The Unlikely: Samson / Judges 13:1-16:31
Good morning. How are we all doing today? I hope awesome. If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews 11, which might seem like it doesn’t make any sense because we are in a series in the book of Judges. But we will get there in just a moment.
Have you ever noticed that when you read the Bible, it can be wickedly confusing? I don’t mean confusing just in the sense of, “Why would you name your kid that?” though that is certainly part of it. I don’t even mean confusing like not understanding where an ancient city is located, or why this item is clean and that one is unclean. I mean confusing in the sense that you read the text and you think: God, how on earth is it that You do what You do with the people You use? Does that make sense?
The Hall of Faith and the Problem with Samson
In Hebrews chapter 11, the author gives us a listing of the “Hall of Fame” of the people of God—what we often call the Hall of Faith. If you look at verse 17, you notice that by faith, Abraham offered up Isaac. In verse 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. In verse 21, by faith, Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph. In verse 22, by faith, Joseph made mention of the exodus.
Hebrews 11:17-22 (NASB)
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten [son]; [it was he] to whom it was said, ‘IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.’ He considered that God is able to raise [people] even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, [leaning] on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.
The author walks right through the patriarchal line. In verse 23, by faith, Moses was hidden by his parents. As you hear these names—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses—you think, These are the best of the best. These are the spiritual giants.
Hebrews 11:23 (NASB)
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
You continue reading through that chapter, and in verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell under Joshua. In verse 31, by faith Rahab the prostitute hid the spies and was spared from destruction.
Hebrews 11:30-31 (NASB)
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.
Then in verse 32, it is as if the author says, “I don’t have time to tell you about everybody, but it doesn’t stop with Abraham, Moses, and Joshua.” And he lists Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah.
Hebrews 11:32 (NASB)
And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets,
Think about those names for a minute. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress because he was scared to death, yet he was called a valiant warrior. Barak was a passive man who refused to step up in leadership until God raised up Deborah and Jael. Jephthah made a reckless vow that resulted in the sacrifice of his own daughter. And then there is Samson.
To be completely honest with you, this is confusing to me because I don’t like Samson very much at all. His story is told constantly to children, which makes no sense if you actually read the text. I didn’t grow up in church, but I remember being invited by my grandparents to their little Nazarene church in Reedley. Sunday school was down in the basement. Do you remember those old church basements? You walked down the stairs, the air changed, and it smelled like a musty jail cell. I didn’t know the Lord from anything. But sure enough, they rolled out the flannelgraph. “Here comes Samson, and here is Delilah, and look at the pillars—he pulls them down! Yay!”
Have you actually read the story of Samson? The man is a complete trainwreck. How in the world does God use this guy? We teach him to kids like he is a superhero, but he isn’t. He acts like a clown.
A Deliverer from Birth
Turn over to Judges chapter 13. There are twelve judges mentioned in the book of Judges. A judge was someone God raised up to deliver His people from oppression. Throughout the book, there is a repeated cycle: it starts with peace and prosperity, then the people become complacent and lazy. They toy with sin, then completely indulge in sin. God raises up an oppressor to bring hardship until they repent and cry out to Him. God raises up a deliverer, gives them peace, and then the cycle repeats all over again. That cycle was true in ancient Israel, and it is very true in our lives today.
Judges 13:1 (NASB)
Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, so that the LORD gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.
Some judges get almost no press at all. Shamgar gets a single verse: he grabs an ox goad—a giant pointed stick used to prod livestock—kills six hundred Philistines, and saves Israel. One verse, a big stick, six hundred corpses. Fascinating.
Samson gets four whole chapters—more text than any other judge in the book. Yet after Jephthah’s deliverance, the cycle breaks down. There is no peace. In the story of Samson, even though the Philistines oppress Israel for forty years, nobody cries out to God. Nobody prays. Nobody repents. The book of Judges is a massive fade to black; everything gets progressively darker and more corrupt.
What does God do for a people who are so accustomed to bondage and compromise that they don’t even ask for help? He delivers them anyway. But He uses a very unlikely character to do it.
His name is Samson, which means “like the sun.” His birth is miraculous. In chapter 13, his mother is barren, and the Angel of the Lord appears to her, announcing that she will give birth to a special son. She joins a long line of barren women in scripture who miraculously give birth to significant sons—women like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, and ultimately Mary.
Samson’s parents do something very wise in verses 8 and 12. They pray, “Lord, teach us what we should do for the child who is to be born. How should we raise him? What is his calling?”
Judges 13:8-12 (NASB)
Then Manoah entreated the LORD and said, ‘O Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born.’ God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, ‘Behold, the man who came the [other] day has appeared to me.’ Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, ‘Are you the man who spoke to the woman?’ And he said, ‘I am.’ Manoah said, ‘Now when your words come [to pass], what shall be the boy’s mode of life and his vocation?’
