Lessons From Samson and Delilah - Samson's Plight

Written by Monica Hernandez on June 4, 2009
___________________________________________


I must apologize for not keeping my postings up to date in the past few weeks. Part of it is that I was away from late March to April in sunny Trinidad in the Caribbean, and since I came back, I find myself being bombarded by several distractions and obligations that got the better of me. However, here I am today with some lessons I have learned from the story of Samson and Delilah.

Some time ago, I did an in-depth study of the principles within that story and gained some insights about them, which I will share with you, my readers, in the weeks to come. I feel sure you know the story, and even if you don’t, you can read all about it in the Book of Judges, chapter 16.

Samson was a man of great physical strength given to him by God to defeat the Philistines but he lost it by giving in to pressure from Delilah to tell her the secret of his strength and what would deplete it. Delilah was persistent, and in a weak moment, Samson gave in to her pressure. He revealed the secret of his strength and Delilah won the battle. She told Samson's secret to her people, and Samson was captured and made a prisoner to the Philistines.

Samson knew his great strength was a gift from God but he took it for granted and failed to protect it from the people he was supposed to defeat. When he yielded to Delilah's questioning he lost not only his strength but also his eyes and was enslaved by the Philistines. The issue here is that Samson was "sleeping with the enemy" and paid a terrible price for that. And something similar is relevant to each of us today.

We see that Samson had great physical strength against the enemy but no moralistic strength. Instead, he was a victim of sensual weakness which caused him to compromise God's gift to him. When he needed his strength most he discovered that "the Lord was departed from him." The Bible says: "And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him" (Judges 16:20). What a tragedy!

In this life we will always meet Delilahs in various disguises: people who openly fraternize with us but are inwardly against us. Often, they pressure us with ideas that are not right for us and the means of the pressure are always subtle. And our yielding to pressures from people whose ideas are not right for us will always cause us to take our minds off God and into spiritual blindness, bondage and destruction.

The characteristics of Delilah present themselves to us in various ways and one of them is to distract us from what is right by preying on our weakness. Those Delilah characteristics cause us to lose our focus and give up our most treasured possession: our strength and position as a child of God.

In this story, Delilah represents anyone or anything we allow into our lives that would usurp the anointing and gifts that God has bestowed upon us. Samson sacrificed his ideals, and thus sacrificed his gift of unusual strength. The same thing will happen to anyone today who fails to give proper attention to God's gifts in their lives.

Can you imagine how Samson felt when he discovered he was deceived by Delilah? Can you imagine how he felt when he realized that his strength was not there when he needed it most? Can you imagine how he felt, realizing that the moment of his folly could not be re-captured and erased?

What can we learn from Samson's plight? We can learn not to fraternize with people and circumstances that are not right for us. We can learn not to compromise who we truly are but guard the anointing and gifts God has blessed us with. We can learn not to let enemy forces win.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: In this life we are to guard the anointing that God places in our lives.

“Heavenly Father, I thank you for the gifts you have placed in my life. Help me to keep them and use them for your glory and your Kingdom. Amen.”

— Monica


******************
PRAYER SUPPORT
******************
Are you facing challenges? In need of prayer support? Send us an email about your prayer needs and we will come into agreement with you for the wonder-working power of God in your life.
Email: prayer@newvisionministry.org