SAMSON: A GREAT MAN WHO PURSUED SMALL THINGS - Physically Strong

Samson and Delilah. The story has been told hundreds of times for thousands of years. This is the story of Samson’s defeat, a story that must be told in each generation. A strong man can be morally weak; in one moment he can destroy what cannot be rebuilt in a lifetime.

Let us consider two facts that highlight Samson’s weakness. First, he was tempted by lust. He went to Gaza and met a harlot with whom he has a sexual relationship. There was no pretense of love here. No sweet words of mutual love. It was a simple matter of sex for money.

Don’t miss the fact that this came after 20 years of successful ministry as a servant of God. Samson was now about 40 years old. Maybe he was tired of being good; maybe he was weary with the work and thought he needed a break. Maybe he wanted to get caught to add some excitement to his life.

Was he hurt by this experience? After all, the Holy Spirit still gave him strength, and since he wasn’t married he might have thought that he left unscathed. There was adventure in risk.

But he knew he had sinned. The emptiness was there; his life had been cheapened by the experience. But worst of all, though this experience he developed confidence in his ability to do wrong. When the men of the town tried to capture him, he walked off with the gate posts (Judges 16:1-3). This was proof, he thought, that he could sin and get by.

Next, he was tempted by love. “He loved a woman of Sorek whose name was Delilah.” This was a relationship with romance. Delilah was a Hebrew name, yet it is clear that she was a Philistine. It is possible that Samson knew this lady from a way back. They grew up in the same area, the same valley.

We do know that her friends are among Samson’s enemies. She was beautiful, cuddly, playful and fun. She had a smile that could light a dark alley. But Delilah is offered a considerable amount of money if she can find the secret of Samson’s strength. She is in effect recruited as a spy for the enemy. If she can seduce Samson into telling his secrets, she will receive 500 pieces of silver. No small change. She begins to press him, asking the secret of his strength.

First, Samson tolerates the temptation. He is in charge. He thinks he can determine the outcome of this situation. He is the one who spied this seductive woman and he is the one who can say no when he has to! He was asking for trouble, but wouldn’t admit it.

He says, “If I were tied with new cords, I would be weak.” It’s a lie, of course but it bought him some time. The Philistines tie him with new ropes, but his strength did not leave him. He tore them to shreds. He was just teasing. Next he toys with the temptation. Notice now he says that “if you weave seven locks of my hair with the web and fasten it with a pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

He is getting closer. He is telling her that his strength has something to do with his hair. If you weave his hair, his strength will not leave him. But it is true that his strength is in his hair; or rather his strength is symbolized by the hair. Maybe he is lying, but he is having some fun too. This is just a lover’s game. Bedroom entertainment.

Samson you fool! Run Samson, run! “Blessed are those who endure (turn away from) temptation for they shall receive the crown of life.”

She tells her friends what he says, and they weave his hair. But he walks away with the pin of the loom, and faces the Philistines with confidence. He is as strong as ever. This is fun. He is in control. Well, not really.

She does not give up. “And it came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him that his soul was annoyed to death” (v 16). Since he had won the other gambles, he decided to go for broke and tell her the secret of his strength. He explains that he has been a Nazarite separated to God from his birth. If his head was shaved, he would become weak like an ordinary man.

Now he tries the temptation. He sees what it would be like to give his secret away. He had plenty of reasons to not trust Delilah, but when you want to be deceived, you will be.

We can’t really blame him, can we? Don’t things like this just happen? Is it really his fault that he falls in love with a lovely woman? Are not beautiful relationships like this meant to be?

She knows that this time, he has finally told her all. She sent for the lords of the Philistines saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.”

He falls asleep with his head on her lap. She is rubbing his cheeks, caressing his hair and whispers sweet nothings in his ear. She knows that the money is almost hers.

When he awoke, he saw a room full of Philistines; he takes a mighty swing, the kind that used to kill ten of them at a crack. His spear is strangely heavy in his hand.

