NOW SAMSON WENT TO GAZA AND SAW A HARLOT THERE:  Genesis 10:19; Joshua 15:47 Harlot - Genesis 38:16, 17, 18; Ezra 9:1,2

Related Resources: Dealing with Lust, Holiness, Godliness

Ephesians 5:3, 4ff Exposition

Proverbs 4:23 Exposition

2Corinthians 7:1 Exposition

Jehovah Nissi: Exposition of Exodus 17:8-16

1Thessalonians 4:3ff Exposition

Galatians 5:16ff Exposition

1Timothy 4:7ff Exposition

2Corinthians 10:3-5 - Exposition

James 1:13; James 1:14; James 1:15 - Exposition

Proverbs 5:1-14;   Proverbs 5:15-23; Proverbs 6:20-35; Proverbs 7:1-27 - Exposition

This chapter (among many lessons) shows how desire can deceive a person into believing a lie.

R C Sproul applies the truths in this story to believers today noting that...

Samson drifted into sin one inch at a time, but finally there was a point when God withdrew his favor and denied him access to the gift of strength. Pride, presumption, and neglecting your spiritual gifts may result in the same end. What task has God set before you at this point in life? Are you aware of your privilege and, as Paul encouraged Timothy (2Ti 1:6-note), are you stirring up your gift into a righteous flame? (Before the Face of God: Book Three: A Daily Guide for Living from the Old Testament)

Guzik comments that...

In this Samson is a picture of the believer in disobedience. God used him, but he did not benefit from it. His life ended in personal tragedy, shadowed by the waste of great potential.

The same problem! He has just drunk of victory... and yet here again in one night he falls. This ought to remind us that the proclivity to sin never dies of old age, that our weaknesses never go away; they are always there. We can always overcome them in the power of the Spirit of God, but they never leave us. We are always weak in the area of these old sins. As someone has said, "Old flesh never dies; it just smells that way." So after victory he is tempted in this area and he immediately succumbs, because he is unwilling to turn to the Lord in his time of need and to draw upon him.

Now again the Lord delivers him miraculously. He escapes through the midst of the Philistines at night and rips the gates off the city walls and carries them on his back all the way to Hebron, which is 40 miles from Gaza--again an evidence to him of the immense strength that was his in the Lord.

Harlot (zanah/zonah) (see Harlot • Harlotry) means a prostitute. Prostitutes like the woman whom Samson visited at Gaza were common in the ancient world. In fact, prostitution has been a part of religious rites since at least 3000 a.d. In Babylon, Syria, Canaan, Arabia, and Phoenicia intercourse with a temple prostitute was believed to induce fertility among humans, animals, and crops. The historian Herodotus tells of a Babylonian custom that required every woman to sit in the temple of the goddess Ishtar until chosen by a stranger for sexual relations. A desirous man would toss a coin in a woman’s lap. If she accepted the coin and his sexual advances, she would have paid her obligation to the goddess and be free to return to her normal life. In Israel, however, ritual prostitution was forbidden (Dt 23:17). Laws existed to prevent priests from marrying prostitutes (Lev 21:7), and income from prostitution could not be used to pay vows in the temple (Dt 23:18). Nevertheless, commercial prostitutes practiced their trade rather freely in Hebrew society. They were easily recognizable by their hairstyle, head ornaments, or perhaps a special mark on their foreheads. Their clothing and jewelry signaled their availability, and like streetwalkers everywhere, they frequented particular locales well known as meeting spots. Payments were accepted in money, grain, wine, or livestock. It was even common to accept a pledge until the payment could be fulfilled.

Went in to her - The life of Samson illustrates the ancient truth that a good beginning doesn’t guarantee a good ending.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote that

Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. (cp Heb 12:1, 2-note, Php 3:14-note, 1Ti 1:18, 6:20, 1Pe 1:13-note)

As Solomon wrote,

The end of a matter is better than its beginning (Eccl 7:8)

Samson’s morality had fallen to a low point with his visit to the prostitute at Gaza, and he soon was paying the consequences of ignoring God. It’s possible for one's character to deteriorate so much that they don’t have to be tempted in order to sin. All they need is the opportunity to sin, and they will tempt themselves (cp Jas 1:14, 15-notes)! What a frightening state in which to be! Illicit sex may taste sweet as honey (Pr 5:3-notes), but always ends up as bitter as wormwood (Pr  5:1-14-notes). Samson the man had become Samson the animal as the prostitute led him to the slaughter (Pr 7:6-23-notes).

Gaza was an important seaport town located about forty miles from Samson’s hometown of Zorah. We aren’t told why Samson went there, but it’s not likely he was looking for sensual pleasure. Once again the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh (cp 1Jn 2:15, 16, 17, Jas 1:14-notes) combined to grip Samson and make him a slave to his passions. It seems incredible to us that a servant of God (Jdg 15:18-notes), who did great works in the power of the Spirit, would visit a prostitute, but the record is here for all to read. This story reminds one of the exploits of Jimmy Swaggart caught visiting ladies of the night.

ENEMY ATTACK -In his book, From the Shadows, former CIA director Robert Gates relates a near-catastrophe that took place during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter.  Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was once awakened and informed that the Soviet Union had launched an all-out nuclear attack. One minute before he was to have called the President, word arrived that the first information had been in error. Someone had accidentally inserted military exercise tapes into the missile-defense computer system. Thankfully, Brzezinski's wake-up call was a false alarm. He remained calm and in control in a situation in which he might have fallen prey to fear or panic. He knew that if we fail to control our passions, our passions control us. That's what happened to Samson. Unable to control himself, in the end he fell victim to an ""enemy attack.""

F B Meyer writes that...

A fatal snare again entangled Samson. -- How many great men have been too weak to resist the wiles of the flesh. Those who do great exploits for God must ever watch against these. This story should remind us of the death of Christ. In His weakness as He hung upon the Cross, the power of hell compassed Him in, and anticipated an easy victory, but He laid hold on the doors of death, the gate into the unseen, and plucked them up, bars and posts and all, and put them upon His shoulders and carried them up to the top of the everlasting hills, which lie towards the city of Rest (Eph. 4:8-note).

ARE YOU DRIFTING FROM GOD?
Then Mull Over the Quotes on Backsliding

John Piper (The Anatomy of Backsliding on Ps 119:176) notes that at the terminus of one of the most wonderful psalms in Scripture, the psalmist makes a declaration the picture of which is that of the confession of one who has become backslidden!

I have gone astray like a lost sheep (What should we pray when we have gone astray?). Seek (Piel - ; Imperative - form of a command, reflecting boldness before the throne of grace! cp He 4:16-; He 10:19) thy servant, (Why should God seek His servant?) for I do not forget thy commandments.

Spurgeon commenting on this passage writes: This is the finale: I have gone astray like a lost sheep—often, willfully, wantonly, and even hopelessly, but for thine interposing grace. Before I was afflicted, and before thou hadst fully taught me thy statutes, I went astray from the practical precepts, from the instructive doctrines, and from the heavenly experiences which thou hadst set before me. I lost my road, and I lost myself. Even now I am apt to wander, and, in fact, have roamed already; therefore, Lord, restore me.

Seek thy servant. He was not like a dog, that somehow or other can find its way back; but he was like a lost sheep, which goes further and further away from home; yet still he was a sheep, and the Lord’s sheep, his property, and precious in his sight, and therefore he hoped to be sought in order to be restored. However far he might have wandered he was still not only a sheep, but God’s “servant,” and therefore he desired to be in his Master’s house again, and once more honored with commissions for his Lord. Had he been only a lost sheep he would not have prayed to be sought; but being also a “servant” he had the power to pray. He cries, Seek thy servant, and he hoped to be not only sought, but forgiven, accepted, and taken into work again by his gracious Master.

Notice this confession; many times in the psalm David (Ed note: David may be the author but that is no where clearly stated.) has defended his own innocence against foul-mouthed accusers, but when he comes into the presence of the Lord his God he is ready enough to confess his transgressions. Here he sums up, not only his past, but even his present life, under the image of a sheep which has broken from its pasture, forsaken the flock, left the shepherd, and brought itself into the wild wilderness, where it has become as a lost thing. The sheep bleats, and David prays, Seek thy servant. His argument is a forcible one—for I do not forget thy commandments. I know the right, I approve and admire the right; what is more, I love the right, and long for it. I cannot be satisfied to continue in sin, I must be restored to the ways of righteousness. I have a home-sickness after my God, I pine after the ways of peace; I do not and I cannot forget thy commandments, nor cease to know that I am always happiest and safest when I scrupulously obey them and find all my joy in doing so. Now, if the grace of God enables us to maintain in our hearts the loving memory of God’s commandments it will surely yet restore us to practical holiness. We cannot be utterly lost if our heart is still with God. If we be gone astray in many respects, yet still, if we be true in our soul’s inmost desires, we shall be found again, and fully restored. Yet, let us remember the first verse of the psalm while reading the last: the major blessedness lies not in being restored from wandering, but in being upheld in a blameless way even to the end. Be it ours to keep the crown of the causeway, never leaving the King’s Highway for By-path Meadow, or any other flowery path of sin. May the Lord uphold us even to the end. Yet even then we shall not be able to boast with the Pharisee, but shall still pray with the publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and with the psalmist, Seek thy servant.

John MacArthur has book The Power of Integrity (Buy and read the printed book or the computer version), the reading and practice of which is sorely needed to sound a wake up call in many sleeping, drifting, compromising modern churches. Here is an excerpt from this excellent book that relates to Samson's life as it deals with the sad certain sequelae of compromise...

Church history is full of people who refused to compromise the biblical standards. As he stood before the Diet of Worms and was ordered to recant his writings or lose his life, Martin Luther did not deny Christ. Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, two English Reformers, were both burned at the stake for their faith in Christ. Those men are representative of the people who can’t be bought; no price will cause them to sell out.

THE PRICE OF COMPROMISE

Men who hold to an uncompromising standard are sorely lacking in the church today. Many so-called Christians boast of their moral standards and extol their righteous character, yet abandon their conviction when compromise is more beneficial and expedient.

Perhaps you recognize one or more of the following:

• People say they believe the Bible, yet attend churches where the Bible isn’t taught.

• People agree that sin must be punished, but not if those sins are committed by their children.

• People oppose dishonesty and corruption until they must confront their bosses and risk losing their jobs.

• People maintain high moral standards until their lusts are kindled by unscriptural relationships.

• People are honest until a little dishonesty will save them money.

• People hold a conviction until it is challenged by someone they admire or fear.

Sadly, such compromises are not exceptions; they have become the rule. But don’t think twentieth-century Christians are the only experts in the art of compromise. Scripture is full of people who compromised, including some very choice servants of God.

• Adam compromised God’s law, followed his wife’s sin, and lost paradise (Gen. 3:6, 22, 23, 24).

