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Story of Samson and Delilah is probably

1:02

one that you remember from Sunday school

1:04

as a kid or the you seem

1:06

portrayed even in cartoons on T V

1:08

because it's one of those stories that

1:10

has a lot of action in it.

1:12

But today we're going to hone in

1:14

on Delilah his role and we're going

1:16

to study her story little bit. Stay

1:18

tuned. Do

1:27

sometimes. Doubt if you truly hearing guns voice

1:29

or if it's really your own or have

1:31

you been in a season where it feels

1:33

like he's completely silent? Have you been praying

1:35

for way to learn how to hear his

1:37

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1:39

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1:41

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1:43

step into your identity and Christ didn't join

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1:48

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1:50

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3:20

welcome back to the Hearing Jesus Podcast I'm

3:22

your host ritual role and we're continuing our

3:25

series on the Women of the Old Testament

3:27

and as we work our way through Judges

3:29

we are now at the Story of Samson

3:31

and Delilah. Perhaps it's one that you're more

3:34

familiar with If you're just joining us, I'd

3:36

encourage you to go back to the beginning

3:38

of the series because were methodically going through

3:40

the Old Testament and each episode kind of

3:43

builds on each other. and then if you

3:45

want to divulge with deeper just a reminder

3:47

that we have daily journaling prompts to go.

3:50

Along with each episode and the reason for

3:52

that is journaling is just personally something that

3:54

helps me get the information for my head

3:56

to my heart and it can also serve

3:59

as discussion place. To talk about

4:01

within your family, your with your spouse

4:03

and so those are all the sit

4:05

on or petri on page the link

4:07

is in the show notes and part

4:09

of the Benefit of Patriot on which

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content. So we're starting in it. Judges

4:17

shudder sixteen and I'm starting it burst

4:19

one. It's as one day Samson went

4:22

to Gaza where he saw a prostitute

4:24

He went into spend the night with

4:26

her. The people of Gaza were told

4:28

Sampson is here to this. The

4:30

place and lay in wait for him all

4:32

night at the city gate. They may know

4:34

move during the night saying at dawn we

4:36

will kill him but Samsung lay their only

4:38

until the middle of the night that he

4:40

got up and took hold of the doors

4:42

of the city gates together with the two

4:44

posts and toward them. loose bar and all.

4:46

He lifted them to his shoulders and carried

4:48

them to the top of the hill that

4:50

bases Hebrew on. Sometime later he fell in

4:52

love with a woman in the Valley of

4:54

Surratt whose name was Delilah. the rulers of

4:56

the Philistines went to her and said see

4:58

if you can lure him into showing you

5:00

the secret of his great strength and how

5:02

we can overpower him so we may tie

5:05

him up and subdue him. Each one of

5:07

us will give you a levin hundred shekels

5:09

of silver. So July was said to Sampson,

5:11

tell me the cigarette, of your great strength

5:13

and how you can be tied up and

5:15

subdued seems an answer Her If anyone ties

5:17

me with seven fresh both strings that have

5:19

not been drive or the com as weak

5:21

as any other man. Than the

5:23

rulers of the Philistines brought her seven press

5:25

both strings that had not been dried and

5:27

she tied him with them. With men hidden

5:29

in the room she called him sand sand

5:31

of those scenes or upon you but he's

5:34

not the most things as easily as pieces

5:36

of string snaps when it comes close to

5:38

a flame. So the secret of his strength

5:40

was not discovered. Then Delilah said to Sampson,

5:42

you've made a fool of me. You lie

5:44

to me. Come now, tell me how you

5:46

can be tied. He said if anyone ties

5:48

me securely with new wrote said have never

5:51

been used all become as weak as any.

