Samson’s Downfall
By Matt Watson
“And he told her all his heart, and said to her, ’A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.’”
Cutting Samson’s hair was like shooting Superman with kryptonite bullets. He went from being Hercules to being like the rest of us mere mortals: killable. However, his great strength wasn’t his hair, it was the oath to God that his luscious locks represented. The Nazirite vow was like a covenant, one which Samson repeatedly broke. Nevertheless, as Samson did so, God was yet gracious. He is longsuffering and patient with sinners (Rom 2:4). But at some point, Samson was faced with the consequences of his oath-breaking, as all sinners will.
Samson Forsakes His Vow
The Psalmist asked, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word" (Ps 119:9 ESV). Samson threw out God’s Word as soon as he could. Maybe you can relate. He went to college and left the church, binging at keggers and using up all the party girls. He threw out his vow, his faith, and his values for sex. Here is a sample of what we are told about:
He demanded a philistine wife, Judges 14:1-3
He slept with a prostitute, Judges 16:1
He “loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah,” Judges 16:4
The strongest man in the world was the weakest mentally and spiritually.
Samson isn’t just a model of what not to do, his life is an active warning to us all to remain faithful to the Lord. Men and women both keep their ways pure by following the Lord.
Just as a man should not throw himself away with sex, neither should a woman throw herself away by giving herself to men. Note the difference in temptations. Men want sex, women want a relationship. Satan corrupts these desires and uses them against each other. It forsakes the way God designed sex and relationships.
“There is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way; whoever hates reproof will die.”
The Trap
Sex was Delilah's trap. Delilah was offered a lordly sum of money to get Samson’s secret sauce recipe. The Philistine leaders paid her 5500 pieces of silver total, weighing in at over 140 pounds. There isn't a great way to calculate inflation from an ancient era to today's imaginary money but suffice it to say, it's a lot. Several commentators estimate that the sum was 550 times an average annual salary. Think in the millions. The Philistines were desperate to be rid of him.
Adequately incentivized, Delilah gets to work, manipulating Samson with sex night after night to get him to spill the beans ... which he does.
After shaving his head, the Philistines attacked, but Samson was just as strong as your average guy now, so he was taken captive. His eyes were gouged out, he was bound in shackles, and forced to work a stone mill (usually a task for a draft animal like oxen or donkeys). Samson’s faithlessness led to his downfall. Sex was his kryptonite, and man did he fall hard.
Jonathan Edwards says,
“When persons’ sense, consideration, and watchfulness is gone, their strength will soon be gone. And then God departed from Sampson, and [he] became the miserable, condemned captive and slave of the Philistines, who tormented him and insulted over him, made themselves sport in his misery [Judg. 16:21–25]; and at last it proved his death.”
Jesus: The Better and Truer Samson
The good news is that even when we forget to be faithful to God, God doesn't forget to be faithful. He always remains faithful to his promises to, and his covenant with, his people (Heb 6:13-20). While there are consequences for sin, the ultimate consequence, eternal death, was applied to his Son on our behalf.
In that way, Samson's sordid story as a judge for Israel points us to Jesus, our King, and judge of all the earth. Samson was appointed by God to rule and protect his people, but instead slept with and terrorized the Philistines. Jesus is our ruler and protector, whose righteous judgment is a terror to sinners and all who do evil. Samson was betrayed by Delilah for 5500 pieces of silver, while our Lord was betrayed for a meager 30 pieces. Samson wasn't faithful to his vow with the Lord, but Jesus was faithful to carry out God’s mission of redemption. He was raised from the dead. He ascended to heaven, is faithfully ruling on his throne, and he is faithfully advocating on our behalf to the Father (1 John 2:1-2).
Further good news, the last word on our sin belongs to the Word of God. And so it was with Samson, with this foreshadowing verse:
“But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.”
God's mercy is greater than all of our sins because of Jesus' death. Without his substitutionary death on our behalf, transacting the great exchange where he receives our sin and we receive his righteousness, we would be as Samson, humiliated slaves to our sin.
So, yes, don't be like Samson, but more so place your hope and faith in Jesus. Let neither sinner nor saint take this lightly. If you've messed up and fallen, Jesus is good to advocate for you. But heed this warning from Charles Spurgeon:
“I want to speak of God’s great goodness to backsliders and of how he restores them. But I want to warn them at the outset that sin does not pay—that whatever may come of it through God’s mercy, it is an evil and a bitter thing to wander from the Lord. Though Samson’s hair grew again and his strength came back—and he died gloriously fighting against the Philistines—he never recovered his eyes, or his liberty, or his living power in Israel. His last stroke against the adversary was effective, but it cost him his life. He could not again rise to be the man he had been before. And though God did give him a great victory over the Philistines, it was but as the flicker of an expiring candle. He was never again a lamp of hope to Israel. His usefulness was brought to an end through his folly. Whatever the grace of God may do for us, it cannot make sin a right thing, or a safe thing, or a permissible thing. It is evil, only evil, and that continually. Do not be enslaved by fleshly lusts.”
Remember that Jesus is always ready to restore and renew us. He does not merely repair our brokenness; he transforms it, using our stories for his glory and our ultimate good.
Embrace this divine exchange—your sin for his righteousness—and let it propel you forward into a life marked by God’s love and your unwavering faith in him. In Christ, we find the truest freedom, not just from the consequences of our sins, but from the power of sin itself.
Jonathan Edwards, Notes on Scripture, ed. Harry S. Stout and Stephen J. Stein, vol. 15, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (London; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 361–362.
Charles Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Study Bible: Notes (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 326–327.
This article was originally published by Matthew Watson with Awake! Put on strength!, and is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.