• Abraham compromised the truth, lied about Sarah’s relationship to him, and nearly lost his wife (Ge 12:10, 11, 12).

• Sarah compromised God’s Word and sent Abraham to Hagar, who bore Ishmael and destroyed peace in the Middle East (Ge 16:1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12).

• Moses compromised God’s command and lost the privilege of entering the Promised Land (Nu 20:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

• Samson compromised his devotion as a Nazirite and lost his strength, his eyesight, and his life (Jdg. 16:4, 5, 6, 16-31).

• Israel compromised the commands of the Lord, lived in sin, and, when fighting the Philistines, lost the Ark of God (1Sa 4:11). She also compromised the law of God with sin and idolatry and lost her homeland (2Chr 36:14, 15, 16, 17).

• Saul compromised God’s divine word by not slaying the animals of his enemy and lost his kingdom (1Sa 15:3, 20-28).

• David compromised God’s standard, committed adultery with Bathsheba, murdered Uriah, and lost his infant son (2Sa 11:1, 2, 3, 4ff, 2Sa 12:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 - note especially what David had despised in committing these sins - 2Sa 12:9, 10 and what was the most odious result - 2Sa 12:14).`

• Solomon compromised his convictions, married foreign wives, and lost the united kingdom (1Ki 11:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

• Judas compromised his supposed devotion for Christ for thirty pieces of silver and was separated from Christ eternally (Mt 26:20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 47, 48, 49; 27:1, 2, 3, 4, 5; cf. Jn 17:12).

• Peter compromised his conviction about Christ, denied Him, and lost his joy (Mark 14:66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72). Later he compromised the truth in order to gain acceptance by the Judaizers and lost his liberty (Gal. 2:11, 12, 13, 14).

• Ananias and Sapphira compromised their word about their giving, lied to the Holy Spirit, and lost their lives (Acts 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

Two observations come to mind from those examples. First, in every case the effect of the compromise was to lose something valuable in exchange for something temporary and unfulfilling, some sinful desire. How contrary that is to what we discovered in the first chapter. There we learned that you gain something valuable (your salvation and relationship with Christ) in exchange for something worthless (your sin and self-righteousness).

Second, note what was compromised in each of those examples: either God’s Word, a command from God, or a conviction about God. Thus the true price of compromise is a rejection of God’s Word, which amounts to rebellion against Him and promotion of self as the final authority.

That is the situation in many churches today. Even in churches that once were genuinely evangelical, where the Bible was the divine standard for belief and living, God’s Word is now compromised. Sometimes it is stripped of its clear meaning or is relegated to a place of secondary authority. In many churches that once preached sound doctrine, evils that God plainly and repeatedly condemns are touted as acceptable. Scripture is often reinterpreted to accommodate those anti-biblical views. Pragmatism is in; commitment to biblical truth is denigrated as poor marketing strategy.

The fact is, people are content with unbiblical notions that raise their comfort level and either justify or overlook their sins. They are quick to reject as unloving anyone who presumes to hold them accountable to doctrinal beliefs and moral standards they deem outmoded and irrelevant.

Today the church is full of spiritual babies who are

tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (see note Ephesians 4:14)

Octavius Winslow (1808-1878) wrote a book entitled Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul  dealing specifically with the topic "What is the present spiritual state of my soul before God?" His first chapter entitled Incipient Declension  is most relevant to the study and application of the truths seen in the spiritual slippage in the sad, solemn saga of Samson. Perhaps God is calling you to stop for a time and ponder Samson. If you are experiencing a weariness of soul brought on by wandering from the ancient paths (Jer 6:16), perhaps Winslow's soul "prying" work might be just what the Great Physician is prescribing to draw you from the depths of despond, apathy, etc. The following is simply a partial excerpt from Chapter 1 (Incipient Declension) to wet your spiritual appetite. Clearly the best balm is always the pure, undiluted Word, but there are times when God seems to raise up human works meant to catalyze our desires to discipline ourselves for godliness.  The intrigued reader is encouraged to at least take a look at the interesting table of contents (each of which is an active link...e.g., when was the last time you read or heard a discussion of grieving the Spirit?)

Preface

Chapter 1: Incipient Declension

Chapter 2: Declension in Love

Chapter 3: Declension in Faith

Chapter 4: Declension in Prayer

Chapter 5: Declension in Connection with Doctrinal Error

Chapter 6: On Grieving the Spirit

Chapter 7: The Fruitless and the Fruitful Professor

Chapter 8: The Lord, the Restorer of His People

Chapter 9: The Lord, the Keeper of His People

Excerpt from Chapter 1: Incipient Declension -

“The backslider in heart (Pr 14:14).”

If there is one consideration more humbling than another to a spiritually-minded believer, it is, that, after all God has done for him, - after all the rich displays of His grace, the patience and tenderness of His instructions, the repeated discipline of His covenant, the tokens of love received, and the lessons of experience learned, there should still exist in the heart a principle, the tendency of which is to secret, perpetual, and alarming departure from God. Truly, there is in this solemn fact, that which might well lead to the deepest self-abasement before Him.

If, in the present early stage of our inquiry into this subject, we might be permitted to assign a cause for the growing power which this latent, subtle principle is allowed to exert in the soul, we would refer to the believer's constant forgetfulness of the truth, that there is no essential element in divine grace that can secure it from the deepest declension; that, if left to its self-sustaining energy, such are the hostile influences by which it is surrounded, such the severe assaults to which it is exposed, and such the feeble resistance it is capable of exerting, there is not a moment - splendid though its former victories may have been - in which the incipient and secret progress of declension may not have commenced and be going forward in the soul! There is a proneness in us to deify the graces of the Spirit. We often think of faith and love, and their kindred graces, as though they were essentially omnipotent; forgetting that though they undoubtedly are divine in their origin, spiritual in their nature, and sanctifying in their effects, they yet are sustained by no self-supporting power, but by constant communications of life and nourishment from Jesus; that, the moment of their being left to their inherent strength, is the moment of their certain declension and decay.

We must here, however, guard a precious and important truth; viz., the indestructible nature of true grace. Divine grace in the soul can never really die; true faith can never utterly and finally fail. We are speaking now but of their decay. A flower may droop, and yet live: a plant may be sickly, and yet not die. In the lowest stage of spiritual declension, in the feeblest state of grace, there is a life that never dies. In the midst of all his startings aside, the ebb and the flow, the wandering and the restoring, the believer in Jesus is “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” He cannot utterly fall; he cannot finally be lost. The immutability of God keeps him, - the covenant of grace keeps him, - the finished work of Jesus keeps him, - the indwelling of the Spirit keeps him, and keeps him to eternal glory. We say, then, true grace is indestructible grace; it can never die. But it may decay; and to the consideration of this solemn and important subject, the reader's serious attention is now invited. We propose to exhibit the subject of Personal Declension of Religion in the Soul in some of its varied and prominent forms and phases, and to direct to those means which God has ordained and blessed to its restoration and revival. (Read more )

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Henry Rossier - Defeat and Restoration (Judges 15)
 

Took the doors - Psalms 107:16; Isa 63:1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Micah 2:13; Acts 2:24

The fact that the city gate was barred didn’t alarm him. He picked up the doors, posts, and bars and carried them off! Whether he carried them all the way to Hebron, a distance of about forty miles, or only to a hill that faced Hebron, depends on how you translate Jdg 16:3. Both interpretations are possible. In spite of his sin with the prostitute from Gaza, Samson was still able to carry away the entire city gate some 30 to 40 miles

AFTER THIS IT CAME ABOUT THAT HE LOVED A WOMAN IN THE VALLEY OF SOREK: Loved - 1 Kings 11:1; Nehemiah 13:26; Proverbs 22:14; 23:27; 26:11; 27:22; 1 Corinthians 10:6

"Loved" (ahab) has a wide range of meanings like its English counterpart, ranging from mere physical attraction to loyal devotion. In the present context it refers primarily to physical-emotional attraction.

Valley of Sorek lay between Zorah and Timnah on the border of Judah and Philistia. The city of Beth-shemesh was located there. Whenever Samson went into enemy territory, he “went down” both geographically and spiritually (14:1, v5, v7, 10). This time he found a woman in the valley, not too far from home; and he fell in love with her. It’s a dangerous thing to linger at the enemy’s border; you might get caught. The Valley of Sorek was near his home, but Samson’s heart was already far from God. It shocks us to see this Nazarite sleeping on the lap of a wicked woman, but this is what happens when people choose to go their own way and reject the counsel of loved ones and the Lord.

DELILAH: Along with David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah have captured the imagination of scores of writers, artists, composers, and dramatists. Handel included Delilah in his oratorio “Samson,” and Saint-Saens wrote an opera on “Samson and Delilah.” (The “Bacchanale” from that work is still a popular concert piece.) When Samson consorted with Delilah in the Valley of Sorek, he never dreamed that what they did together would be made into a Hollywood movie and projected in color on huge screens.

Scholars disagree on the meaning of Delilah’s name. Some think it means “devotee,” suggesting that she may have been a temple prostitute. But Delilah isn’t called a prostitute as is the woman in Gaza, although that’s probably what she was. For that matter, Delilah isn’t even identified as a Philistine. However, from her dealings with the Philistine leaders, she appears to be one. Other students believe that the basis for her name is the Hebrew word dalal, which means “to weaken, to impoverish.” Whether or not this is the correct derivation, she certainly weakened and impoverished Samson!

Samson's sensuality proved to be his demise as it did for famous author Oscar Wilde (not a Christian as far as I can discern) who wrote the following sad commentary...

Lords - Jdg 3:3; Josh13:3; 1Sa 29:6  Entice - Jdg 14:15; Pr 2:16-19; 5:3-11; 6:24-26; 7:21-27; 1Co 6:15, 16, 17, 18  Afflict - Jdg 17:2; Ge 33:16; Nu 22:17,18; Mic 7:3; Mt 26:15; 1Ti 6:9,10

Entice (patah) means to deceive, seduce, allure, coax  or persuade and depicts the seducing of persons sexually or enticing them into sin and transgression.  The Philistines used this same verb (patah) when they demanded that Samson's bride-to-be "coax" him into revealing his secret (Jdg 14:15). Even as the Timnite girl managed to get the truth out of Samson, tragically so would Delilah.

SO DELILAH SAID TO SAMSON, "PLEASE TELL ME WHERE YOUR GREAT STRENGTH IS AND HOW YOU MAY BE BOUND TO AFFLICT YOU: Psalms 12:2; Proverbs 6:26; 7:21; 22:14; 26:28; Je 9:2, 3, 4, 5; Micah 7:2,5

When Delilah began to probe for the secret of his strength, Samson should have been aware of his danger and, like Joseph (Ge39:12; 2Ti2:22), fled as fast as possible. But passion had gripped him, sin had anesthetized him, and he was unable to act rationally. Anybody could have told him that Delilah was making a fool out of him, but Samson would have believed no one.

