BaptistWay: Realizing you’re not indestructible

• The BaptistWay lesson for June 9 focuses on Judges 16:4-30.

 • Download a powerpoint resource for this lesson here.

Ah! Samson and Delilah—the stuff of opera and film. Who doesn’t remember the childhood Sunday school lessons lauding Samson as a hero of God to be emulated? Remember those coloring pages with a figure worthy of the WWF, holding aloft a huge stone or strangling a lion or wielding the jawbone of a donkey? But maybe such popular portrayals of Samson are misleading. Perhaps we should read his whole story (Judges 13:1-16:31) and discover whom Samson really was.

He was born a Nazirite. Samson’s barren mother was approached by an angel, who commanded her to take the Nazirite vow during her pregnancy. He told her she would bear a son who would be a Nazirite from birth and who would deliver Israel from the Philistines (13:2-5).

Nazarite vow

Numbers 6:1-21 describes the Nazirite vow. Both men and women could take the vow. It could be lifelong or temporary. And it involved three things: (1) Abstinence from the fruit of the vine; (2) avoidance of the dead; and (3) not allowing a razor to touch the head (Numbers 6:1-8). For Samson, the most important part of the vow was the third rule (Judges 13:5), because, as a warrior, he would necessarily come in contact with the dead, and, at least in his story, the issue of the fruit of the vine never arises.

Samson also was a selfish man who pursued women against his parents’ wishes (Judges 14:1-3). Ironically, God used Samson’s bad choices in women in order to deliver Israel from the Philistines (v. 4). His entire narrative revolves around women: the story of the woman of Timnah (14:1-15:20); the prostitute at Gaza (16:1-3); and, of course, the story of Samson and Delilah (16:4-31).

Samson was not a godly man. He disobeyed his parents (14:1-3). He ate honey from a lion carcass and gave some to his parents without telling them where he got it (v. 9). This act was a violation of the dietary laws (Leviticus 13:24-25, 27). He called his wife a “heifer” (Judges 14:18). He visited a prostitute (16:1-3). When Samson prayed (twice in his life), he prayed only for selfish reasons, not for the salvation of Israel (15:18; 16:28).

In the story at hand, Samson loved a woman named Delilah (Judges 16:4). We know nothing about this woman. Most assume she was a Philistine, though her name is Hebrew. We are not told if Delilah loved Samson in return, but her actions suggest she did not.

Betrayal

The Philistine lords offered Delilah 1,100 pieces of silver to find out the source of Samson’s strength (Judges 16:5). Delilah took their generous offer and approached Samson. Note what Delilah says: “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” Where is the deception? The seduction? Where is the lie in that question? Delilah tells Samson exactly what she wants to know. Samson is the one who lies.

Three times Samson deceives Delilah about the source of his strength (Judges 16:7-14). Each time, Delilah tests him, and each time she discovers he has lied to her. Finally, she accuses him of not truly loving her, and, after being nagged to death, Samson finally exposes the truth (Judges 16:15-16). His strength is in his hair.

Readers usually wonder, “Was Samson really that stupid?” Obviously, after the first test, he had to know what Delilah was up to. Why, then, after three attempts, did Samson give in? Was it stupidity or something more destructive?

Lovers’ game

I suggest Samson was playing a lovers’ game with Delilah. He was taunting her and getting great satisfaction in watching her try to catch him by tying him up and weaving his hair. But I don’t believe he was stupid. I believe Samson was worse than that. He was arrogant.

One clue in the text suggests such arrogance. Samson didn’t really believe he would lose his strength if he told Delilah the truth. After Samson’s head was shaved, “he awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had left him” (16:20). Samson knew his hair would be cut, but when he awoke, he thought things would be just as before. He didn’t even realize the Lord had left him. Samson believed his strength was his own; it had nothing to do with his vow; it had nothing to do with God. He was wrong.

Samson thought he was indestructible, and he suffered for it. In the end, of course, he destroyed the Philistines, but at the cost of his own life.

We go through periods in life when we feel indestructible—adolescence comes to mind, naturally. But don’t all of us suffer, in some way, from the arrogance of the living? We go about our daily lives as if they will go on forever, even though we know they will not. But when tragedy strikes, we suddenly come face to face with mortality—a diagnosis of cancer or some other life-threatening disease, the death of a friend or acquaintance our own age, the shock of seeing people in the prime of life being attacked on a street in Boston.

The story of Samson is not the story of a hero but the story of hubris and tragedy. We should not want to emulate Samson, but we can learn from his story: Life is fragile; we are vulnerable to arrogance; and we are not indestructible.