The Lap of Death: Samson and the Treachery of Sin Text: Judges 16:4-22
Introduction: The High Cost of Cheap Thrills
The story of Samson and Delilah is not a children's flannelgraph lesson about the dangers of haircuts. It is a brutal and tragic account of spiritual treason. It is a case study in how a man set apart by God can, through a series of compromises born of lust, squander his divine calling and end up blind, bound, and broken. This is not just Samson's story; it is a standing warning to every generation of the church. We live in an age that wants to manage sin, to flirt with the world, and to believe that we can lie down in the lap of our Delilahs and somehow emerge unscathed.
Samson's great strength was never his own. It was a gift of the Spirit of God, and the sign of that gift was his Nazirite vow, symbolized by his uncut hair. But Samson began to treat the gift as a personal possession and the sign as a mere trifle. He played games with his consecration. He thought he could dance on the cliff's edge of disobedience without falling. He believed he was the exception to the rule. This is the lie that sin always whispers: "You shall not surely die. You can handle this. You are strong enough."
But the story before us demonstrates the iron law of sin. Sin is a patient predator. It will wear you down. It will use your own desires against you. And when it has you, it will not play fair. It will bind you, blind you, and put you to meaningless labor. The central lesson is this: you cannot separate the power of God from the presence of God, and you cannot maintain the presence of God while you are entertaining His enemies in your heart and in your bed. Samson's fall was not a sudden blowout; it was a slow leak, a gradual erosion of his faithfulness until there was nothing left but the hollow shell of a man who once was great.
We must see this account for what it is. It is a picture of the war that rages for the soul of every believer. The world, the flesh, and the devil are not content to let us be. They will probe for our weaknesses, offer us silver, and press us daily until we surrender the secret of our strength, which is our utter dependence on God. Let us therefore attend to this tragic history, not to feel superior to Samson, but to see our own foolish hearts reflected in his, and to flee to the only one who is truly strong.
The Text
Now it happened afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see where his great strength lies and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you.” Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that have not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had men lying in wait, sitting in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the cords as a string of tinder snaps when it touches fire. So his strength was still not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me how you may be bound.” And he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used for work, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Now the men lying in wait were sitting in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like a thread. Then Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies; tell me how you may be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web [and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man.” So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web. Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.” Now it happened when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like every other man.” And Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, so she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the silver in their hands. Then she made him sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that Yahweh had left him. Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.
(Judges 16:4-22 LSB)
The Treasonous Transaction (vv. 4-6)
We begin with the root of the problem:
"Now it happened afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah." (Judges 16:4)
Samson's downfall begins with a disordered love. His affections are set on a forbidden object. He is a judge in Israel, a man set apart for God, yet he seeks companionship and intimacy among the enemies of God's people. This is not just a personal failing; it is a violation of his calling. He is yoking himself to an unbeliever, and in doing so, he is opening the door to his own destruction. The heart is the issue. Before the hair was cut, the heart had already strayed.
The enemies of God are shrewd. They see Samson's weakness, and they exploit it. The lords of the Philistines do not challenge Samson to a contest of strength. They know they cannot beat him there. Instead, they attack his character. They approach Delilah with a business proposition. The price is staggering: eleven hundred pieces of silver from each lord. This is a king's ransom, and it reveals two things: how desperate the Philistines were to neutralize God's champion, and how utterly materialistic Delilah was. Her loyalty, her affection, her body, it was all for sale. She is the perfect tool for their purposes because she has no higher love than money.
Notice her question to Samson: "Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you." She does not even hide her malicious intent. This is the absurdity of sin. The warning labels are in plain sight, the poison is clearly marked, and yet the fool walks right into the trap because he is blinded by his lust. He thinks it is a game.
The Fool's Game (vv. 7-14)
What follows is a tragic and pathetic game of cat and mouse, where Samson is the cat who thinks he is in control, but is actually the mouse being toyed with before the final blow.
"Samson said to her, 'If they bind me with seven fresh cords...'" (Judges 16:7)
Samson responds with a lie. And then another lie. And then a third. In each instance, he is dancing closer and closer to the truth. He is playing with the fire of temptation. With each successful escape, his pride is inflated. He begins to believe in his own invincibility. He thinks he can control the situation, that he can give Delilah just enough to keep her interested without actually giving away the secret.
This is the classic mindset of the compromiser. He thinks he can set the terms of his dalliance with sin. "I'll go this far, but no further." But sin does not work that way. It is not content with a partial victory. Each time Delilah cries, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" it is a dress rehearsal for the final tragedy. It is a warning siren that he willfully ignores. He is so confident in his own strength that he cannot see the weakness of his own character.
