We are not born with black boxes installed. When a child grows up, only to crash and burn, there are no second-by-second recordings to tell us what went wrong. It would be so much easier to learn from the experiences of others if those recordings did exist. Because they do not, we are left to make judgments in order to learn from the experiences of others. The Bible does not tell us not to make judgments; it tells us not to be judgmental in our judgments.

It is easy to make the judgment that something went wrong with Simpson. His desire to take a Philistine woman to be his wife was obviously sinful. We know it, and he knew it. His mother and father reminded him that it was contrary to God’s will. God’s law forbid him to marry someone involved in pagan worship. God’s rules against marrying people from other nations was not to keep Israel genetically pure, but rather to keep them spiritually pure. Sampson knew his decision was contrary to God’s law but he made it anyway.

Judgments should be made impartially and without prejudice based upon the evidence. Just as being harshly judgmental is sinful, making judgments without enough evidence is foolish. We have the evidence that Simpson was sinful, but we do not have enough evidence to understand why. We can only guess. Perhaps his parents raised him to believe he was special, and he foolishly thought that special-purpose came with special privilege. It did not and it does not. Perhaps he was rebelling against the strictness of being a Nazirite. Our society loves to excuse rebelliousness by blaming the object of rebellion. Perhaps when he saw Timnah he was carried away with lust. Why did he go down the path of wickedness? We do not know enough to know.

Lack of evidence prevents making a judgment about the cause of Simpson’s sinfulness. After a crash, if there is not enough evidence to reveal the cause, the righteous do not judge.