Central Christian Church - Lampasas, TX

Delilah foolishly went against Samson and the Israelites by betraying him for money.

Delilah in the Bible is best known as the one who brought about the ruin of Samson. Delilah lived in the Valley of Sorek, which lay on the border between the territories of the ancient Philistines and the Israelite tribe of Dan. Samson, one of the judges of Israel, had an affair with Delilah, and she betrayed him to the Philistines (Judges 16:19).

The various forms of Philistine and Philistia appear almost 300 times in the OT, mostly in the books of Judges and Samuel. The Philistines who regularly oppose the Israelites in the biblical narratives are believed to have been part of the so-called “Sea Peoples “—a confederacy of seafaring raiders who invaded the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age (around 1200 BC).

The Philistines occupied a small region in southwestern Canaan, where they established the so-called Philistine Pentapolis, which included the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath.

Samson and many Israelites did not obey God's commands to be holy and to beware of the influence of nonbelievers.

In our own lives, we must realize the importance of obedience. Dr. Tony Evans, pastor of Oakcliff Bible Church discussed this in a recent devotional. He said, “A lot of what God wants to do in your life won’t be done until you do what He has already revealed to you.

What He asks you to do isn’t always all that huge, just like Moses’ move at the Red Sea wasn’t all that huge. All God was asking Moses to do was to hold out his stick. That’s not that huge. If Moses would just hold out his stick, then God said that He would handle the rest. He would do all of the big stuff. He would open the Red Sea, harden Pharaoh’s heart, make him go in after them, and close the Red Sea back up.

Samson was a man of incredible strength, whose exploits are recorded in the book of Judges. Samson’s strength was legendary, unlike anything that was seen before or since. He singlehandedly struck down 1,000 Philistines using only the jawbone of a donkey (Judges 15:15), by the power of God’s Spirit he tore a lion to pieces (Judges 14:6), and he uprooted the gate of the town of Gaza and carried it up a hill (Judges 16:3).

All of Samson’s mighty acts were done in opposition to the Philistines, with whom he had a bitter, long-standing rivalry, described in Judges 14 and 15. The Philistines were always trying to understand Samson’s strength and find a way to defeat him. They were always thwarted—Samson was just too strong—until they teamed with Delilah. Delilah offered to betray Samson for money. She was eventually Samson’s downfall.

It is so easy for Christians to be fall into temptation and to be weakened by the world around us.

When Samson began consorting with Delilah, the Philistine leaders saw an opportunity. They came to Delilah with an offer: “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver” (Judges 16:5). It was an offer she couldn’t refuse, and she began to seek a way to subdue her lover.

Delilah was the lure for Samson. They could not defeat his strength, so his enemies sought another weakness. Where have we left ourselves exposed to the enemy?

As Christians, we must guard our hearts and our lives. We must be especially careful in our areas of weakness.

From the very beginning of Delilah’s relationship with Samson, it was clearly her intention to discover Samson’s weakness and report back to the Philistines. Appealing to his supposed love for her, Delilah asked him repeatedly to confide in her the secret of his great strength. Samson was led astray by focusing on Delilah’s beauty and sexuality. He should have examined her character and have kept his marriage sacred.

Christian teens, men and women must be on guard from people whose words taste like honey, who manipulate and scheme, and who lead them from the righteous path of God.

Repeatedly, Samson hides the truth from her. He lies about the source of his strength on three different occasions, and on each occasion, Delilah reports his lie to the Philistines and they come to attack him, thinking him weakened (Judges 16:5–14). Samson’s response to Delilah’s actions is puzzling. He obviously knows she plans to betray him. Despite her wicked game, Samson stays with Delilah and refuses to acknowledge the danger.

Eventually, Samson makes the quite irrational decision to tell Delilah the truth— his strength comes from his long hair, uncut because he was a Nazarite. He tells Delilah that, if his head is shaved, he will become like any other man (Judges 16:16–17). Scripture gives the reason for Samson’s foolish revelation: Delilah was nagging him daily so that his soul was “annoyed to death” (Judges 16:16, NASB).

Samson toyed with sin for so long that he longer used logic and reason. His sin led him down a slippery slope that ultimately cost his life. He also did not remain vigilant.

The wise course of action would have been for Samson to leave Delilah, rather than tell her the truth. He surely must have known that she would betray him—but his feelings for her proved stronger than wisdom. Samson did not leave her; in fact, he fell asleep with his head in her lap, and the inevitable occurred. Delilah had his hair cut, and she betrayed him, allowing the Philistines to bind him, gouge out his eyes, and take him away as a slave (Judges 16:18–21). All this she did for a quantity of silver promised her from the Philistines (Judges 16:5). Delilah, the original femme fatale, illustrates the truth of

Samson lacked self-control and Delilah loved money. Both lost their integrity. What in our lives is a weakness that can hurt our walk with Christ and our witness to others? How can we address these issues?