“Destruction in the Lap of a Wicked Woman!”
Judges 16:18-20
18) 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. 19) 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. 20) 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 not that the Lord was departed from him. I’m gonna talk about:
“Destruction in the lap of a Wicked Woman!”
Once again we find Israel, God’s chosen people, the people He loved so much; right back in a place they’ve been before, a place of suffering because they did evil in the sight of the Lord again. Because of the sin of Israel, God delivered them into the hands of their enemy, the Philistines, just as He’s done before when they were defeated by Ai, whose army was smaller than the Israelites’ army.
This is the same Israel that God once delivered out of Egypt. This is the same Israel that God allowed to walk across the Red Sea on dry ground. This is the same Israel that saw Pharaoh’s army swallowed up in the same sea they just crossed. This is the same Israel that God provided for everyday in the desert. This is the same Israel that God fed with fresh manna even while they complained. This is the same Israel that brought down the walls of Jericho with a shout. This Israel. This is the same Israel that God spared during the Passover. This is the same Israel that continued to sin, even after seeing the hand of the Lord setting them free from bondage many times before. I don’t know about you tonight brothers and sisters, but God has brought me out of some things and I’m determined to remain faithful to Him for the rest of my days. I know there’s somebody here tonight other than myself that has seen God step in right in time. For I remember the older saints use to say that He may not come when you want Him, but He’ll be there right on time.
The interesting thing is that this is the only place in the book of Judges where we do not read about Israel crying out to God to deliver them from their oppression. That’s right. They didn’t even hope for deliverance. That is because of the most important weapon the Philistines used which was intermarriage. The Philistines were patient as they watched the religion of Israel disappear as they began to blend in with them. Israel had actually become comfortable and at ease with this silent form of enslavement which had continued for forty years. And because God keeps His promises to His people and because God is faithful to His Word, He looked past their faults, and sent a deliverer.
In chapter 13 of Judges, the bible says that there was a man named Manoah, he and his wife had no children and she was barren. I believe they held on to their trust in the Lord despite their situation. The scriptures don’t say it but Manoah and his wife had to be the type of people that didn’t join in with the way the rest of the children of Israel were living. She didn’t hang out with the rest of the ladies in town, gossiping about what happened at church last Sunday. She wasn’t at the town market talking about the teenage girl down the street that’s having another baby. No, that wasn’t her. She wasn’t on the phone talking about who’s sleeping with who in the church choir. I’d like to think that she was a worshiper and a prayer warrior because when she was alone, the presence of the Lord appeared to her with good news of joy. The angel of the Lord told her that she was to become with child and give birth to a son. Manoah and his wife were given specific instructions to raise this child as a Nazirite.
A Nazirite was more than a person who has made a vow to the Lord. A Nazirite means to separate, consecrate, or abstain. They had to separate themselves to the Lord and temporarily observe certain practices: 1 being they were not to drink wine nor eat any part of the grape. The reason for this is because the grape signifies the world and its influences. This is the same instruction the angel of the Lord gave to Manoah’s wife to do the first time he came to her. And once again when he came to both Manoah and his wife after Manoah prayed for whom he thought was just a man of God, to return so they could be taught how to raise their child. The reason the Lord gave this to the parent is because it was the parents’ responsibility to make sure their child is protected and covered from the world’s influences. That’s for us today. Parents of today have to be careful of what they allow their children to watch on T.V., such as Harry Potter, Pokemon, That’s So Raven, and all these other innocent looking things that the enemy is now using against the children now a days. Be careful of what you let your children listen to on the radio. All of that mess gets in their spirit and causes them to rebel later on in life. That’s why the Word of God says to train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The second practice a Nazirite had to observe was to grow their hair without cutting it. I’m not sure why the Lord wanted them to grow their hair without cutting it, but neither can we understand why God used a burning bush without it being consumed to talk to Moses. I haven’t been able to find out why God used a staff in the hand of Moses to separate the Red Sea nor how water came out of a rock to quench the thirst of the Israelites. Another thing I’m not sure about is how 3 Hebrew boys were able to go into a fiery furnace and come out alive, not burned, nor smelling like smoke. I don’t know. It boggles my mind. But that’s why Isaiah 55:8-9 says, ‘“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God does what He wants to do when He wants to do it.