5:53

Other man so july took new ropes and

5:55

tied him with them. Then with men hidden

5:57

in the room she called the him sampson

5:59

the bill since or upon but he snapped

6:01

the ropes off his arms as if they

6:03

were threads. Delilah then said to Samson all

6:05

this time you have been making a fool

6:08

of me I'm lying to me tell me

6:10

how you can be tied He replied if

6:12

you we've the seven breeds of my head

6:14

into the fabric of the loom and treatment

6:16

with a pin I'll become as weak as

6:18

any other man. So while he was sleeping

6:20

Delilah took the seven rates of his head

6:22

while them into the fabric and tight knit

6:25

with a pin. Again she called them fans

6:27

and the Philippines or upon you He awoke

6:29

from his sleep. And pulled up the pin and

6:31

the loom with the fabric That she said him

6:33

happily, say, i love you When you won't confide

6:35

in me, this is a third time you've made

6:38

a fool me and haven't told me the secret

6:40

of your great strength. With such nagging, she prodded

6:42

him day after day until he was sick to

6:44

death of it. So he

6:46

told her everything know razor has ever been

6:48

use of. Ahead he said because I have

6:50

been announcer a dedicated to God for my

6:53

mother's womb of my head were saved. My

6:55

strength would lead me and I will become

6:57

as weak as any other man. When Delilah

6:59

saw what he had told her everything she

7:01

sent word to the rulers of the Philistines.

7:03

Come back once more he has some the

7:05

everything. So the rulers of the Philistines returned

7:07

with silver in their hands. After putting him

7:09

to sleep on her lap, she called for

7:12

someone to shave off the seven breeds of

7:14

his hair and so began to subdue. Him

7:16

and his strength left him that

7:18

she called him simpsons. The Philippines

7:21

or upon you you go from asleep and

7:23

thought oh good as before. And sheikh myself

7:25

free. but he did not know that

7:27

the Lord had left him. Then the

7:29

Philistines sees him, gouged out his eyes

7:31

and took him down to Gaza, finding

7:33

him with bronze shackles. They set him

7:35

to grinding green in the prison, but

7:37

the hair on his head began to

7:39

grow again after it had been shaved.

7:42

This. Is one the stories that I

7:44

think most of us are familiar with.

7:46

I remember even my own kids coming

7:48

home with color in pages with Sam

7:51

since pushing down the walls of the

7:53

Temple, and his long hair, and little

7:55

kids even dressing up as Samson for

7:57

trump or treat those kinds of things.

7:59

But today, we're gonna hone in a

8:01

living on don't lie lab and you

8:04

know their story really is intertwined. You

8:06

really can't separate the two. But I

8:08

want to talk a little bit about

8:10

Delilah and the influence as she had

8:12

on Samson. So Delilah nationality, where she

8:15

was from. We're not entirely sure. We

8:17

don't really know what her family background

8:19

was. We don't really know what her

8:21

hometown was. Most scholars suspect that she

8:23

was philistine. Others suspected maybe she was

8:26

a prostitute at one of the pagan

8:28

temples, and we don't really know. All

8:31

we know for sure is that she

8:33

lived somewhere in the valley of sore

8:35

accuse us of the scriptures say and

8:37

since and her name has been when

8:39

that you don't necessarily want to. They

8:41

were little girls after. Delilah.

8:43

Lived during that twenty year

8:46

period when Samson was one

8:48

of the leaders that was

8:50

being used by Guide to

8:52

deliver Israel from the Philistines

8:54

and we read about that

8:56

oppression in Judges chapter thirteen

8:58

to sixteen. And what you

9:00

we remember about Samsung is

9:03

that whenever God's spirit in

9:05

dwelled in Samson, he had

9:07

almost like a Marvel comic

9:09

book style hero personality and

9:11

he tore lions apart. With

9:13

his bare hands and he attacks thirty

9:15

two thousand Philistine soldiers at a time.

9:18

And it was like the superhero given

9:20

strength is a given strength and that

9:22

was essentially his claim to fame. The.

9:26

Unfortunate part, and the part that

9:28

I think sometimes we overlook is

9:30

that Samson had a sexual appetite

9:32

that was not in line with

9:34

God standard for anybody in Israel,

9:37

but especially for a liter of

9:39

Israel. And so in the biblical

9:41

record a couple different times we

9:43

see that Delilah was not his

9:45

only weakness. He he knew that

9:47

as an Israelite, he should not

9:49

be into marrying with Philistine women,

9:51

but he did that anyway. Said

9:54

he married a Philistine woman, and.

9:56

Then it's. He. Goes

9:58

into Gaza and he gets. Prostitute

10:00

and he spends the night with

10:02

a prostitute and then he ends

10:04

up getting together with Delilah. And

10:07

so we see throughout the biblical record

10:09

of the last couple chapters and this

10:11

chapter that he really has a weakness

10:13

and the sexual sin was really his

10:16

downfall. And so

10:18

when he gets involved with Delilah, we

10:20

see this intense relationship unfold for us.

