A. Samson and Delilah

a. We obviously see that Samson is in sin here; we wonder how a man so used by God can sin so boldly and blatantly - after all, didn't he want to be used and blessed by God?

b. Of course Samson did, but he had yielded to the deceitfulness of sin. He would still be zealous about keeping the external features of his Nazirite vow, while at the same time sinning blatantly with a prostitute

i. Samson did what we nearly all do when deceived by sin - he put his life into categories, and figured that some categories God cared about, and some He did not. Our lives can be revolutionized by realizing that Jesus has claim over our entire lives

ii. We often excuse some area of known sin in our lives by saying "everybody has some area of weakness" or "God understands this is hard for me" - of course God understands; that's why He's dealing with you to stop!

c. Despite his sin, God still gives Samson supernatural strength to escape from the Philistines. Why? Because God's purpose was bigger than Samson himself, and because God was using Samson despite Samson's sin, not because of it

a. Here we see Samson falling in love again, and falling in love with a person completely wrong for him. Much pain and ruin came into Samson's life because he would not guard his heart

b. We also see that Delilah was deeply in love; but with money, not Samson. 1,100 shekels was more than 140 pounds of silver

a. Truly, the glow of romantic love has made Samson lose all common sense; he falls for this obvious trap by Delilah again

b. Samson consents to this bondage through his unwillingness to escape the situation; we are amazed by this, until we see this situation repeated before our eyes all the time

a. Why does he stay with a woman who so obviously cares nothing for him? There is no bond of marriage to observe; no children to be concerned about. This is nothing but blind, irresponsible love

a. Even as Samson had given into his Philistine wife's nagging before, now he yields to the nagging of Delilah. She certainly sinned by using such terrible manipulation, but Samson also sinned by yielding to that manipulation

i. Her complaint that Samson's love for her is empty is itself a hollow protest; she has no love for him, and expects Samson to destroy himself and his service for God to "prove" his love for her

ii. There are times when our commitment to God demands that we say, even to those we love the most, "I will not turn my back on my God, and you will just have to live with that."

b. When Samson told her all his heart, it must have been an exceedingly sad scene; he had to have known what was coming. He was faced with a choice: Delilah or the Lord, and he chose her

i. There were probably tears welling up in Samson's face when he said this, because we are told that Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart; Samson must have known what was coming, but he didn't want to believe it - he wanted to believe that Delilah loved him as he loved her

ii. Again, we see the strongest man in the world under the power of the wiles of a woman. Samson figured that because he was strong in one are of his life, he was strong in all areas; in this he was desperately wrong

c. The scene is all the more terrible when we see that she lulled him to sleep on her knees; what sweet words of love she must have said to him to lull Samson to sleep! Her pretended love for Samson for the sake of money is deeply troubling

d. Delilah herself began the tormenting of Samson, knowing that his strength was lost

B. Samson's arrest and death

a. Samson didn't know that things had changed; he had lived in compromise for so long, he thought it would never make a difference

i. They put out his eyes. Because men are attracted to women first through the eye, and because it was Samson's failure to restrain his attraction to women, it was fitting that he was blinded in prison

ii. They bound him with bronze fetters: Samson wouldn't humble himself in obedience before God - he insisted on the "freedom" of doing what he wanted to do. Now he is totally humiliated by Satan, and has no freedom at all.

b. Samson is like everyone who thinks they are "getting away" with sin. They misinterpret the merciful delay of God's judgment or correction as a sign that He really doesn't care; thus presuming on God's mercy, they continue on and ultimately make things far, far worse

i. You don't have to go far to see people broken, blind, and in bondage because of their sin

c. In the end, Samson's problem was not with his hair, but his heart - and his heart problem caught up with him eventually, because he never heeded God's merciful warnings and got things set straight

a. Sin has its wages, and this is Samson's payday. His sin has left him blind, in bondage, and a slave - before the blindness, bondage, and slavery was inward, but now it is also outward

b. However, God gives him hope in the midst of a dungeon; not only is his hair returning, but we can suppose that more importantly, his heart is also returning

i. No matter what kind of mess we have put ourselves into because of our sin, God can bring us hope. He rarely makes it all better instantly, but He definitely brings hope

a. Samson may have justified his sin in his own mind by thinking he was only hurting himself. But his disobedience led to the giving of glory to false gods - he was their trophy

b. The message preached by the followers of Dagon was clear: "our god is stronger than the God of Israel, because we have conquered Samson." How often has the disobedience of God's leaders led many to doubt our God!

a. Their mocking of Samson is complete, displayed by the fact that he was led by a lad; they don't need their strongest guards to control Samson - a little boy will do

i. This makes us think all the more that Samson was not a muscle bound man who was naturally strong; his strength was truly supernatural, not natural

b. Samson's end is both bitter and sweet; he achieves his greatest victory against the Philistines, but at the cost of his own life. God may use even a disobedient believer, but the believer will gain nothing from it - all what they thought they had been building for the Lord will be shown to be nothing, and they will be saved, but only by the skin of their teeth (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)

i. Did Samson commit suicide? It doesn't seem that Samson committed suicide, because his purpose wasn't to kill himself, but to kill as many Philistines as he could. Yet, Samson didn't care if he died also in the attempt.

ii. How does God feel about suicide? It is sin; it is the sin of self-murder. Yet, we are wrong if we regard it as the unforgivable sin, and anyone who does commit suicide has given in to the lies and deceptions of Satan, whose purpose is to kill and destroy (John 10:10)

c. God never forsook Samson, even when he was disobedient. God's mercies were even there in a Philistine prison; all Samson had to do was turn his heart back towards God and receive them

4. Lessons from Samson

a. Samson shows the danger of underestimating our own sinfulness; he probably figured he had things under control with his own fleshly lusts, but his desire for love, romance, and sex led directly to his destruction

i. Samson had to be deceived to keep going back to tempting and dangerous places; every time he found himself on Philistine ground, he found himself falling. He should have learned from this. Instead of putting himself in tempting situations, he should have fled from youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22) like Joseph did (Genesis 39:12)

ii. "Rather than break his relationship with Delilah, he allowed it to break him." (Wolf) Samson was a great conqueror, but had never really been conquered by God

b. Samson was up and down in his relationship with God; this was mostly because he put some areas of his life in a corner that he didn't want God to touch

c. Most of all, Samson is a powerful picture of wasted potential. He could have, he should have, been one of the greatest men of God in the Old Testament - but he didn't.

i. God gives us potential and possibilities in all sorts of ways; we must seize them for the glory of Jesus Christ