Boastful, Blinded, and Bound - Judges 16:15-27

 Many years ago I was in a defensive driving class. Yes, I was in a defensive driving class as a result of a ticket I received for speeding on the highway. As part of this course, the police officer showed us several videos and still shots of what can result if the laws are not obeyed on the road. Shocking, graphic, and unsettling, these images were intended to scare us into submission. By showing us what has happened in the past, the officer was hoping that we might learn something and prevent similar things from happening as we take to the road. I must admit, it made me think twice about a couple of things and change a few things about the way I drive. Today I’d like to do something similar, although, instead of showing you pictures/videos, I’d like to take us through Judges 16:15-27. It is my prayer by showing you what happened to Samson in this passage, we might learn a thing or two so that we do not see this kind of failure repeat itself in our own lives. In this passage we are going to witness three actions that take Samson from the top to the bottom and we will discover how important it is not to rely on our own strength.\

a) ACTION #1: The Secret is Extracted-16:15-17

We last left Samson in a compromising situation with his new love interest, Delilah. Delilah has been trying to extract the secret to Samson’s strength so that she might share this information with the Philistines and they might bind and torture Israel’s deliverer. So far Samson has been successful in withholding the answer to her inquiry; however, he has been inching closer to revealing too much. Three attempts at discovering Samson’s power source have been thwarted and in verse 15 we arrive at attempt number 4. Delilah says, “…’How can you say, “I love you,” when your heart is not with me? You have toyed with me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is’…” (16:15). Here, Delilah employs the same persuasive tactic of Samson’s first wife back in Timnah (see 14:16-17). She suggests that his love for her cannot be real if he is not fully committed to her and willing to disclose everything.

This tactic appears to apply the right kind of pressure according to verse 16—“And it came about, when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death…” (16:16). No doubt, as in chapter 14, tears and persistent nagging accompanied Delilah’s accusations and claims against Samson here and the pressure is too much for Samson to take. The idiom “his soul was annoyed to death” means that Samson was completely worn out by Delilah’s incessant attempts and had met his limit.

As a result, Samson relents—“So he told her all that was in his heart…” (16:17a) (lit. “bared his soul”). Though it has taken awhile, Delilah is successful at wearing Samson down in her multiple attempts and finally receives what she has been looking for—the secret to Samson’s strength. Make no mistake, sin is patient, persistent, and willing to play the long game to lead God’s people to failure. As strong as Samson is, his mind and spirit prove to lack the same resolve and endurance that Delilah shows as she is about her business. In a game of wits, Delilah proves more resilient that Samson. To Samson, she has proven sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion.

After giving in, Samson “said to her, ‘A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.’…” (16:17b). What Samson reveals is telling. First, it indicates that Samson was (believe it or not) aware of his high spiritual and theological calling. Though his actions might indicate otherwise, Samson understood that his life was supposed to be special and set apart to the one true God of Israel. Second, the revelation of his hair and no razor touching his head highlights the one element of his Nazarite vow he had kept. While he had contacted dead bodies (the lion carcass, jawbone, and fresh ropes), entertained relationships with foreign women, and gave himself over to strong drink (all in defiance of his special promise and consecration), he had not, up to this point, cut his hair. His hair was, perhaps, the last remaining vestige of his promise to God that Samson had not broken.  That is, until now. With the secret of Samson’s strength extracted, things move very quickly toward devastation. So far Samson has played with fire without harm, but now he has been burned.

b) ACTION #2: The Strength is Taken-16:18-22

“When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent word and called the governors of the Philistines, saying, ‘Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.’ Then the governors of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the money in their hands…” (16:18). Something about what Samson said this time around and how he said it convinced Delilah and her co-conspirators that this was legitimate and they finally had the answer they were looking for. The Philistines pay off their double-agent (Delilah) and then they execute their plan to bring Samson in.

Given that in every previous attempt Delilah responded to what Samson said with an attempt on his life, I am not sure what Samson expected from her after this last disclosure. Had Samson any sense, he should have seen what would happen next coming a mile away. However, that is the thing about sin and slipping slowly toward devastation—once you go far enough, you cannot see clearly or think straight. Samson is compromised and as a result, he places himself in a compromising situation leading to his demise.

The text reveals, “And she made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to humble him, and his strength left him” (16:19). While earlier the guards in Gaza seeking Samson’s life had slept through Samson’s escape and removal of the gates (16:1-3), here Samson somehow sleeps through a major haircut that allows Delilah to torment him and the Philistines to overpower him. “Then she began to humble him” actually means “she began to torture Samson.” It is the same word Delilah used in setting forth her agenda in verse 6 (“So Delilah said to Samson, ‘Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you”) (Block, Judges, Ruth, 460).

The deed now done, she tests Samson with the same test he had passed three times prior—“She said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ And he awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’” (16:20). This has been the story of Samson’s life—he has come and gone as he pleased without consequence. Remember, Samson believed himself invincible. No one had ever been able to tell him what he could or could not do (Block, Judges, Ruth, 461). However, there was one important difference between this episode and those before—“he did not know that the Lord had departed from him…” (16:20). Here lies the ultimate secret to Samson’s strength—the source of his power. Ultimately, it wasn’t Samson’ hair that empowered him. It was the Lord. The hair represented his connection to the Lord (the Nazarite vow). Because Samson showed no respect for the Lord, never gave credit to the Lord for his victories, and seemed to replace reliance on the Lord with reliance on himself, the Lord hands Samson over to his sin by allowing him to go it alone in his own limited human strength. After all, that is how Samson has been operating anyway. If Samson wanted to follow his own way in his own strength, now he really could.

Consider this, sometimes the worst thing God could give you is exactly what you want. Samson wanted to eb self-reliant and now he would finally get it.

