How do you do that?  How did you get to where you are?  How can one person do what you do each day?  What is your secret?  We might not be a Samson, a person gifted with great physical strength; but we are God’s created just like Samson.  God gives each person on earth extraordinary power and wisdom at just the right time and place with specific gifted abilities to accomplish His work for His glory.  That is the secret. Not us! Not yet believers marvel at this power and think strength and wisdom comes from the person themselves who seem to say and do all the right things at the right time.  But this is not the secret sauce of success!

As we read the last part of Samson’s story; we might chuckle a bit over the consistent nagging Delila who demands to know the secret to his strength until we realize she is driven by greed!  The Philistine leaders will pay her handsomely for knowing the secret to his strength so they can bring him down!  Samson enjoys the game until he became “sick to death” of her nagging. Little does he know that she is working for the enemy—or does he?  Is Samson so “in love” and so proud of his strength that he thinks will never fall?  You decide—but finish the story before forming your decision.  Allow God’s Holy Spirit to do His work on us while God’s Word is formed in us. 

Judges 16

Samson and Delilah

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. ² The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.”

³ But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

⁴ Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

⁷ Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

⁸ Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. ⁹ With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”

¹¹ He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

¹² So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

¹³ Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”

He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric ¹⁴ and tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

¹⁵ Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” ¹⁶ With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

¹⁷ So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. ¹⁹ After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

²⁰ Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

²¹ Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. ²² But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

²³ Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

²⁴ When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,

“Our god has delivered our enemy
    into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
    and multiplied our slain.”

²⁵ While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.

When they stood him among the pillars, ²⁶ Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” ²⁷ Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. ²⁸ Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

³¹ Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

When Delilah began to probe for the secret of his strength, Samson should have been aware of his danger and, like Joseph (Genesis 39:12), fled as fast as possible! But passion had gripped him, sin had anesthetized him, and he was unable to act rationally. Anybody could have told him that Delilah was making a fool out of him, but Samson would have believed no one.

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”—Paul mentoring Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:22

Speaking of Paul, AKA Saul, I’m reminded of his conversion from evil passion to holy righteousness. His story is found in Acts 9.  Saul had great influence and success as a religious leader dedicated to extreme adherence of The Law.  His self-righteousness, however, was his downfall for he didn’t really know God and what He wanted.  He decided for himself to became a self-appointed terrorizer of all who believed and followed Jesus for he was convinced that Jesus was the enemy of The Law.  Saul was a harassing agent given full authority from the Jewish religious leadership to destroy/kill Christ followers by any means necessary.  Saul did not have the secret to life until that day, standing in the middle of the road, he met Jesus.  And Jesus changed everything. Jesus still changes everything!

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” asks Jesus. Saul was blind to who God really is and was so he did not know who was speaking—yet.  Jesus’ glorious appearance physically blinded Saul; forcing him to stop and rethink who he is and what God wants from him.  This former man who was “large and in charge” fell humbly to his knees. Then he was given a new direction; “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”  Blinded, humbled and maybe a bit fearful; Saul, led by the hand, went to Damacus with a new plan.  As soon as he arrived at the city, he was told to go to the house of Ananias.  God told Ananias to seek Saul out and welcome him into his home. Ananias, directed by God’s Holy Spirit, was told to pray for the known terrorist and lay his hands over Saul’s eyes!  Saul regained sight as a new creation in Jesus with new goal for life.

Saul, now called Paul, declared what Jesus did in and for him to everyone in the known world.  In doing so, Paul became the one persecuted, beaten, chained, and imprisoned but he continued to preach Jesus—the One without sin who was crucified for our sins, the One and Only sacrificially put to death to pay our debt of deserved punishment for our sins in full. The One was God’s Son who in resurrection power rose three days later as the Victor of death. Jesus was Paul’s new living hope for all eternity!  And Jesus is our hope, the hope of eternal life of all who believe and follow Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords! 

New Life—New Goals—

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Paul, Philippians 3:7-12 

Paul discovered the greatest secret of all time and testifies to all who will listen;

“God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.”  Colossians 1:25-27, NLT

The Secret is Christ in us, working through us for our good and His glory!

• To all who believe and call on the Name of Jesus all will be saved. Romans 10:13
• In times of trouble when we are weak—Jesus is the Source of our strength that enables us to endure and even grow from our trials and troubled circumstances.
• “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
  My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7
• “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:12-13

Yes, Jesus is the secret and source of real, lasting, eternal Life!  Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey!

We watch Samson’s decline begin when he disagreed with his parents about marrying a Philistine girl. Then he dishonored his Nazirite vow and defiled himself with Delilah. He disregarded the warnings of God, disobeyed the Word of God, and was defeated by the enemies of God. Maybe he thought that he had the privilege of indulging in sin since he wore the badge of a Nazirite and won so many victories for the Lord, but he was wrong.

“Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more”—For the good of God’s People and His glory; God granted Samson’s last request to give him one more burst of God’s strength to defeat the Philistines in one last sacrificial act, knowing he would die with them. God granted this last request. May God’s will be done.

At the end of ourselves; turn to God, who will never fail to hear us and respond.

Lord,

Thank you for opening our hearts, minds, and souls to meditate on your Word in it’s entirety so we may know you more. Thank you for helping me be still before you while letting go of the smallness of my thinking to learn about you for your thoughts are indeed higher and the highest!  Lead me. Guide me to truth. Show the ways I should go.  I’m listening for you are Life to me.

In Jesus Name, Amen