Samson -- Finding Strength Again
Scripture: Judges 16:1-22
Rev. Richard H. Thompson, Jul 4, 2010
Summary of Judges 13-15
Here is the back story on Samson. It was a bad time. The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They worshiped at every altar that seemed to promise prosperity and peace. They bent the knee to fertility gods. They followed foreign deities. Instead what they got was oppression at the hands of the Sea People known as the Philistines. In those dark days a man named Manoah had a wife who was unable to have children. We're never told her name. An angel of the Lord came to "her to say she would have a son-that when he was born he was to be set apart for God and everyone would know it because no razor would ever touch his head. He was to never drink alcohol or eat unclean food. He would be a "Nazirite", a member of God's special forces his whole life.
The boy was born and his mother named him Samson which means "sunny" or "little sun" (with a "U"). Scripture tells us the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him.
Little sunshine Samson grew up to be a handful. Call him an "alpha male". He loved women. And he was big and strong, and he knew it. First there was a Philistine woman. His father tried to talk him out of this, "Son, couldn't you find a nice Israelite girl?" "No!" insisted Samson, "I want this one. Get her for me!" It did not go well. There were riddles, and clever trickery, mayhem, destroyed fields, loss of life, and finally divorce. Angry Philistines chased Samson into Judah. But the people of Judah, Samson's own relatives, wanted nothing to do with him. Everywhere he went there was trouble. But Samson wasn't too worried. With his agreement the people of Judah bound him over into the waiting hands of the Philistines. But the Spirit of the Lord rushed on Samson and the ropes that held him tight became like so much straw that has caught fire. He looked around and found a jaw bone of a donkey and with it Samson took care of that entire posse of Philistines. Oh what a day! Adrenaline pumping, Samson sang, "With the jaw bone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!"
But then out there on the field of battle he began to feel thirsty. And thirstier. His mouth grew dry as the Gazan desert. It seemed like maybe he had finally met his match. For the first time we hear Samson pray. "Lord," he called out, "You have granted me a great victory, am I now going to die of thirst out here in the land of the Philistines?" God heard Samson's prayer and opened an Artesian source that bubbled out of some rocks. And as Samson drank deeply of God 's gift of cool water his spirit returned, and he found his strength again.
Now Samson was judge in Israel for twenty years.
What sort of judge was Samson? Judges 16:1-22
Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to her. The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here." So they circled around and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, "Let us wait until the light of the morning; then we will kill him." But Samson lay only until midnight. Then at midnight he rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, "Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver." So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so that one could subdue you." Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else." Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound him with them. While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he snapped the bowstrings, as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound." He said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else." So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" (The men lying in wait were in an inner chamber.) But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread. Then Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me how you could be bound." He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else." So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web, and made them tight with the pin. Then she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web. Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great." Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death. So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else."
When Delilah realized that he had told her his whole secret, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "This time come up, for he has told his whole secret to me." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hands. She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken, and his strength left him. Then she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" When he awoke from his sleep, he thought, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had left him. So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Perhaps one of the most important questions for anyone to answer honestly and wisely is, "What makes you strong?" It's a question for any person. It's also a question for a nation. For our nation.
On one level the story of Samson and Delilah is about the very human drama of faithfulness and seduction.
But there are hints in this story that there is another level of meaning.
One hint is the absurdity of the dialog that takes place between Delilah and Samson.
She says, "Samson, please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you can be bound so that one could subdue you?"
What kind of question is that? What if someone were to ask you, "What would it take to get your account numbers and pass codes in order to clean you out of all your savings?" Are you kidding? It's an absurd question. It's an obvious red fl ago Normally you'd think a question like that would put a person on their guard. Delilah is asking what it will take to cause Samson lose his strength and his freedom.
Fool on once shame on you. Fool on me twice, shame on me!
But Samson plays along with her questions. Not just once, or twice, but three times. Samson is playing with fire. This seems absurdly obvious - Why is Samson so stupid? Or is there another point being made?
There's another hint that this story is not just about how stupid men can be around beautiful women. Consider the meaning of their names. Samson, we already noted, means "Sunny", or "Little sun". Isn't it interesting that In Hebrew "Lilah" means "night". The Hebrews who first told the story of Samson and Delilah wanted to show us something about light, and dark, and how dark overcomes light, especially perhaps when the light is "little".
Add one more hint. That Samson is called a judge of Israel. Let me remind us that this work called Judges was written down in the form we have it today in the time of the Diaspora while Israel was held in captivity in Babylon. It was a time to reflect and wonder. It was a time to ask tough questions like, "What happened to us? Where did our strength go?" And, "Will we ever find strength again?"
Add up all these hints and it dawns on us that Samson is not just the story of a wild alpha male. Samson is the story of a whole nation.
Suddenly "Delilah" makes sense. Her name takes on new meaning. So does this absurd dialog that goes on between her and Samson. Delilah is a knock out beauty. She turns heads. She draws attention away from the serious business at hand. But this is not just about sexual attraction between great looking men and women. How many places in Scripture do we hear chasing after idols described as "playing with harlots"? This is about being seduced away from God, and God's love, and God's purposes. It's about listening to the siren songs all around us that promise happiness and success in money, sex and power-anything or anyone that becomes the soul focus of our attention and devotion.