In his devotional Morning and Evening Spurgeon asks...

THEN SHE SAID TO HIM, "HOW CAN YOU SAY, 'I LOVE YOU,' WHEN YOUR HEART IS NOT WITH ME: (How can you say - Jdg 14:16; Pr 2:16; 5:3-14) (Heart - Ge 29:20; Dt 6:5; 1Sa 15:13,14; 2Sa 16:17; Pr 23:26; Song 8:6,7; Jn 14:15,21, 22, 23, 24; 15:10; 2Co 5:14,15; 1Jn 2:15,16; 5:3)

And of course she was right! Here is a case of a man of God being rebuked by a pagan! Samson is the epitome of a deceived man -- when you are deceived you don't even realize it. Furthermore, to allow oneself to be deceived dictates that there is some level of trust when the deception occurs. You don't tend to believe someone you don't trust.

Pressed him (Luke 11:8; 18:5 )

ANNOYED TO DEATH: He was impatient to the point of death (which came to pass! A prophetic pun!)

In Proverbs 7:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 (see notes) Solomon lays down the basic principles which explain why Samson yielded to Delilah.

Samson was asleep when he should have been awake! He was physically asleep which was a sad snapshot of Samson's spiritual slumber!

May God give us grace that we not fall prey to the somniferous (sleep inducing) effects of the world, the flesh and/or the devil!

(All that was in his heart - Proverbs 12:23; 29:12; Micah 7:5) Talk about not guarding one's heart. Sometimes guarding our heart is keep noxious spiritual pollutants from entering, but other times like here we are to keep some things from going out of our heart.

(Come up - Psalms 62:9; Proverbs 18:8; Jeremiah 9:4, 5, 6)

She made him sleep on her knees (Proverbs 7:21-23,26,27; 23:33,34; Eccl 7:26)

How tragic! But you see, this is how the Lord deals with rebellion in our life. He will warn us through his Word. He will woo us through his Spirit. He will intervene supernaturally to keep us from destruction. He will counsel us through other people who love us -- through our parents and members of the body of Christ. But if we insist on going our own way, he will take his hands off and let us go. And we fall into the dominion of the flesh. But, you see, it is because he loves us. If we insist on going our own way, he loves us enough that he will let us. In the words of the Psalmist, "He will give us our request, but he will send leanness into our souls."(Ps 106:15 KJV)

F B Meyer writes that...

A third time Samson fell under the deadly fascination of a woman. -- Nor did he escape this time so easily. By the promise of great riches, the Philistine lords successfully bribed Delilah to ascertain the secret of his strength. A true woman uses her influence over those she loves, to augment rather than to sap their strength; but Samson, to his own undoing, sought love outside the limits set by religion. Whenever men or women act thus they forfeit their purity, and hand themselves over to the enemies of God, and of their souls, for their destruction.

Licentiousness robs men of wit and courage

For many are the victims she has cast down, And numerous are all her slain. Her house is the way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death. (Prov. 7:26-27).

What a warning to us not to tamper with any secret Delilah sin. Notice how Delilah tried again and again to obtain Samson's secret, and how he dallied with her, until at last he yielded.

Let us learn that when temptation comes to us, it is a mistake merely to evade it, or to parry attacks, as if to throw the tempter off the scent. These lines of defense are taken one after another, and the foe presses into the citadel, which in turn must yield.

Let us beware of scissors, even though apparent love holds them, as they steal over the locks while we are steeped in unconsciousness of the havoc that they make; lest our strength goes from us, and we become "like other men" There are hours in our life when, though we know it not, our strength departs. Oh, the horror of he wist not (Judges 16:20).

Henry Bosch tells the story of how Robert Robinson, the author of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"...

I will go out (Jdg 16:3,9,14; Deuteronomy 32:30; Is 42:24; Hosea 7:9 )

You would think that by then Samson would have been alert to danger, but his conscience was defiled and his moral senses were destroyed. Samson even deceived himself by thinking he had everything under control (v20), but he was wrong.

The rest of the story shows the tragic end of the believer who will not let God have his way with his life. From v20 on, Samson does nothing but lose.

He loses his hair, the symbol of his Nazarite dedication; for that dedication had long since been abandoned. Then he loses his strength, but he is ignorant of it until he is overpowered. How futile it is for the servant of God to try to serve the Lord when out of His will. Next Samson loses the light, for the Philistines put out his eyes. He loses his liberty, for they bind him with fetters of brass. He loses his usefulness to the Lord, for he ends up grinding corn instead of fighting God’s battles. Samson also lost his testimony, for he was the laughingstock of the Philistines. Their fish-god Dagon, not the God of Israel, was given all the glory.

F B Meyer warns that...

Through neglect of watching and prayer --or by reason of carelessness in the walk and conversation--it is quite possible to break that holy connection between ourselves and heaven which is the secret of deliverance, and the talisman of victory. There is always a Delilah ready to sheer off the locks of our strength, if we allow ourselves to sleep in her lap. And out strength may be gone ere we know it. "He wist not that the Lord had departed from him." (Judges 16:20.)

BUT HE DID NOT KNOW THAT THE LORD HAD DEPARTED FROM HIM:

Jehovah had departed from him - (Nu 14:9,42,43; Josh 7:12; 1Sa 16:14; 18:12; 28:14, 15, 16; 2Chr 15:2; Is 59:1,2; Jeremiah 9:23,24; Matthew 17:16,20; 2Co 3:5)

When he lost his long hair, the Lord left him; and he was as weak as other men. His power was from the Lord, not from his hair; but the hair was the sign of his Nazirite vow. The Spirit who had come upon him with such power had now departed from him.

Nu 6:7 reads literally “because the consecration (nezer) of his God is upon his head.”

The basic meaning of the nezer is “separation” or “consecration”; but it is also used of a royal crown (2Sa 1:10; Zec 9:16; Ps 89:39). Samson’s long hair was his “royal crown” and he lost it because of his blatant sin.

Jesus warned the church at Philadelphia...

Behold, I come quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown (see note Revelation 3:11).

Since Samson didn’t discipline his body, he lost both his crown and his prize (1Co 9:24-27).

Paul charges believers in these last days to...

But have nothing to do with (present imperative) worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline (present imperative = calls for this to be a Christian "soldier's" lifestyle) yourself for the purpose of godliness, for (explains why spiritual discipline is so vitally important) bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (see notes 1Timothy 4:7; 1Timothy 4:8)

QUOTES
ON BACKSLIDING

See related resource -  interesting book by Octavius Winslow (Click here)

As someone has well said

Backsliding begins when knee-bending stops!

The Christian writer Paul E. Little also alluded to the subtle slippage inherent in backsliding noting that...

Collapse in the Christian life is seldom a blowout. It is usually a slow leak.

Dr. Payson warns that...

“The symptoms of spiritual decline are like those which attend the decay of bodily health. It generally commences with loss of appetite and a disrelish for wholesome food, prayer, reading the Scriptures and devotional books. Whenever you perceive these symptoms, be alarmed, for your spiritual health is in danger: apply immediately to the great Physician for a cure.”

J. Oswald Sanders writes that...

We must not just take it for granted that we are in touch with God. Joseph and Mary lost a whole day of fellowship with Jesus because they “supposed him to be in the company.” They took for granted something of which they should have made sure. “He [Samson] wist not that the Lord had departed from him” (Judges 16:20). He was out of touch with God and did not know it. (Sanders, J O: The Best That I Can Be. OMF Books. 1984)

Theodore H. Epp a well known Bible expositor warns that...

Backsliding starts in such a subtle way that most of us are not aware of it, and many of us may be backslidden and may not realize it.

C E Macartney once explained the danger of backsliding noting that...

Between an airplane and every other form of locomotion and transportation there is one great contrast. The horse and wagon, the automobile, the bicycle, the locomotive, the speedboat, and the great battleship—all can come to a standstill without danger, and they can all reverse their engines, or their power, and go back. But there is no reverse about the engine of an airplane. It cannot back up. It dare not stand still. If it loses its momentum and forward-drives, then it crashes. The only safety for the airplane is in its forward and upward motion. The only safe direction for the Christian to take is forward and upward. If he stops, or if he begins to slip and go backward, that moment he is in danger.

Mike Yaconelli wrote the following illustration on backsliding in the Wittenberg Door...

“I live in a small, rural community. There are lots of cattle ranches around here, and, every once in a while, a cow wanders off and gets lost. Ask a rancher how a cow gets lost, and chances are he will reply, ‘Well, the cow starts nibbling on a tuft of green grass, and when it finishes, it looks ahead to the next tuft of green grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it nibbles on a tuft of grass right next to a hole in the fence. It then sees another tuft of green grass on the other side of the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next tuft. The next thing you know, the cow has nibbled itself into being lost.’ ” Most people don’t deliberately set out to backslide, but following their appetites or desires from one tuft to the next, they nibble themselves through the fence and off the straight and narrow path. (A dramatic illustration of Samson's wanderlust)

Jerry White observes a truth many believers have experienced at one time or another...

No one is so empty as the man who has stopped walking with God and doesn’t know it.

F W Boreham alludes to the Christian's journey through the tempestuous, tempting seas of life noting that...

The captain gives earnest heed to the charts lest he drift unconsciously shoreward!

The peril of the drifting life...

For most of us the threat of life is not so much that we should plunge into disaster, but that we should drift into sin. There are few people who deliberately and in a moment turn their backs on God; there are many who day by day drift farther and farther away from him. There are not many who in one moment of time commit some disastrous sin; there are many who almost imperceptibly involve themselves in some situation and suddenly awake to find that they have ruined life for themselves and broken someone else's heart. We must be continually on the alert against the peril of the drifting life. The Word will never drift from us. The danger is our drifting from it. The harbor of salvation is absolutely secure. It is Jesus Christ, who never moves, never changes, and is always available to anyone who wants the protection and security of His righteousness.

The writer of Hebrews adds that in light of the truth of the superiority of our Captain Christ Jesus...

"We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." (Hebrews 2:1)

Predisposition to "drifting" backward...

(1). Time: A slow drift, given enough time, will carry you to another continent and its dark uncharted waters. (2). Familiarity with the truth. It is natural for us to come to regard the familiar as commonplace. The initial venture into the mysteries of Christ will leave us exhilarated. But with the repeated journeys, some become bored tourists. (3)  Danger of busyness: We who live at the end of the twentieth century are busy people, and the multiplicity of our cares and duties can overwhelm us. A snowflake is a tiny thing, but when the air is full of them, they can bury us. Even so, the thousand cares of each day can insulate us from the stupendous excellencies of Christ, causing us to begin a deadly drift. The drifting that comes through the combination of years, familiarity, and busyness often bares its existence when the storm of opposition comes. The anchor has long been loosed, and when the winds come, an eternal soul is suddenly on the rocks and shipwrecked.

