Pastor's Sermon Notes:
July 12, 2026: Judge Samson 4
Judges 21:24 & 25, NASB95
The sons of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and each one of them went out from there to his inheritance. In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
We will finish our study today of the last great judge of Israel in Judges chapter 16, but we won’t go further to the end of the book: to Judges 21. This is because those ending chapters are tragic, gruesome, they are the epitome of what happens to a nation when they leave God and are blindly trying to find their way under the illusion that they know how to govern themselves.
I’m seeing immense parallels to America. By the skin of our teeth we’ve been re-dedicated back to God. But these terrible undercurrents of lawlessness and socialism and Marxism and communism threatening to steal God’s creation called America, is a stern warning. We must cling to the Creator and not be moved.
(Please turn to Judges Chapter 16 with me.)
Here we find Samson indulging in his yearning for women. And this now has him making some very bad decisions and placing himself in the wrong places at the wrong times.
Samson is from the tribe of Dan, up north, but he’s down in the thick of Philistine territory. He’s not where he should be. He’s been a judge about twenty years now and has brought peace to the Jewish tribes, but he’s not married and very lonely. So he goes down into Gaza knocking on the door of someone he can pay to temporarily take that loneliness away. It’s lonely at the top.
Of course, the men of Gaza see an opportunity while he’s “preoccupied,” so they lay in wait to kill him. Samson, however, is at the top of his game with his physical strength above and beyond what these enemies can even plan for. He doesn’t just leave the harlot’s house and walk out through the city gate like they think he’ll do, he REMOVES the city gate and not only terrifies, I’m sure, the Gaza thugs... but he leaves that city vulnerable to attack (no gate, no protection), which is something, I’m sure, Samson enjoys doing because it’s sending a message. “Mess with me and I’ll come back and destroy your city.” And they know he can.
So Samson, lonely again, visits another woman. And this is where the famous story takes off: Samson and Delilah. He falls in love with her.
(Please read Judges 16:4-9)
Samson has been burned by Philistine babes before! He married one and was instantly betrayed by that woman’s loyalty to her people. Now here he is again with a Philistine woman, and she’s been coerced by the Philistine Lords to be used as a spy to get to the root of the problem. What’s the problem with Samson? He’s so strong he cannot be beat. Nobody wins in a fight with him. He’s dangerous if he’s mad...he’s lethal if he’s mad. No one can figure out where he gets his strength. But they’ve uncovered his vulnerability... it’s always the women.
They offer her huge money to Delilah. Each of the Lords offers $2k in today’s money. How many Lords? Well, the Philistines had five cities, as recorded in David’s day, which is only fifty years after Samson, when David arrives on the scene. Here’s that scripture, about the five lords, just so you know:
1 Samuel 6:17 & 18, NASB95
These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages.
We studied the Prophet Samuel, so I’m hoping you recall this bizarre moment when the Philistines steal the Ark of the Covenant. That’s what these golden mice and tumors are all about.
Back to Delilah: she’s being paid roughly $10,000 to find out how to weaken Samson. She’s so brazen, she simply asks him. And he, of course, being mischievous, plays games with her. Tells her to tie him up (so he can prove his might.) Delilah tries again, he discusses more ropes and promptly snaps the ropes again...
He’s having fun! He’s got a beautiful woman tying him up and he’s having a blast making all these Philistines look like fools. It’s a joke to him. All he’s doing is validating his strength in front of everyone, over and over and over again. She tries one more time. And this time, he begins to get himself into trouble:
(Please read Judges 16:13 & 14)
Most women in ancient societies would have had a weaving loom. All cloth had to be made; manufactured at home. Tapestries, rugs, cottons, linens, woolens... it was all precious and woven by hand. She’s got a loom there, the Bible calls it a “web” and he notices it and decides to keep up the farce. “Weave my hair into your loom,” he says. But this is highly unwise because he knows the secret that his mother told him from the Lord: It’s all about his hair. He shouldn’t even be mentioning his hair to these people. But he’s arrogant; he’s never lost a fight; and he thinks he’s invincible.
Remember, the Angel of the Lord told Samson’s mom before he was even born: “no razor shall come upon his head.” (Judges 13:5) But he’s so full of pride. And we know what King Solomon later said about pride:
Proverbs 16:18
Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling.