The third thing that a Nazirite had to practice was not to touch or go near a dead person. Now the word dead here doesn’t mean “Riga mortises”; life out of the body. But the Lord was talking about dead situations, old things from the past, traditions, and spiritual death. We have to get away from the things that God isn’t in anymore. We have to get away from the things of the past and the “I remember when God showed up 10 years ago” type of thinking. If He hadn’t showed up since then, leave that thing at the grave and move on. What worked in the past seasons doesn’t always work in following seasons. We’re going to have to begin to discern what’s dead around us. One way to know you’re in a dead situation is when the dead thing begins to stink. And when that thing begins to stink, its time to move on.
After the child’s birth, the woman named him Samson. The bible says that the child grew and not only did the Lord bless him, but the Spirit of the Lord began to use him. During his youth, I can see Samson’s parents teaching him how to worship and pray like they did, along with teaching him his purpose. And as he began to get older, Samson became stronger in his physical strength and he started to take on the physical sign of a Nazarite. He even became a judge, which leads me to believe that he had some spiritual wisdom. But Samson had some issues. In spite of all the good things about Samson, in spite of the calling on his life and the Spirit of God using him, he had some issues. He never really allowed a lifestyle of consecration to take root in his spirit. Samson, strong in statue, but low in standard. He had it together on the outside, but he was messed up on the inside. He began to taste of the grape that was forbidden. He found himself wanting to marry a Philistine woman. In essence, he desired to become one with the very enemy he was purposed to destroy.
That’s the church today. We have the shout down packed, we know how to dress the part, we can even minister like God’s chosen and elect, we have our tongues together, and yes, the Holy Ghost comes upon us and uses us, but we still have some issues with sin. We say we’re anointed and we have the Holy Ghost, but let me school you on something, the Holy Ghost is a keeper and a leader into all truth. Stop lying to yourself. You can’t do your own thing and say that you’re anointed. The real anointing is having the power to say no to the devil and yes to the will of the Father. It’s when your hunger changes and when your desire changes. It’s when your will changes and when you say yes to the Lord and you mean it. Yes, we bless God for His grace, but it’s time that we stop abusing the scripture that says, “My grace is sufficient is for you”. Since we know better, we ought to do better. We need to develop the habit of obeying the Lord.
Samson knew he was called to live a life of separation, but he decided to live a life of fraternization – he had befriended the enemy. We are called to live lives of separation, but we are becoming fast friends with the enemy. And when we get to the place where we want to become linked up with the world and to something we’re not allowed to touch, we then begin to fall and loose our grip to God’s hand. Jesus prayed for us in John 17:15-19 saying, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified”.
But Samson allowed the world to influence him more than once. In verses 1-3 of chapter 16, we find Samson in the bed of a harlot. Samson had some major issues. Anointed, and yes, appointed by God, but he had some issues. He liked to hang around the brothels. He hung around them so much ‘til he fell in love with one of the enemy’s most lethal weapons, Delilah.
Delilah was wicked more than Samson was strong. As soon as the lords of the Philistines noticed that Samson was always with her, they approached her with a transaction. She was to find out where his strength lied so they could capture him in exchange for 11 hundred pieces of silver from each of them. She quickly moved on it. She asked Samson 3 times where his strength lied, but he lied to her all 3 times. But she was determined to get the truth from him. She began to use his love for her against him.
I can see her now, setting the atmosphere for his fall. Lighting the candles, cooking his favorite meal, making him drink wine, drawing his bath water, and then she starts to massage his back. Now all she has to do now is ask him one more time. “Samson, I thought you said you loved me. If you really love me like you say you do, you’ll tell me where your strength lies.” Then like the weak man he was, he told her everything. And she knew it. Now he’s laying his head in this wicked woman’s lap and she’s rocking him to sleep. And as soon as he falls to sleep, she moves in for the kill.
The church has to be careful not to fall asleep, especially in the lap of the enemy. We have to be awake and alert at all times, because the enemy will crepe in as soon as we fall asleep. When we’re sleep that means no one is praying. When we’re sleep that means no one is being delivered. When we’re sleep that means no one is being healed. When we’re sleep that means no one is being saved. When we’re sleep that means no one is being witnessed to. When we’re sleep that means the church is out of business. When we’re sleep that means the Word of God isn’t going forward. We might as well close up our hymn books and bibles and go home. When we’re sleep, the enemy begins to cut away at our anointing and consecration.
