The Delilahs in our lives

Samson captivates our interest and admiration since childhood. Ask anyone where Samson’s power was situated and they point to the hair. Wrong. And that is where God’s Word has to be brought to the event. An event that has occurred in ca. 1060 BCE.

Judges 13:25 says “And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him [Samson].

Judges 14:6 “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him [a lion]”.

Judges 14:19 “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon. . .”

Judges 15:14 “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax. . . “

We cannot miss the essence of Samson’s power.

So why the hair?

God told Samson that if he loves Him, he should not cut his hair as a sign of that love. God still ask us the same: if you love me, keep my commandments. A sign between you and Me is the Sabbath and not any Sabbath but the one He selected and which He calls the Seventh day in the week.

Since Samson was to stay away from vineyards, he placed himself in temptation by going to the valley of Sorek and loved a woman called Delilah (Judges 16:4).

Ellen White says that “if men willfully place themselves under the power of temptation, they will fall, sooner or later” (Patriarch and Prophets chapter 54 on Samson).

Loving the woman in the valley of Sorek, Samson already fell. He was to be blinded later as a result of this sin of his and even find his death there.

The tragedy unfolds in chapter 16 with vivid descriptions. Samson was already blind spiritually. He knew before that his strength was coming from the Spirit mightily when he killed a lion, carried away gates or killed a whole army. He knew very well where his power lies but placing himself in the camp of Satan, because as Ellen White says, “the real greatness of a man is measured by the power of the feelings that he controls and not by those that control him” (ibid.).

Samson fooled himself that she loves him and that he loves her. His concept of love was strange since it is expected that his parents would have warned him not to play with his emotions in the enemy’s camp. Many people jump the spiritual cultural divide to seek girlfriends, companions and boyfriends in the spiritual enemy’s camp. It is a dangerous game that leads ultimately to eternal death if the person does not convert along the way.

Compare the cultural pottery of the Philistines or of Delilah with that of Samson mother or the Hebrew pottery:

Delilah’s kitchenware full of birds, check, ladder and spiral motives (online source).

(Samson’s mother’s kitchenware, plain without extravaganza, online source)

The valley of Sorek was not only the geographical divide between Israel and the Philistines, it was a cultural and spiritual divide. It is one of the reasons why Seventh-day Adventist ladies do not wear excessive make-up or jewelry like the “spiritual Philistines.” One can see the difference even in spiritual culture.

Samson’s parents were from Zorah

Many people say, Oh I am only going to a bar to meet friends. I am only going to a nightclub to see some friends of mine. There is no way one can stay immune of Satan in those settings. The clock is ticking towards total surrender to Satan.

That is what we experience in chapter 16 of Judges.

Delilah of course pursue her dream for money and capital gain to the expense of her lover. She did not feel any lasting connection to him. She was to dump him anyway later. Samson had no spiritual eyes any longer and his sense for evaluating in a love relationship made him utterly careless.

So a number of times, in fact three times Delilah tried to follow his suggestions as to the secret of the his strength. He was of course joking all the time. But, jokingly, in enemy camp he was dismantling his protection.

His first answer to her was actually wrong. She asked him in Judges 16:6 “Please tell me where your great strength is”. Where is it? Instead of acknowledging the Holy Spirit and His presence in his life, instead of witnessing for the Spirit, for salvation of her soul, for evangelism, he suppressed the Truth and jokingly focused on useless concrete things that would be able to constrain him.

The love of God is shown in this that even when Samson is totally lost and spiritually blind and empty of God and his relation with Him, the Holy Spirit still assist him in braking all three times the items they used. The Spirit does not give up on a person until that person gives up on God.

The third time Samson did a very bad thing. The command that if he loves God he would not cut his hair, was handed over to Delilah. “Cut off my relationship with my God and I will be weak”. He was right. And that is what happened. God was so disappointed in his dumping of his love relationship with God that it says “But he did not know [after his hair was cut] that the Lord had departed from him” (Judges 16:20).

The hair itself had not a single muscle strength at all. There was no power in his hair. All came from heaven. All came from above but Satan made him so blind he denied His relationship with God in fact he dumped God and gave the enemy basically scissors to cut that sign of the relationship with God. Also us, in modern society, who plays in other waters, who crosses the bridges to enemy territory, give similar scissors to Satan and his angels when we substitute Sabbath for no worship, Sabbath keeping for Sunday keeping, Sabbath rest for entertainment and our own worldly pleasures and desires. We are no different than Samson.

We know for sure it is not his hair. As a result of his captivity, his eyes were destroyed and as a slave he worked in enemy circles. Of course his hair grew again and when it was full grown, Judges 16:22, he was not able to break the chains, or the ropes that tied him down as prisoner. A child had to lead him to the temple of Dagon with 3000 people on the roof. The roof could have 750 people sitting on four sides. The people may have sat in a theater style seat arrangement with a stair-step style so that the higher ones can see over the shoulders of the lower ones. It appears that through the middle or center of the length of the building, two great lentils, about 1.5 meters apart rested on two great pillars in the center of the temple complex. People of the balconies were actually rested on crossbars that came in three or four ways to these lentils and rested on them. The lentils or cross-bars were obviously strong to carry 3000 people plus the weight of the seats.

Even though Samson was leaning against the pillars and even though his hair was long, nothing happened. Samson knew that without the Spirit of God he could do nothing. He had to pray and he did. In Judges 16:28 he called upon God “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me”.

Samson came a long way to learn after he had unlearn the wrongs he fooled himself with. Also us, we have also Delilahs in our lives that wish us to give up our relationship with God, to give up our spiritual commitments and to be systematically drawn away from God and His love.

Dear God

Grant that we will be hooked onto You though the heavens fall. If we but as just put our foot one step in the wrong direction, bump us back Lord regardless how painful the bump. But do not lead us into temptation. Amen

Koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Department of Liberal Arts Education

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia