Samson and Delilah

 

One of the most famous figures in the Bible is Delilah, the “consumer (Patriarchs and Prophets Page 565). Delilah is the epitome of a treacherous, deceptive, betraying woman, and thus she is also a symbol of a treacherous church for a woman is a symbol of a church (II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:22-32; Jeremiah 6:2; 3:14).  Any woman, or  church, that acts like Delilah would be considered in the same class of person as the “strange woman” in Proverbs 7:1-27 or the church in Revelation 17:1-18.

 

One of the interesting things about the Samson and Delilah story was that Samson was a judge of Israel, a Nazarite, and he had been burned several times by strange women. One would think that if we had an ounce of common sense in us, and had any spiritual enlightenment in us that we would be able to learn from our experiences and turn away from the hurtful thing. But the story of Samson and Delilah tell us clearly that carnal human nature does not respond to logic and common sense, or even negative experience. We know that Samson was betrayed by his Philistine wife but when Delilah does the same thing to him he seems to enjoy the intrigue of the cat and mouse game that we find in Judges 16:6-20. Samson seems to be like the Laodicean church and though he had eyes at the time he did not want to see, and he did not want to break loose of his entrapment but was content to be in the intrigue of a woman like Delilah.

 

Most of us know the story of Samson and Delilah and it appears that they were mutually attracted to danger. Samson loved the game of hide and seek, and Delilah liked to think that she could control a man as powerful as Samson, knowing that at any time he could harm her if he thought she was a danger to him. She must have known of the many things he had done to the Philistines and she knew that if she got too close to him she could be hurt. But even the threat of danger, and deception did not stop either of them. In fact there seemed to be a sense of bewitchment in the relationship. In fact there is another deceiver like Delilah in the Bible by the name of Jezebel, the woman who deceived Ahab the King of Israel. In fact in II Kings 9:22 this bewitchment quality is brought up and God records the following: “…And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many.” This same concept of bewitchment, or witchcraft, is applied to the great harlot church of Revelation 17-18. In Revelation 18:22 God says the following:  “…For thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.”

 

Witchcraft, and bewitchment, and sorcery, and warlock-craft are all based on the issue of deception, the distortion of the truth to deceive and influence someone to do something they should not be doing or influence them to do something that they want to do. This is what happened to our first mother – Eve, and when Adam joined her in her deception, even though he was not deceived, they acted out the Samson and Delilah story in the beginning and chose deception over the truth as it was in Jesus, our Creator. This concept is played out in II Thessalonians 2:1-12. In this section of Scripture God says that it is the Truth and the love of the Truth that protects us from the satanic deceptions (II Thessalonians 2:9-12).  Until we have this love of the Truth we will be as weak as Laodicea in Revelation 3:17.

 

So with Samson’s love of dabbling with error and intrigue, and his love of rebellious women he stayed with Delilah though she deceived him four times (Judges 16:6,10,13,15). In each of the 3 first examples she even called upon the Philistines to wake him up and he continued to believe that he could handle things by himself and that he did not need the wisdom of Jesus the Christ (I Corinthians 10:1-4) to protect him from this lying woman and from himself. Finally, when he had stepped over the line he found out that he had indeed lost his connection to God, but that God was not finished with him. He lost his physical sight but gained new insights into the counsels that God had given him through His Holy Word.

 

We do not know what God would have done with Samson if he had said no to Delilah but in all of the cases of deception in the Bible God leaves it up to us to decide whether we want to be deceived or if we want to see (Matthew 13:10-17).

 

We are not told what happened to Delilah after her sorceries overthrew this man of God. It is very likely that she was invited to see how her work with Samson turned out. She might have gone to the big party in the temple of Dagon with the Philistines. If that is the case then she most certainly received the judgment of God that was reserved for all rebels. Perhaps she lived out her life with her 5500 pieces of silver and may have experienced a twinge of conscience. We must remember that Rahab, although a harlot, was willing to change, and since Jesus died to save all men and women He may have used this experience to touch her heart. We do not know what happened to her but we can hope that she was saved, for Jesus came to save sinners, any sinner who would respond.

 

We do know that for Samson his suffering was sufficient to deliver him from his lukewarm state of spiritual experience. Apparently when he had time to meditate while he was “grinding in the prison house” (Judges 16:21) that he apparently remembered the mercies and grace of the Holy One of Israel – Jesus the Christ. He started talking to God again and asked by faith for one more opportunity to start the process of deliverance that had begun with his birth (Judges 13:5). Samson was used by God, with Samson’s belated cooperation, to destroy much of the leadership of the Philistines. Although Israel did not choose to be delivered from the Philistines until the time of David, the process had begun and Samson, poor, blind, and naked, fell upon the graces of God and he was delivered from the sorceries of Delilah, and the confusion of Babylon the false church of Revelation 17-18 and her daughters. This is a hope we can take from the infamous story of Samson and Delilah.