10:22

But I ain't. I do think sometimes

10:24

I just want to point out Delilah

10:26

was not a follower of yeah way,

10:28

she was not a follower of God.

10:30

She was not semi that prescribed to

10:32

the morals and the standards and the

10:34

world view that God had put out

10:36

for the Israelites, not the way that

10:39

Samson did. And so in some regard

10:41

I think sometimes she gets the downfall

10:43

or she gets the blame for a

10:45

lot of this without recognizing the fact

10:47

that Samson. Willingly went into these relationships, he

10:49

was being an equally yoked and he was

10:51

in sexual sin And he knew. It. He.

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12:47

thought about it on the algebra along

12:50

with conversations with very files to address

12:52

questions as is my audience every month

12:54

at occasionally I will talk about some

12:56

of my latest research projects. that of

12:58

her who were theology and are is

13:01

not for everyone it is and has

13:03

uncensored and I don't give trigger warning.

13:05

So sick out fields in Iraq through

13:07

your favorite parts of. And

13:19

of course the is a scene. Leaders

13:22

wanted to overcome him because he was

13:24

known for being this like superhero having

13:26

this god given strength and they wanted

13:28

to make sure the he. Was.

13:30

Conquered. Said. They went and they

13:32

are offered delilah eleven hundred pieces of silver.

13:34

A piece says it says he is seeking

13:37

get out of him. How he was so

13:39

strong. And of course, Delilah jumped

13:41

at that opportunity. Being a female being

13:43

in a culture where women did not

13:45

have a lot of opportunity to earn

13:47

that kind of money, she jumped at

13:49

the opportunity. and he kind of played

13:51

around with her for a little while.

13:54

He gave her a couple different false

13:56

reasons why he had the sink that

13:58

he had, but eventually. The war

14:00

him down and he shared with her

14:02

the truth. And so in the end,

14:04

when Samson was sleeping, many scholars believe

14:06

the he was drunk at that point.

14:08

Whether he was drunk on love from

14:10

alcohol or a little bit of both,

14:12

We don't know. but Delilah made sure

14:14

that his head was shaved and he

14:16

lost his strength. And then at

14:18

that point we really don't hear from

14:21

Delilah again. He ends up being conquered

14:23

by the philistines. They gouge his eyes

14:25

out, they put him in prison, and

14:27

eventually he met his death and in

14:29

families. A think there's something that

14:31

we forget in this part of the story.

14:34

The reason why. God's

14:37

spirit left him, the strength of

14:39

guide left him with not necessarily

14:41

because his hair was cut, it's

14:43

because he wasn't sin, It's because

14:46

he entered into many times this

14:48

relationship with this Philistine woman and

14:50

he wet his sexual appetite in

14:52

a way that he knew was

14:55

in opposition to God's law. And

14:57

as a leader of Israel, he

14:59

himself was leading himself into sin.

15:02

What? Is the say to us about

15:04

Delilah? Well I think for me

15:06

and eight perhaps my outlook is

15:08

were bit different because I'm an

15:10

outreach passer. I've been an outreach

15:12

passer and worked in lots of

15:14

outreach ministries for a long time

15:16

and with that means as I

15:18

often at work with people that

15:20

are not yet believers or perhaps

15:22

are believers but their lifestyle would

15:25

not necessarily suggested there believers anything.

15:27

Sometimes what happens within the body

15:29

of Christ we have an expectation

15:31

that nonbelievers should. Act the way that believers

15:33

do. If they've not yet come to faith in

15:35

Christ, I can't expect them to act as if

15:37

they did. And. Yet I think

15:40

that sometimes what we do with

15:42

Delilah the when the things I

15:44

was thinking about is how obviously

15:46

Delilah had this sex appeal that

15:49

was appealing to Samson. And as

15:51

women that's often the case where

15:53

we have a responsibility with or

15:55

beauty the things that God has

15:58

given us as gifts and. Instead

16:00

of using them just within the

16:02

confines of marriage, we have a

16:04

tendency to prostitute those gifts. those

16:07

gifts of beauty or are feminine

16:09

nature in the reality is, as

16:11

men are pretty easily manipulated by

16:14

that, and so we have a

16:16

responsibility yes, of course, to steward

16:18

those gifts well. But really, what

16:20

this boils down to is another

16:23

story of Samson being unequally yoked

16:25

to a non because it seems

16:27

and married outside of his own

16:30

country. And then at this point

16:32

we don't know if he got the worse.

