We women have an incredible gift: the power of persuasion. A smile is enough to catch a man’s attention, sweet words are enough to change his mind, and our touch is enough to make him lose his mind. We’ve seen it happen countless times; in the Bible and even in our current generation. It never ceases to amaze me how women are a man’s weakness, but you’d rarely see a man being the reason for a woman’s downfall.
Now we all know the story of Samson and Delilah and how she delivered him into the hands of the Philistines, but can we say she is 100% to blame?
The story starts from Judges 13:
Samson’s parents weren’t able to conceive easily, and before they did, an angel of the Lord told them what needed to be done for the promise of God to be fulfilled.
Samson’s mum wasn’t allowed to drink anything ‘grape’-related, and she wasn’t allowed to eat anything unclean.
Samson was a Nazirite, which meant he:
- Couldn’t cut his hair
The hair was the visible sign of the vow. - Couldn’t eat anything from grapes
Not just wine; also raisins, grape juice, even grape skins. - Had to avoid contact with dead bodies
Even if it was a close family member.
In Judges 14 we see the type of man Samson was;
From all the women he could choose, he picked one from the Philistines… literally went to lay in bed with the enemy. He even ignored the warnings of his parents and went ahead to marry her.
After killing a lion, he went ahead to not only eat from its carcass… he also shared this with his parents; something that was clearly forbidden to him as a Nazirite.
The second command was to not eat anything from a grape, but in verse 10 we get to know that there was a party. I’m not 100% sure since the Bible doesn’t mention it explicitly, but there is a big chance that he drank wine, since fruit juice wasn’t really a thing then.
The Philistines were able to use his wife to manipulate him, and she showed on whose side she was. Yet Samson gave in to her wishes and told her the answer to the riddle. He killed the men for cheating, and his wife was given away to another man.
As if that wasn’t enough, in chapter 15, his issues with the philistines continue;
He took revenge because his wife was given away, then the Philistines killed his wife and her father. In return, Samson acted again and killed many of them; they captured him, he broke free, and killed again.
At this point, to me, he’s an angry fool. I know God gave him the strength to deal with the Philistines, but there isn’t much wisdom in the way Samson acts.
He is very impulsive, very theatrical, very bloodthirsty, and mischievous (for he keeps provoking them so he has the justification to act out).
Then in chapter 16, Delilah is mention for the first time.
Before her, Samson met a prostitute and almost lost his life there, and yet he still continued laying with the same type of women who constantly betrayed him.
Delilah wanted to know the secret to his power, and she asked him outright; she kept pressing and testing and pressing and testing until Samson gave up. And the moment he did, he fell into the hands of the enemy. Verse 20 says that the Lord had left him.
Even though later on he was still able to kill many more than when he was alive, he was humiliated, captured, disgraced, and his legacy had come to an end.
Obedience is ALWAYS better than sacrifice; all Samson had to do was stay away from the things he wasn’t allowed to come in contact with as a Nazirite and listen to the warnings of his parents regarding Philistine women.
Yes, Delilah tricked him into giving up his secret, but on the other hand, compared to the life that he lived, he was bound to be disgraced sooner or later. She put the final nail in the coffin, but she wasn’t the one who made the coffin or even placed him in it in the first place.
Is she innocent? Absolutely not, but is she to blame for the downfall of Samson? No. It is his own fault for making the choices he made, so he has to deal with the consequences.
I pray that we do not willingly place ourselves in the hands of our enemies. I pray our obedience be more than enough to sustain us, IJN.
Stay Blessed x
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