Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Judges 16:4–15
“And the lords of the Philistines came up to [Delilah] and said to her, ‘Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies’” (Judg. 16:5a).
Having learned nothing from his close encounter with death in Gaza, or perhaps laughing it off due to overconfidence in his strength, Samson again yields to his lusts and falls in love with yet another Philistine woman—the infamous Delilah. “The burnt child dreads the fire,” Matthew Henry writes, “yet Samson … comes short of the wisdom of a child; for, though he had been more than once brought into the highest degree of mischief and danger by the love of women and lusting after them, yet he would not take warning, but is here again taken in the same snare, and the third time pays for all.”
By this time, the lords of the Philistines’ five principal cities are watching diligently for any opportunity to strike Samson down, and his relationship with Delilah does not escape their attention. Moving swiftly, they enlist her aid in discovering the secret of Samson’s strength. They soothe any feelings she might have for him by suggesting that they will not take his life, only “afflict him,” and each of the five promises to pay her the enormous sum of eleven hundred pieces of silver. Thus begins this classic story of enticement and betrayal.
Delilah is less than subtle in seeking Samson’s secret: “ ‘Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you,’ ” she asks. He shows no alarm at her mention of affliction, but neither does he reveal the secret; instead, he gives her a series of fake methods for robbing him of his strength. Is he stringing her along while he maximizes his enjoyment of her? Is he being a tease? It is impossible to pinpoint Samson’s motives, but he is surely playing a dangerous game, for Delilah puts each of his explanations to the test by lulling him to sleep, binding him as he instructed, then waking him with a sudden warning as the Philistines watch. Each time his instinctive reaction shows the remedy to be false, and each time Delilah accuses him of mocking her or failing to truly love her.
It is astounding that Samson continues to dally with this woman while she so obviously seeks his harm. “Could anything be more weak than for him to continue a parley with one who, he so plainly saw, was aiming to do him a mischief?” Henry asks. And yet, he may not see it at all. It is possible that Samson is so sunk in the illicit pleasures of his sin mat he is totally blind to his danger.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Have you ever been blinded by sin, suddenly seeing later how deeply you were in rebellion? We must guard against this scenario by fleeing temptation and by constantly allowing Scripture to reinforce God’s instructions for living. Pray for eyes that see temptations for what they are, as well as God’s way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13).
For Further Study
- Psalm 16:11
- Psalm 19:12
- Psalm 25:4–5
- Psalm 143:10
- Luke 11:4
- James 1:12