Every superhero has a weakness. For Superman it was a make-believe mineral called kryptonite. In the presence of this radioactive rock, Superman lost his powers and became like any other man. But we’re not interested in comic book characters; we’re following the exploits of someone real: Samson that long-haired strongman of the Bible. Do you know what his weakness was? Samson was a he-man with she-problems, as his encounter with Delilah illustrates. But as we take a closer look at Samson’s fatal attractions we’ll see that there was another underlying cause of his downfall. Let’s find out what that weakness was that, with the Lord’s help, we may guard against it.
We last left Samson standing on Ramath Lehi (Jawbone Hill) where he had single-handedly dispatched a thousand Philistine soldiers with the jawbone of a donkey. Samson was obviously feeling pretty invincible because he next made a trip to Gaza, the southernmost city of the Philistines. We’re not sure why Samson ventured deep inside enemy territory. Perhaps it was a military scouting mission. Or, since Gaza was on the Mediterranean, perhaps he just went to take a stroll on the beach to show off his muscles. Whatever his reason his trip didn’t end well, spiritually speaking. In Gaza, Samson shacked up with a prostitute, that is, he paid a woman to go to bed with him. The enemy found out about it and posted guards to kill Samson when he got up to leave in the morning. Samson, however, woke up at midnight and finding the city gate locked tight to keep him in, picked up the gate, posts, crossbar and all and carried them up a hill outside the city! One scholar estimates that the gate weighed at least 700lbs but that seems to be a conservative estimate to me. What we can say for sure is that Samson had superhuman strength which only God could provide.
But here’s the thing. How was Samson using that God-given strength? To provide relief for the Israelites as God had called him to do? No. Like an employee who takes the company truck out for a joyride, Samson used his God-given strength to indulge his own passions. I said in the introduction that Samson was a he-man with she-problems. His night out on the town of Gaza proves that much. But Samson’s greatest weakness was this: he was a he-man with me-problems, that is, self-centeredness. Contrast Samson with Jesus. Samson showed off his strength when he carried a city gate up a hill to declare: “I am the greatest! Don’t mess with me!” Jesus, on the other hand, needed help to carry a single cross up a hill. And then the world jeered as they crucified him because he looked like a weakling. But what was really going on? The God-man held his almighty strength in check because he didn’t live for himself. He lived to do his Father’s will: to rescue sinners from hell. That could only be accomplished if he let himself be punished for our sins.
How about it followers of this Jesus? Do you use your God-given strengths to live for others? Do you use your winning personality, for example, to make others feel welcome and loved or do you pour on the charm so that others will love and adore you? Do you use your quick wit to cheer others up or to put them down? And what about your gift of faith in Jesus? Do you guard that or foolishly expose it to attack when you plunge deep into enemy territory as did Samson? Why is it, for example, that many are so eager to vacation in Vegas? Because flights there are cheap? Or because that city has a reputation of encouraging footloose living that no one back home has to ever hear about?
Of course Satan is not going to wait for you to make a trip to Vegas before he attacks. Like a skilled angler, Satan baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish. Samson had an appetite for women. Your appetite may be for money or popularity. Whatever it is, don’t needlessly expose yourself to Satan’s lures! But when temptation does come, don’t think that you are helpless against it either. Just as Samson was able to tear apart a lion with his bare hands because the Spirit of the Lord had given him that power, you have God-given power to resist that roaring lion, the devil, so that he will flee from you says the Apostle James (James 4:7).
Samson must have laughed as he left Gaza behind. But he would return and when he did it would be the Philistines who were laughing – thanks to a woman named Delilah who arranged the world’s costliest haircut. Delilah lived somewhere in the Sorek Valley which cut across both Israelite and Philistine territory. And since Delilah is a Semitic name she could very well have been an Israelite and not a Philistine as we often suppose! What we do know is that Delilah loved money more than she loved Samson. But who could blame her; Samson didn’t really love Delilah. He didn’t make a life-long commitment to her in marriage but just came and went as he pleased. And so when the Philistine princes each offered to pay Delilah three-year’s wages worth of silver to find out how they could overpower Samson, she readily agreed.
At first the Philistines must have thought that they had just hired the world’s worst spy. There was nothing subtle about Delilah’s technique for gleaning top secret information. She came right out and said to Samson: “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued” (Judges 16:6). But what’s even more startling is how Samson didn’t hesitate with an answer! “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man” (Judges 16:7). What did Samson think then when Delilah tied him up like that while he was sleeping and then called out: “Samson, the Philistine are upon you!” (Judges 16:9) What did he think when she did the same thing twice more when he gave her different reasons for his strength? Apparently Samson thought that it was all a game because each time he snapped off that which bound him without breaking a sweat. And he probably enjoyed a good laugh too as he watched Delilah pout.
But Delilah persisted and Samson finally told her everything. The secret to his strength was his long hair which was an outward sign of his supposed inner devotion to God. Samson must have known what Delilah was going to do with that information: arrange for his hair to be cut. But he didn’t care. Samson had been careless like this for a long time - pushing the boundaries God had set for him. Samson broke the Fourth Commandment when he had bossed his parents around. He had handled carcasses even though he wasn’t supposed to touch the dead as a Nazirite. He had slept with a prostitute. In spite of his continued disobedience, his strength had never left him. So what if he cut his hair? What could happen? One of the saddest verses in the Bible tells what happened: “Having put [Samson] to sleep on her lap, [Delilah] called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. 20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him” (Judges 19:19, 20).
Don’t you just want to cry? God must have. And he still weeps when his children today act as foolishly as Samson pushing across the boundary of safety he has set down for us in his Word. “So what if I talk back to my parents?” we say. “So what if I hang out with my boyfriend into the wee hours of the night when no one else is around? So what if I have a little too much to drink? So what if I cheat on a test every now and then? So what if I gossip? God hasn’t struck me down yet? What I’m doing can’t be that bad.”
Friends, don’t confuse God’s patience with permission. The Apostle Paul asked his Roman readers: “…do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (Romans 2:4) God had been patient with Samson hoping he would come to his senses and repent. Instead Samson showed contempt for this kindness when he continued to pillow his head in the lap of sin. Is that what you have been up to lately - pillowing your head in the lap of sin? Telling yourself that what you’re doing is just a game and you can quit whenever you want? Wake up before you totally abandon the Lord and Satan subdues you!
God pleads with us not to despise his gracious patience because he wants to protect us from harm. Sin blinds, binds, and grinds as Samson found out quite literally (D. Robinson). After the Philistines fell upon the shorn Samson, they gouged out his eyes and led him back to Gaza in shackles where he was forced to grind grain. How sadly ironic: the one who had made a donkey of the Philistines was now himself a donkey tethered to a grinding mill (J. Lawrenz). The champ was now officially a chump.
God let Samson suffer the consequence of his sin but he would not abandon this chump. That will become clear in next week’s sermon. But I don’t want you to have to wait until then to hear that God has not abandoned you even if you have lived more like a chump than a champ. No, you don’t have to do anything to earn his forgiveness. Jesus took care of that for you. Samson may have uprooted and carried the gates of Gaza up a hill to proclaim his great strength but Jesus uprooted and tore off the gates of hell when he climbed up that hill outside Jerusalem to pay for your sins and to proclaim his love for you. Why would we want to push across the boundaries he has set for us in his Word? It’s true; we’ve been born with a me-problem and so, like Samson, we often use our God-given talents to satisfy our desires instead of to serve. But through baptism we have been re-born. God has turned us chumps into champs. Honor and serve this gracious God as you daily repent of sin and live for him who died for you! Amen.
