Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro:
In 1991 Julia Roberts starred in a movie called Sleeping With Your Enemy
Her marriage was a nightmare
The husband was controlling so she faked her death
He finds out and comes for her
It ends like you would think, but takes you on a roller coaster ride
Tonight we see another version of Sleeping with the Enemy
Samson is infatuated with Delilah
She is in love with money
Delilah is bribed to discover the source of Samson’s strnegth
Because Samson is blinded by his love for her he is seduced into disclosing his secret
Read Judges 16:1-6
I. Samson’s Folly vs. 1-3
The next scene we Samson is in Gaza
Gaza was one of the five major cities of the Philistines.
It is located about twelve miles southeast of Ashkelon about three miles from the Mediterranean.
The 135-acre site is located at the southern entrance to the coastal plain, where it occupies the highest point in the region along the main trade route coming up from Egypt.
While Samson is there he sleeps with a prostitute
Samson was in obvious sin here.
This is a clear example of how a man so used of God can also sin and sin blatantly.
Samson wanted to be used by God, but he also yielded to the deceitfulness of sin.
He kept the external features of his Nazirite vow zealously, while at the same time sinning blatantly with a prostitute.
Samson did what we nearly all do when deceived by sin.
He put his life into categories, and figured that some categories God cared about, and some categories God did not care about.
Understanding that Jesus has claim over our entire life is a radical change of perspective.
Vs. 2 The Gazites here of it and set an ambush at the city gate
They were going to kill him in the morning
Samson thwarts that plan by getting up at midnight
Maybe he did not want to be seen by people in the morning, or maybe the Lord spoke to his spirit
The gates of the city were locked, but Samson proceeded to rip them off, doors, frame, and all
The text mentions three parts of the gate: the gate itself, the posts and the bar.
Two gate doors were generally set into stone sockets buried just under the ground.
The posts flanked the gate on either side.
They were made of wood and joined to the wall.
Gate openings of this period were often as much as twelve feet wide, though some are as small as six feet.
Samson carried them towards Hebron
Hebron is nearly forty miles east of Gaza in a continual uphill climb.
He headed off on the road to Hebron and dumped the gates on a hill on the way.
His strength was able to compensate for his weaknesses, but that is coming to an end
Despite his sin, God still gave Samson supernatural strength to escape from the Philistines.
God did this because God’s purpose was bigger than Samson himself, and because God used Samson despite Samson’s sin, not because of it.
II.
Samson’s Weakness vs. 4-22
vs. 4-6 Seduce Him
Now we get to the famous story of Samson & Delilah
The Valley of Sorek is the area of most of Samson’s activity.
The main valley is about thirteen miles west of Jerusalem
Samson had a thing for Philistine women
Samson fell in love again and fell for a woman completely wrong for him.
She was wrong because Jews were supposed to have any relations outside of Israel
Philistine women were Samson’s weakness
This is another example of the pain and ruin that came into Samson’s life because he did not guard his heart.
vs. 5 Every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver:
Delilah was also deeply in love; but she was in love with money, not Samson.
The five rulers of the Philistines appear to be equal in authority.
They were probably leaders of the 5 cities that made up Philistia
They bribe Delilah to seduce Samson and find his strength
Eleven hundred shekels of silver is an exorbitant sum—a king’s ransom (see 2 Sam 18:12).
1,100 shekels made up more than 140 pounds (63 kilograms) of silver.
Compare the ten shekels that was the standard annual wage of a laborer and the four to six hundred shekels that was paid for tracts of land.
The 5500 shekels would equal 550 times the average annual wage.
If we took $25,000 as an average annual wage today, that kind of offer would be in the $15 million category.
This shows how desperate the Philistines were to get rid of Samson
The Philistines believed there was a secret to Samson’s great strength that needed to be discovered and that could be exploited to weaken him.
This demonstrates that they considered supernatural or magical elements to be the source of his abilities.
Samson understands this in that he offers magical solutions for binding him.
Delilah probably asks Samson while they are in an intimate setting, where Samson is at his weakest
vs. 7-9 First Lie: Bowstrings
The source of Samson’s strength was not obvious.
This means that he probably was not a large, heavily muscled man like a modern-day bodybuilder.
He may have looked small and skinny, and unlikely to have such strength.
Delilah knew that Samson was strong; yet she also knew that he could be bound with something, and this was indeed true of Samson.
One might say that the honest answer to her question would be, “I may be bound with the attention and affection of an ungodly yet attractive woman.”
And she bound him: Samson could have easily seen Delilah’s heart by the way she immediately tried to bind him with what he deceptively said he could be bound with.
The fresh thongs or bow strings were sometimes made of the intestines of cattle.
They were usually laid out to dry before being put to use.
Others have preferred to think of vines being used.
The fact that seven are used also suggests a magical element to the procedure.
The fact that he did not tell her the truth proved that he knew she had a dangerous intention.
vs. 10-12 New Ropes
It would seem that romantic attraction made Samson lose all sense.
There was no good or rational reason Samson continued this relationship with Delilah or entertained her prying into the secret of his strength.
Samson is a good example of how an ungodly relationship can warp thinking.
Delilah accuses him of mocking her
One of the manipulative tactics of deceptive people is to point out your flaws or sins without mentioning theirs
So he tells her to bind him with new ropes
This is ironic because this just happened in Chap 15 and the ropes were like burnt flax
Samson allowed this bondage because he refused to escape the situation.
Many today are in similar places of sin, compromise, and bondage – and refuse to escape the situation.
vs. 13-14 Weave the Dreads
Delilah obviously cared nothing for Samson.
His continued commitment to her is a remarkable testimony to the power of blind, irresponsible love.
How can you say, “I love you,” when your heart is not with me:
Tragically, Samson’s heart was with Delilah.
Her accusation was a manipulative projection of her own heart, which was not with Samson.
Samson feels compassion and tells her to tie his hair to a weavers loom
There were two types of looms used in this period: the horizontal loom and the vertical loom.
From the description given of Delilah’s loom it appears to be the former type.
Four stakes were driven into the ground in a rectangular pattern.
The threads that would make up the warp of the fabric were tied at regular intervals to sticks on both ends, and the sticks were then used to stretch out the threads between the stakes.
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