DELILAH !!!!!!! _Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. (JUDGES 16:4) _Say her name, and most Christians get an immediate picture of a sultry woman and desire gone wrong. The physically powerful Israelite judge Samson fell for this beautiful and desirable Philistine. As wise as he must have been, Samson had one fatal flaw: He never chose well when it came to woman__those foreign temptresses forbidden by God's Law always seemed to claim his attention. His marriage to a Philistine woman had ended disastrously, yet here he was, becoming romantic with Delilah. Maybe he thought it was okey as long as they didn't marry, but He should have read his Law a bit more carefully.
# 2 _No sooner had Samson fallen for this bad babe than the ruler of her nation asked Delilah to do some spying for them. The Israelites was so strong that they couldn't capture him, and they had a series of grudges against him. So they asked Delilah to find out what made her lover so powerful. Once they had his secret, the rulers planned to make him a slave.
# 3 __Maybe it was the money that made this bad girl decide Samson was expendable. Eleven hundred shekels from each of five rulers was no small amount of cash in that day. Delilah must have decided that all she needed was money, not love, and in her greed, she betrayed Samson completely.
# 4 __At the same time, you have to wonder what Samson was thinking. Perhaps he enjoyed playing romantic games, but didn't he get the least bit suspicious when his beloved asked how his strength could be subdued? Didn't he figure that she was a Philistine and that others could be putting her up to something? He'd had a very similar experience with his wife, before their marriage fell apart, so you'd think he had to have had an inkling, especially when he gave Delilah three false answers. You wonder how many times God had to show Samson the same lesson for him to learn.
# 5 __But when Samson should have left off dallying with Delilah, he kept coming around__giving her the opportunity to nag him endlessly. "You don't love me," she complained, and evidently he couldn't bear to see her unhappy. Eventually she wore him down, and he admitted that his vow as a Nazirite__and the long hair that was part of it__gave him his strength. Cut his hair, he said, and he'd be weak as any other man.
# 6 __The Philistines took complete advantage of this information. Delilah got Samson to sleep in her lap, and a man came in to shave his head. Awakened, Samson soon stood powerless, and the Philistines made him a sightless slave. But these temporary victors forgot that hair grows again! And grow it did.
# 7 __Inside their temple, the Philistine rulers and an assembly gathered to rejoice at the capture of Israel's strong man. In the midst of their revealing, the crowd called Samson out to perform for them.
# 8 __"Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform"(JUDGES 16:27). Adorned with a new head of hair and imbued with renewed strength, Samson stood before them, prayed for strength, pushed against the pillars with all his might, and brought down the pagan temple, killing himself and everyone in it.
# 9 __Who knows if Delilah was also there amid the crowd? Though she didn't seem like the religious kind, perhaps she had taken that opportunity to rejoice at the effectiveness of her sexual powers.
# 10 __Look at Delilah, and you get a clear picture of how not to live. Need an example of what loose living will get you? She's the poster child for it. The pain she caused someone who loved her ran so deep that Samson didn't mind sacrificing his life, if he could destroy the pagan temple he'd been taken to. Samson had been used by an immoral woman who evidently felt no guilt at betraying him.
# 11 __Delilah backs up God's Word, which commands a faithful husband-and-wife lifestyle. Romance is not a game, but a lifelong commitment. And any sexual activity outside marriage leads to heartbreak. Maybe yours won't come as quickly as Samson's did, and you may not die, but you can count on some pain when you don't live God's way. Just ask Delilah__if you can find her under all that rubble, that is.