The other issue here, is that from the moment Samson meets Delilah, the Bible tells us that he loved her. She’s no ordinary lady in his harem of females. So she begins to manipulate him emotionally. “You say you love me, but you won’t tell me your secret.” She nags and cries and wears him down until, fully aware that she’s trying to expose him, he discloses his deepest secret.
Judges 16: 15-17
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 any other man.”
Manipulation is a type of witchcraft. It’s a conjuring; a bending and misuse of someone’s most sensitive component; their emotions... their vulnerability...their frailty, which is always tied to the heart. When God’s people (which Delilah is not) stoop to emotional manipulation, they partner with the Devil in his work. Do not ever take advantage of someone’s weakness. We become people of integrity when... even in a fight... we refuse to manipulate and coerce and persuade and nag and lie and exaggerate...in order to get our way. It’s far better to suck it up and allow a person to disagree, than to force their will through manipulation. It’s pure evil.
Delilah informs the Philistine Lords, she gets paid, and she then convinces him to sleep with his head in her lap.
(Please read Judges 16:19-21)
They put his eyes out first. He’s weak, his seven dreadlocks are cut off and he’s sentenced to a life of grinding grain in a prison. The Philistines are overjoyed that they’ve got the strongest man in the world in their prison, as weak as a kitten. They sing; they chant. They’re celebrating in the huge temple of their god, Dagon, the demon idol that would later fall on its face in pieces before the Ark of the Covenant when they stole from Israel in 1 Samuel chapter six.
(Please read Judges 16:25-31)
Samson decides that his last act, if possible, will be to cause the most destruction he can on the Philistines, which was the reason he was born (see Judges 13:5.) He realizes he will give his life for this, and he calls on the Lord, who answers in kindness, immediately.
The moment that saddens me the most about Samson’s story is when it says, “He did not know that the Lord had departed from him.” Part of our job is to stay in relationship with our Jesus. Cultivate moments throughout the day and the week when we practice the presence of God. Intentionally do things to draw heaven down to us. Learn to become sensitive to what God’s presence feels like so that we absolutely know the difference between walking alone or walking with God. In the days to come, it will be the most important thing in your life: to have that ability to walk with God through whatever happens in this world.
Samson had lost that ability. We lose that ability when we take God for granted, or when we forget to include Him... we forget to thank Him... anytime He is not our priority, we are creating distance and losing sensitivity.
Let’s work on that this week.
July 5, 2026: Judge Samson 3
Proverbs 25:28 TPT
If you live without restraint and are unable to control your temper, you’re as helpless as a city with broken-down defenses, open to attack.
In the Book of the Judges, the final judge of Israel is memorable. Unfortunately, this is mostly because he was wild; uncontrolled in his spirit. When I think of Samson, I think of a man who lived a roller-coaster life of appetites and tempers and emotions and rebellion from the rules. Some people would unwisely say, “That sounds like freedom: Nobody’s in charge of you, you do what you want...”
But if you’ve had seasons in your life that looked a little bit like Samson, you know the opposite is true. It’s not fun in the long-term. Because the Bible, in the wise proverbs of Solomon, tells us that if we live without restraint, we’re like a city with broken walls; always vulnerable to enemy attack.
The Bible never lies and the Word of God is piercing with its truth; like a double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12.) We cannot run from the truth, nor God—He WILL find us. Because God loves sinners. They will still choose to love God or not, but God will not leave them unattended.
The Bible has assured us many times already, as we study the life of Samson, that God loves this man and planned his destiny. The Lord deals with him unusually: most Jews in Samson’s day were strictly forbidden to marry outside of their Jewish bloodlines. Not Samson. God permitted it because the Lord wanted to execute a plan to remove the Philistines from Jewish land. God chose Samson as His instrument of judgement from conception—the angel of the Lord explained all this to Samson’s mom before she even conceived.
In addition, most Jews were forbidden to eat certain foods contaminated by pagan religious ceremonies or dead things... not Samson. He eats honeycomb from a dead lion, serves it to his Jewish parents (potentially cause them to sin also)... yet it’s all part of the atmosphere around Samson. He’s different. “Vengeance is Mine!” says the Lord in Deuteronomy as the Laws of God were being documented by Moses and given out as commands to the Jewish nation. But Samson seems to bring pay-back and revenge everywhere he goes. God’s got a high-call and a big plan for Jewish people, so Samson the Jew has become the tip of His spear. All we can do is read-on and learn how God deals with certain instruments of His Kingdom. Samson is God’s instrument at a certain time in human history.
