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CHAPTER 20 : The Sin and Fall of Samson - Jehovah departs from him -
Samson's Repentance, Faith, and Death
(JUDGES 16)
THE closing verse of Judges 15 marks also the close of this period of Samson s life.
Henceforth it is a record of the terrible consequences, first of using God's gift, intrusted
for the highest and holiest purposes, for self-indulgence, and then of betraying and
losing it. And this betrayal and loss are ever the consequence of taking for self what is
meant for God, just as in the parable of the prodigal son the demand for the portion of
goods which belonged to him is followed by the loss of all, by want and misery. And
here, in this its second stage, the history of Samson closely follows that of Israel. As
Israel claimed for self, and would have used for self the gifts and calling of God; as it
would have boasted in its Nazarite-strength and trusted in it, irrespective of its real
meaning and the object of its bestowal, so now Samson. He goes down to Gaza, one of
the fortified strongholds of the Philistines, not impelled by the Spirit of Jehovah, but for
self-indulgence,^317 confident and boastful in what he regards as his own strength.
Nor does that strength yet fail him, at least outwardly. For God is faithful to His
promise, and so long as Samson has not cast away His help, it shall not fail him. But
already he is on the road to it, and the night at Gaza must speedily be followed by the
story of Delilah. Meanwhile, the men of Gaza and Samson must learn another lesson -
so far as they are capable of it. All night the guards are posted by the gates to wait for
the dawn, when, as they expect, with the opening of the gates, Samson will leave the
city, and they take him prisoner. During the night, however, they may take their sleep;
for are not the gates strong and securely fastened? But, at midnight, Samson leaves the
city, carrying with him its gates, and putting them down on "the top of a hill which
faces towards Hebron,"^318 that is, at a distance of about half an hour to the south-east of
Gaza.
Samson had once more escaped the Philistines; but the hour of his fall was at hand. To
regard the God-intrusted strength as his own, and to abuse it for selfish purposes, was
the first step towards betraying and renouncing that in which it really lay. Samson had
ceased to be a Nazarite in heart before he ceased to be one outwardly. The story of
Delilah^319 is too well known to require detailed repetition.
Her very name - "the weak" or "longing one" - breathes sensuality, and her home is in
the valley of Sorek, or of the choice red grape. The Philistine princes have learned it at
last, that force cannot prevail against Samson, until by his own act of unfaithfulness he
has deprived himself of his strength. It is the same story as that of Israel and its sin with
Baal-Peor. The same device is adopted which Balaam had suggested for the ruin of
Israel, and, alas! with the same success. The five princes of the Philistines promise each
(^)