The Sin and Fall of Samson - Jehovah departs from him - Samson's Repentance, Faith, and Death

(JUDGES 16)

THE closing verse of Judges 15 marks also the close of this period of Samson s life. Henceforth it is a record

of the terrible consequences, first of using God's gift, intrusted for the highest and holiest purposes, for self-

indulgence, and then of betraying and losing it. And this betrayal and loss are ever the consequence of

taking for self what is meant for Go d, just as in the parable of the prodigal son the demand for the portion of

goods which belonged to him is followed by the loss of all, by want and misery. And here, in this its second

stage, the history of Samson closely follows that of Israel. As Israel claimed for self, and would have used

for self the gifts and calling of God; as it would have boasted in its Nazarite-strength and trusted in it,

irrespective of its real meaning and the object of its bestowal, so now Samson. He goes down to Gaza, one

of t he fortified strongholds of the Philistines, not impelled by the Spirit of Jehovah, but for self-

indulgence,317 confident and boastful in what he regards as his own strength.

Nor does that strength yet fail him, at least outwardly. For God is faithful to His promise, and so long as

Samson has not cast away His help, it shall not fail him. But already he is on the road to it, and the night at

Gaza must speedily be followed by the story of Delilah. Meanwhile, the men of Gaza and Samson must learn

another lesson - so far as they are capable of it. All night the guards are posted by the gates to wait for the

dawn, when, as they expect, with the opening of the gates, Samson will leave the city, and they take him

prisoner. During the night, however, they may take their sleep; for are not the gates strong and securely

fastened? But, at midnight, Samson leaves the city, carrying with him its gates, and putting them down on

"the top of a hill which faces towards Hebron,"  318 that is, at a distance of about half an hour to the south-

east of Gaza.

Samson had once more escaped the Philistines; but the hour of his fall was at hand. To regard the God-

intrusted strength as his own, and to abuse it for selfish purposes, was the first step towards betraying and

renouncing that in which it really lay. Samson had ceased to be a Nazarite in heart before he ceased to be

one outwardly. The story of Delilah319 is too well known to require detailed repetition.

Her very name - "the weak" or "longing one" - breathes sensuality, and her home is in the valley of Sorek, or

of the choice red grape. The Philistine princes have learned it at last, that force cannot prevail against

Samson, until by his own act of unfaithfulness he has deprived himself of his strength. It is the same story

as that of Israel and its sin with Baal-Peor. The same device is adopted which Balaam had suggested for the

ruin of Israel, and, alas! with the same success. The five princes of the Philistines promise each to give

Delilah 1000 and 100 shekels, or 5500 in all, about 700 pounds, as the reward of her treachery. Three times

has Samson eluded her persistency to find out his secret. Each time she has had watchers in an adjoining

apartment ready to fall upon him, if he had really lost his strength. But the third time he had, in his trifling

with sacred things, come dangerously near his fall, as in her hearing he connected his strength with his hair.

And yet, despite all warnings, like Israel of old, he persisted in his sin.

At last it has come. He has opened all his heart to Delilah, and she knows it. But Scripture puts the true

explanation of the matter before us, in its usual emphatic manner, yet with such manifest avoidance of

seeking for effect, that only the careful, devout reader will trace it. The facts are as follows: When Samson

betrays his secret to Delilah, he says (16:17): "If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me," whereas,

when the event actually takes place, Scripture explains it: "He wot not that Jehovah was departed from him."

In this contrast between his fond conceit about his own strength and the fact that it was due to the

presence of Jehovah, lies the gist of the whole matter. As one writes: "The superhuman strength of Samson

lay not in his uncut hair, but in this, that Jehovah was with him. But Jehovah was with him only so long as

he kept his Nazarite vow." Or, in the words of an old German commentary: "The whole misery of Samson