Samson grows up, makes a bad marriage with a Philistine woman. (Judges 14:4) They have a pitiful mess of a wedding, since Samson-the-trickster decides he’s going to get a quick thirty yards of linen and thirty changes of clothes off the in-laws by telling them a riddle. They must solve it before the wedding weekend is over, yet they don’t have a clue. So Samson’ new wife takes up for her people and cries for seven days. He breaks down, tells her the answer to the riddle... and she of course, loyal to the Philistines, reveals the answer to the riddle to them. This costs Samson a lot in fabric and clothing, but he made sure they paid up, as well.
Judges 14:19 & 20, NASB95
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. But Samson’s wife was given to his companion who had been his friend.
Everybody goes home from the wedding; Samson is without a wife now and thirty Philistines are dead in Ashkelon from his revenge. (By the way, Ashkelon is between modern day Gaza Strip and Tel Aviv along the Mediterranean Sea.)
For some unknown reason, as we turn the page to Judges 15, Samson... even though he’s been up north and back home for months... seems to forget that he doesn’t have a wife anymore. She was given away, the marriage annulled and now she’s married to Samson’s buddy.
Judges 15:1 & 2
But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat, and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours instead.”
This is shocking for so many reasons. I suppose that Samson is not willing to accept the reality of his marital situation, so he goes to Timnah to get her back and he’s looking for some sympathy. He’s brought a gift. Goats were a valuable animal to ancient peoples. They could clear land; make milk and cheese, and at the end of the day, their meat was delicious. So he brings a nice present to his wife. Her dad opens the door and reminds Samson that they’re divorced, and she’s remarried. “By the way,” he says, “She’s got a cute sister!” This was not unusual or improper at this time in middle-eastern history. Women were possessions of men. Father’s made the arranged marriages and Dad’s trying to redeem the situation. Samson goes into a rage and says to himself (to justify what he’s about to do) that he’s not guilty this time of anything wrong. They took his wife away and he’s now going to take revenge.
Please read Judges 15:4 & 5
He’s brutal. His rage is unhinged, premeditated and blinding when it erupts. This scripture has bothered me for decades because it’s such horrific treatment of the animals. But we must remember, God’s higher plan is being executed here. This is what the Bible says about God’s plans:
Job 42:2, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
When God plans to accomplish something, He cannot be stopped.
We may also find some comfort in remembering that the Philistines are in total control of the Jewish nations at this point in history. Jews are oppressed by them. By the way... all of this is leading up to David and Goliath. So these kinds of inhumane activities and tactics were part of the background toward the defeat of the Philistine giant and the wars that came afterward.
Also, the Philistines were doing this kind of stuff to the Jews: burning their fields and destroying livelihoods as we saw with Gideon and his enemies 150 years earlier. We see the horrific mentality of the Philistines in the next line of scripture:
Judges 15:6-8
So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. Samson said to them, “Since you act like this, I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will quit.” He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
Even Samson has his limits... and this was a fire-too-far. The Philistines exacted their revenge also, and burned Samson’s wife and father in law. So the rage of Samson ignited again and he slaughtered a bunch of them and then hid in the cleft of the rock of Etam. (Etam is south of Bethlehem about ten miles in the mountains of Judah.)
Please read Judges 15:9 -14
This is not good news, if you’re a Philistine. The Holy Spirit wants Samson’s hands free, and when God wants something, miracles happen. I remind you that in the first part of Judges 13, when Samson birth is announced to his future parents, this same Holy spirit of the Lord perform “wonders” it says, before He left the altar of sacrifice and ascended straight up to heaven. What wonders were those did Samson’s parents get to see when they found out about their baby that would be a boy? We don’t know. But we DO know that Samson’s life is dotted with miracles because the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him. He’s the anointed Judge of Israel for that season. And so far, he hasn’t done anything dumb enough to remove that anointing.
The ropes supernaturally catch fire, they fall off his hands, and Samson immediately reaches down to the ground and picks up the nearest thing he can find as a weapon:
Please read Judges 15:15 & 16
Just like the power of God infused the rock that David slung out at Goliath, a jaw-bone of a lowly farm animal in Samson’s hand had the power of God on it. He took out a thousand enemy soldiers. And then he got tired and weak and thirsty.
Please read Judges 15:17- 20
Next week, we’ll finish his story and rejoice that Samson finishes well, against all odds.