Today’s Sermon Notes: 8-31-2025
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The Story of Samson
A Sermon Series
“But he did not know that the Lord had left him”
Judges 16:1-22
Introduction
Prayer
A Lifetime Wasted (vv. 1-3)
Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. 2 The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3 But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
Samson Wastes His God-given Gift for Twenty Years.
A Deal Is Struck (vv. 4-17)
4 After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” 6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”
Samson expects for his God-given gift to always rescue him from his moral failures.
Smart and very talented people can do stupid and morally corrupt things
because they think they are not capable of falling.
7 Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
In order for Samson to feel this thrill, the danger has to be more and more real. Samson wants to feel love and intimacy with another person – but instead of pursuing relationships God’s way, he seeks satisfaction in the world.
Samson substitutes the feeling of peace that comes from following his calling
with the sensations and lies of the world, which always leave him craving more.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” 11 And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.
15 And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”
A Relationship Is Lost (vv. 18-22)
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19 She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. 22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
God’s power is related to His presence.
His presence is dependent upon a relationship.
Exodus 33:15 God says, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he (Moses) said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
Samson should have broken off this relationship with the woman who caused his destruction, instead the relationship broke him, “v. 16 , his soul was vexed to death.”
What relationship will we seek today? The one that will lead to our destruction or the one that will lead to eternal life?
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[1] Leadership, Vol. X, No.3, Summer, 1989, p. 27.
[2] Timothy Keller, Judges For You (USA; The Good Book Company, 2013) 151.
[3] Keller, 152.
[4] Hubris “wanton insolence or arrogance resulting from excessive pride.”
[5] “5,500 shekels of silver would equal 550 times the average annual wage. Assuming a figure like $35,000 as an average wage (2019), the Philistines offer would be in the $19.25 million category.” K. Lawson Younger Jr. The NIV Application Commentary, Judges, Ruth (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Academic, 2020) 397.
[6] Daniel I. Block, The New American Commentary, Judges, Ruth (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999) 452.
[7] If Samson were a large muscular man, then the source of his strength would be obvious. The Philistines are willing to pay an exorbitant amount of money to learn the secret (that wasn’t obvious).
[8] See also Romans 1:24, 26, 28 “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, . . . 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; . . . 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” When we suppress the truth long enough, God will give us over to the consequences to that way of thinking.
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