Everyone makes bad choices. Bad choices are the consequences of being human and living in a sinful and imperfect world. There is however a big difference between making a bad choice unintentionally and deliberately choosing to do that which we know is immoral and unrighteous. Sampson was making a sinful choice by choosing to lust after a Philistine woman. His parents knew it, and they tried to persuade him to change his mind.

Most of us have experienced situations similar to this from both sides. We have been on the side that was trying to convince someone to choose differently, and we have been on the side where others were trying to convince us to make a different choice. It is very common for parents to be on the side of wisdom and righteousness, although that is not always the case. When we see someone making a bad choice out of ignorance or lack of understanding we can sometimes through reason and persuasion convince them to change their mind. However, when someone is making their choice knowing full well that it is an unrighteous choice, reason has very little chance of changing their mind. To change their choice they would first need to change their heart.

Watching someone we love make a sinful choice, and knowing we cannot stop them is very painful. If it breaks our hearts to watch our children sin, we cannot begin to imagine how much it must break the heart of God. Therefore, when we look at verse four there is no way we can translate it to mean that God was causing Sampson to choose a path of sinfulness. It tells us that Sampson’s parents did not know that God was going to work in the midst of Sampson’s sinfulness to bring about a confrontation with the Philistines. They did not know this because God did not tell them; God wanted them to do everything they could to convince Sampson to make a righteous choice. However, God didn’t quit working just because Sampson chose sinfulness.