She calls for the Philistines to come in to shave off all his hair. After they took his strength from him, she then wakes him up to let him know that the Philistines are upon him. By then it was too late, but he doesn’t know it because he was sleep and not in his position. He jumped up and tried to break free from the bondage they had placed him in, but he couldn’t break free because the Lord had left him.
After all the things we’ve been through, after all the things we’ve done, after all the times we’ve turned our back on God and His Word, He’s never left us. That’s a reason to shout right there. I remember David saying, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” For if the Lord takes His spirit from us, we’ll be like a ship without a sail; being tossed by every wave, not knowing what direction we’re going. But aren’t you glad that God had given us another chance?
Now Samson finds himself not only bound, but in prison and blind after the Philistines have taken out his eyes. The bible says in the 25th verse, “And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry,” talking about the Philistines, “that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.”
I can hear his thoughts now as he stood there between those pillars. He’s thinking how he wishes he had listened to his worshiping parents. They taught him how living holy before the Lord and obeying Him will bless you. But he wanted to do his own thing. Now he sees that holiness is still right.
Holiness is right living before the Lord based upon:
1) The need of commitment to the Lord. Samson begins to think back to the places in his life where he wasn’t committed to the Lord and how that has now cost him and how it has led up to heavier bondage in his life. We know how important it is to be committed to the Lord all the time, but we find ourselves compromising. We know it’s not right to buy the lottery tickets, but we do it anyway. We know it’s not right to buy the televisions off the side of the road, knowing that they’re stolen, but we do it anyway. We know it’s not right to take the extra $10 the cashier gives us back in change, but we do it anyway. And like Samson, it gets worse. We then find ourselves not tithing when we should then we stop all together. We find ourselves missing a Sunday here and a Sunday there then we become a member of Bedside Baptist. We find ourselves dating a person we know don’t know the Lord and ain’t even trying to know Him, and then we marry that person expecting God to bless. We have to be more committed to Him in every area of our lives.
Holiness is right living based on:
2) The need of obedience in the life of a believer. During this time of thinking back on his life, Samson remembers how his mother told him to always obey the Lord. He remembers her telling him how the Lord has placed before us a blessing and a curse, and it’s for us to choose based on obeying or disobeying the Lord. Deut. 11:27-28 says, “A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after gods, which ye have not known.” God has set before us all a table with a blessing and a curse. We have to be fools if we choose the curse over the blessing! But obeying the Lord is about more than receiving a blessing. It’s what we do to please Him. We ought to want to put a smile on the Savior’s face when we do what He commands us to do. That should be what our ultimate desire is, to please the Lord at all times. We should get up in the morning seeking Him on what He wants us to do that very day so that He would be pleased with our living.
And finally, holiness is right living based on:
3) The need of a relationship with the Lord. Samson began to think back once again to when his praying mother taught him how to pray. I imagine she told him that when he wanted to still away to just begin to pray. So in verse 28, Samson begins to call on the Lord saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me…” Then he started thinking back when he was in all those battles with the Philistines and how the Lord remembered him and strengthened him. He thought about when he fought and killed a lion with his bare hands and how the Lord remembered him and strengthened him. He began to push on the pillars of the house and he asked the Lord to let him die with the Philistines that were in the house. He pushed on the pillars ‘til the house came down and everybody, including himself died.
Isn’t it good to know that the Lord will restore you back to where you ought to be after you mess up? All we have to is call on Him. Come here Hezekiah. King Hezekiah had to cry out to the Lord when the prophet told him he was going to die. He turned his face to the wall and cried out to the Lord, “Remember me and strengthen me.” David had to cry out to the Lord when he was up against Goliath. He cried out to the Lord, “Remember me and strengthen me.” The thief on the cross next to Jesus even cried out, “Lord, remember me and strengthen me.”
After being told all my life that I looked like a preacher and that I was going to preach, and even though I felt God’s calling on my life, I tried to hide in the choir. But as my relationship with the Lord developed and I began to hear God’s call for myself, I found myself crying out to the Lord, “Lord, remember me and strengthen me!” As I laid in His presence, I realized He remembered me and through His joy He strengthened me. For the joy of the Lord is my strength.
While on the cross, pierced feet and hands, body covered in blood, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” Then He died. And while He was in the grave, God began to remember Him and strengthen Him. He didn’t just get out the grave with strength in His hands, but He got up with all power in His hands.