Though he had always done silly and sinful things, God had always come through for him. The Spirit of the Lord kept giving him supernatural strength. He thought he could count on that again. He says, “I will go as at other times and shake myself free.”

One of the saddest verses is in verse 20, “But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.” He felt the same; his mood did not change, but the Holy Spirit was gone. The Philistines gouged out his eyes and he now ground corn for them in prison. A pitiful sight indeed.

The Holy Spirit does not leave us today as He left Samson. His ministry is different. But this much is alike: the blessing of the Lord will depart. The peace of the Lord will depart. The guidance of the Lord will depart when we play with sin. What are the great lessons we learn from Samson?

First, no past victory can guarantee future victories. After Samson’s initial youthful foolishness he settled down to rule Israel for 20 years. Yet after that, he failed, and failed miserably.

Don’t forget that Samson never intended that it would end like this! He didn’t mean any harm. What’s so wrong about wanting to fall in love with a woman? His heart belonged to her.

Second, we can lose in a moment what we cannot recover in a lifetime. Of course God forgave Samson his sin, just as God forgave David his sin. The question is not whether there can be forgiveness, the question is whether there can be a restoration of ministry, life and family. Better to watch your step than having to be pulled from a ditch.

We’ve all known people who have committed adultery, and though they are forgiven there is much that can never be restored. Often they lose their marriage, their children. God might continue to bless them as they are restored to fellowship. Years later they can see that God has taken the mess they created and has worked in spite of it. There has been emotional if not physical restoration. But the damage has been done.

Nobody can predict the consequences of sexual sin. No matter how secret; no matter how many precautions are taken, the outcome is always worse than imagined. As Moses told the people, “be sure your sin will find you out.”

We also learn that the sin we tolerate today just might destroy us tomorrow. Samson, I suspect had never really dealt with the sin of sensuality. He had had a weakness for Philistine women and though he got by with this pastime for many years, eventually he was ensnared.

Though he had conquered the Philistines, they now conquered him. They took out his eyes and he ground corn in the prison for them. We must give our sexuality to God and do so every day. Not until we are dead will we be unable to sin. Also, when God restores us, He uses us.

The Spirit departed, but God did not abandon Samson. He ground corn for the enemy, but his hair began to grow back. And with the hair came his previous power. There was spiritual development, there was the providential work of God. He would be used again. His hair grew back but his eyes never had their sight restored. The consequences of his disobedience were still there, but he would be used again.

When the Philistines had a ceremony to honor their god Dagon, they began to shout, “We want Samson! We want Samson! We want Samson!” He was led out to amuse them. He prayed, “O Lord, God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Leaning against the pillars that supported the whole building, he brought the whole house down, “So the dead, whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed with his life.”

Finally, let us remember that the beginning of restoration is repentance. What Samson didn’t do when he could see, he did when he was blind. He got serious with God and serious about his sin. Now he not only wanted forgiveness but deliverance. And he wanted them now. With his eyes out, the game was over. Deserted by the women he loved and the friends who abandoned him, he now depended on God.

Perhaps you have sinned, but your hair has “grown back”; that is, God is beginning to use you again. You must realize that He will not abandon you if you cry to Him in repentance and faith. The God who was with Samson is with us. He is the God who not only disciplines His children, but restores them too.

Samson was one of only three people I recall whose birth AN ANGEL announced.

The three were -— Samson, John the Baptist and Jesus Himself.

Such a promising beginning, such a tragic end.

Samson was a Judge about the time that Eli was the Priest/Judge at Shiloh. The attack on Israel by the Philistines that caused the death of Eli’s sons and Eli and the capture of the ark and destruction of Shiloh and the tabernacle was probably in retaliation for the destruction caused by Samson.

Such a promising beginning, such a tragic end.

Great point, but would it be better to describe him as promising beginning, tragic middle, a return to faith end? Your point about the Angels is interesting isn't.

This might be a reach, but why not? ;-)

The Ark is taken by non believers and God's physical representative on earth is subjected to humiliation and disrespect. Sounds like the Word that came and lived among us.

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