Here is a fascinating illustration of drifting the wrong direction ("backsliding")...

The danger and deceitfulness of drifting is illustrated by the story of the English explorer, William Edward Parry, who took a crew to the Arctic Ocean. They wanted to go farther north to continue their chartings, so they calculated their location by the stars and started a very difficult and treacherous march north. They walked hour upon hour, and finally, totally exhausted, they stopped. Taking their bearings again from the stars, they discovered that they were farther south than they had been when they started. They had been walking on an ice floe that was moving south faster than they were walking north.  How many people are out with step to God, thinking that they are walking with Him, when in fact they are moving away from Him faster than they are supposedly walking toward Him. That is the tragedy of drifting from the truth. Will you awaken one day ("come to your senses") to find, like Parry’s crew, that all the time you have been moving imperceptibly in the wrong direction.

In his poem “Let Me Get Home Before Dark”  Dr. Robertson McQuilkin offers a prayer that alludes to subtle drifting...

I fear the Dark Spectre may come too soon—or do I mean, too late?
That I should end before I finish or finish, but not well.
That I should stain your honor, shame your name, grieve your loving heart.
Few, they tell me, finish well…
Lord, let me get home before dark.

The venerable preacher Charles Simeon (see John Piper's summation of this man's amazing ministry - Brothers, We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering) once warned that...

However advanced a man may be in piety or age, he is still in danger of falling.

F. W. Norwood wrote that...

Life’s greatest tragedy is to lose God and not to miss Him.

Thomas à Kempis

Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience withdraws from grace

C H Spurgeon (read his miraculous testimony) spoke a great deal about backsliding warning that...

You, who have the most familiarity with Christ, and enjoy the most holy fellowship with him, may soon become the very leaders of the hosts of Satan if your Lord withdraws His grace. David’s eyes go astray, and the sweet psalmist of Israel becomes the shameless adulterer, who robs Uriah of his wife. Samson one day slays a thousand of his enemies with the might of his arm and the valor of his heart; another day his honor is betrayed, his locks are shorn, and his eyes are put out by a strumpet’s treacherous wiles. How soon are the mighty fallen!...

Christian, what do you have to do with sin? Has it not cost you enough already? What, man! Have you forgotten the times of your conviction? If you have, I have not! Burnt child, will you play with the fire? What! When you have already been rent in pieces by the lion, will you step a second time into his den? Have you not had enough of the old serpent? Did he not poison all your veins once?

So mature a servant of the devil as Judas is not purchased all at once. It takes time to educate a man for the scorner's seat. If you begin to slip on the side of a mountain of ice, the first slip may not hurt if you can stop and slide no further. But alas, you cannot so regulate sin! When your feet begin to slide, the rate of the descent increases, and the difficulty of arresting this motion is inces­santly becoming greater. It is dangerous to backslide in any degree, for we know not to what it may lead.

The Christian life is very much like climbing a hill of ice. You cannot slide up. You have to cut every step with an ice ax. Only with incessant labor in cutting and chipping can you make any prog­ress. If you want to know how to backslide, leave off going forward. Cease going upward and you will go downward of necessity. You can never stand still.

Remember that if you are a child of God, you will never be happy in sin. You are spoiled for the world, the flesh, and the devil. When you were regenerated there was put into you a vital principle, which can never be content to dwell in the dead world. You will have to come back, if indeed you belong to the family.

Here are several pithy quotes from unknown sources...

Never look back unless you want to go that way

However deep you fall, you are never out of God's reach

Life's greatest tragedy is to lose God and not miss him

If you are not as close to God as you used to be, you do not have to guess who moved

John Chrysostom wrote that...

If repentance is neglected for an instant, one can lose the power of the Resurrection as he lives with the weakness of tepidity and the potential of his fall.

The pithy evangelical writer, J C Ryle (1816-1900 - read a short biography) has the following "thoughts" relative to backsliding...

Men fall in private long before they fall in public.

If we know anything of true, saving religion, let us ever beware of the beginnings of backsliding.

It is a miserable thing to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things that can befall a man, I suppose it is the worst. A stranded ship, an eagle with a broken wing, a garden covered with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins — all these are sad sights, but a backslider is a sadder sight still.

The following tale illustrates the subtle nature of backsliding...

A foolish old farmer, so the story goes, concluded one day that the oats he had fed his mule for years were simply costing him too much. So he hatched a plan: he mixed a little sawdust in with the feed, and then a little more the next day, and even more the next, each time reducing the amount of oats in the mix. The mule didn’t seem to notice the gradual change, so the farmer thought things were fine and kept decreasing the proportion of oats. But weeks later, on the day he finally fed the poor beast nothing but sawdust, the mule finished the meal and fell over dead. A silly tale, perhaps, but it serves as a parable of the backslider—the Christian who slips further and further away from God through unrepented sin or neglect. Though we know our souls cannot survive on spiritual sawdust, we may well convince ourselves that a little won’t hurt too much, and a little less real spiritual food won’t be missed. Then, over time, the proportion of sawdust increases while the oats gradually disappear. Before long, the change is complete, and our starved, sawdust-stuffed spiritual life has collapsed.

Thomas Guthrie addressed the subtle and deceptive nature of backsliding writing that...

If you find yourself loving any pleasure more than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of the Lord, any table better than the Lord's table, any persons better than Christ, or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven — be alarmed.

Ernest Plant pithily explains the roots of backsliding...

Backsliding is caused by slack abiding

C H Spurgeon warns all backsliders...

It is dangerous to backslide in any degree, for we know not to what may lead. It may be hard going forward, but it is worse going back.

With deep repentance and sincere faith, find your way back from your backsliding. It is your duty, for you have turned away from Him whom you professed to serve. It is your wisdom, for you cannot strive against Him and prosper. It is your immediate necessity, for what He has done is nothing compared to what He may do in the way of chastisement, since He is Almighty to punish.

Backsliders begin with dusty Bibles and end with filthy garments.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaks of the tragedy of backsliding observing that...

The backslider is a man who, because of relationship to God, never really enjoys anything else.

Donald Grey Barnhouse once said that...

Withering is a slow process, barely perceptible at first either to one who is being withered or to those who look on.

Vance Havner described revival as...

Revivals should not be necessary. God never meant that His people should live by fits and starts in alternate periods of backsliding and repenting. But since we have such "malarial" Christianity (a fever and a chill, a fever and a chill) we shall have need of revivals. If we walked with God and kept ourselves prayed up, it would not be necessary to call in preachers every six months to stir up the church. If we had more "vival" we would not need re‑vival. We would live in normal spiritual health all the time without shots in the arm twice a year.

Havner also said...

Taking it easy is often the prelude to backsliding. Comfort precedes collapse.

We are so subnormal that if we ever became normal people would think we were abnormal.

The Puritan writer William Gurnall rightly said that...

A declining Christian must needs be a doubting Christian

F B Meyer in a devotional on Psalm 1 alludes to backsliding, writing that...

THE BLESSED, or Happy, man is described negatively (Psa1:1). There is a gradation in the attitude, the sphere of influence, and the condition of his companions. In attitude, we may begin by walking, advance to standing, and end by sitting. If we would avoid the sitting, let us guard against walking or standing. In the sphere of influence, the beginning of backsliding is when a man listens to counsel; he then drifts into the path trodden by sinners, and finally is hardened enough to sit where scornful talk surrounds him on every hand. The condition of evil companions. We should be repelled if we were to be plunged suddenly into contact with the scornful, but our moral interests may not be specially outraged by the counsel of the wicked. Indeed, the advice which wicked men give sometimes resembles closely what our heart suggests and our taste prefers. It is so specious, so apparently sensible and natural, that we are captivated by it. Only gradually do we slide from those who forget God to those who set His law at defiance or openly blaspheme Him. (F B Meyer. Our Daily Walk, May 11)

Related resource: Can God Bless America? by John MacArthur

William Jenkyn warned that...

God will preserve you in your ways, not in your wanderings.

F B Meyer in a devotional discusses the causes of backsliding, noting that...

THE CAUSES of backsliding are many. We have pretended to be living a more devoted life than was actually the case; we neglected to watch unto prayer; we allowed secret sin to eat out the heart of our piety, 'as the white ant works destruction in the East; or we yielded to temptation, and then sought to justify ourselves against the remonstrances (earnest presentations of reasons for opposition or grievance) of conscience; or we yielded to the fear of man, and drifted with the multitude to do evil; or we became prosperous, and trusted only in our wealth; or poor, and succumbed to covetousness and the bitterness of despair. (F B Meyer. Our Daily Walk. October 6)

Are You Leaning the Wrong Direction?

Several years ago a severe ice storm hit southern lower Michigan, causing great damage to trees. As I surveyed the destruction, I checked the two large white birches in my backyard. One had lost some of its limbs, but its partner had suf­fered a worse fate. The entire tree had toppled over and was completely uprooted. Why the one and not the other? The answer was simple. Instead of standing straight up, this thirty-five-foot tree had grown at a pronounced angle. So when the heavy ice accumulated on its branches, it fell in the direction it was leaning.

Samson was leaning in the wrong direction. As a result, he had a great downfall. Although he is numbered among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 and was one of Israel's great judges, a sad note is sounded throughout the story of his life due to a serious weak­ness in his character. He had an eye for women, and he insisted on taking a wife from a heathen nation (Judges 14:3). His down-fall came because his life was inclined toward fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.

If we don't live in fellowship with the Lord each day, our lives will lean toward some weakness or besetting sin. Then, when a crisis comes or if we are caught off guard, we will be unable to resist the pressure. Samson's fall is a tragic example of what can happen to a leaning Christian. —D J De Haan (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

F B Meyer has a pithy comment writing that...

Judges 16:20 F B Meyer (Our Daily Homily): He wist not that the Lord was departed from him.

Beware of unconscious deterioration!

Grey hairs may be here and there upon us without our knowing it. The Lord may be gone out on feet so noiseless, that we are not aware that His Spirit has glided along the corridor, and through the doorway, whispering, Let us depart.

Deterioration is unconscious because it is so gradual.

The rot that sets in on autumn fruit is very gradual. The damp that silences the violin or piano does its work almost imperceptibly. Satan is too knowing to plunge us into some outrageous sin at a bound. He has sappers and miners engaged long before the explosion, in hollowing subterranean passages through the soul, and filling them with explosives.

Spiritual declension blunts our sensibility.

The first act of the burglar is to gag the voice that might alarm, and poison the watch-dog. So, sin blinds our eyes, and dulls our keen alertness to the presence of evil. Thus, the stages of our relapse are obvious to all eyes but our own. We are drugged as we are being carried off captives.