This is what all this conversation is trying to show us. Delilah is persistent. Her repeated question, "How can I subdue you?" is completely honest because this is what all these seductive gods want to know, and what they want to do. Delilah nags Samson to the point where he was tired to death. We laugh because we all get this. Children nag their parents to wear them down so that they will get that new video game. Spouses nag to get that new car, set of golf clubs, or trip to the mall. But this is also what happens on the street level of our commitment to God. We get worn down by continual, low level "nagging", like water on rock, slowly wearing down our commitments to God and his calling to be different. We get tired to death, so we sleep in on Sunday morning. Skip the solo time God so loves to have with us in prayer. Dust gathers on that once well thumbed Bible. It's easier to go with the current, easier to just go along like everybody else-easier to take care of number 1.
But what happens if a whole nation decides to just go with #1 ? What happens to freedom? What happens to strength?
Delilah is relentless. She wants to know the secret to our strength. She nags and nags until the time comes when we finally give in.
Those Hebrew story tellers were warning us.
There is always Delilah.
The trouble with Samson, is that he believes in his own strength too much. He thinks he can handle Delilah. That he can play with "night" and always prevail. He believes in his own cleverness, his physical prowess, his muscles that have always broken every bond ever put on him. He believes in his mother's devotion to God. He believes in his long hair-this outward sign of what was supposed to be an inner truth, a real commitment to God and God's ways. Samson is skimming off the dividends of an old commitment made by others. He is using up what is left. But he is not strong where it really counts.
A nation, any nation, this nation, can make this same mistake to become over confident in past achievements, in knowledge, and technical superiority, affluence and inventiveness, in the beauty of land and people. They, we, can skim off the dividends of old commitments for a while, and believe we can play with Delilah. But like Samson, over-confident in our own strength, not remembering where true strength comes from, the Source of strength, a nation, realized captive Israel out there in the Diaspora, will eventually and finally succumb; can be seduced.
Delilah's final appeal used the threat of withheld affection. "You do not love me", she says to Samson. In other words, "You do not trust me." Again, if this were about two people we'd be laughing ourselves out of our seats. "Trust? Are you kidding? You've tried to do me in three times!!" The irony is heavy. Samson has fallen in love with Delilah. He is devoted to her. She has become his purpose. His heart's desire. Feelings and emotion trumps truth. He cannot think any longer about what has happened to him. He cannot see the danger in her final appeal. That he is about to lose not just what strength remains, but his freedom, and his eyes to see. Night is about to fall.
So Samson reveals his secret. "A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb." This is entirely inappropriate. Delilah couldn't care less about his God. Samson exposes the source of his strength, making the commitment itself vulnerable to being broken. He offers to the night what belongs to the day because he has become a fully devoted follower of Delilah.
[This is not just what happened once to a man named Samson. This is not the point of Judges chapter 16. The point is this is what can happen to a nation.]
The prophets had railed against Israel for a long time before the Babylonians took their land and their beloved Jerusalem. They had called out their corruption, their greed, their making a mockery of worship, and of their cockiness in their ancestry and history, their believing in themselves. Israel, said the prophets, had been playing with Delilah for a long time.
And here they were, the people of God, Israel, out in the deserts of Babylonia, wondering "Where did our strength go?"
Samson is a failed judge. He's a broken man. Blinded, weak, reduced to grinding grain-doing the work of animals and slaves.
I wonder, is it possible to 'find strength again?
Thank God this is not the end of the story. There is a wonderful hint, that the hair on Samson's head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Here's the rest of it. Samson was led into the temple of the Philistines and forced to humiliate himself by dancing in front of the followers of Dagon, the god of all the fertility deities, to celebrate the defeat of Yahweh, the God of the Israel. In the center of the temple there were two wooden pillars set on round stones. We know this from the story but also from archaeological discoveries. Samson, blind and weak, placed his hands on those two pillars and for the second time in this story we hear him pray. "Lord, remember me, and strengthen me only this once. 0 God, so that with his one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes..." Even in the end Samson is a mess. On the one hand he finally seems to get where his strength had always come from. On the other his final act is one of personal revenge. But God works in our messes, and Samson pulls down the temple of Dagon on the heads of all his followers, as well as his own.
We are left to ponder. To put it mildly, Samson is a profile in learning. The lessons are many, but perhaps foremost it's as the apostle Paul would put it many centuries later when he said, "When I am weak, then I am strong."
Jesus put it even more powerfully, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
What did they mean? That there is only one true Source of strength and we neglect this Source to our peril.
Why Jesus was born. Why He walked among us. Why He suffered, died, and rose.
God knows how easily we forget. How quickly our eyes are distracted. It's why he came. To show us Godself. To help us fix x our eyes only one place. On the Source. To remember where our strength comes from. And so he gave us this simple Table to focus our gaze, and to remember His promise after we go from this place out there, where nagging Delilah is hard at work.
Perhaps one of the most important questions for anyone to answer honestly and wisely is, "What makes you strong?" It's also a question for a nation.
For our nation.
Let us pray,
Strengthen us dear Lord with your grace and truth. We come because we have learned hard lessons about our confidence in ourselves. Too often we are like Samson. We pray for your help, dear Lord, to find strength again, in the power of the Holy Spirit of the Risen Jesus, Lord of Creation, and of all nations.
Amen
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Westminster Presbyterian Church |