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“Lesson 03 - How Satan Pierced Samson”
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How Satan Pierced Samson
The Historical Account
We are first introduced to Samson in Judges 13. These are dark days for Israel. Because of their lack of a relationship with God, the new inhabitants of Canaan find themselves locked inside a vicious circle of sin, oppression and punishment, and deliverance. As Samson matures, the Philistines are inflicting extreme difficulty on Israel. This awful time would last for forty years, 13.1.
Samson’s father, Manoah, was married to a woman who could not have children. One day an angel of the Lord appeared telling her that she would conceive and bear a son. Like Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptist, he was a child of prayer, 13.8, 12. Samson was born for a specific mission: to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines, 13.5, 7, 14. He was to be a Nazarite, dedicated to the Lord. As a Nazarite, Samson could not cut his hair, touch a dead body, or consume alcohol.1
Against his parents wishes, he married a Philistine woman of Timnah, 14.3. Samson planned on using the marriage as an opportunity against the Philistines. On his way to take his parents to meet his potential bride, a young lion ambushed him. He killed it with his bear hands. He told no one what he did. At some point later, Samson returned to take her as his wife. On the way, he came across the carcass of the lion and found a bee hive inside. He ate the honey he found inside the hive on his journey.
At his wedding feast, Samson put a riddle to the Philistines who had gathered there. He challenged them to figure it out. After four days, they couldn’t figure out the riddle and began to pressure Samson’s new bride. This was no casual pressure. They told her that if she did not convince Samson to tell her the answer to the riddle that they would kill her and her family. Due to her constant pleading, Samson finally gave in and she told the riddle to her people, 14.17. When they told Samson the answer to the riddle, he promptly went out and killed thirty men in Ashkelon, giving their spoil and garments to those he had told the riddle. He then returned back to his father’s house and his wife was given to his best man, 14.20.
Sometime later, Samson returned to Timnah, bearing a young goat as a gift for his bride. Her father stopped him, telling him he had given her to his companion, and offered Samson his younger daughter instead. In an act of anger, Samson departed and rounded up 300 foxes and tied torches to their tails. It was the time of wheat harvest, 15.1, and the foxes ran through the standing grain of the Philistines as well as their olive orchards. When the Philistines found out who was responsible, they promptly demonstrated that they could play with fire too, as they took his wife and father-in-law and burned them to death. Samson responded by killing the Philistines who were responsible for killing his wife.
As this cycle of revenge continued, things escalated to the point to where the entire Philistine army invaded Judah at Etam and demanded the Samson’s surrender. The men of Judah decided to hand Samson over to the Philistines and promptly bound him and brought him to the Philistine’s camp, 15.9-13. The Spirit of the Lord descended upon him and he killed 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. After victory, Samson gave God the glory, 15.18. God was with him and 15.20 tells us Samson judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
By the time we get to the opening verses of chapter 16, Samson has been declared public enemy number one by the Philistines. He narrowly escaped an ambush as he visited the house of a harlot. Then, he met another Philistine woman, Delilah. When the lords of the Philistines found out, they persuaded her to seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1100 pieces of silver, 16.5. After she won him over, she begged Samson to tell her the source of his strength. He teased her, telling her that he could become weak by being bound by fresh, undried bowstrings. Next, he told her that new ropes would do the trick. After this, he told her that if she weaved his hair together into a web that he would lose his strength. All three times, his strength easily overcame. By 16.15, Delilah is extremely frustrated and guilts Samson into telling her the source of his strength. She pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death, 16.16. Finally, Samson gives in.
Now Delilah had him and had someone cut Samson’s hair as he slept. His strength left him and he was seized by the Philistines. They gouged out his eyes and made him a mill grinder inside the prison. Why not just kill Samson? The Philistines would have kept him alive as a prize captive, showing him off to the people and to traveling dignitaries who passed through the area on the trade routes between the Mediterranean and the far East.
While Samson remained in prison, his hear began to grow again. Sometime after his capture the Philistines decided to celebrate their victory by offering a feast and sacrifice to Dagon. All the Philistines praised their god and believed that Dagon had delivered Samson into their hand. During the celebration, they brought Samson out of prison into the temple so he could be made a spectacle. After asking to stand between the two middle pillars that held the building up, Samson prayed for God to grant him the strength to strike the Philistines one last time. God did. He bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life, 16.30.
How Satan Pierced Samson
As we study Judges 13-16, it should be very easy to see some of Samson’s character defects. For some reason, Samson failed to address these and it ultimately led to him suffering with blindness and a premature death. How did Satan use Samson’s character defects to pierce him through?
Samson lived a life of trickery and deception. He seemed to always live his life on the cusp of disobedience. This brought out a strong temptation to deceive others. Consider the story of Judges 14 where he told a riddle to deceive those who were at his wedding party. Why the trickery? This one event led to a tragic stream of events that could have been easily avoided. When we feel we have to lead a life of deception, we set our self up for disaster.
Samson made rash decisions. How did Samson choose his wife? Many of the problems he confronted were in direct relation to this very poor decision. Had he simply obeyed the command of God, his life would have been so much easier. Did he ever think about the consequences of propounding a riddle? It led to the death of thirty innocent people of Ashkelon. More than once, Samson found himself in trouble because he did not take the time to think things through. What about us? The New Testament urges us to learn self control and discretion, Galatians 5.22-23.
Samson struggled with sexual purity. He made no effort to hold back physical desire. It is seen in his desire to take a wife from among the Philistines. When his parents objected to his choice, citing the commandment of the Lord against marrying outside of Israel, Samson was quick to respond: Get her for me, for she looks good to me, Judges 14.3, 7. Was he cloaking unbridled lusts inside his desire to seek an opportunity against the Philistines?
Later, Samson hired the services of a prostitute, 16.1. Not too long afterward, Samson had an affair with Delilah. By this time, Samson’s reputation preceded him and his enemies were using his weaknesses against him. Through Delilah’s continual pleading, Samson lost his strength and was captured by the Philistines. While Samson could strangle a lion with his bear hands, he stood defenseless in the arms of a woman. Driven by an insatiable lust, he refused to see Delilah for who she really was.
Our flirting with sexual temptation places us on an extremely slippery slope. If we do not deal with it decisively and quickly, it will defeat us. This is why Paul instructed us to flee fornication, 1 Corinthians 6.18. Don’t tolerate it. Don’t tell yourself I can handle this. The fact is, you can’t and you need to remove yourself from it as quickly as possible.
Conclusion
No one has to be like Samson. He has already lived his life. We have yet to live all of ours. We2 can make the necessary adjustments to our character with the desire to be transformed into the image of Christ, Romans 12.1-2. Don’t head out toward disaster like Samson. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, James 4.8.
Questions for Discussion
- Who were three other bible characters who shared similar circumstances surrounding their conception?
- For what purpose was Samson born?
- Why did God prohibit His people to marry those outside of Israel? What problems could have Samson avoided had he followed this admonition?
- Do we see any early warning signs of Samson’s character defects in Judges 14? Describe?
- How does the cycle of revenge started in Judges 14 finally end? See Judges 15.
- How long did Samson judge Israel?
- How did rash decisions affect the life of Samson and those around him?
- What can we learn about sexual sin from Samson?
- What are some positive character traits Samson had?
- Is Samson mentioned in the New Testament? Where? What does this teach us?
1 See Numbers 6.1-8.
2 Maxwell, J. (2006). “The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day.” p.82-83.
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