15 This very ‘sweetness’ became the focal point of Samson’s first test of strength with the Philistines. It came about through Samson’s propounding the riddle: “Out of the eater something to eat came forth, and out of the strong something sweet came forth.” Unable to find the answer in the prescribed time, the Philistines surreptitiously wheedled it out through Samson’s betrothed. So, they answered him correctly: “What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?” Samson paid his debt over this riddle in the kind that the Philistines deserved, by slaying thirty of their number and handing over their garments to “the tellers of the riddle.”—Judg. 14:10-20.



In ancient times,riddles were revered and enjoyed very much as a pass time,much like people in modern times enjoy sports and games likes crosswords and sudoku etc.. .A person who spoke riddles was often seen as wise,intelligent and as a person to listen to as leader.



If a person didnt understand a riddle it brought a fair amount of shame or embarrassment to them.



When the philistines did not know that Samson had just killed a maned young lion with his bare hands and were totally ignorant of this event,



Samson came near to the philistines to utter the riddle recorded as Judges 14:14>　He knew that his riddle was difficult to understand easily and was testing their wisdom and intelligence.



(Judges 14:14) So he said to them: “Out of the eater something to eat came forth, And out of the strong something sweet came forth.” And they proved unable to tell the riddle for three days.

The answer to this riddle was as the philistines slyly retrieved by cheating:

(Judges 14:18) So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before ever he could go into the interior room: “What is sweeter than honey, And what is stronger than a lion?”

The answer to the riddle was "honey" and "Lion"

There was no other meaning to the words than that.It was like an intelligence game..a guessing game...who had the best mind.

However,as the watchtower extract above mentions,that situation can be likened to how Jehovahs servants are strengthened..It is ONLY by Jehovahs strength that Samson was able to kill that Lion and his other enemies.
Yes, Jehovah always provides "sweet" ,honey-like sustenance for his loyal servants.

Likewise ,today,Jehovahs true and loyal servants are strengthened to fight a spiritual warfare against a Lion like opposition.Jehovah allows his spirit to overcome this opposition and the sweetness of victory is as rich and as sweet as honey.

Anyway,i hope you understand the point of the scripture.its interesting isnt it?

If you dont understand please let me know.

As for your other question,i will answer it when i am able to and have the time..im sorry for my lateness again

If you decide to come to the meeting tomorrow,14th November 2010,as usual it will be at 4:30pm and the Brother giving the talk will be travelling from Sasebo Congregation..hes a Japanese brother
and the theme of his discourse will be: "Are you doing what God requires of you?"

Next week, 21st of November 2010 at 4:30pm, I will have the privilege of giving a public discourse at the Kingdom hall...Please come if you are able since it will likely be my last Public discourse in Japan.
The Title of my talk will be : "Overcoming fear of the future"

The Talk is focusing on the view of the world today by the majority of humans..people are generally scared of the world around them..the terrorism,crime,violence,the spread of disease,earthquakes,wars and nuclear weapons etc etc...

The question i will scripturally answer is "How can we overcome such fear of what the future may bring ?" "how can we escape the calamities of this world?" "what does our future hold?"

It might sound like a little sad or depressing discourse by the theme of the title and questions considered but i will try to make it as interesting,informative and enthusiastic as i can in 30 mins.

Anyway,see what your schedule says..Its the 21st November,next Sunday at the usual time.

well il email you again soon

hope you have a nice evening and takecare

Carlos