God reveals that this boy is set apart from birth under a Nazirite vow. As described in Numbers 6, that meant three primary things: he was not to drink wine or anything from the vine, he was never to touch an unclean, dead body, and he was never to cut his hair. Samson was raised with long hair, physical strength, and a divine calling.
Judges 13:4-5 (NASB)
’Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. ‘For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.’
God places him in a strategic location near Beth-shemesh, in the Shephelah—the buffer zone between the coastal plains of the Philistines and the hill country of Judah. It was the borderland where cultures collided and battles were fought. God placed Samson, “like the sun,” right in the middle of pagan darkness to influence the culture for good. But instead of Samson influencing the culture, the culture completely consumes him.
Driven by the Eyes
Look at Judges 14:1. The story begins by revealing Samson’s ultimate Achilles’ heel: his eyes.
Judges 14:1 (NASB)
Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, [one] of the daughters of the Philistines.
Samson goes down to Timnah and sees a Philistine woman. The Philistines were a seafaring, warrior people who had migrated from the Aegean region into the coastal plains of Canaan. They were deeply pagan and worshipped deities like Dagon and Baal. Samson sees one of their daughters and tells his parents, “I saw a woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”
His parents are heartbroken. They say, “Is there not a single woman among all our relatives or our people that you have to go take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? Isn’t there anyone from your own community you can marry?” Look at Samson’s response in verse 3: “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.” Literally in the Hebrew, “she is right in my eyes.”
Judges 14:3 (NASB)
Then his father and his mother said to him, ‘Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?’ But Samson said to his father, ‘Get her for me, for she looks good to me.’
Samson was driven entirely by his passions. We often treat passion as a virtue, saying, “Oh, he’s just a passionate guy!” But Samson had no checks and balances. Whatever his eyes saw and whatever his flesh wanted, he pursued without restraint.
Yet verse 4 notes something remarkable: his parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
Judges 14:4 (NASB)
However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the LORD, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
God in His sovereignty is so powerful that He not only uses our obedience for His glory, He can even use our sinful disobedience to accomplish His purposes. As one old preacher put it, God has a way of hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick. Samson’s reckless desires do not derail God’s sovereign plan to disrupt the Philistine oppression.
On the way to Timnah with his parents, a young lion comes roaring toward Samson. The Spirit of the Lord rushes upon him, and he tears the lion apart with his bare hands as easily as someone might tear a young goat.
Judges 14:5-6 (NASB)
Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion [came] roaring toward him. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
Later, when he returns to marry the woman, he turns aside to look at the carcass of the lion. Instead of maggots and rot, a swarm of bees has made honey inside the dead body. Completely disregarding his Nazirite vow never to touch a corpse, Samson scoops the honey out with his hands, eats it as he walks along, and gives some to his parents to eat without telling them where it came from. The very parents who consecrated him are defiled because he couldn’t resist a sweet craving.
Judges 14:8-9 (NASB)
When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave [some] to them and they ate [it]; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
At his wedding feast, Samson poses a riddle to the thirty Philistine companions based on this event: “Out of the eater came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet.” He wagers thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.
Judges 14:12-14 (NASB)
Then Samson said to them, ’Let me now propound a riddle to you; if you will indeed tell it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes. ‘But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes.’ And they said to him, ‘Propound your riddle, that we may hear it.’ So he said to them, ‘Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of the strong came something sweet.’ But they could not tell the riddle in three days.
Unable to solve the riddle after several days, the men threaten Samson’s bride, telling her they will burn her and her father’s house down if she doesn’t get the answer. She weeps and nags Samson until he finally relents and tells her on the seventh day. When the men give Samson the answer before sunset, he retorts angrily, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.”
Men, there are a lot of great biblical phrases you can speak over your wife. That is not one of them. Do not try that at home.
Judges 14:18 (NASB)
So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, ‘What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?’ And he said to them, ‘If you had not plowed with my heifer, You would not have found out my riddle.’
The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Samson again; he goes down to Ashkelon, kills thirty Philistines, takes their clothes to pay off his wager, and storms off back to his father’s house in a rage. Meanwhile, his bride’s father assumes the marriage is over and gives her away to Samson’s best man.
Judges 14:19-20 (NASB)
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes [of clothes] to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. But Samson’s wife was [given] to his companion who had been his friend.
The Carnage of Compromise
In chapter 15, during the wheat harvest, Samson goes back to visit his wife. He doesn’t go to apologize; he brings a young goat and says, “I want to go into my wife’s room.” It is driven purely by physical appetite. When her father informs him that she was given to his companion and offers her younger sister instead, Samson snaps.
Judges 15:1-2 (NASB)
But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat, and said, ‘I will go in to my wife in [her] room.’ But her father did not let him enter. Her father said, ‘I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours instead.’
