JUDGES 16

1 ¶ Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.

• Once again the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh combined to grip Samson and make him a slave to his passions.
• Samson’s sin began in his eye, with which he should have made a covenant; he saw there one in the attire of a harlot, and the lust which conceived brought forth sin.
• We can’t help it when Satan and his demons tempt us; but when we tempt ourselves, we become our own enemy. According to James 1.12-15, God doesn’t tempt us with evil, never.
• When we pray, “Lead us not into temptation” (Matt. 6:13), we’re asking that we not tempt ourselves nor put ourselves into such a position that we tempt God. Pastor Keith Krell
• Too often we pay too great a price for something that looks so good and promises so much. Fish are hooked because they are attracted to something that looks like food and would make a good meal only to become food themselves. Do not be fooled y the deceitfulness of sin beloved…of course it looks good, but so does the bait on the hook for a fish.
• A dulled spiritual walk leaves us with an undiscerning mind that willingly swallows the enemy's bait. Dr Phillip Newton

2 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.

3 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 an hill that is before Hebron.

• The city of Hebron is about a 40 mile distance from Gaza. To possess the gates of a city was a sign of victory over that city.
• When Jesus spoke about the gates of hell (hades) not prevailing against the church (Matt. 16:18), He was picturing the victory of the church over the forces of Satan and evil, by virtue of His death and resurrection.

4 ¶ And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

• As we walk through this story that had been dramatized by Hollywood, we are going to discover that Samson was a man that threw everything away to please a woman and to please himself. Self is a monster of a god, and one that will surely destroy you.
• It is impossible to live for self and the glory of God at the same time.
• Sin will take away everything you cherish!  It will take your innocence, your family, your future, your testimony, your power, your tender heart, etc.  Sin will rob you and leave you broken, battered and beaten Pastor Alan Carr
• Beloved, The Lord Jesus died to set us free from the debt and power of sin. Not that we can walk in sinless perfection, but we can walk in victory and power as we obey God Word and yield to the indwelling power of God’s Spirit. Where The Spirit of The Lord is there is liberty, but when sin and compromise dominates our lives, it will bind us and rob us of the liberty He gave us.

5 And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth (obtain from him the secret of his strength), and by what means we may prevail against (overpower) him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.

6 And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee (what is the secret of your strength and how can you be tied up and subdued?).

• Red flag! As we will see here in our study tonight, Delilah's accusations of Samson deceiving her were a smoke screen and cover-up of her own deception.
• Either Samson’s senses were so dulled by his lust that he could not see the trap that was being laid for him, or, he was so presumptuous to think that he could never fall.  Twisted affections and presuming upon the grace and power of God are equally dangerous for the Christian man or woman.

7 And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

9 Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber (men hiding in the room). And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.

10 And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me (made a fool of me), and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.

11 And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied (that were never used), then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

12 Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber (men hidden in the room). And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.

13 And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies (until now you have been making a fool out of me and lying to me): tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks (braids or plaits in which his hair may have been arranged) of my head with the web.

14 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.

15 And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked (made a fool, deceived) me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

16 And it came to pass, when she pressed (nagged) him daily with her words, and urged him (prodded him day after day), so that his soul was vexed unto death;

• Her persistent emotional nagging literally made him want to die. Pastor Bob Caldwell

17 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 Nazarite 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.

18 ¶ 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 (come back one more time), for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.

19 And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict (subdue) him, and his strength went from him.

• What could be more base and disingenuous, more false and treacherous, than to lay his head in her lap, as one whom she loved, and at the same time to design the betraying of him to those by whom he was mortally hated? Matthew Henry

20 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.

• Samson’s power was from the Lord, not from his hair; but the hair was the sign of his Nazirite vow. Numbers 6:7 reads literally “because the consecration (nezer) of his God is upon his head.” The Spirit who had come upon him with such power had now departed from him.
• This is not only one of the saddest, but also one of the most sobering verses in all of Scripture. The Spirit of the Lord had left him as a result of his continued disobedience and disregard for the things of God. Perhaps Samson was misreading the longsuffering of The Lord. As a Nazarite, God told him not to touch grapes or a carcass. He touched grapes and nothing happened. He touched a carcass and nothing happened. Perhaps he thought that if he cut his hair, it would be no big thing.
• Beloved, when we choose to walk in disobedience of The Lord, we begin to justify compromise, and because God doesn’t come down with a hammer and gauntlet immediately, we believe that He is okay with that….not so, beloved.
• Those that have thrown themselves out of God's protection become an easy prey to their enemies. If we sleep in the lap of our lusts, we shall certainly wake in the hands of the Philistines. Matthew Henry
• We read in 2 Chronicles 15:2, The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
• When speaking about the dangers of sexual immorality, Solomon wrote, Prov 6:27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? The presence of God had left Samson because of he repeatedly chose to feed his flesh than to obey God. 

