the book of Judges and chapter
16. And I'm going to read down to
verse 21. Then went Samson to Gaza, and
saw there an harlot, and went in unto her. And it was told
the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed
him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the
city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning,
when it is day, we shall kill him. And Samson lay till midnight,
and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the
city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and
all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top
of a hill that is before Hebron. And it came to pass afterward
that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was
Delilah. and the lords of the Philistines
came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein
his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail
against him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and we will
give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. Delilah said to Samson, Tell
me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith
thou mightest be bound to afflict thee? And Samson said unto her,
If they bind me with seven green widths that were never dried,
then shall I be weak, and be as another man. Then the lords
of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs, which
had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were
men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said
unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he break
the withs as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the
fire. So his strength was not known. And Delilah said unto
Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies. Now tell
me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said
unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes, that never were
occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. And Delilah
therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said
unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there
were liars in wait abiding in the chamber. And he breaked them
from off his arms like a thread. And Delilah said unto Samson,
Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Tell me wherewith
thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou
weavest the seven locks of my head with the web, And she fastened
it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon
thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep,
and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web. And
she said unto him, How canst thou say I love thee, when thine
heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three
times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And
it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words, and
urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told
her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor
upon mine head, for I have been a Nazirite unto God from my mother's
womb. If I be shaven, then my strength
will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other
man. And when Delilah saw that he
had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords
of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed
me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines
came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she
made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, and
she caused him to shave off the seven lots of his head. And she
began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she
said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out
of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before
and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord
was departed from him. But the Philistines took him
and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. and bound him
with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this rather sad and solemn portion of God's Word. I had, in truth,
thought to complete Samson today. I think I told you that I would
take the three chapters in three consecutive weeks, but I'm afraid
I'm not going to be able to do that because I cannot do justice
to this narrative, this story, if I cut it short. So I'm going
to spread this chapter over two weeks, if the Lord will. And
today we're going to discover two incidents in Samson's life
that reveal some of the weaknesses of his character. So that's why
I said it was a sad portion, not only because Samson's strength
was discovered, but the circumstances by which his strength was revealed
and his capture by his enemies was secured. I think that it
perhaps is good for us to pause and just realise that the Bible
does not remove the sins and mistakes of the Lord's people
in these accounts of Scripture. The Bible shows them, as we sometimes
say, warts and all. And when we look at Samson on
this occasion and we see some of the things that he did and
some of the things that he said, it reminds us that men at best,
and women at best, and you and me at best, are sinners whose
passions often seem to get the better of our principles. We
like to say that we are upright and honourable and even God-fearing. and yet we discover that there
are things latent, things that lie in our hearts that betray
the kind of people we really are. And Samson's example should
not be followed except insofar as it points us to the need that
we all have for repentance for sin and also the need that we
all have for dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we
must trust. Two incidents then that are before
us today and the first one is Samson's visit to Gaza where
he took the city dates and carried them away And the second one
is his relationship with Delilah, in which he let down his guard
and revealed the true spiritual nature of his strength. And this, as we read, resulted
in his capture by the Philistines, their triumphing over him, and
the terrible humiliation that he suffered. Now we've read the
passage and I took the time to read a fairly long passage because
the history I think is clear and easy to understand and I
don't want to have to repeat it all again. So I want to make
just a few points and bring a couple of applications from this passage. As we've said, we see here the
sad evidence of sinful passions in Samson's life. Samson was
a man who was wonderfully used of God to serve God's cause and
to fulfil his purposes, to help and deliver his people. And we
might have hoped for better from a man like Samson than his example
leaves us here. But the warning is clear. Temptation
strikes where opportunity is given. And Samson's presence
in Gaza and his entering into this house the house of a harlot,
gave occasion to his enemies and also gave occasion to his
own fleshy lusts. Samson's lusts and his Philistine
adversaries trapped him in this house. As Samson lay asleep,
the Philistines learned of his presence in this woman's house,
and they placed men in the streets round about, waiting for the
morning in order to seize him and slay him. but it seems that
he woke in the night. Perhaps it was the Lord who woke
him and gave him a sense of danger. Perhaps it was his conscience
that woke him, thinking to himself, what am I doing here? But he
went out into the streets in the darkness, and he went out
and he discovered that he was trapped in the city, that the
gates were locked against him. And so we discover that he took
those locked gates, bar and all, and in a great feat of strength,
lifted them up out of their sockets, placed them upon his shoulder,
and walked off with them. That was a miracle. Those gates
would have been very heavy and I am certain, I am sure that
there were some red faces amongst the city guards the next morning. We might even say that there's
almost something amusing about this story when we think of the
Philistines trying to capture him and all hiding in the streets
round about this house and he is there stealing their city
gates. However, before we get too carried
away at the humour of the scene, I think that there's something
very serious to be thought of here. And actually, I think that
probably the joke was on Samson. I think that the Lord was teaching
him a lesson in this whole situation. He probably had a wry smile as
he was climbing the hill with the city gates on his shoulders,
thinking to himself, well they'll be surprised in the morning when
they realise what I've done. He was strong enough to carry
off the city gates. But what we really get from this
story is that for all his strength in carrying off the city gates,
he was too weak to withstand the passions of his own heart. And that's what sin does. It tempts us at our weak point. It creeps upon us when we're
not watching. Samson could defeat A thousand
armed men with just the jawbone of an ass. He could carry off
the gates of a walled city. But he couldn't keep his conscience
clean and he couldn't keep his own body pure. I wonder if God, giving Samson
the power to carry off the gates, might not have been a warning
to him. His deliverance from death that
night was only because the Lord gave him strength to lift up
those heavy gates that were barred closed before him. And without
the Lord, he would have been like a trapped bear in a cage. If this was a warning to Samson,
he didn't heed it. And soon we again discover him
being overcome by his passion and by his lust. He goes and he meets this girl
called Delilah. Now, Delilah is not actually
said to be a Philistine girl, but I suspect that she was. And from all intents and purposes,
it appears that she was known to the Philistines and the Lords
of the Philistines, as they're called. These were the leaders
of the five cities. that comprised the Philistine
nation. They were a strong warlike people
and they possessed five coastal cities and their power and influence
extended far beyond those walled armed cities. And there were
five leaders, five kings or five lords of those cities. And these leaders, these lords,
came to Delilah and they bribed her with a lot of money to obtain
from Samson, because they knew that he frequented her home,
to obtain from Samson the secret of his strength and the means
of overcoming and capturing him. And we learn that Delilah tried
on three occasions to obtain Samson's secret without success. And again, Samson proved to be
weak despite all the warning signs that everything wasn't
right in that situation. And I wonder, did Samson become
too sure of himself? Was he too self-confident? On the fourth attempt, Delilah
got Samson to share that his strength was God's gift arising
from a vow that he had from his infancy, from his childhood.