The third lie is the most telling. He allows her to weave the seven locks of his head, the very symbol of his Nazirite vow, into a loom. He is now treating the sacred sign of his separation to God as a prop in his romantic games. He is profaning what is holy. When a man begins to joke about his commitments to God, when he treats them lightly for the sake of pleasing a woman or fitting in with the world, his end is near.
Worn Down by Wickedness (vv. 15-17)
When the games fail, Delilah changes her tactics from inquiry to emotional blackmail.
"Then she said to him, 'How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me?'" (Judges 16:15)
This is the master stroke of the temptress. She accuses him of the very thing she is guilty of. She questions his love and his integrity. Sin will always seek to make you feel guilty for resisting it. And then comes the relentless pressure: "she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death."
This is a profound insight into the nature of temptation. It is often a war of attrition. The devil rarely wins with one dramatic assault. He wins by nagging, by pressing, by wearing down our spiritual defenses day after day until we are simply too tired to fight anymore. Samson did not fall in a moment of overwhelming passion. He fell because he was exhausted. He gave up the secret of his strength simply to get some peace and quiet. He traded his divine birthright for a moment's relief from a nagging woman.
And so, "he told her all that was in his heart." He surrenders. He explains the Nazirite vow. He makes his relationship with God the subject of pillow talk with a Philistine harlot. The transfer of loyalty is complete. He has chosen Delilah over Yahweh, and the consequences will be immediate.
The Unveiling and the Unknowing (vv. 18-22)
The end comes swiftly. Delilah knows she has him. The money is delivered. The trap is set.
"Then she made him sleep on her knees... and his strength left him." (Judges 16:19)
The mighty judge of Israel, the man who tore a lion apart with his bare hands, is asleep in the lap of the enemy. This is the picture of spiritual stupor. This is where compromise leads. He is completely vulnerable, completely unaware as the sign of his covenant with God is shaved off. The power does not reside in the hair itself, of course. The hair is the external symbol of his internal consecration. The cutting of the hair signifies that the relationship has been severed by his disobedience.
And then we come to one of the most chilling verses in all of Scripture: "But he did not know that Yahweh had left him." He wakes up and goes through the motions. "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." He still thinks the strength is his. He is so spiritually calloused, so accustomed to God's blessing, that he doesn't even notice when it's gone. This is the final, terrifying stage of spiritual decline: to be abandoned by God and not even know it. It is the state of a man, or a church, or a nation that maintains the form of godliness but has denied its power.
The results are catastrophic. The Philistines seize him. They gouge out his eyes, a fitting judgment for a man led by lust. He who lived by sight is now blind. They bind him with bronze chains, he who so easily snapped ropes. And they put him to work as a grinder in the prison, a repetitive, meaningless task usually reserved for animals or women. The man who was meant to be a deliverer is now a blind, bound slave. This is the wage of sin.
"However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off." (Judges 16:22)
In this one word, "however," the gospel shines into the darkness of the Gaza prison. This is the grace of God. Even in the depths of his failure, God is not finished with Samson. The regrowth of his hair is not magical. It is a sign of a coming restoration. It suggests a period of repentance in the darkness and the grinding. God will use even Samson's catastrophic failure to accomplish His ultimate purpose, which is the judgment of the Philistines. This is a profound comfort. Our sin is great, but God's sovereign grace is greater. He can bring victory even out of our most shameful defeats.
Conclusion: The Greater Samson
Samson is a tragic figure. He is a type of Christ, but largely by way of contrast. He was a Nazirite set apart, but he was unfaithful. He was a judge meant to save his people, but he was compromised by his love for strange women. He won his greatest victory in his death, but it was a victory necessitated by his own sin.
He points us to a greater Samson, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was the true Nazirite, truly holy, harmless, and separate from sinners. He was never lulled to sleep in the lap of temptation. He never played games with His consecration. He never once revealed the secret of His strength to His enemies.
And yet, He was bound. He was afflicted. He was handed over to His enemies. He allowed Himself to be shorn of His glory and strength. He did this not because of any sin in Himself, but because He was taking our place. He went into the darkness of the prison of death for us. He was blinded and bound so that we could have our eyes opened and our chains broken.
The story of Samson is a warning to all of us who would trifle with sin. Do not be deceived. The lap of Delilah is the lap of death. But it is also an encouragement. If you are in the prison house today, if you have squandered your gifts and found yourself blind and grinding, know this: our God is a God of restoration. The hair can grow again. Repent of your sin, turn from your folly, and call upon the name of the Lord. For our true Samson, Jesus Christ, has already won the victory, and in Him, even our greatest failures can be redeemed for God's greater glory.