[Background: Samson is under a Nazirite vow, and he has been his entire life...his proposed wife was not of the Israelite people, but was a woman of a foreign nation and foreign god...and she was given to another man....and she and her family were killed by their own people to mitigate Samson's wrath against their wronging him (giving her to another man)...Samson has killed many of the foreign god followers, and they are out to get him, because his strength has shamed them and their god....the Lord God has been with Samson, despite his moral failings, preserving Israel through Samson's judgeship for twenty years.]
Judges 16
v1-2...Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. 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.”
[He escapes capture and death with a great display of strength shaming the Gazites by destroying their city gate...perhaps a symbol of a city's refuge)
v4-5...After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 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.
[he lies]
v8...she bound him...
[he lies]
v12...So Delilah took new ropes and bound him...
[he lies]
v14...So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web....
v16-17...And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart...
v19....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.
v20..... 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.
Do you really think Samson was oblivious to the fact that he was shaved...he was probably near 40 years old and had been judging Israel for 20 years....and had never had his hair touched with a razor before that moment in time...his outward, visible sign of obedience which he had never failed to maintain was despised in a moment because of a quarrelsome woman vexing his heart...not even a wife...an adulteress
"He did not know that the Lord had left him."
The words of an Israelite king, many years later, warned against this powerful temptation and deceit to forsake God (perhaps reflecting on the account of Samson's tragic tale)...a snare he too would find overpowering.
"All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death." (Proverbs 7:22-27)
Additional note:
Remember, the Lord God is slow to anger, but that does not mean he is not just. Do not think that because the Lord has longsuffered with you until now that He should and will until tomorrow. Put away idolatry and all wrongdoing. Lean on His wisdom and guidance and your paths will be made straight. It would be wrong to suggest that you trust and obey out of fear, because fear is for the unbelieving. The believing ought to follow out of love, and perfect love casts out all fear. Those who love Him obey His commands. Just remember, He disciplines those He loves, and He disciplined Samson. We know Samson returned to a life of faith because the author of Hebrews recounts Samson's returning to saving-faith by God's good work of permitting his humiliation for a time. And, for your edification and the Lord's glory this was all in accordance with God's will and purposes. But know that God's desired will is for you to trust and obey His commands. Now consider God's final work in Samson's life and the author's final word on Samson:
v30..."So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life."
The result was Samson struck a greater blow to the Lord's enemies by his death than he had by his life....do you see the prophetic nature of Samson's life here?
The Lord Jesus struck the death blow to the most powerful enemies, sin and death, disarming and humiliating the devil and his angels by His death and resurrection.
Rejoice.