That his strength was in his long hair and that his hair had
never been cut. and Delilah made Samson sleep
on her knees and she called a man who was waiting in her chamber
to come and to help her, who cut off the seven locks of his
head so that his strength went from him. A single man with a
pair of scissors did to Samson what a thousand armed men couldn't
do. And Samson was captured by his
Philistine foes who immediately put out his eyes. Some say that
they plucked them out. Some say that they put them out
with a red hot sword. What pain he must have felt. What shame he endured. What impotence, what lack of
power had this mighty man, this strong man now to endure. And he was put to work in the
prison of the Philistines in Gaza. He had to grind corn like
an animal and everyone laughed at the spectacle of Israel's
champion, humbled and broken. Samson's folly brought shame
and humiliation, not only on himself but on the whole nation
of Israel and upon the Lord. And it reminds us how Christ's
enemies, the Jews and the Romans, hurt and humiliated the Lord
when he suffered as well. I want to just make a couple
of quick applications here and then we will be done today. Let
us remember that Samson was a true believer in the Lord. He was
a man of faith. In fact, his faith is particularly
mentioned in the book of Hebrews. So he was a true believer in
Christ. And he was blessed by God. He
was called by God. He was equipped by the Lord to
fulfil the role of judge in the land of Israel. How blessed we
are when the Lord honours us with his calling, calls us to
himself, calls us into his family, and gives us gifts and abilities
to work in his service and to do his will. But let us remember,
no matter what gifts and blessings the Lord gives to a man, or a
woman, or a boy, or a girl, So long as we are in this world,
we will always be subject to the weaknesses of our flesh and
the sin that besets us, and the sin that seeks opportunity to
oppose God and to shame us. With privilege comes responsibility. Many a true believer has been
brought to shame has brought shame on themselves and on others
and on the testimony of Christ because they've become too self-assured
and self-confident. Somewhere along the line, Samson
forgot the Lord. He thought he could handle the
situation and he paid the price of his own foolishness and of
his own sin. And here's another point. We
thought about those gates of Gaza. We thought about the fact
that Samson carried them off. And I think that that's an object
lesson to us. That the Lord will give his people
a way of escape when they are faced with temptation and they
are trapped in their own foolishness. There seems to have been no good
reason why Samson was in Gaza. Why was he there? Why was he
in Gaza? He was a judge in Israel. Why was he in one of these cities
of the Philistines? Samson, don't you have work to
do? Don't you have better things
to do than to hang around an ungodly city mixing with people
who have no love for you and no love for your God. Samson, have you picked the right
friends? The Lord gave Samson a way out
of Gaza. He gave Samson a miraculous escape
in that place of danger. But when Samson found his path
heading back, to Delilah's house. It was not only Delilah that
was tempting Samson, it was Samson who was tempting God. So let
us be careful where we go, what we do, with whom we do it. Temptation catches us subtly
and stealthily. It creeps up on us when we're
not watching. and God often is merciful to
his people and gives us gates of Gaza, moments when we are
saved from tricky situations, dangerous situations. Let our
gates of Gaza be warnings the warnings that God intends them
to be, and let us steer clear of Gaza as best we are able. And here's my final point. The
weakness of man points us to the strength of the Lord. Paul
says, when I am weak, then I am strong. That sounds like a contradiction. We might wonder, Paul, what do
you mean When I am weak, then I am strong. He means this. He means that our true strength
is knowing that we are not of ourselves able to overcome sin
and temptation, but that we must rely on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The only one who ever lived a perfect life, and the only one who is
able to protect us from evil and save us from our sin, indeed
save us from ourselves, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says
in another place, in Philippians chapter four, verse 13, I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. When
I am weak, then I am strong, but I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me. Samson leaned on his own ability,
which was his physical might. What are we leaning on? The Bible
tells us, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not
unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, follow him. He will direct our paths. May the Lord protect us from
our sin and cause us to lean on him for deliverance and salvation. Amen.