He declares in verse 3 that he will be blameless in taking revenge on the Philistines. He catches three hundred foxes, ties their tails together in pairs, fastens a torch between each pair, sets the torches on fire, and releases them into the Philistine grain fields, vineyards, and olive groves, decimating their entire agricultural economy.
Judges 15:3-5 (NASB)
Samson then said to them, ‘This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.’ Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned [the foxes] tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards [and] groves.
The Philistines retaliate by burning his former bride and her father to death. Samson strikes back, slaughtering many of them, and then retreats to a cave in the rock of Etam. When an army of Philistines comes looking for him, the men of Judah—three thousand of his own countrymen—come down to tie him up and hand him over, saying, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us?”
Judges 15:6-13 (NASB)
Then the Philistines said, ‘Who did this?’ And they said, ‘Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.’ So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. Samson said to them, ‘Since you act like this, I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will quit.’ He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam. Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi. The men of Judah said, ‘Why have you come up against us?’ And they said, ‘We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.’ Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?’ And he said to them, ‘As they did to me, so I have done to them.’ They said to him, ‘We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.’ And Samson said to them, ‘Swear to me that you will not kill me.’ So they said to him, ‘No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not kill you.’ Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
Samson agrees to be bound with new ropes as long as his countrymen promise not to kill him. But when the Philistines shout in triumph as he approaches, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. The ropes drop off his arms like charred flax. He finds the fresh jawbone of a donkey, picks it up—violating his vow against touching dead things once again—and slaughters a thousand men.
Judges 15:14-16 (NASB)
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds dropped from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said, ‘With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men.’
After the battle, dehydrated and exhausted, he cries out to the Lord for water, and God miraculously splits open a hollow place in the ground to revive him.
Judges 15:18-19 (NASB)
Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the LORD and said, ‘You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?’ But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, his strength returned and he revived. Therefore he named it En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
The Downfall and the Deception of Sin
Chapter 16 opens with another glaring failure of Samson’s eyes. He travels to the Philistine stronghold of Gaza, sees a prostitute there, and spends the night with her. The people of Gaza surround the city gates, waiting to kill him at dawn. But at midnight, Samson gets up, rips the city gates—posts, bar, and all—completely out of the ground, shoulders them, and carries them forty miles uphill to the top of the hill outside Hebron.
Judges 16:1-3 (NASB)
Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. [When it was told] to the Gazites, saying, ‘Samson has come here,’ they surrounded [the place] and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, ‘[Let us wait] until the morning light, then we will kill him.’ Now Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.
No one in scripture possesses this kind of brute, supernatural strength. Yet while he can conquer entire armies and carry city gates, he cannot conquer his own appetites.
Soon after, he falls in love with a woman named Delilah in the Valley of Sorek. The rulers of the Philistines offer her a fortune to discover the secret of his great strength. Three times Delilah begs him to tell her his secret, and three times Samson plays games with her, giving her false explanations: binding him with fresh bowstrings, tying him with new ropes, and weaving the locks of his hair into a loom. Each time, she binds him and cries out, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And each time, he easily breaks free.
Judges 16:4-14 (NASB)
After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, ‘Entice him, and see where his great strength [lies] and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you eleven hundred [pieces] of silver.’ So Delilah said to Samson, ‘Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you.’ Samson said to her, ‘If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any [other] man.’ Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had [men] lying in wait in an inner room. And she said to him, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ But he snapped the cords as a string of tow snaps when it touches fire. So his strength was not discovered. Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me how you may be bound.’ He said to her, ‘If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any [other] man.’ So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ For the [men] were lying in wait in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like a thread. Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies; tell me how you may be bound.’ And he said to her, ‘If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web [and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man.’ So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web]. And she fastened [it] with the pin and said to him, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.
Finally, she presses him daily with her words, nagging his soul to death, saying, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me?” In verse 17, he tells her everything: “A razor has never touched my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak like any other man.”
Judges 16:15-17 (NASB)
Then she said to him, ’How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.’ It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all [that was] in his heart and said to her, ‘A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any [other] man.’
While he sleeps on her lap, she has a man shave off the seven braids of his hair. She calls out, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He wakes from his sleep and thinks, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.
Then comes one of the most heartbreaking, terrifying verses in all of scripture:
Judges 16:20 (NASB)
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 departed from him.
He did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
Samson was so numb to his own compromise, so consumed by the flesh, that he didn’t even notice God was no longer with him. The Philistines seize him, gouge out his eyes—the very instruments of his lust—bring him down to Gaza, bind him with bronze shackles, and force him to grind grain in prison.
Judges 16:21 (NASB)
Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison.
Samson becomes a laughingstock. During a great pagan festival in honor of their god Dagon, the Philistine lords bring Samson out to entertain the crowd. Thousands of people gather on the roof and in the temple to mock the fallen champion of Israel. But in the background, his hair has begun to grow back.