The progress of evil within us is a matter of unconsciousness, largely because we are quick to discover reasons to justify our decadence.

Judges 16.20 G Campbell Morgan - But he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. Judges 16.20

Than this, there is no more tragic sentence in the whole Bible. It reveals a most appalling condition, that of the unconscious loss of the one essential to success in the work of God. At last the hour had come in which God no longer co-operated with Samson; and the man did not know it! It is impossible to believe that this unconsciousness was a sudden thing. That is to say, this man had lost the keen consciousness of the presence of God, or else he would have been conscious of His absence. Having yielded to his own passions, rather than to the Spirit of God, he had come to the condition in which his knowledge of the power of that Spirit was intellectual rather than experimental. He had had great experi­ences of that power, and he went on expecting them, even when he was making them impossible by his manner of life. In the hour of need, he said: "I will go out as at other times.:'; but he could not. The expected experience did not come. He was caught, and blinded, and made the bond-slave of his foes. The story is one to fill the soul with holy fear. The possi­bility of going on in an attempt to do the work of God after God has withdrawn Himself, is an appalling one. The issue is always that of defeat and the uttermost shame. The value of the whole story for us is that it ought to teach us that if we yield ourselves to those desires of the flesh and spirit which are out of harmony with the will of God, He must withdraw from us the power in which to do His work. The only way to be sure that we have not lost the fellowship of enablement, is to main­tain a conscious fellowship in complete obedience. (Morgan, G. C. Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible).

Samson Conquered
Sermon by C H Spurgeon
Judges 16:20-21

Samson is, in many respects, one of the most remarkable men whose history is recorded in the pages of inspiration. He enjoyed a singular privilege only accorded to one other person in the Old Testament. His birth was foretold to his parents by an angel. Isaac was promised to Abraham and Sarah by angels whom they entertained unawares; but save Isaac, Samson was the only one whose birth was foretold by an angelic messenger before the opening of the Gospel dispensation. Before his birth he was dedicated to God, and set apart as a Nazarite. Now, a Nazarite was a person who was entirely consecrated to God, and in token of his consecration he drank no wine; and allowed his hair to grow, untouched by the razor. Samson, you may therefore understand, was entirely consecrated to God, and when any saw him, they would say, “That man is God’s man, a Nazarite, set apart.” God endowed Samson with supernatural strength, a strength which never could have been the result of mere muscles and sinews. It was not the fashioning of Samson’s body that made him strong; it was not the arm, or the fist with which he smote the Philistines; it was a miracle that dwelt with him, a continued going forth of the omnipotence of God, which made him mightier than thousands of his enemies.

Samson appears very early to have discovered in himself this great strength, for “the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan.” He judged Israel for thirty years, and gloriously did he deliver them. What a noble being he must have been! See him, when he steps into the vineyard for a moment from his parents. A lion that has been crouching there springs upon him, but he meets him all unarmed, receives him upon his brawny arms and rends him like a kid. See him afterwards, when his countrymen have bound him and taken him down from the top of the rock, and delivered him up to the thousands of the Philistines. He has scarcely come near them, when, without a weapon, with his own foot, he begins to spurn them; and seeing there the jawbone of an ass, he takes that ignoble weapon, and sweeps away the men that had helmets about their heads and were girded with greaves of brass. Nor did his vigor fail him in his later life, for he died in the very prime of his days. One of his greatest exploits was performed at this very season. He is entrapped in the city of Gaza. He remains there till midnight; so confident is he in his strength that he is in no hurry to depart, and instead of assailing the guard, and making them draw the bolts, he wrenches up the two posts, and takes away the gate, bar and all, and carries his mighty burden for miles to the top of a hill that is before Hebron.

Every way it must have been a great thing to see this man, especially if one had him for a friend. Had one been his foe, the more distant the sight the better, for none could escape from him but those who fled; but to have him for a friend and to stand with him in the day of battle, was to feel that you had an army in a single man, and had in one frame that which would strike thousands with terror.

Samson, however, though he had great physical strength, had but little mental force, and even less spiritual power. His whole life is a scene of miracles and follies. He had but little grace, and was easily overcome by temptation. He is enticed and led astray. Often corrected; still he sins again. At last he falls into the hands of Delilah. She is bribed with an enormous sum, and she endeavors to get from him the secret of his strength. He foolishly toys with the danger, and plays with his own destruction. At last, goaded by her importunity, he lets out the secret which he ought to have confided to no one but himself. The secret of his strength lay in his locks. Not that his hair made him strong; but that his hair was the symbol of his consecration, and was the pledge of God’s favor to him. While his hair was untouched he was a consecrated man; as soon as that was cut away, he was no longer perfectly consecrated, and then his strength departed from him. His hair is cut away; the locks that covered him once are taken from him, and there he stands a shaveling, weak as other men. Now the Philistines begin to oppress him, and his eyes are burned out with hot iron. How are the mighty fallen! How are the great ones taken in the net!

Samson the great hero of Israel, is seen with a shuffling gait walking towards Gaza. A shuffling gait, I said, because he had just received blindness, which was a new thing to him; therefore, he had not as yet learned to walk as well as those who, having been blind for years, at least learn to set their feet firmly upon the earth. With his feet bound together with brazen fetters—an unusual mode of binding a prisoner, but adopted in this case because Samson was supposed to be still so strong, that any other kind of fetter would have been insufficient—you see him walking along in the midst of a small escort towards Gaza. And now he comes to the very city out of which he had walked in all his pride with the gates and bolts upon his shoulders; and the little children come out, the lower orders of the people come round about him, and point at him—“Samson, the great hero, has fallen! let us make sport of him!” What a spectacle! The hot sun is beating upon his bare head, which had once been protected by those luxuriant locks. Look at the escorts who guard him, a mere handful of men, how they would have bled before him in his brighter days; but now a child might overcome him. They take him to a place where an ass is grinding at the mill, and Samson must to the same ignoble work. Why, he must be the sport and jest of every passerby, and of every fool who shall step in to see this great wonder—the destroyer of the Philistines made to toil at the mill. Ah, what a fall was there, my brethren! We might indeed stand and weep over poor blind Samson. That he should have lost his eyes was terrible; that he should have lost his strength was worse; but that he should have lost the favor of God for a while; that he should become the sport of God’s enemies, was the worst of all. Over this indeed we might weep.

Now, why have I narrated this story? Why should I direct your attention to Samson? For this reason. Every child of God is a consecrated man. His consecration is not typified by any outward symbol; we are not commanded to let our hair grow forever, nor to abstain from meats or drinks. The Christian is a consecrated man, but his consecration is unseen by his fellows, except in the outward deeds which are the result thereof.

And now I want to speak to you as consecrated men, as Nazarites, and I think I shall find a lesson for you in the history of Samson.

First, the strength of the consecrated man. Do you know that the strongest man in all the world is a consecrated man? Even though he may consecrate himself to a wrong object, yet if it be a thorough consecration, he will have strength—strength, for evil, it may be, but still strength. In the old Roman wars with Pyrrhus, you remember an ancient story of self-devotion. There was an oracle which said that victory would attend that army whose leader should give himself up to death. Decius the Roman Consul, knowing this, rushed into the thickest of the battle, that his army might overcome by his dying. The prodigies of valor which he performed are proofs of the power of consecration. The Romans at that time seemed to be every man a hero, because every man was a consecrated man. They went to battle with this thought—“I will conquer or die; the name of Rome is written on my heart; for my country I am prepared to live, or for that to shed my blood.” And no enemies could ever stand against them. If a Roman fell there were no wounds in his back, but all in his breast. His face, even in cold death, was like the face of a lion, and when looked upon it was of terrible aspect. They were men consecrated to their country; they were ambitious to make the name of Rome the noblest word in human language; and consequently the Roman became a giant. And to this day let a man get a purpose within him, I care not what his purpose is, and let his whole soul be absorbed by it, and what will he not do? You that are “everything by turns and nothing long,” that have nothing to live for, soulless carcasses that walk this earth and waste its air, what can you do? Why nothing. But the man who knows what he is at, and has his mark, speeds to it “like an arrow from a bowshot by an archer strong.” Nought can turn him aside from his design. How much more is this true if I limit the description to that which is peculiar to the Christian—consecration to God! Oh! what strength that man has who is dedicated to God! Is there such a one here? I know there is.

Need I tell you of the wonders that have been done by consecrated men? You have read the stories of olden times, when our religion was hunted like a partridge on the mountains. Did you never hear how consecrated men and women endured unheard-of pangs and agonies? Have you not read how they were cast to the lions, how they were sawn in sunder, how they languished in prisons, or met with the swifter death of the sword? Have you not heard how they wandered about in sheeps’ skins and goat’s skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy? Have you not heard how they defied tyrants to their face, how, when they were threatened, they dared most boldly to laugh at all the threats of the foe—how at the stake they clapped their hands in the fire, and sang psalms of triumph, when men, worse than fiends, were jeering at their miseries? How as this? What made women stronger than men, and men stronger than angels? Why this—they were consecrated to God. They felt that every pang which rent their heart was giving glory to God, that all the pains they endured in their bodies were but the marks of the Lord Jesus, whereby they were proven to be wholly dedicated unto him. Nor in this alone has the power of the consecrated ones been proved. Have you never heard how the sanctified ones have done wonders? Read the stories of those who counted not their lives dear to them, that they might honor their Lord and Master by preaching his Word, by telling forth the Gospel in foreign lands. Have you not heard how men have left their kindred and their friends, and all that life held dear—have crossed the stormy sea, and have gone into the lands of the heathen, where men were devouring one another? Have you not known how they have put their foot upon that country, and have seen the ship that conveyed them there fading away in the distance, and yet without a fear have dwelt amongst the wild savages of the woods, have walked into the midst of them, and told them, the simple story of the God that loved and died for man? You must know how those men have conquered, how those, who seemed to be fiercer than lions, have crouched before them, have listened to their words, and have been converted by the majesty of the Gospel which they preached.

What made these men heroes? What enabled them to rend themselves away from all their kith and kin, and banish themselves into the land of the stranger? It was because they were consecrated, thoroughly consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ. What is there in the world which the consecrated man cannot do? Tempt him; offer him gold and silver; carry him to the mountain top, and show him all the kingdoms of the world, and tell him he shall have all these if he will bow down and worship the god of this world. What saith this consecrated man? “Get thee behind me, Satan; I have more than all this which thou dost offer me; this world is mine, and worlds to come; I despise the temptation; I will not bow before thee.” Let men threaten a consecrated man, what does he say? “I fear God, and, therefore, I cannot fear you; if it be right in your sight to obey man rather than God, judge ye; but, as for me, I will serve none but God.”

