March 24

March 24

Judges 16–18

Scripture Text: Judges 16:1–18:31

Series: Read the Bible in a Year

Samson begins today’s reading by consorting with a prostitute. While he is with her, the Gazites set an ambush to kill him when he left her place in the morning. Evidently, her business was in the city gates, which Samson took hold of at midnight and carried up a hill. It seems his strength cowed the Gazites laying in wait, but Samson’s spiritual strength was beyond deficient. After that evening with the prostitute, he “loved a woman” named Delilah. His fixation on himself and the opposite sex would lead to his shame and defeat.  

Samson seeks to satisfy his lusts but Delilah is in it for money. She encourages his advances in order to discover the secret of Samson’s great strength for the Philistines. If they could disgrace strong Samson, the Israelites would fall in line. The Philistines did not need Delilah’s assistance; Samson was doing a bang-up job of bringing dishonor on himself, Israel, and even the Lord without anyone else’s help.  

Nevertheless, the Philistines sought the secret of Samson’s great strength, and told Delilah to discover it. She seduced Samson, wheedling him the information. He feigned to play along but tricked her every time, telling her his strength lay in being bound with fresh bowstrings, or new ropes, or weaving and pinning his hair. Of course, each time she did these things, his strength was unabated. She complains that he is mocking her and does really love her, continuing her relentless quest to discover the secret of his strength. Perhaps, Samson, lover of riddles, does not know the answer to this particular riddle, for he seems to tell her the truth this fourth time. He discloses that his hair is his strength, or perhaps it is in being a Nazirite, that shaving his hair would make him like any other man. 

We know that his Nazarite vows are not the secret of his strength. He had already eaten unclean food and had probably drunk wine at his wedding feast. Moreover, he was lying with prostitutes and foreigners, whom God commanded Israel to not marry. So, cutting his hair cannot be the undoing of his strength. Yet, when Delilah seduces him into such sound sleep that his head may be shaved, his strength does seem to leave him. But it is not his strength that has left him; it is the Lord. “He did not know that the LORD had left him” (Judges 16:20). That is when his strength was spent. The answer to the riddle is, “the Lord.” “The LORD is my strength and my shield,” sang David. This truth was unknown to Samson. 

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