Christian Living
The Secrets of The Heart
Samson had a secret! This secret was between he and God. No one was to know of his strength and where it came from. The people of God talks too much sometimes and they tell all that they should and most of what they should not.
Samson was where he was not supposed to be, he was too comfortable in his stink and he was a boaster of his strength. We can go so far and too far for so long we get caught up in stuff we were never to be involved in.
Judges 16:23 but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice for they said, our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
How do we get ourselves in the fixes we get in? Why do we talk so much and find ourselves drawn away of false pretentious love? God loves us at all times yet we don’t show him that same love. We do not delight ourselves in Him, His Word, in prayer, fasting or in worship and praise. We find something to tell and play with sin thinking one day we will not get caught up and realize our strength is gone. Samson played around again and again with Delilah until he finally spilled his guts about where his strength came from. Delilah was an enemy and sold him out for money. The lords of the Philistines came up to her one day and told her if she would entice him and see where his great strength lies and by what means they can prevail against him that they would give her each one of them eleven hundred pieces of silver.
After he lied to her three times and they failed to bind him up she used a different strategy. Delilah wanted the money so she went after him with his feelings; for she knew he loved her. In Judges 16:15-17 she asked Samson of his love for her. She said unto him how could you say; you love me and your heart is not with me. You have mocked me three times Samson and you are still lying about where your strength lies. She pressed him daily with her words and urged him to tell her; for her heart wasn’t with him either, she wanted the money. Samson was deceitful but so was she and she didn’t give up until he told her what she wanted to know. She bothered him until she vexed his soul unto death. She got him to tell her all his heart. He poured out the secrets of his heart. He told her that he was a Nazarite unto God from his mother’s womb and there had never been a razor on his head. He went on to tell her that if he be shaven, then his strength will go from him and he would become weak, and be like any other regular man.
When she saw that he had told her all of his heart she called for the lords of the Philistines and they brought her money. She made Samson to sleep upon her knees and she called for a man to shave of the seven locks of his head and she began to afflict him and his strength went away from him. The Philistines took him and put out his eyes, brought him into Gaza where he was put into prison. What a fine love they shared between them; both were deceptive except the man of God had directions and orders to follow. He should never have been with that woman to begin with and then he got comfortable being there. Not only that, he believed the lies she told him. He poured out the secrets of his heart to the enemy. Many times we are drawn away from the things of God because of our own lusts. Samson lost his secret because he laid his head in the lap of a
A serpent will bite without enchantment and a babbler is no better. No one likes to be lied to and when they do it’s as wounds that cut deep in the heart. They do down into the innermost parts especially when there is a relationship that’s supposed to be going somewhere. How many times do we lie to God like he doesn’t know we are lying? How many times has we lied to each other and act like God doesn’t know? A true witness delivers souls; but a deceitful witness will speak lies just to get what they want. Like Delilah ungodly people digs up evil and in their lips lies are spoken. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. Samson was perverse in his ways and he grieved his righteous spirit with his doings. The lips of truth shall be established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a moment. He lied three times when he didn’t have to speak at all causing him to get caught up in the wrath of a people.
The Hebrew custom of no affiliation with other sects meant that to be caught up in their society one would face death or prison. They faced some horrible conditions if they lived elsewhere where Jews were not welcomed or in their own land if they were under the authority of another group of people. Here the Hebrew nation was being run by the Philistines who were the dominant race in the Southwest part of Palestine. The promise land had not at this time been conquered immediately when the Israelites crossed over the Jordan. There seems to have been sociability between Israel and the Philistines, even to the point of intermarriage. Samson was not a leader of Israel in revolt, but rather a personal hero. There did not seem to be a union of the tribes against the Philistines and his own countrymen did not make Samson’s person disputes a cause of war. No doubt the Israelites welcomed the exploits of Samson as against a common foe.
We are given here a picture of the marriage customs of that day, many of which are the same in that part of the world today. Samson was a hero in humor also as well as a leader in physical strength. Once when he was beaten in a wager he made, he killed thirty men so that he fulfilled a promise. Samson’s strength was of a divine origin and came to him when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. The religious significance of the story of Samson is centered around the Nazirite’s vow and rules which are given by Moses in Numbers 6:1-21. Samson was the thirteenth judge of the judges in Israel. He married a woman of Timnah. He was arrested and took his retaliation. He then met a woman of whoredom; a harlot in Gaza. Afterwards he met Delilah and she was the end of him. Samson died at his own hands. He prayed God give him strength one more time to avenge his enemies. He didn’t try to escape himself, killing himself in the process of
We are much like Samson today. God has given us power over all unclean spirits yet we just except them and allow them to sit in our midst and they are never comfortable. Shame on us as the people of God for we are to make a greater appeal to man’s consciences and command more attention be given to the Word of God. We all have individual problems but when it comes to God all of our individual problems fall under one order and that order is God’s. The neglect of the Lord’s ordinances and the worship of false gods lead us to punishment, while sincere repentance brings about God’s divine favor. The fact that God deals with nations in view of their attitude toward His moral laws merits our present day consideration. Because sin prevails nations are destroyed. Samson regained his strength one more time to destroy he and the Philistines.
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