Judges 16:4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Samson was a remarkable man. He was a man of contradictions. He was the most powerful man in the world, yet he could not even control himself. He was a man who was blind to his weakness and therefore literally blinded by his enemies. So, if you were going to bet on a fight, which I’m not suggesting you do, and Samson were one of the fighters, who would you bet on? Would you bet on Samson or the Philistines? Well, regardless of the number of the enemy, Samson always came out on top because God had given him supernatural strength. Samson’s feats of strength were not based on his muscles; it was supernatural, beyond natural, God-given. Samson would have beaten the Philistines every time.
What if there were some kind of a fight to the death between Samson and a twenty-year old woman? Who would you bet on? Well, all of a sudden it’s not so sure because there are numerous examples of Samson being attracted to woman. In Judges 16:4 the Bible says, “He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.” The Philistines, the enemies of Samson, had bribed Delilah to find out the secret of Samson’s strength so they could capture him. This she attempted three times. She said, “Tell me the secret of your strength.” Samson toyed with the truth, and lied to her. She promptly did whatever he said would take away his strength, called in his enemies, and Samson was given victory because he lied about the source of his strength each time. Eventually he was captured because he toyed with sin and he was foolish.
You learn from this story of Samson that an enemy who can fool you need not fight you. You know, if there was a fight to the death between Samson and Delilah, Delilah would win because she did win. She didn’t win because of sheer physical strength or size. She won because she fooled a man who didn’t have a lick of sense at the moment. About what was Samson fooled? Was he fooled about Delilah? Was he so blind that he could not see what was happening when Delilah did what she believed would make him weak and then called in his enemies? Samson was not that dumb. She was laying a trap fully in his sight and he knew it.
What he was fooled about was himself. He knew what was going on, yet he was fooled anyway, which is even worse. He thought, “I can toy with sin and still be victorious.” He lied about himself, about his own strength. The strongest person in the room is the person who can conquer himself. The truth is that none of us can do that apart from the help of God.
We lose our strength when we forget its source. I saw the reflection of the sun in a puddle this morning, and by their appearance both the sun and the puddle looked to be the same size. That is, the sun in the sky and the reflection in the puddle on the ground looked the same. The puddle on the ground was the reflection of the sun. The puddle was not here yesterday and it will be gone tomorrow. The sun is enormously powerful and the puddle was just a reflection of that strength. Samson was nothing but a reflection of the strength of God, and when he was fooled and rebelled against God, that strength was gone.
Remember that whatever your strengths and weaknesses, the enemy who can fool you need not fight you.