A. Samson and Delilah
1. (Judges 16:1-3) Samson and the harlot at Gaza
Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. When it was told to the Gazites, saying, "Samson has come here," they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, "Let us wait until the morning light, then we will kill him." Now Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.
The final words of the previous chapter are that Samson judged Israel for 20 years. Samson did not judge all of Israel. He only judged the area in the former territory of Dan and the northern area of Judah which were under the thumb of the Philistines. The Philistines only presented a problem for a relatively small part of the land of Canaan. They oppressed only a few of the twelve tribes of Israel during this time.
This 20-year reference is also not meant for us to think that 20 years had passed since the donkey jawbone incident and the beginning of chapter 16 in which Samson goes down to Gaza and engages in the services of a prostitute. We do not really know how much time has passed, but it probably was only a few years. It seems as though the Philistines had stopped pursuing Samson after he had single handedly killed 1000 of their men with nothing more than a donkey's jawbone. What we ought to take notice of is that Samson created havoc with the Philistines for a substantial amount of time.
Now Samson went to Gaza: In yet another violation of his Nazirite vow, Samson involves himself with a Philistine prostitute in Gaza. This is the same city of Gaza we know of today. Samson seemed to really have a thing for Philistines girls. There is no record of Samson showing any interests in Hebrew women.
One cannot help but wonder if Samson would really venture all the way from his home in Zorah to the coastal town of Gaza to simply lie with a prostitute. While prostitution went on in Hebrew society, it was not well accepted as it was in Philistine culture. It is amazing the Philistine army did not immediately come after Samson; however, I suspect they were hoping Samson would be a good boy this time around--he would enjoy himself and then go home without decreasing the Philistine population.
When it was told to the Gazites: The townspeople of Gaza were not so pragmatic. When they heard Samson was in town, they set a trap to kill him. They were going to wait for him to come out in the morning. Then they were going to kill him. Thus, the stage was set for another conflict between Samson and the Philistines.
They surrounded the place and lay in wait all night at the gate of the city: The foolish Gazites surrounded the place where Samson was staying. But, Samson must have sensed something was askew as he arose at midnight to leave. Rather than stealthily sneaking out of town, Samson went to the city gates, broke the lock and with superhuman strength lifted the city gates off their pivoting pins and walked off with them. I cannot even imagine the gaping mouths of the Philistines who stood looking at the hole in the city's defensive wall and their missing gates as the morning sun peaked over the eastern hills.
City gates were not small. No human could even contemplate lifting just one of them. The gates were made of heavy wood planks and usually were held together using large iron spikes. During this time in history, iron sheets often covered the outer side so it would not easily be burned down.
He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain: Samson did not just take the gates down, he carried them off on his shoulders! He took them to a hilltop. Now depending on your translation, Samson either took the gates to a hill in Hebron or he took them towards Hebron. The city of Hebron was 40 miles away. It also had an elevation of approximately 2500 feet, meaning it was uphill all the way from the coastal city of Gaza. It makes little sense Samson would have taken the city gates that far. Almost certainly, he took them on a road which was TOWARDS Hebron and arrived at some intermediate place on a hill from where he would see Hebron.
Brief interlude
Samson is one of the most iconic characters in the entire Bible. It is hard to know what to make of him and allegorizing who he was and what he did into a wide array of sermons and topical discussions has proven to be irresistible to Rabbis and pastors alike.
There is a fine line between recognizing and applying a biblically defined God-pattern to a situation versus twisting the meaning of a Bible passage into something which attempts to prove our point. The key to know which you are hearing is context. If the context of the application is the same as the context of the original scriptural pattern, then the application is probably being properly applied. If it is not, it should be discounted as ear-tickling words of persuasion. Whether learning from me or any other Bible teach, that standard should always be kept in mind. Thus I think (and hope) what I am about to say falls within the former rather than the latter category: Samson presents us with a wonderful picture of the church in general and individual Believers specifically. Samson's pattern of being a walking, talking irony is the same pattern of any follower of Jesus; each of us (from the least to the most pious among us) is a living irony.
The Apostle Paul spoke about this strange condition of the Believer at length and summed it up in one of the most desperate, frustrated and passionate moments of his life when he made a bold admission not only about his spiritual condition but also about the mysteries of his relationship with God and how they play out in his life.
"For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin be effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Lw, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:11-24)
This passage reminds me of the stark reality of my life and my walk with the LORD. And it is not the pretty picture we imagine our lives to be. My only comfort is that all followers of Christ live lives of irony. The same irony I live, Samson and Paul also lived. We have the Spirit of God living in us not because we have earned it but only because He declared us clean and holy enough to be His earthly temples; yet, our corrupted flesh remains just as corrupt as before our salvation, and our evil inclinations remain fully operational.
We have a holy and divine text at our fingertips which explains who God is and what His will is for us. We have a Holy guide who lives within is. And yet, we choose more often than not to ignore all that. We look elsewhere for validation and to do what pleases us at the moment. We usually know it is wrong when we do it and that it is sin, but we do it anyway.
Even worse, we detect and recognize God-induced urgings deep inside us which tell us there are things we are to do and were we are to be. But we often contemplate those divine proddings, mull them over and wrestle with them and discard them in favor of personal comfort, convenience and familiarity.
In the end, this was Samson. In the end, Paul recognized this in himself. And in the end it is you and I as the assembly of Jesus.
As we begin to study the well-known story of Samson and Delilah, we need to be conscious of this: there is a decided distinction between faith and faithfulness. Faith is an act of the intellect. Hindus have faith. Muslims have faith. Even atheists have faith. The source and object of our faith is everything. By itself, faith is passive. Regardless of whatever faith it may be until it is put to work it is dormant. James calls this dead faith.
Faith in action transforms to faithfulness. Faith is knowing, but faithfulness is doing. So it is not only possible, but it typical that one can have faith but NOT be faithful at all. Faith in the right thing will indeed save us for unimaginable joy and peace in the next world. But our lack of faithfulness will bring us nothing but misery, confusion and destruction in the present world.
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