The Story of Samson

A Sermon Series

“But he did not know that the Lord had left him”

Judges 16:1-22

Introduction

The captain of the Titanic refused to believe the ship was in trouble till water was ankle deep in the mail room. Only then was it apparent the multi-layered hull had been pierced and the unsinkable ship was going to sink. Ships that could have arrived before the great ocean liner went down weren’t summoned until it was too late.[1] Today we will look at a man who in his pride can’t see the reality of his coming destruction.

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.

Other than this being an example of Samson’s strength, why is this story of his life here? If it were not included, would we read the text the same way; would we understand it the same way? Each passage that is given, is to help us understand something – The last verse of chapter 15 is, “And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.” He wasn’t leading or judging God’s people toward anything, the Philistines were still in the land.

What was he doing for twenty years that kept him distracted from his God-given calling? These three verses help us fill in twenty years of Samson’s life. Samson can’t stay away from Philistine women, and the Philistine people were trying to set traps for him, and he kept outwitting them (or just over-powering them). In his eyes, they were sweeter than honey, and their control over him was stronger than a lion. But Samson’s lust was a symptom of a greater problem, Samson was the center of Samson’s world (and not God).

We are going to see that Delilah uses the same, “you don’t love me, you don’t trust me,” sentimentality against Samson that his wife did, so he doesn’t seem to change or grow as a person. He seems to go from woman to woman satisfying his lust, doing what “seemed right in his own eyes,” and then using his God-given strength to get out of spots he finds himself in. (vv. 1-3) Samson being completely surrounded, lifts the city gates post and all from a walled city, and carries it forty-miles to Hebron, with an ascent of more than two thousand feet – and just walks away from the danger.

 Samson Wastes His God-given Gift for Twenty Years.

Samson goes to Gaza, the capital of the Philistine people. He knows they know who he is so by go in and staying with the prostitute over-night it is not only morally wrong, but reckless. He is fine with allowing himself to be surrounded. The first three verses show us that he is still morally corrupt, he is becoming more and more reckless, while not doing anything to deliver his people.[2]

 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.”

Delilah on four separate occasions has the same conversation with Samson, “tell me what is the secret of your strength, how can you be bound, how can someone control you?” Each time, he is awakened from his sleep with “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” and then they are trying to do to Samson what he had in secret revealed to her. Why does he play this game with her?

 Samson creates riddles, writes poetry, he seems to love plays on words – so he is not stupid. But, “like any pattern of compulsion, the cycle is increasing in force and power.”[3] Samson’s success and increasing feats of strength leads him to feel that he is invulnerable and that he does not really need God. Success in life can be very dangerous because we begin to think that we don’t really need God, and that we can do anything – that we are untouchable.[4]

 Samson expects for his God-given gift to always rescue him from his moral failures.

 It is incredibly difficult to be an astronaut. But “In 2007, then-NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak drove 900 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront a perceived romantic rival, Colleen Shipman. During the journey, Nowak wore adult diapers to avoid making stops for bathroom breaks, a detail that was widely reported. She was arrested after pepper-spraying Shipman at the Orlando airport parking lot, leading to charges including attempted kidnapping and battery. The incident, stemming from a love triangle involving another astronaut, Bill Oefelein, became a national scandal and inspired the 2019 movie Lucy in the Sky.”

Smart and very talented people can do stupid and morally corrupt things

because they think they are not capable of failing.

God gives us His grace to cover our sin, and then we use that grace as a weapon against Him. Instead of His grace leading us to repentance, our wicked hearts use His grace as an excuse to continue or even increase in our sin. Samson enters into this game with Delilah in which he feels very secure that he will always be able to use his strength to escape any trap set before him. Also, Samson is chasing intimacy – he loves Delilah (even though he knows she is trying to destroy him). Think about what he has to admit in this situation; he loves her, but she not only doesn’t love him, she loathes him to the point of wanting him to be captured and tortured. His pride won’t let him admit this truth to himself.

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.

