Samson Pt. 3

The conclusion of Samson's story revolves around the famous vixen who renders him powerless.  Delilah is the third Philistine woman who enthralls Samson's heart and hands him over to her Philistine brethren.  Clearly, Samson fatal flaw is his passion for forbidden women.

More than that, though, Delilah reveals that Samson so misunderstood God that, except for in his death, Samson never truly knew where his strength actually came from.  Samson's strength did not come from the length of his hair or that they never touched a razor.  To miss this point would be to  miss the major point of his story.  Samson's strength came always and only from the Lord.

In regards to Delilah, she is a Philistine woman who exposes Samson's heart as unbelieving and unfaithful to the Lord.  When Delilah tricks Samson into, finally, telling her that his hair is the source of his strength, Samson unveils his heart that is far from the Lord.  God, then, removes Samson's strength when the Philistines cut his hair.  Know this: his hair never was the source of Samson's strength, but God removed his strength at the cutting of his hair because of his lack of faith.

In the end, Delilah betrays Samson over to the Philistines who gouge his eyes out, bind him in shackles, and bring him out to entertain them at their leisure.  The Philistines stand Samson between the two main pillars of the compound and laugh at him and his sorry state.  Samson cries out to God for one last bit of miraculous strength.  God grants Samson his dying request and Samson pulls down the pillars, crushing himself and everyone else under the rubble: "So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life." (Judges 16:30).

Samson exemplifies how utterly declined the best of Israel had become and, in the end, was worth more dead than he was alive.  He did his greatest good in dying.  This should tell us all we need to know about Samson.  He is far from a tragic hero but represents the apostasy and unfaithfulness of a whole nation.  But praise be to God who is faithful to save in spite of our least efforts!