May 30: GOD’S PLAN FOR SAMSON (part 6)

Afterwards it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. Judges 16:4

Just the mention of her name, and we feel the cold shadow of Satan’s greatest attempt for the undoing of Samson. Samson’s earlier social interactions with the Philistines had, to some degree, helped normalize the idea of intermarriage with unbelievers. Satan concentrates his efforts to target those God has called for special purposes. By observation, he devises a plan of attack at the weak points of character, ultimately gaining control of the whole person. He has a network of those who are his by default – unbelievers – and woven into that system are unsuspecting believers who have let their guard down.

And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” (v.5) This Philistine delegation, made up of representatives from each of the provinces of Philistia, bribed Delilah to become a spy. Her willingness to betray Samson is inexplicable; her sin builds upon his in initiating and pursuing the illicit relationship. Sin itself is inexplicable. If sin could be explained, it could be excused. Delilah’s repeated attempts to trick Samson were met with answers that demonstrated confidence in himself rather than God. When she finally wore him down (v.16), he told her: “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb...” (v.17) She must have recognized a difference in his tone of voice, for his long hair was a token of loyalty to his special calling. Now it became a sacrifice on the altar of passion. When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart . . . the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head (vv.18-19a), seven signifying completeness of the job! When he awoke from his sleep (19b) he briefly thought he could free himself as before.

But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him (20b). Samson’s habitual lifestyle of blatant departures from God’s leading was fraught with the element of presumption woven into his thinking (see Psalm 19:13). The blinding effect of his own sin was the reason he did not know that God’s anointing Spirit had departed. We must understand that He never initiates such a departure. His withdrawal is accompanied by indescribable grief. Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison (Judges 16:21).

God allowed the judge and champion for Israel to be brought to utter humiliation. Bit by bit, he had transgressed the conditions of his sacred calling. In so doing, he had forfeited the blessings and protection that accompany loyalty and obedience. The LORD had borne patiently with him. The tragic loss of his sight was a dramatic representation of spiritual blindness. Samson’s physical blindness and weakness, as well as his afflictions, taught him like never before of his own character—and, by contrast, his need of the LORD. And while he was moving into an attitude of genuine repentance, his hair was growing…!