‘After this he (Samson) loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver” (Judges 16:4-5).

I’m a great fan of the Greek myths. In story of a Odysseus,  as he and his men row past the island where the Sirens reside, he has himself tied to the mast and his men, who are rowing, put bee’s wax in their ears so they will not hear the song of the Sirens and be lured to their deaths. However, Samson seems oblivious to taking precautions. He’s been given immense advantages, and yet he continues to do his own thing, despite the Lord’s deliverance at the end of chapter 15!

In verse 1 of chapter 16, we once again we find him in the wrong place and in the wrong company! You wouldn’t believe it, as this is hardly worthy of the Lord’s servant,  but here it is in scripture! A visit to a prostitute, in Philistine territory, puts him at risk. The text is reminiscent of chapter 14 verse 1. Once again Samson sees a pretty face and is ruled by his passions. In the end, he uses his immense strength to get him out of trouble (v3), but the way he does it shows he treats the whole thing like an immense joke!So why is this story here, as it doesn’t seem to fit naturally with the rest of the narrative? The reason is to alert us that Samson is still driven by his instincts, doing his own thing and he hasn’t learned a thing from his past misdemeanors. In other words, it’s setting him up for a fall! You might think he’d say to himself after this incident “I’ve been in trouble when I gone after Philistine women before. I lost a bet, and the other times I could have been killed, so these situations are best avoided.” But alas, he doesn’t.

So in verse 4 we read: ‘After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.’ The name has religious connotations, but whether she was involved directly in serving in the worship of the Philistine god Dagon we don’t know. But we do know she wasn’t an Israelite, she was a Philistine who were enemies of God’s people. The Philistines leaders know Samson far better than he knows himself. Knowing he can’t resist a pretty face, they go to Delilah with money, which she happily accepts, to get her to find out the secret of Samson’s great strength (v5).

The trouble with Samson is that he’s so confident in his strength, he treats her question, like a game (vs6-14). No doubt Delilah introduced it by means of pillow talk. She may even have been laughing the first few times she said: “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies” (v10). But she skillfully plays Samson, eventually pulling out the big guns with the words: “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” (v15). She nags him, which hardly spices up in the relationship, but wears him down so he eventually confesses the secret of his strength (v17). To cut a long story short, while he’s unaware, Delilah gives him a haircut. Once again, Samson thinks he can do it all by himself, but this time he pays the price. I think we are meant to feel a sense of tragedy in 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.’ The result is he’s captured, blinded and put to menial and degrading work (v21)!

But this reminds us that Samson just doesn’t learn. Hadn’t this same tactic been employed before by his Philistine wife and lost him a bet (14:15-17)? Mistakes can be of some value, when we learn from them. But Samson seems incapable of doing that! Samson, as usual, is driven by his appetites, and what probably mattered most to him here was Delilah’s nagging was cutting down on his carnal pleasure!

But it also shows something else, his flippancy towards the gifts the Lord had given him. Not just that, he was someone who would rather fellowship with the Lord’s enemies than the Lord’s people. I can’t help thinking that maybe Solomon had Samson in mind when he wrote: ‘Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life’ (Proverbs 6:25-26). Delilah wasn’t a prostitute, but Samson had prostituted himself in regards to his service to the Lord!

In the end, Samson is an example of the worst kind of religion, one that puts its faith in religiosity. For Samson it was his long hair, the only part of his Nazarite vow he seemed to have kept! His delusional faith was dependent purely on religious practice rather than real faith. For some it might be church attendance or taking communion regularly. In the end Samson seems to have had no great faith and rather takes the Lords promises for granted. As such, he acts as a warning to those who would put their faith in religious practice rather than faith in the Lord!