With the hand of the Lord now removed from Samson’s life, the Philistines have no problem whatsoever in apprehending their victim—“Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and restrained him with bronze chains, and he became a grinder in the prison…” (16:21). The irony is not lost on the reader here as the Philistines torture their victim. “Overnight this man is transformed from one whose life is governed by sight and whose actions are determined by what is right in his own eyes into a blind man with eyes gouged out. Overnight a life of coming and going as he pleases turns into a life of bondage and imprisonment. Overnight the person who has spent his life insulting and humiliating others becomes the object of their humiliation. Overnight a man with the highest conceivable calling, the divinely commissioned agent of deliverance for Israel, is cast down to the lowest position imaginable: grinding flour for others in prison.” (Block, Judges, Ruth, 462).

Though Samson’s saga is highly personal, the rise and fall of this deliverer serves as an analogy for the people Samson was supposed to lead—the nation of Israel. Like Samson, if God’s people continued to persist in sin and entertain the pagan influences around them, they too will be seized, spiritually blinded, exiled, imprisoned, humiliated, and forced into labor. The same might be said of God’s people today. These same fates await those who trade dependency on the Lord for entertaining themselves with sinful pursuits or relying purely on their own strength to get through life. Though it may not happen all at once or right away, sin and self-reliance leads to spiritual captivity, blindness, exile, and slavery of all kinds.

Though Samson had been given every opportunity to lead an incredible life and successful ministry as judge, he has been utterly humiliated. In verse 21 we find him at rock bottom. Though his name means “sun,” by verse 21 Samson’s sun has set.

However, while all might seem lost for this failed deliverer, a small comment in verses 22 draws attention to a silver lining lurking on the periphery of an altogether ominous sky (Crenshaw, Samson, 501). Verse 22 reads, “However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off…”. Miraculously, this comment reveals that somehow God is not yet done with Samson and, despite his gross failure, the Lord might still have use for this antihero.

c) ACTION #3: The Success is Celebrated-16:23-27

Before we get to that, the Philistines revel in their victory over Samson in verses 23-27. First, we witness a pagan praise service. From the governors we see the following: “Now the governors of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to celebrate, for they said, ‘Our god has handed Samson our enemy over to us.’…” (16:23). In the ancient pagan world your confidence in your god(s) was dependent on successes you gained over your enemies. Because the Philistines were finally successful over Samson, the governors frame the victory theologically by offering sacrifices to the false god Dagon and giving him credit (something that Samson does not even do with respect to Yahweh following his own victories).

The Philistine masses join the refrain upon seeing Samson in verse 24—“When the people saw him, they praised their god for they said, ‘Our god has handed our enemy over to us, Even the destroyer of our country, who has killed many of us’…” (16:24). For these Gazites, Samson may have won battles against them in the past, but they had won the war.

Following the praise service, the Philistines throw a party and ask for Samson to serve as the entertainment: “It so happened when they were in high spirits, that they said, ‘Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.’ So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars…” (16:25). Though the ruins of this temple have not been discovered, excavations in and around this region confirm the type of structure we read about here where the roof and upper story of a large meeting place were supported by two cedar pillars slightly less than three meters apart set on round stone bases (Block, Judges, Ruth, 466). Standing in the middle of these pillars for all to see is the trophy of their victory, a blinded Samson, helpless and bound.

The narrative briefly zooms in on Samson, escaping the jeers and insults of the crowd, and reveals the following in verse 26—“Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, ‘Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, so that I may lean against them.” While there is certainly an element of foreshadowing here that sets up the next passage, this comment also serves to illustrate to just how weak and vulnerable Samson is at this low point. Earlier he tore a lion apart with his bare hands, killed 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey, and ripped the city gates off their hinges. Here, a small boy is all that is needed to keep him in custody. This serves to show that absent the presence of God, even the mighty are utterly helpless and vulnerable.

As the description of the party continues, the momentum seems to shift in a different direction—“Now the house was full of men and women, and all the governors of the Philistines were there. And about three thousand men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was entertaining them” (16:27). Those who already know the end of the story can see how this description sets up what will happen later, but let us consider how those who would have read this for the first time might interpret this. The Philistines seem to be validated here. They had captured the champion of Israel (flawed though he may be, he was still their deliverer). Everyone who was anyone was there to join the celebration which seemed to exalt Dagon and undermine the God of Israel and his chosen leader. However, this is not how the story ends.

So What?

But before we get to the ending of Samson’s story, let us consider what lessons we might learn in Samson’s “rock-bottom” episode. First, prideful self-reliance might seem to work for a season, but it ultimately leads people to utter failure. As in Samson’s mind, our world might glorify the idea of total independence and yet, God’s people ought not fall for this trap. Samson finally gets what he seems to want in this passage—total autonomy—and he learns very quickly that he, in and of himself, is not all that strong or all that spectacular. When God leaves him, so does the power, perseverance, and provision. As a result, Samson is vulnerable to attack, helpless, and easily enslaved. This is the dirty bait and switch of our enemy too. The world and its many mouthpieces tempt us with the idea of self-reliance, promising freedom and control of our fate only to capture us, blind us, bind us, and take us where we do not want to go. When we show God the door, we might as well show power, perseverance, and provision out as well.

Samson was not created, called, and commissioned to go it alone or perform in his own strength and neither or we. This is why Jesus is adamant in John 15, “Abide in me and I in You. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you aide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (15:4-5). Are you connected to the vine? Is God’s presence in your life today?

Perhaps God is not in your life today or perhaps you have been brought very low, like Samson was in the passage. Perhaps today is a call to repentance and maybe today you need to confess your dependency on the Lord. Believe it or not, it is not over for Samson, and it does not have to be over for you either!