Deadly Delilahs

April 2017

Steer Clear Of Delilahs⚠️

(Judges 16:1-25) One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.” But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.” He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads. Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.” He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric and tightened it with the pin. Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric. Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it. So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” 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. Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.” When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, “Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain.” While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. When they stood him among the pillars,

I find some interesting points we can take to heart from the story of Sampson

1.) Sampson had God strength and supernatural power to defeat large armies of Philistine men yet his achiles heel was he had an eye for pagan women that caught his eye. The first incidence was he married a Philistine woman, and she died at the hands of her own people, and her and her fathers household because the enraged Philistines nursed a grudge against Sampson so they took vengeance by burning her and her father to death.

2.)Sampson relied too greatly on his pride and I am led to believe his victories over the Philistines led him to get careless and wreckless.

3.)Ironically enough, At the end of the story the very eyes that led Sampson astray were the very same eyes the savage Philistines poked out.<<
) Sampson later met smooth little Delilah who had a way to butter a man up. She was one smooth serpent that knew just how to coex a man to fall trustingly into her suductive arms, and Sampson revealed his weakness that if his hair was cut he would lose all his strength.

Ever met one smooth talking tigress that knew just how to wear a man down? That was Delilah for you, and she was persistent little booger and her lust for money was all it took for her to throw the man who thought she loved him under the bus. Just like Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver, little miss Delilah was easily bought to with just a little incentive.

She how she responded when Sampson for the first few times did not tell her his secret? She had an emotional ace up her sleeve and said, "All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”—Whoa, talk about manipulative, Did Delilah care if Sampson truly loved her or not? Most likely not. Yet as many suductresses of our time even also do, they know they can smooth talk a gullible man led astray by his passions and desires. She had a fine way of preying on Sampsons greates kink in his metaphorical armor. Yes that is, his desire for women. She knew a man's weakness, yes lust, and she exploited it to her advantage like many women do.

There are quite a few young women in our day and time that learn from Delilahs of yesteryear and this is really all the unredeemed know. Using their powers they believe they possess to accomplish their desired end.<<<
ore Jacob encountered God, he was the "deciever" and had learned to also get forward in life by tricking others, especially his own brother Essau who fell prey namely to his own lack of self control.< strong>Hebrews 12:16-17 refers to Esau this way, “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.”<<
lilah was probably no more guilty then any other Philistine in the land in her time as well as any non believer residing in our day. The person who does not know Christ, the Living God or ways of the Lord has no one really to rely on fully but themselves and what they concoct and devise to get by in a ruthless world dominated by unbelief, sin, and pride of self."9

To the person who neither trusts God nor believes in a God, he or she really thinks they must do what they see fit, as earlier on in the book of Judges said, "Israel had no king, so each person did what they thought best” and self preservation for the lost soul is at the very end of the day their driving focus. For they make friends even on this premise, and they are loyal only to those who they derive some recipricative benefit from.

Yet for the one who follows Christ, this is not the way of the cross.

(Matthew 5:38-48) “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

In a world that knows only love by strings attached, Christ tells us the better way that we must follow his example and not as Sampson said in his revenge, “I will do to them what they did to me” since this only escalated the thirst for blood on both the side of Israel and the Philistines:<<<
re called to "Take up our cross daily and follow him" and "Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good"

Sampson's unwise playing with fire cost him his life yet at the very darkest God still brought light when Sampson prayed in his repentence as he was chained to the pillars in humiliation. He looked back to The Lord and although he perished with the Philistines he made it into the list of great people of faith in the book of Hebrews.