(v.5) “the lords of the Philistines came up to her,” and “we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” shows us her motivation for playing this game (potential status as a national hero, and wealth[5]). These were the highest-ranking Philistines who have come to her. But what is his motivation? – he is not stupid, he knows there is a chance she will give him up, especially after the first round of his answer and then their attacking him.

Samson, his whole life, has done what seemed right to him – “what was right in his own eyes.” He has been controlled by his feelings and what he gets, especially from women. He is using Delilah to get something– and she is using him to get. Their relationship is based on taking from the other. Godly relationships are based on giving. What is it that he is taking from the relationship?

Samson is called be a deliverer, a leader of God’s people – so naturally he wants the thrill of feats of strength, the narrow escape, the feeling of doing something special something no one else can do. He is a warrior who wants to fight. He recklessly puts himself in these positions so he can feel the thrill of escape. This is what addicts do – they are chasing the high.

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. So bowstrings lead to new ropes, etc. Samson is trying to fill an emptiness in his life that God should be filling.

 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.

Two more times Delilah tries to get Samson to tell her the secret of his strength and he lies to her. The games continues, both getting and taking from each other. Either because of lust or pride, “he is blinded to the reality she represents.”[6] She means to have him weak, bound, and carried off.

 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.”

The ultimate game of comes to an end when Samson reveals his heart, no lies, no deception – just the truth. His strength comes from a vow made to the Lord, a calling given before he was born, which he had violated many times over the years. He had touched dead things (the honey comb inside the lion, even recently having sinew bind his hands), and he had drunk from the vine (at his wedding reception), and now the final outward display of his following God has been removed. The source of his strength was not his hair, it was God.[7] But Samson giving away the last of the three requirements severs the relationship between him and God.

Like a three corded strand of rope, he cuts all three strands (drink from the vine, touching the dead, and cutting his hair). His link with God was his Nazarite vow, he has cut all three strands and doesn’t realize his dangerous situation.

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.

 Delilah now feels confident she knows his secret, calls for her money. She has him sleep with his head in her lap. Samson reveals two things, one the secret to his strength to Delilah, and also that yes, he has been aware of his vow, “I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb,” Instead of bearing his soul to God (confessing his sin, re-aligning his life back to his calling, etc.), he bears his soul to a woman who is determined to betray him and uses his openness and love for her as a weapon against him. He sits himself in the barber’s chair – Samson chose Delilah and their relationship over the Lord.

(v. 20) Samson says, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” – Samson intends to do, as he has always done. He is untouchable, invincible, he has super-strength. Why would keeping a Nazarite vow matter now? He violated God’s law by marrying outside of the Israelite people and he goes from bed to bed, but God still gave him strength (to kill the men to pay his debt when he lost the riddle contest). He touched a corpse (specifically a fresh jawbone of a donkey) and God gave him strength to kill 1,000 Philistines. Why would Samson after over twenty years of constantly violating his vow, then God using him anyway would he expect anything different. But this time was different.

“But he did not know that the Lord had left him.”[8] – What was it about the hair being cut, that was different from drinking from the vine, or touching the dead? Samson’s strength was in the relationship between him and God. And the Lord left him. When God leaves the relationship there is no power there. Samson needed to understand that his super-strength was from his relationship with God, not from himself. He had to be humbled.

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.” When a person places their faith in Jesus the Holy Spirit takes up residence within the believer. While God is there present with the believer, His power is given to the believer to bring Him glory and to accomplish His plan – We receive power in order to be His witnesses and to accomplish the tasks set before us. That power and presence of God in our lives is dependent upon our relationship with Him (not following rules).

 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?”

Isn’t it God’s presence in our lives that makes us distinct from all the other people on the planet. If His presence is not with us, what are we to do? We will live this life in our own strength, following and keeping rules, and we won’t have God’s blessing on our lives, we are spiritually tormented trying to achieve an impossible moral code, we will lack the power that comes from the Holy Spirit to accomplish anything of worth, and we will lose our identity in Christ. 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?

__________________

[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.