“But,” says someone, “can we be consecrated to Christ? I thought that was for ministers only.” Oh, no, my brethren; all God’s children must be consecrated men. What are you? Are you engaged in business? If you are what you profess to be, your business must be consecrated to God. Perhaps you have no family whatever, and you are engaged in trade, and are saving some considerable sum a year; let me tell you the example of a man thoroughly consecrated to God. There lives in Bristol, (name unknown), a man whose income is large; and what does he do with it? He labors in business continually that this income may come to him, but of it, every farthing every year is expended in the Lord’s cause except that which he requires for the necessaries of life. He makes his necessities as few as possible, that he may have the more to give away. He is God’s man in his business. I do not exhort you to do the same. You may be in a different position; but a man who has a family, and is in business, should be able to say—“Now, I make so much from my business; my family must be provided for—but I seek not to amass riches. I will make money for God and I will spend it in his cause.”

If I have said, “I am Christ’s,” by his grace I will be Christ’s. Brethren, you in business may be as much consecrated to Christ as the minister in his pulpit; you may make your ordinary transactions in life a solemn service of God. Happy the man who is consecrated unto the Lord; where’er he is, he is a consecrated man, and he shall do wonders.

The littleness of Christians of this age results from the littleness of their consecration to Christ. The age of John Owen was the day of great preachers; but let me tell you, that that was the age of great consecration. Those great preachers whose names we remember, were men who counted nothing their own: they were driven out from their benefices, because they could not conform to the Established Church, and they gave up all they had willingly to the Lord. They were hunted from place to place; the disgraceful Five-Mile-Act would not permit them to come within five miles of any market town; they wandered here and there to preach the Gospel to a few poor sheep, being fully given up to their Lord. Those were foul times; but they promised they would walk the road fair or foul, and they did walk it knee-deep in mud; and they would have walked it if it had been knee-deep in blood, too. They became great men; and if we were, as they were, wholly given up to God—if we could say of ourselves, “From the crown of my head to the sole of my foot, there is not a drop of blood that is not wholly God’s; all my time, all my talents, everything I have is God’s”—if we could say that, we should be strong like Samson, for the consecrated must be strong.

Now, in the second place, the secret of their strength. What makes the consecrated man strong? Ah! beloved; there is no strength in man of himself. Samson without his God was but a poor fool indeed. The secret of Samson’s strength was this—as long as he was consecrated he should be strong; so long as he was thoroughly devoted to his God, and had no object but to serve God, (and that was to be indicated by the growing of his hair) so long, and no longer, would God be with him to help him. And now you see that if you have any strength to serve God, the secret of your strength lies in the same place. What strength have you save in God? Ah! I have heard some men talk as if the strength of free will, of human nature, was sufficient to carry men to heaven. Free will has carried many souls to hell, but never a soul to heaven yet. No strength of nature can suffice to serve the Lord aright. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. No man can come to Christ except the Father that hath sent Christ doth draw him. If, then, the first act of Christian life is beyond all human strength, how much more are those higher steps far beyond any one of us? Do we not utter a certain truth when we say in the words of Scripture, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” I think everyone who has a really quickened soul will sooner or later be made to feel this. Ay! I question whether a man can be converted a day without finding out his own weakness. It is but a little space before the child finds that he can stand alone so long as God his Father takes him by the arms and teaches him to go, but that if his Father’s hand be taken away he has no power to stand, but down he falls at once. See Samson without his God, going out against a thousand men. Would they not laugh at him? and with scarcely time to express is terror, he would flee, or be rent in pieces. Imagine him without his God, locked up in Gaza, the gates fast closed. He goes out into the streets to escape; but how can he clear a passage? He is caught like a wild bull in a net; he may go round and round the walls, but where shall be his deliverance? without his God he is but as other men. The secret of his strength lies in his consecration, and in the strength which is its results. Remember, then, the secret of your strength. Never think that you have any power of your own; rely wholly upon the God of Israel; and remember that the channel through which that strength must come to you must be your entire consecration to God.

In the third place, What is the peculiar danger of a consecrated man? His danger is that his locks may be shorn, that is to say, that his consecration may be broken. As long as he is consecrated he is strong; break that, he is weak as water. Now there are a thousand razors with which the devil can shave off the locks of a consecrated man without his knowing it. Samson is sound asleep; so clever is the barber that he even lulls him to sleep as his fingers move across the pate, the fool’s pate, which he is making bare. The devil is cleverer far than even the skillful barber; he can shave the believer’s locks while he scarcely knows it.

Shall I tell you with what razors he can accomplish this work? Sometimes he takes the sharp razor of pride, and when the Christian falls asleep and is not vigilant, he comes with it and begins to run his fingers upon the Christian’s locks, and says, “What a fine fellow you are! What wonders you have done! Didn’t you rend that lion finely? Wasn’t it a great feat to smite those Philistines hip and thigh? Ah! you will be talked of as long as time endures for carrying those gates of Gaza away. You need not be afraid of anybody.” And so on goes the razor, lock after lock falling off, and Samson knows it not. He is just thinking within himself, “How brave am I! How great am I!” Thus works the razor of pride—cut, cut, cut away—and he wakes up to find himself bald, and all his strength gone. Have you never had that razor upon your head? I confess I have on mine. Have you never, after you have been able to endure afflictions, heard a voice saying to you, “How patient you were!” After you have cast aside some temptation, and have been able to keep to the unswerving course of integrity, has not Satan said to you, “That is a fine thing you have done; that was bravely done.” And all the while you little knew that it was the cunning hand of the evil one taking away your locks with the sharp razor of pride. For mark, pride is a breach of our consecration. As soon as I begin to get proud of what I do, or what I am, what am I proud of? Why, there is in that pride the act of taking away from God his glory. For I promised that God should have all the glory, and is not that part of my consecration? And I am taking it to myself. I have broken my consecration; my locks are gone, and I become weak. Mark this, Christian—God will never give thee strength to glorify thyself with. God will give thee a crown, but not to put on thine own head. As sure as ever a Christian begins to write his feats and his triumphs upon his own escutcheon, and take to himself the glory, God will lay him level with the dust.

Another razor he also uses is self-sufficiency. “Ah,” saith the devil as he is shaving away your locks. “you have done a very great deal. You see they bound you with green withers, and you snapped them in sunder, they merely smelt the fire and they burst. Then they took new ropes to bind you; ah! you overcame even them; for you snapped the ropes in sunder as if they had been a thread. Then they wove the seven locks of your head, but you walked away with loom and web too, beam and all. You can do anything, don’t be afraid; you have strength enough to do anything; you can accomplish any feat you set our will upon.” How softly the devil will do all that; how will he be rubbing the poll while the razor is moving softly along and the locks are dropping off, and he is treading them in the dust. “You have done all this, and you can do anything else.” Every drop of grace distills from heaven. O my brethren, what have we that we have not received? Let us not imagine that we can create might wherewith to gird ourselves. “All my springs are in thee.” The moment we begin to think that it is our own arm that has gotten us the victory, it will be all over with us—our locks of strength shall be taken away, and the glory shall depart from us. So, you see, self-sufficiency, as well as pride, may be the razor with which the enemy may shave away our strength.

There is yet another, and a more palpable danger still. When a consecrated man begins to change his purpose in life and live for himself—that razor shaves clean indeed. There is a minister; when he first began his ministry he could say, “God is my witness I have but one object, that I may free my skirts from the blood of every one of my hearers, that I may preach the Gospel faithfully and honor my Master.” In a little time, tempted by Satan, he changes his tone and talks like this, “I must keep my congregation up. If I preach such hard doctrine, they won’t come. Did not one of the newspapers criticize me, and did not some of my people go away from me because of it? I must mind what I am at. I must keep this going. I must look out a little sharper, and prune my speech down. I must adopt a little gentler style, or preach a new-fashioned doctrine; for I must keep my popularity up. What is to become of me if I go down? People will say, ‘Up like a rocket, down like the stick’; and then all my enemies laugh.” Ah, when once a man begins to care so much as a snap of the finger about the world, it is all over with him. If he can go to his pulpit, and say, “I have got a message to deliver; and whether they will hear or whether they will not hear, I will deliver it as God puts it into my mouth; I will not change the dot of an ‘i’, or the cross of a ‘t’ for the biggest man that lives, or to bring in the mightiest congregation that ever sat at minister’s feet”—that man is mighty. He does not let human judgments move him, and he will move the world.

But let him turn aside, and think about his congregation, and how that shall be kept up; ah Samson! How are thy locks shorn! What canst thy do now? That false Delilah has destroyed thee—thine eyes are put out, thy comfort is taken away, and thy future ministry shall be like the grinding of an ass around the continually revolving mill; thou shalt have no rest or peace ever afterwards. Or let him turn aside another way. Suppose he should say, “I must get preferment, or wealth, I must look well to myself, I must see my next feathered, that must be the object of my life.” I am not now speaking of the ministry merely, but of all the consecrated; and as sure as ever we begin to make self the primary object of our existence our locks are shorn. “Now,” says the Lord, “I gave that man strength, but not to use it for himself. Then I put him into a high position, but not that he might clothe himself about with glory; I put him there that he might look to my cause, to my interests; and if he does not do that first, down he shall go.

And so, if you live in this world, and God prospers you, you get perhaps into some position, and you say, “Here I am; I will look out for myself; I have been serving the church before, but now I will look to myself a little.” “Come, come,” says human nature, “you must look after your family,” (which means, you must look after yourself). Very well, do it, sir, as your main object, and you are a ruined man. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these shall be added to you.” If you keep your eye single, your whole body shall be full of light. Though you seemed as if you had shut out half the light by having that single eye, yet your body shall be full of light. But begin to have two masters, and two objects to serve, and you shall serve neither; you shall neither prosper for this world, nor for that which is to come. Oh, Christian, above all things take care of thy consecration. Ever feel that thou art wholly given up to God, and to God alone.

And now, lastly, there is the Christian’s disgrace. His locks are cut off. I have seen him, young as I am, and you with gray hairs upon your brows have seen him oftener than I; I have seen him in the ministry. He spake like an angel of God; many there were that regarded him, and did hang upon his lips; he seemed to be sound in doctrine and earnest in manner. I have seen him turn aside; it was but a little thing—some slight deviation from the ancient orthodoxy of his fathers, some slight violation of the law of his church. I have seen him, till he has given up doctrine after doctrine until, at last, the very place wherein he preached has become a byword and a proverb; and the man is pointed out by the gray-headed sire to his child as a man who is to be looked upon with suspicion; who, if he lectures, is to be heard with caution; and if he preaches, is not to be listened to at all. Have you not seen him? What disgrace was there! What a fall! The man who came out in the camps of Dan, and seemed to be moved by the Spirit of the Lord, has become the slave of error. He has gone into the very camps of the enemy, and there he is now, grinding in the mill for the Philistine, whom he ought to have been striking with his arm.

