SAMSON’S GREAT STRENGTH IS EXPOSED

09-22-19 This message may be viewed live streaming video at www.tabernacleofmoses.org commencing today Sunday at 11:00 am, and repeated 24/7 for one week; thereafter, the video, audio, and study notes are archived.

God is Thought. The brightness of our revelations depends upon the correctness of our doctrines,

our building blocks (our thoughts).

 

THE WOMAN THAT JILTED SAMSON

(Judg 14:1-4)  And Samson [Heb: sunlight] went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines [Heb: rolling, migratory /// to roll (in dust): (wallow) self]. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he [God] sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion [Heb: rule] over Israel.

 

THE PROSTITUTE

(Judg 16:1-3)  Then went Samson [Heb: sunlight] to Gaza, and saw there an harlot [prostitute], and went in unto her. And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed [Heb: surrounded] him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.

 

DELILAH

(Judg 16:4,5)  And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. [1] And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him [(in a sinister way) delude: deceive, flatter], and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail [Heb: overcome] against him, that we may bind him to afflict him [make him suffer]: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver [x 5 lords = 5,500 pieces].

1.     Delilah = Heb: languishing /// to slacken or be feeble; fig. be oppressed: bring low, dry up, be emptied, be not equal, fail, be impoverished, be made thin.

a.      languish: Dict. = 1. to lose vigor or vitality; fail in health; become weak; droop. 2. to live under stressing conditions; continue in a state of suffering. 3. to become slack or dull; lose intensity.

 

(Judg 16:6-9)  And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried [“seven fresh gutstrings, still moist” Amplif. Bible], then shall I be weak, and be as another man. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs [“bowstrings” Amplif.]  which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs [“bowstrings” Amplif.], as a thread of tow [twine] is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.

 

(Judg 16:10-12)  And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.

 

(Judg 16:13,14)  And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.

 

(Judg 16:15-17)  And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed [Heb: grieved, troubled] unto death; That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite [Heb: separate, consecrated (as a prince)] [1] unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

1.     Commentary: Nazarite vows: 1. Dedicated to serving God. 2. No razor shall come upon his head. 3. Drink no wine nor strong drink. 4. Neither eat any unclean thing. 5. Touch no dead body.

 

(Judg 16:18-20)  And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist [Heb: understood] not that the LORD was departed from him.

 

(Judg 16:21,22)  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 [grain] in the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

 

(Judg 16:23-25)  Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them [selves] together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon [the fish god] their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport [Heb: be had in derision, laughed at, mocked, (laughed to scorn)]. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.

 

(Judg 16:26,27)  And [supposedly now harmless] Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women [3,000], that beheld [watched] while Samson made sport.

 

(Judg 16:28-30)  And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes [(Old Testament judgment)]. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

1.     Commentary: Samson’s strength was his inner resolve to serve God; hence, the power of his prayers.

a.      (Hosea 12:2-4)  The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel [Gen 32:24], and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;

b.     (Eph 6:18)  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

 

(Judg 16:31)  Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

Amen