“Promise Was…”
Opening Prayer
Mighty God, Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory. I am glad. May all the earth bow to You.
Read Judges 16:1–31
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.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully” (2 John 8). We are called to be vigilant in our daily walk with God.
Think Further
The plots against Samson continue (1–3), yet without success until Delilah appears. Women had always been Samson’s weaknesses and now one of them was to prove his downfall—as many strong male leaders have discovered. Delilah was vulnerable when approached by powerful men who seduced her with cash, rather than sex, into betraying Samson (5). Her strategy was to enquire about the source of his strength, innocently at first but then progressively piling on the emotional pressure until, ground down, Samson “told her everything” (6–17). The secret of his strength wasn’t actually his hair, but what it symbolized: his Nazirite vow and supposed devotion to God. With his head shaved during deep sleep, his enemies approach, his arms are bound, his eyes put out and he’s left a broken, defeated man.
“Promise was that I should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver,” wrote John Milton in “Samson Agonistes,” but that promise seems to have been thrown into reverse. The probability of him fulfilling it and delivering Israel now seemed nil. His shameless behavior had become so much a part of him that he’d become insensitive to God. He presumed that the God who’d appointed him before birth would be with him regardless. “He did not know that the LORD had left him” (20)—surely some of the saddest words in Judges. What a reminder of our need to live continually in step with God so that we can fulfill our calling, rather than presuming on his presence.
For all the despair, however, there’s one hint that God still had a plan and would still use even Samson to deliver Israel: “The hair on his head began to grow again” (22). Perhaps the promise of Samson’s life would be fulfilled, even if not in the expected way. Such sovereignty! Such grace! For the second time we hear Samson praying (see Judg. 15:18), and, as before, it is a self-centered prayer motivated by personal revenge (28). He refers to God as “Sovereign Lord,” and indeed, God was sovereign, no matter what a mess Samson had made of things. A reminder that God as sovereign can use us in spite of ourselves.
Apply
When Billy Graham was asked how he could be prayed for, Dr. Graham said, “That I may be faithful to the end.” How would you want to be prayed for?
Closing prayer
Lord, Your way of working is so contrary to my instincts. Teach me what it means to take up my cross today, so that others might live.
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