Samson asks the young boy leading him by the hand to place him where he can feel the two main pillars supporting the temple. He puts his hands against the pillars and cries out to the Lord:
Judges 16:26-28 (NASB)
Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, ‘Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.’ Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3,000 men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing [them]. Then Samson called to the LORD and said, ‘O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.’
“O Lord God, remember me, please! Strengthen me just this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for one of my two eyes!”
Even in his final prayer, it isn’t primarily about the glory of God; it is still about personal vengeance for his eyes. Yet God in His grace grants him the strength. Samson pushes with all his might, the pillars buckle, the temple collapses, and he kills more Philistines in his death than he did throughout his entire life.
Judges 16:29-30 (NASB)
Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life.
The Samson in the Mirror
That is the real story of Samson. Not the clean flannelgraph version, but the raw, tragic reality. And it forces us to ask some hard questions. How does the author of Hebrews list this man in the Hall of Faith?
We must be careful here. Someone might say, “Well, God still used Samson, so his lifestyle must not have been that big of a deal.” Be careful with that logic. God spoke through Balaam’s donkey, but that doesn’t mean you should model your life after a donkey. Just because God sovereignly used Samson’s flaws to accomplish judgment on the Philistines does not mean Samson is an example for us to follow.
I believe God placed the story of Samson in the scripture to show us the Samson living inside of us. Apart from total surrender to Jesus Christ and walking in the Holy Spirit, every single one of us is Samson. We are prone to be driven by our eyes, ruled by our appetites, and controlled by our passions.
The Apostle John warns us clearly:
1 John 2:15-16 (NASB)
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
He tells us not to love the world or the things in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life do not come from the Father; they come from the world.
If we claim to be the people of God, we must live like the people of God. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John writes that if anyone claims to know Him but does not obey His commands, that person is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Jesus taught that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. You will know them by their fruit.
John 14:15 (NASB)
’If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
1 John 2:4 (NASB)
The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
Matthew 7:16-18 (NASB)
’You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes] nor figs from thistles, are they? ’So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ’A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Can a true believer lose their salvation? No. But can someone profess faith, assume they are safe, and actually be deceived? Absolutely. The Bible offers no assurance of salvation to someone living in unrepentant, willful carnality. It is not enough to say, “Well, when I was in middle school, I went to youth group, prayed a prayer, ate some pizza, and now I’m good forever,” while your life looks completely unchanged and driven by the world.
God was more glorified in the death of Samson than He was in Samson’s lifelong compromise. Samson lived for himself, left a trail of emotional and physical wreckage, and died as an entertainer for pagans.
Confession, Repentance, and Grace
I share this with you because Samson’s story hits uncomfortably close to home. I came to faith in Christ while living in a college fraternity house and playing football. I would love to tell you that the moment I surrendered to Jesus, every old habit and fleshly desire instantly vanished. But it didn’t. That old nature clung to me like bad body odor. For months and years, I lived a double life just like Samson. I knew the Lord, and I knew enough scripture to know what I was doing was wrong, but I kept indulging in compromise.
The Bible warns that the wages of sin is death. What often happens is we commit a sin, we look around expecting lightning to strike, and when nothing happens, we think, Well, that wasn’t so bad. So we do it again. We don’t realize that we are storing up consequences, playing with fire, and taking God’s grace for granted.
Romans 6:23 (NASB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
By God’s severe mercy, He got my attention before I ended up completely destroyed. He allowed consequences into my life to wake me up. He made me realize: You cannot keep living like this. God will not be mocked.
What saved my life during that season was the promise found in 1 John 1:9:
1 John 1:9 (NASB)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you see Samson in the mirror today, what are you going to do with him? Are you nursing a secret sin? Is there something you look at, something you indulge in behind closed doors—pornography, an inappropriate emotional relationship at work, dishonesty, or hidden compromise?
Sin thrives in the dark. As long as you hide it, justify it, or toy with it, it will grow until it destroys you. We need to learn the lessons of Samson without paying the horrific price Samson paid. That means bringing our sin into the light, confessing it, and killing the Samson in us before it kills us.
Proverbs 28:13 gives us this eternal truth:
Proverbs 28:13 (NASB)
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes [them] will find compassion.
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.
If you have been concealing sin, bring it to Jesus today. Confess it, forsake it, and receive the cleansing and mercy that only Christ can provide.
Let’s pray together.
Father in heaven, we know how desperately we need You. We recognize that all too often, we live just like Samson. We are prone to take Your grace for granted, manipulate Your mercy, and pursue the things that look right in our own eyes. Lord, forgive us. Open our eyes to any hidden compromise in our hearts. Give us the courage to bring our sin into the light, to repent, and to turn fully to You. Thank You that through Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, cleansed, and restored. Help us to walk in obedience and honor You with our lives. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.