An unrighteousness act is like a small crack in a windshield; with time and stress it grows until you cannot clearly see where you are going.

Men like to say that it doesn’t hurt to look, but Sampson’s path to total self destruction started with a single look. He looked at a Philistine woman, and set his heart’s desire on having her. That was his first unrighteous act, but his unrighteousness would grow until it created a fire that consumed both himself and the Philistines.

No matter how it starts unrighteousness soon infects all relationships. Sampson started by breaking his vows to God, and then he disrespected his parents. After killing 30 Philistines and paying off his debt, his anger caused him to be unrighteous with his new wife. The nature of their marriage is not made clear in the Scripture. Some believe it would have been a visitation marriage. In this type of marriage the wife lived with her family and her husband visited her on a regular basis. This avoided conflict with fellow Israelites. Whatever the case may have been, when Sampson arrived he received a surprise. His father-in-law had given his wife to one of the companions from the wedding feast.

Sampson was unable, or unwilling to confront his own responsibility and believed that he had a right to get even with all the Philistines for the actions of a single man, his father-in-law. Flame and destruction soon followed. The Philistines blamed the father-in-law and burned him and his household, (the very fate Sampson’s bride had hoped to avoid by betraying him). In response, Sampson escalated the feud and killed many. The Philistines wanting revenge, gathered an army and invaded Judah.

Rather than side with Sampson and revolt against the Philistines, 3000 men of Judah took Sampson prisoner. Perhaps Sampson’s statement, “I merely did to them what they did to me.” explains why. In his unrighteousness, Sampson was no different than the Philistines. He couldn’t see the difference between revenge and justice.