Samson the Deliverer
God's Sixth Lesson - the Rise of the Philistines - God Raises Up Samson (Judges 13:1 to Judges 16:31).
The story of Samson is one of the most remarkable in the Bible. It demonstrates quite clearly that God can use the inadequacies of a man within His purposes. When God raised up Samson from birth He knew the propensities that he would have for good or evil. He gave him every opportunity for success but knew that he would eventually fail. Yet from that failure He purposed to produce success. Samson is an encouragement to all, that if the heart is right, God can use a man, even in his weakness, in His purposes.
Chapter 16. Samson's Decline, Downfall and Final Triumph.
By including Judges 15:20 the writer deliberately divided his story into two halves. The first part was, as we have seen, a story mainly of triumph against the odds, the second will be one of triumph in the face of disaster. The first began with him going in to a respectable Philistine woman with a view to responding to the Spirit of Yahweh (Judges 14:1 with Judges 13:25), and constantly speaks of His activity by the Spirit. The second begins with him going in to a prostitute with a view to following the lusts of the flesh (Judges 16:1). There is no mention of the Spirit of Yahweh in this section, only of the final departure from him of Yahweh (Judges 16:20). But in the end it is ‘Yahweh' Who acts through him for he is partially restored to his vow.
Furthermore Judges 16:1 can be seen as parallel to previous times when ‘Israel went a-whoring after strange gods' (Judges 2:17) and ‘did evil in the sight of Yahweh' with the Baalim and Ashtaroth (Judges 2:11; Judges 3:7). This would then signify good times followed by bad. But Samson's gods were women. Samson had lost his effectiveness.
The account begins with his going in to a harlot in Gaza, and his subsequent removal of the gates of Gaza, followed by his dalliance with Delilah who tempts him to divulge the secret of his strength. This is followed by his subsequent arrest and blinding, and his being committed to hard labour in the prison mill. But the regrowth of his hair strengthens his faith and he finally destroys a packed Philistine Temple killing many of the enemy hierarchy.