Seven times we read of Samson going down, not just geographically, but spiritually as well.
Israel had been in the hand of the Philistines for 40 years when a son was announced to Manoah and his wife. That meant perhaps 20 more years until he came of age. Like our Lord, virtually nothing is known of the boy’s childhood. This is all we read: “So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him” (Jdg 13:24-25). Samson (Heb, Shimshown) means “sunshine,” and no doubt he was that to his parents in those early days. But dark clouds rolled in soon after he reached manhood. “Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines” (14:1). On his return home, he demanded that his parents arrange a marriage with this woman. When they remonstrated with him that he ought to marry an Israelite, he bluntly replied, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well” (v 3). This was contrary to the Mosaic commands, and obviously an act of self-will. But knowing the flawed character He was working with, the Lord allowed it so it became a means of eliciting a conflict with the enemy, since “the Lord…was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines” (v 4). On their way to Timnah, a young lion surprised him, “and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart…though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done” (v 6). On a subsequent visit to celebrate the upcoming wedding, Samson investigated the lion’s carcass (a no-no for a Nazirite), found a beehive in it, and enjoyed some honey—sharing it with his parents, but not sharing its source. It doesn’t bode well when a young man avoids the input of others!