Need Love
Delilah is the personification of dangerous love. For all my life I've heard about her danger but Tim Keller really brought out for me what the main issue was for Samson concerning this woman who would become his undoing.
The whole narrative is bracketed by terms rooted in the concept of infatuated love. Even from the beginning, it says:
Judges 16:4 (ESV) After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Samson just got away with a sexual episode with a prostitute in the capital city of Gaza. But that was just casual sex, Delilah is what Samson considers a loving relationship. You get the feeling that her entrance into his was life primed by the casual encounter in the first place.
Samson needs the love of Delilah.
Judges 16:5 (ESV) And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”
At the same time, Delilah quickly needs Samson's loving intimacy to reveal his great strength for financial gain. The amount offered her here is astonishingly high.
Delilah needs the love of Samson.
You have here the makings of a disaster. When two people enter into a loving relationship based on what they need from the other instead of how they can serve the other, almost anything can destroy both parties. And in this case, it isn't long for Samson.
Delilah's final attempt to ply the truth from Samson is laced with terms of endearment:
Judges 16:15 (ESV) And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.”
With those words, Samson gives in and surrenders his secrets. The very thing that has kept him out of long-term trouble is now exposed for the taking. It will be gone without him noticing:
Judges 16:20–21 (ESV) 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 the LORD had left him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.
The whole narrative is bracketed by terms rooted in the concept of infatuated love. Even from the beginning, it says:
Judges 16:4 (ESV) After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Samson just got away with a sexual episode with a prostitute in the capital city of Gaza. But that was just casual sex, Delilah is what Samson considers a loving relationship. You get the feeling that her entrance into his was life primed by the casual encounter in the first place.
Samson needs the love of Delilah.
Judges 16:5 (ESV) And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”
At the same time, Delilah quickly needs Samson's loving intimacy to reveal his great strength for financial gain. The amount offered her here is astonishingly high.
Delilah needs the love of Samson.
You have here the makings of a disaster. When two people enter into a loving relationship based on what they need from the other instead of how they can serve the other, almost anything can destroy both parties. And in this case, it isn't long for Samson.
Delilah's final attempt to ply the truth from Samson is laced with terms of endearment:
Judges 16:15 (ESV) And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.”
With those words, Samson gives in and surrenders his secrets. The very thing that has kept him out of long-term trouble is now exposed for the taking. It will be gone without him noticing:
Judges 16:20–21 (ESV) 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 the LORD had left him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.
What's hard to grasp here is Samson's unwitting belief that nothing can really stop him. Even if he breaks all the standards of the Nazarite vow (including his hair not being cut), he will survive and move on. Why shouldn't he believe this? He's broken the other two requirements concerning wine and dead bodies. But that's not really the issue. The issue is his love for Delilah was so strong it crowded out any heart for God. He awoke powerless and didn't know it. Why? His heart for God had been cauterized by the love of this world.
Samson let his need for love lead him into the seductive lies of the enemy. So many Christians do the exact same thing. To be "adored" is the most compelling temptation and every generation seems to fall for it one way or another. The idea that love from others will give us a sense of fulfillment is really a shallow substitute for what we have from God in His grace.
Remember: Samson was chosen by God before he was born. He was consecrated and set apart before he did anything worthy of it. So are you, Christian. Your salvation is by God's grace and not of your works (Ephesians 2:8). The answer to the attraction of false loves is not to try and avoide them. It is to sink yourself deeper into the love of God already available to you in Christ Jesus. You are his chosen instrument and you are sacred to Him. The more you receive that knowledge in your heart, the less your heart will NEED love from others for that sense of fulfillment.
God alone is our source for everlasting love. Having His love removes that needy, clingy striving for secondary substitutes and saves our soul from sin.
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