Now these men who have turned aside and broken their consecration vow, are pointed at as a disgrace to themselves and dishonor to the Church. And you who are members of Christ’s Church, you have seen men who stood in your ranks as firm soldiers of the cross, and you have noticed them go out, from us, “because they were not of us,” or like poor Samson, you have seen them go to their graves with the eyes of their comfort put out, with the feet of their usefulness bound with brazen fetters, and with the strength of their arms entirely departed from them. Now, do any of you wish to be backsliders? Do you wish to betray the holy profession of your religion? My brethren, is there one among you who this day makes a profession of love to Christ, who desires to be an apostate? Is there one of you who desires like Samson to have his eyes put out, and to be made to grind in the mill? Would you, like David, commit a great sin, and go with broken bones to the grave? Would you, like Lot, be drunken, and fall into lust? No, I know what you say, “Lord, let my path be like the eagle’s flight; let me fly upwards to the sun, and never stay and never turn aside. Oh, give me grace that I may serve thee like Caleb, with a perfect heart, and that from the beginning even to the end of my days, my course may be as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Ay, I know what is your desire. How, then, shall it be accomplished? Look well to your consecration; see that it is sincere; see that you mean it, and then look up to the Holy Spirit, after you have looked to your consecration, and beg of him to give you daily grace; for as day-by-day the manna fell, so must you receive daily food from on high. And, remember, it is not by any grace you have in you, but by the grace that is in Christ, and that must be given to you hour by hour, that you are to stand, and having done all, to be crowned at last as a faithful one, who has endured unto the end. I ask your prayers that I may be kept faithful to my Lord; and on the other hand, I will offer my earnest prayers, that you may serve him while he lends you breath, that when your voice is lost in death, you may throughout a never-ending immortality, praise him in louder and sweeter strains.

THEN THE PHILISTINES SEIZED HIM AND GOUGED OUT HIS EYES: (See Related Resource: Judges 16:21-31 Strength Profaned and Lost by Alexander Maclaren) (Bound - Proverbs 5:22; 14:14; 2:19)

Bound him - literal fulfillment of the figurative effect of the cords of sin!

His own iniquities will capture the wicked, And he will be held with the cords of his sin.
He will die for lack of instruction, And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray. (Pr 5:22,23, cp  Jn 8:34; Ro 6:16, 2Pe 2:19)

His eyes had gotten him into trouble (Jdg 14:1,2; 16:1), and the “lust of the eyes” had led him into sin. Had Samson walked by faith, he would have ended his career in honor, glorifying the Lord.

And that is what happens to us. God will give us up to the passions of our own life, if we insist on it. This picture of Samson grinding away at the mill is such a vivid illustration of what happens in the inner man. There is a blinding--a loss of a sense of moral perspective and vision. There is a binding--a loss of our freedom and liberty and mobility in the Spirit. And there is a grinding--a sense of futility and boredom and purposelessness about life, of just going around and around and around inside.

There is a way out, though. And if this is there is a "blinding, binding & grinding" effect transpiring in your spirit because of some old sin pattern you are harboring, you need to know there is a way out. And as we see in the following verses the Lord did remember Samson. God does not forget us even though we forget Him. When He takes his hands off us and lets us go, He is still right there available to us. He never utterly abandons us, and He didn't in the case of Samson. He was there, standing ready to respond to his entreaty. And I am sure that in the months of grinding at that mill Samson had reviewed his life's sowing and reaping (Ga 6:7, 8). He must have surely comprehended what and why this had happened to him. He realized that his strength lay in Jehovah, and thus in the end he sought the Mighty One to set him free from his bondage. A death had to take place -- his death. It was only through Samson's death that the Philistines could be brought under subjection. And this is also true in our life. The only way out of bondage is to go back to that area of our life where we are resisting the Lordship of Jesus Christ and die, right there (cp Re 2:4, 5).

In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that those who have died are no longer under the dominion of sin (Ro 6:16, 17, 18). To look honestly at the sin that binds you, calling it what God calls it (1Jn 1:9, Pr 28:13), and putting it away by the Spirit of Christ (cp Ro 8:13, Col 3:5ff, Ro 13:12, 13, 14), will bring freedom. God is able to rout the "Philistines" in your life and to restore the sense of peace and prosperity.

Father, thank you for this great story. We thank you for the truth that is revealed in it. We pray that it might be truth which we enter into personally. We ask that we would be strengthened in the inner man to face, honestly and squarely, the issues in our life which we have been unwilling to submit to you, and to cast them off in your power, and thereby to experience the sense of liberty in the Spirit, in Jesus' name, Amen.

F B Meyer writes that...

Judges 16:21-31 Repentance and renewal. -- Alone in the prison-cell reflection did its work; and prayer again arose from Samson's heart; his hair began to grow again. Is not there an analogy to Peter's repentance with bitter tears, preparing for Pentecost? What pathos in that last petition (Judges 16:28; Ps. 74:18-23)! There is an encouragement here for backsliders to return to God that He may forgive and restore them, and peradventure use them again.

A W Tozer writes...

The Lord Departed -- We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration. Our moral imprudence puts us always in danger of accidental or reckless self-destruction. The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance. Then He invades our natures with that ancient and eternal life which is from the beginning. So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.

With this open secret awaiting easy discovery, why do we in almost all our busy activities work in another direction from this?

Why do we build our churches upon human flesh?

Why do we set such store by that which the Lord has long ago repudiated, and despise those things which God holds in such high esteem?

For we teach men not to die with Christ but to live in the strength of their dying manhood. We boast not in our weakness but in our strength. Values which Christ has declared to be false are brought back into evangelical favor and promoted as the very life and substance of the Christian way. How eagerly do we seek the approval of this or that man of worldly reputation. How shamefully do we exploit the converted celebrity. Anyone will do to take away the reproach of obscurity from our publicity-hungry leaders: famous athletes, congressmen, world travelers, rich industrialists; before such we bow with obsequious smiles and honor them in our public meetings and in the religious press. Thus we glorify men to enhance the standing of the Church of God, and the glory of the Prince of Life is made to hang upon the transient fame of a man who shall die.  (A W Tozer)

AND THEY BROUGHT HIM DOWN TO GAZA AND BOUND HIM WITH BRONZE CHAINS, AND HE WAS A GRINDER IN THE PRISON: he toiled at the grinding mill, doing work usually assigned to slaves, women, or donkeys.

Someone has said that [Jdg 16:21] reminds us of the blinding, binding, and grinding results of SIN. In his epic poem Samson Agonistes, John Milton has the champion say:

O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!

Samson is one of three men in Scripture who are especially identified with the darkness. The other two are King Saul, who went out in the darkness to get last-minute help from a witch (1Sa 28:7, 8), and Judas, who “went immediately out: and it was night” (Jn 13:30).

Saul lived for the world, Samson yielded to the flesh, and Judas gave himself to the devil (Jn 13:2, 27); and all three ended up taking their own lives.

DEVOTIONAL
OUR DAILY BREAD
WHOEVER COMMITS SIN IS A SLAVE OF SIN

When we repeatedly give in to a particular sin, we become a slave to it. A man dying of AIDS admitted that he had felt guilty about his homosexual way of life. But he couldn't carry out his resolve to give up his immoral lifestyle. Another young man admitted that his wife left him because of his preoccupation with pornographic literature. He's unhappy, but he can't stay away from smut shops. Similarly, many people who take cocaine know they are ruining their lives, but they feel powerless to give up the habit.

Samson too had become a slave to sin. He continued an affair with Delilah even though he knew she was bent on betraying him to his enemies. Samson was not stupid, but he was a slave to his lust. Like the homosexual, the pornography addict, and the drug user, he could not do what he knew he should.

Once we start down the wrong path, turning back is difficult. Jesus said that whoever keeps on sinning will become a slave to sin (John 8:34). Some of the most dangerous practices bring temporary pleasure. That's why they are so ensnaring. Freedom, however, is found in becoming a slave of Jesus Christ.

When we are in the grip of an evil practice that is ruining our life, we can acknowledge our sin and helplessness to the Lord, submit fully to Him, and be assured that He will deliver us. —H. V Lugt (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

(Dagon - 1Sa 5:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Je 2:11; Mic 4:5; Ro 1:23, 24, 25; 1Co 8:4,5; 10:20) (Rejoice - Job 30:9,10; Psalms 35:15,16; Proverbs 24:17)

 Dagon was the chief deity of the Philistines. The capture of Samson led to great rejoicing; and the Philistines had a national festival in honor of Dagon, their god of grain and chief deity. Dagon was also worshiped by the West Semitic residents of Mari on the Euphrates, and a temple to “Dagan” (Dagon) existed at Ugarit. In some texts from Ugarit, Baal is called “the son of Dagan.” Among the Philistines there were temples to this god in Gaza and Ashdod (1Sa 5:1-7).

It was tragic that a servant of the Lord, raised in a godly home, was now the humiliated slave of the enemy. But even worse, the Philistines gave glory to their god Dagon for helping them capture their great enemy. Instead of bringing glory to the God of Israel, Samson gave the enemy opportunity to honor their false gods. Dagon was the god of grain, and certainly the Philistines remembered what Samson had done to their fields (Jdg 15:1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

The rejoicing of the Philistines is reminiscent of the last time the unbelieving world will ever rejoice. In the Revelation the 2 witnesses who have been performing the Lord's will for 1260 days (3.5 years, the first half of Daniel's Seventieth Week-see notes) are killed by the Antichrist and their dead bodies allowed to lie in Jerusalem for all the world to see. John records...

Praised their god - (Deuteronomy 32:27; Isa 37:20; Ezekiel 20:14; Daniel 5:4,23; Habakkuk 1:16; Revelation 11:10)

OUR GOD HAS GIVEN OUR ENEMY INTO OUR HANDS: Wrong. Samson's God had allowed his enemies to capture and defeat him. Although I think Samson was a believer, compare God's similar treatment of unbelievers who are given over to the power of sin in Romans 1 (Ro 1:24, 26, 28-notes, cp similar fate of unbelievers in 2Th 2:10, 11, 12)

Were in high spirits - (Jdg 9:27; 18:20; 19:6,9; 2Samuel 13:28; 1Kings 20:12; Esther 3:15; Is 22:13; Daniel 5:2,3; Matthew 14:6,7 )

Called to the Lord  (Jdg 9:51; Deuteronomy 22:8; Joshua 2:8; 2 Samuel 11:2)

Then Samson called to the LORD...O Lord (Adonai) GOD:: For the second time in the story Samson prayed to God. This time he addressed God with the covenantal name Jehovah (Lord). Prior to this he addressed God as "you" (Jdg 15:18) and referred to him as God (Elohim) (16:17). For the second time in the book God answered his prayer, allowing him to bring the temple crashing down.

The Psalmist records (referring to disobedient Israel) God's response to their cry for help...