21 But the Philistines took him, and put out (gouged out) his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass (bronze shackles); and he did grind in the prison house.

• Grinding was done by turning round a stone with the hands, and was, for a man, a degrading employment. Grinding was women's work and was given to Samson in order to humiliate him!
• Because of his rebellion and his sin, Samson found himself in a prison house of chastisement. Sin will always blind you and be the cause of humiliation.
• Sin blinds, sin binds and sin will get you grinding in the enemies camp.

22 ¶ Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

• As I said a moment ago, Samson’s power was not in his hair but in what his hair symbolized—his dedication to God. It appears that as Samson’s hair began to grow, he renewed his dedication to God, and with that rededication, there was a renewal of the power of God in his life.

23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice (celebrate): for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

• Dagon-This national idol of the Philistnes was an image that had the body of a fish with the head and hands of a man.

24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.

25 And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport (to entertain us). And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.

• To make sport of Samson means that he was brought out to be made a spectacle of. I believe that it must have been like a knife through the heart of Samson to know that his compromise and disregard for the glory of God was the cause of the enemies of God praising Dagon for giving them an alleged victory over Samson and his God.

26 And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.

27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport (watching Samson perform).

28 And Samson called unto the LORD (Yehovah), and said, O Lord GOD (Yehovah Adonai), remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God (elohim), that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

• Samson called unto The Lord. By looking at the Hebrew for this verse, we discover that Samson called on the God of the covenant, the God of grace; the God of power and the God Who saves.
• It has been said that Samson saw more clearer morally without his eyes than he had seen in any sense with them. 
• The only door that leads us out of the prison of sin is the door of confession and repentance. When we turn to The Lord with a broken and contrite heart, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.

30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

• Samson was not committing suicide, but was being used by God as an instrument through whom the Philistines were being judged. Samson obtained victory over the enemies of God not in his own strength, but by the power of God. The dying hour of Samson brought more honour to God than all his life.
• A.B. Simpson said that our service unto God is never worth anything until our very life goes along with it.
• Even though Samson was a forgiven man, the consequences of his sin were inevitable. Yes, in answer to prayer and by God’s design, Samson got his vengeance on the Philistines for how they had treated him, but he still died, blinded, bound and broken.  No amount of repentance could make things like they were; nor could it bring back the things that were lost forever.
• Some of us are living in the reality of that tonight. Know this if that is you….the Spirit of God is never the source of condemnation. Look to Jesus and walk in the forgiveness and victory of the cross.

31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

• Samson’s decline began in the home when he refused to listen to his parents counsel about marrying a Philistine woman. When a person goes against the counsel of God, the flesh and the enemy are now in control of the outcome and consequences.
• Samson lost his sight. When we yield to sin and Satan, our spiritual eyes are blinded, and we cease to know the difference between what is right and what is wrong.
• Let all take warning by his fall carefully to preserve their purity, and to watch against all fleshly lusts; for all our glory has gone, and our defence departed form us, when the covenant of our separation to God, as spiritual Nazarites, is profaned. Matthew Henry
• 1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
• Let us not forget that we have got a nature exempt from nothing we deplore in Samson, and the person that chooses to despise the Word of God or the warnings of God will inevitably prove it.
• Stay in The Word. Make yourself accountable to others in the body of Christ. Receive godly correction when it is given unto you.
• Let’s close tonight by contrasting the death of Samson with the death Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ pulled down the devil's kingdom, as Samson did Dagon's temple. However, when Jesus cried It is finished, He obtained the most glorious victory over the powers of darkness. But herein Jesus far exceeded Samson, foe Samson dies, but Jesus rose again from the dead, and when you call out to Him for mercy and grace, He fills you with the power of The Spirit of God to enable you to walk in victory.
• Beloved, If things in your life are not where they need to be tonight, you can come before the Lord and find the help and forgiveness you need. Just like the Prodigal Son found a loving, forgiving father back home, you will find a heavenly Father Who loves you and is ready to forgive you and restore you to the place you ought to be.