Explore the Bible: August 16

Compromise • Judges 16:16-31

By Roland L. McMillan

As the downward spiral of Judges nears the bottom, we meet the most flawed hero of the book: Samson. God revealed his plan for Samson to be a Nazirite before his mother conceived him (Judges 13:5). Nazirites were set apart to God. Some took a vow for a period of time, but others like Samson were Nazirites for life. Numbers 6 lists the requirements for being a Nazirite. As signs of their devotion to God, they never were to drink anything alcoholic, never to take anything coming from a grapevine, never to touch the dead, and never to cut their hair. Samson may have been a Nazirite, but his life did not show special dedication to God. 

Samson’s motives may be described in many ways. Between the beginning of Samson’s story in Judges 13 and the passage for the lesson, self-will drove him. What he saw with his eyes, his sexual desires, and revenge also motivated him. Judges does not describe Samson as trying to lead his people, to deliver his people, or to honor God. He was man full of compromises. Yet, the Lord did use Samson to push back against the Philistines who were oppressing God’s people. Each of his clashes with them started because of a relationship he had with a Philistine woman. 

Samson’s relationships with four women outline his life: his mother, his wife in Timnah, a prostitute in Gaza, and Delilah. Samson was supposed to deliver Israel from the Philistines, but he was attracted to Philistine women. His wife and the prostitute were Philistines. Delilah presumably was a Philistine too. She came from Philistine territory and was an agent for the Philistine leaders. Samson may have been a terror to the Philistine men, but he was no match for a smooth-talking Philistine woman. 

Samson loved Delilah, but she was working for his enemies. Delilah had tried to get Samson to give up the secret of his strength three times. He made up a false story each time. The stories reveal magical thinking, and Delilah and the Philistines believed them. They were thinking like pagans. Each time Samson told Delilah a story about his strength, she tested it. In each test, hidden Philistines were ready to pounce if Samson’s strength was gone. Each time they discovered that he had lied and his strength remained. 

Delilah would not stop asking Samson about his strength. Finally, he gave in to the constant nagging. He told her about being a Nazirite and that the secret of his strength was in his hair. The Philistine leaders paid off Delilah and laid their trap. Later, Samson fell asleep on Delilah’s knees, probably a sexual euphemism. They shaved off his hair as he slept, and the Philistines captured him. The wild man who once had ripped a lion apart with his bare hands was defenseless. They poked his eyes out and hauled him off to Gaza.

Samson’s uncut hair had been a symbol of his supposed separation to the Lord. Apparently, Samson believed that his hair was the secret to his strength. In contrast, the author of Judges wrote that the Spirit of the Lord gave Samson his special strength (14:6, 19; 15:14). Judges 16:20 is clear that he no longer had super strength because God had removed his special presence from Samson. Israel’s judge was thinking like a pagan. He could not defeat the Philistines who captured him because God had left him.

Israel’s hero became a Philistine slave. Samson was grinding grain, turning a millstone like a farm animal. In the Philistine mind, their god Dagon had won, and the one true God had lost. Later, the Philistines had a celebration, praising Dagon for defeating Samson. They brought Samson into Dagon’s temple as a spectacle for their entertainment. Samson had himself been placed between two massive central columns that supported the temple roof. He prayed for strength, wanting revenge for losing his eyes. Self-centered to the end, Israel’s final judge in the book of Judges did not ask for strength to deliver his people. He reached out his hands, with one on each column. His hair was growing back, but once again his strength came from the Lord. Samson pushed the columns, the temple collapsed, and thousands died. In his life, Samson caused trouble for the Philistines, he killed thousands of them, but he did not rescue his people. A life full of compromises is a letdown in the end. 

McMillan is senior pastor of Roseland Park Baptist Church, Picayune.