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their bands apart...Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.  (Psalm 107:13-14, 19-20)

O Lord God - It is interesting he addresses God here as Adonai (and Elohim) which speaks of one who is the Sovereign Master!

Remember me - (Psalms 74:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23; Jonah 2:1,2,7; Jeremiah 15:15)

That I may be avenged - (Jdg 5:31; Psalms 58:10,11; 143:12; 2Ti 4:14; Revelation 6:10, cp Ro 12:17, 18, 19, 20, 21)

Samson cried out to God and said, "God, remember me" and God did remember him. Why? Because God didn't go away but was always there, waiting... and that was all Jehovah needed to hear. That is all He needs to hear from you and me. The proud refuses to bow and cry "Help". Only the humble one will cry out from the heart (cp Mt 15:25, 26, 27, 28; Mark 9:22, 23, 24, 25; Peter drowning - Mt 14:30, cp Mt 8:24, 25, 26; Ps 107:6, 13, 19, 20, 28, Jonah 1:14, 15). It matters not how desperate the situation is. Our Father waits to hear "Please, remember me." God says, "I will! Your name is Samson." "Yes, Lord." Then Samson said, "Lord, please strengthen me," because he knew where strength came from. God was still going to be praised even in the midst of Samson's sin. Samson wanted to be strengthened so he could avenge himself on the Philistines who gouged out his eyes, but God says, "No. I'll strengthen you so that I can fulfill what I began in your life--to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines--and in spite of your sin I am still going to fulfill My plan."

Believers are the same way we allow their old sin nature ("flesh") to reign. Our flesh has to die before there can be life We read that Samson died, but he did more in his death than he did in his life. That is what happens in our spiritual life. When we die to our sinful nature more is accomplished through our new nature than could ever be accomplished through our old nature. Samson died physically that day, but he didn't die spiritually. According to Hebrews 11:32, God sees him as a man of faith.

This same principle is emphasized by our Lord Jesus Who declared...

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12:24)

An unknown Confederate soldier during the Civil War wrote the following poem several stanzas of which would aptly apply to Samson's life:

Answered Prayer

Maclaren writes...

Wearied with his humiliating exertions, the blind captive begs the boy who guided him to let him lean, till he can breathe again, on the pillars that held up the light roof. We need not discuss the probable architecture of Dagon’s temple, of which we know nothing. Only we may notice that it is not said that there were only two pillars, but rather necessarily implied that there were more than two, for those against which he leaned were ‘the two middle’ ones. It is quite easy to understand how, if there were a row of them, knocking out the two strongest central ones would bring the whole thing down, especially when there was such a load on the flat roof. Apparently the principal people were in the best places on the ground floor, sheltered from the sun by the roof, on which the commonalty were clustered, all waiting for what their newly discovered mountebank would do next, after he had breathed himself. The pause was short, and they little dreamed of what was to follow.

Let me die with the Philistines - (Matthew 16:25; Acts 20:24; 21:13; Philippians 2:17,30; Hebrews 12:1, 2, 3, 4 )

Like Saul, Samson was a castaway; he had committed sin unto death, and God had to take him off the scene (1Co 11:30,31; 1Jn 5:16,17).

The house fell - (Job 20:5; 31:3; Psalms 62:3; Ecclesiastes 9:12; Matthew 24:38,39; 1 Thessalonians 5:2 )

Dave Guzik writes that...

This was suicide, but differed from suicide in the strict sense in that his purpose really wasn't to kill himself, but to kill as many Philistines as he could. There is a sense in which Samson was like modern suicide-bombers. Suicide is clearly sin, the sin of self-murder. Yet we are wrong if we regard it as the unforgivable sin. Most all who commit suicide have given in to the lies and deceptions of Satan, whose purpose is to kill and destroy (John 10:10).

HE KILLED AT HIS DEATH WERE MORE THAN THOSE WHOM HE KILLED IN HIS LIFE: (Jdg 14:19; 15:8,15; Genesis 3:15; Philippians 2:8; Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14,15)

Samson illustrates people who have power to conquer others, but who cannot conquer themselves. He set the Philistine fields on fire, but could not control the fires of his own lust. He killed a lion, but would not put to death the passions of the flesh. He could easily break the bonds that men put on him, but the shackles of sin gradually grew stronger on his soul. Instead of leading the nation, he preferred to work independently, and as a result, left no permanent victory behind. He was remembered for what he destroyed, not for what he built up. He lacked discipline and direction; without these, his strength could accomplish little. He failed to check the impulses that began early in his career, and twenty years later, they killed him.

It remained for Samuel and David in later years to finally defeat the Philistines. Samuel by one prayer accomplished more than Samson did in twenty years of fighting (1Sa 7:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

Samson walked in the darkness and died in the darkness. God forgave him and restored his strength, but He did not restore his sight or his ministry. Samson may have died in victory, but he lived in moral and spiritual defeat. He destroyed God’s enemies, but he did not live like God’s friend (Jn 15:14). What a tragedy!

Alexander Maclaren sums up Samson observing that...

We have the last cry and heroic death of Samson. It is not to be supposed that his prayer was audible to the crowd, even if it were spoken aloud. It is not an elevated prayer, but is, like all the rest of his actions at their best, deeply marked with purely personal motives. The loss of his two eyes is uppermost in his mind, and he wants to be revenged for them. Instead of trying to make a lofty hero out of him, it is far better to recognise frankly the limitations of his character and the imperfections of his religion. The distance between him and the New Testament type of God’s soldier measures the progress which the revelation of God’s will has made, and the debt we owe to the Captain of the host for the perfect example which He has set. The defects and impurity of Samson’s zeal, which yet was accepted of God, preach the precious lesson that God does not require virtues beyond the standard of the epoch of revelation at which His servants stand, and that imperfection does not make service unacceptable. If the merely human passion of vengeance throbbed fiercely in Samson’s prayer, he had never heard ‘Love your enemies’; and, for his epoch, the destruction of the enemies of God and Israel was duty. He was not the only soldier of God who has let personal antagonism blend with his zeal for God; and we have less excuse, if we do it, than he had.

But there is the true core of religion in the prayer. It is penitence which pleads, ‘Remember me, O Lord God!’ He knows that his sin has broken the flow of loving divine thought to him, but he asks that the broken current may be renewed. Many a silent tear had fallen from Samson’s blind eyes, before that prayer could have come to his lips, as he leaned on the great pillars. Clear recognition of the Source of his strength is in the prayer; if ever he had forgotten, in Delilah’s lap, where it came from, he had recovered his conscious dependence amid the misery of the prison. There is humility in the prayer ‘Only this once.’ He feels that, after such a fall, no more of the brilliant exploits of former days are possible. They who have brought such despite on Jehovah and such honour to Dagon may be forgiven, and even restored to much of their old vigour, but they must not be judges in Israel any more. The best thing left for the penitent Samson is death.

He had been unconscious of the departure of his strength, but he seems to have felt it rushing back into his muscles; so he grasps the two pillars with his mighty hands; the crowd sees that the pause for breath is over, and prepares to watch the new feats. Perhaps we may suppose that his last words were shouted aloud, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ and before they have been rightly taken in by the mob, he sways himself backwards for a moment, and then, with one desperate forward push, brings down the two supports, and the whole thing rushes down to hideous ruin amid shrieks and curses and groans. But Samson lies quiet below the ruins, satisfied to die in such a cause.

He ‘counted not his life dear’ unto himself, that he might be God’s instrument for God’s terrible work. The last of the judges teaches us that we too, in a nobler cause, and for men’s life, not their destruction, must be ready to hazard and give our lives for the great Captain, who in His death has slain more of our foes than He did in His life, and has laid it down as the law for all His army, ‘He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.’

How beautifully the quiet close of the story follows the stormy scene of the riotous assembly and the sudden destruction. The Philistines, crushed by this last blow, let the dead hero’s kindred search for his body amid the chaos, and bear it reverently up from the plain to the quiet grave among the hills of Dan, where Manoah his father slept. There they lay that mighty frame to rest. It will be troubled no more by fierce passions or degrading chains. Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it. The penitent heroism of its end makes us lenient to the flaws in its course; and we leave the last of the judges to sleep in his grave, recognising in him, with all his faults and grossness, a true soldier of God, though in strange garb.

Spurgeon tells the following story...

Brought him up and buried him - A proper burial was a sign of special kindness and divine blessing. Not to be "buried" was a sign of divine disapproval, both on the surviving kinsmen and on the nation.

Between Zorah and Eshtaol - This phrase reminds one of Jdg 13:25. Samson has returned to where he began, only now he is dead. Beloved, you can mark it down that we may ignore our sins, but our sins will not ignore us. We eventually reap what we sow (Hos 8:7, 10:13, Pr 22:8, Gal 6:7, 8). Reaping follows sowing -- actions have consequences. Wicked deeds result in suffering and sorrow. Samson sowed the hot winds of sexual immorality and reaped the tumultuous whirlwinds of destruction.

Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
—Samuel Smiles

Samson was laid to rest in the region where he had grown up and was given the honor of burial in his father’s tomb (cf. Jdg 8:32).

He had judged Israel 20 years - To the surprise of many (and a testimony to the great lovingkindness of God), the writer of Hebrews records the name of Samson among the heroes of the faith (Heb 11:32, cp righteous Lot - 2Pe 2:7, 8, 9). This record despite the fact that Samson failed to fulfill God's will for his life. Unable to conquer himself, Samson was ruined by his own lusts (cp Jas 1:13, 14, 15). He stands as a tragic example of a man of great potential who lacked stability of character and control of his spirit. Still, God in His sovereignty used him. Samson did much to hamper the oppressive actions of the Philistines, and his final victory in the temple of Dagon may have been a factor in the defeat of the Philistines at Mizpah shortly thereafter (1Sa 7:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

Alexander Maclaren says it well:

Instead of trying to make a lofty hero out of him, it is far better to recognize frankly the limitations of his character and the imperfections of his religion....If the merely human passion of vengeance throbbed fiercely in Samson’s prayer, he had never heard ‘Love your enemies’ ; and, for his epoch, the destruction of the enemies of God and of Israel was duty.

Samson's decline began when he disagreed with his parents about marrying a Philistine girl. Then he disdained his Nazarite vow and defiled himself. He disregarded the warnings of God, disobeyed the Word of God, and was defeated by the enemies of God. He probably thought that he had the privilege of indulging in sin since he wore the badge of a Nazarite and won so many victories for the Lord, but he was wrong. If any of us think we stand in our own strength, then we had better take heed and remember the story of Samson, lest we end up in a similar state (cp 1Co 10:12).

Vance Havner summed up Samson's life writing that his...

last chapter was a sad story of binding, blinding, and grinding.

King Solomon, the wisest man in the Old Testament, had some pithy comments that would apply to individuals with a "Samson-like" attitude, writing that...

“Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls” (Pr 25:28).

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Pr 16:32).