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Believers should avoid putting themselves in situations that will tempt them to sin.
16 Because she nagged him day after day
and pleaded with him until she wore him out,
17 he told her the whole truth and said to her,
“My hair has never been cut, because I am a Nazirite to God from birth.
If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth,
she sent this message to the Philistine leaders:
“Come one more time, for he has told me the whole truth.”
The Philistine leaders came to her
and brought the silver with them.
19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head.
In this way, she made him helpless, and his strength left him.
20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!”
When he awoke from his sleep, he said,
“I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.”
But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
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Judges 16:4 introduces Delilah,
whose name means “flirt,”
stating that Samson “fell in love” with her.
When the five Philistine governors learned of this,
they saw it as a possible opportunity to capitalize on
Samson’s vulnerability.
Therefore, they went to Delilah to convince her to persuade
Samson to reveal the source of his tremendous strength
so that they could take him captive.
If she did this, each leader promised to give
Delilah 1,100 pieces of silver-
5,500 in all. (PSG, p. 102)
Samson’s strength did not come from his hair but from his obedience to God.
Samson’s character had led him to compromise
his vow on multiple occasions, and his association with Delilah left him open to a final collapse.
Samson’s physical strength could not save him from
the consequences of his moral weakness.