Chapter 16

Samson visits a prostitute in Gaza.  Gaza is a Philistine city.  The men of the city find out he's there and lay in wait to kill him at dawn.  Samson leaves at midnight, taking the city gates with him.  Not sure what the point of this short, three verse incident really is.  Samson was in a place he shouldn't have been, doing something he should not have been doing.  The enemies of Israel find out about it and plan to kill him, which they should not do.  We aren't clear as to whether Samson even knows they are there.  It does say the ambush was at the gate of the city, yet Samson takes the gates with him when he leaves.  Are we to understand that he ambushed the ambushers, and then by taking the gates left that whole city vulnerable?  MSB says it is about God being merciful to Samson despite his sins here, but that his chastening was only postponed.  It says nothing about whether there was a confrontation with those who wanted to kill him.  He took those gates to Hebron, 38 miles away.  Wooden, solid, strong gates, and he carried them that far on his shoulders.  The strength that would take is amazing.

Another time, later, he meets Delilah.  Delilah seems to be a Philistine also, but at this point it hasn't said so.  There is an implication that for the money she is offered, she seduces Samson with no worries about marriage or virtue.  She is not a nice lady, and Samson again shows us how blind or ignorant he is about women.  He truly has a weakness here.  The Philistines offer her a lot of money to seduce Samson, find out how to subdue him, so they can capture him.  She readily does this.  Three times she asks how to weaken him, three times he lies, three times the Philistines show up and try what he told her.  How can you have any sympathy at all for a man this stupid.  The fourth time, after she nags him to death, he tells her the truth, with obvious consequences.

This verse:

15 And she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies." [Jdg 16:15 ESV]

Beware, when someone tries to coerce you with love.  Love doesn't act that way.  Love doesn't try to get you to do something harmful to you.  It NEVER does.  Beware.

2022 - This verse:

20 And 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." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. [Jdg 16:20 ESV]

Is this arrogant pride?  He knew she was trying to trick him into revealing the source of his strength.  Three times she'd proved she was his enemy.  Yet he tells her the truth to get her to stop nagging him.  And when he wakes up, he thinks that even though she knows the truth, she hasn't used it against him...either that, or he thinks he'd lied to her a third time.  Perhaps even Samson didn't realize this was the source of his strength.  How could he have known, if it had never been cut.  Maybe this was his best guess, and he had told her what he truly believed - but did not know.  He had to know, as he awoke, that his hair had been cut.  Why would he have thought he could go out as before if he really believed, really knew, that his strength was there?  And then look at the last part of the verse...he didn't know the Lord had left him.  He knew his hair was gone, but didn't recognize that God was gone.  Did God leave because he broke his Nazirite vow without completing the procedure?  Was it the haircut or the vow breaking that caused God to leave him.  Was his strength in his hair, or was it in his commitment to his vow to God as a Nazirite?  If he'd had a glass of wine, wouldn't his strength also have left him?  Then this verse follows:

28 Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes." [Jdg 16:28 ESV].  Samson understands now that his strength was never in his hair, but came from God.  He does not point out to God here that his hair has grown back.  He asks for strength directly from the source.

Samson's downfall was not cutting his hair the source of his strength, but breaking his Nazirite vows.  God had continually suspended his justice as to Samson's repeated sins and ungodly decisions so long as Samson stayed committed to his Nazirite vows.  So long as he at least held on to that commitment, God allowed him to continue as judge of Israel.  But when that core commitment ended, so did God's forbearance.  The Nazirite vows of Samson were like the sacrificial laws of Israel.  So long as they maintained the sacrifices, God overlooked - and still overlooks - great sin.  But when you won't even go to the trouble of sacrificing, or you begin to sacrifice to other gods instead, forbearance comes to an end, and the promised corrections come on.

This seems to be on the right track, but I don't think I have all the connections quite right.  There is a lesson here about commitment that continues despite great personal flaws and about God's patience with those who truly believe, despite their personal actions.  But when the commitment wavers, there is no more patience.  There is a lesson to stay committed, even when we fail miserably.  As David also did with Bathsheba and Uriah.  David's commitment did not waver, though his actions were horrible.  David lived the rest of his life.  Samson died young.  Hmm...doesn't quite work out.  Something to continue studying.

He is captured and his eyes gouged out and he is put to work in the prison.  They have a party, he is the entertainment.  His hair has grown back and be brings the house down on 3000 Philistine lords and ladies.  His prayer is for strength to avenge his two eyes.  He dies as the house comes down.

He had judged 20 years.

I have a hard time seeing this man as a good example.