16:34

Winter know what happened to his wife, but

16:36

now he's been with a prostitute and now

16:38

he's them with the we don't really know

16:40

how that all happened, if he was cheating

16:42

on his waiver, what all went down, but

16:45

what we know is that he was unequally

16:47

yoked because he's aligning himself three different times.

16:49

At least that we can see would people

16:51

that were not from his country. They were

16:53

not from his own people group, and they

16:55

were certainly not from his religion. Had Simpson,

16:57

who is known for being a hero. Of

17:00

Israel, he certainly was a hero visceral.

17:02

This to him had he married. An

17:04

Israelite. All of this could have

17:07

been avoided. None of it would

17:09

have happened, but instead he took

17:11

the a wife or i'm a

17:14

lover at the very least of

17:16

i see them God. She worshipped

17:18

a heathen guide in as a

17:21

judge of Israel, a liter of

17:23

Israel. He went against God's decreed

17:25

God's law and he paid the

17:28

price it with with his life.

17:30

And so I think about this

17:33

because there's so many opportunities for

17:35

us as believers to get snared

17:37

and whether it is sexual sin

17:40

or addiction or insert favorite scene

17:42

here. The. Enemy is

17:44

always going to try to tempt

17:46

us in a way that distracts

17:48

us from God's divine designed for

17:50

our lives. Delilah, in this case

17:52

was a snare for him and

17:54

he fell right into it. And.

17:57

So as I'm thinking about some

17:59

possible. Cases for us today. I

18:01

think where it's settled is just asking

18:03

you, what are the snares in your

18:05

life and what are the steps that

18:07

you put in place to avoid those

18:09

snares? Because even though Simpson was a

18:12

leader, he's no different than you are

18:14

ickes humid And he had the call

18:16

gone on his leg clearly as a

18:18

leader in Israel, and instead of holding

18:20

true to that like what we've seen

18:22

with some the other leaders in Israel,

18:24

instead he fell prey to the enemies.

18:26

fair. And so what are the snares

18:28

and your life? What. Are the things

18:30

the enemy throws your way? Because what

18:33

we see in Samson was this habit.

18:35

this particular habit of since and so

18:37

that said operates a lot of times.

18:39

There is a consistent persistent habit of

18:41

sin and our lives and so the

18:43

way that we overcome that is identifying

18:45

what it is and it's almost like

18:47

having a battle plan. You know my

18:49

husband is military and one of the

18:51

things the he's taught me is that

18:53

you you have to study sometimes your

18:55

enemy to know how they're going to

18:57

attack You don't wait for them to

18:59

attack. You anticipate how they're going

19:02

to attack and said there are

19:04

persistent send. Things. That you

19:06

struggle with in your life. You can

19:08

almost guarantee that that is also how

19:10

the enemies going to attack. And so

19:12

what can we do? Well, we can

19:14

set up some accountability structures. Who can

19:16

you talk to who in your life?

19:18

Whether somebody in your church or small

19:20

group or your friends. Maybe maybe not.

19:22

I sometimes I don't necessarily recommend it

19:24

being your spouse because sometimes there's a

19:26

tendency or a hesitancy to hold you

19:29

accountable because of the sake of the

19:31

relationship to somebody may be outside of

19:33

your marriage. Stick and hold you accountable.

19:35

And then also. If you do fall,

19:37

who can you go to in confession? I

19:39

think confession is really important part of the

19:41

Christian life that we sometimes forget about and

19:43

who can say no to you Who is

19:45

somebody in your life that if you do

19:48

fall into a pattern of sense that some

19:50

you respect, some he that loves you they

19:52

can come to and say hey you need

19:54

not the sauce I think those are three

19:56

key aspects of how we can guard against

19:58

the delilah as and are like what's great.

20:01

Got it's hard to is the story is

20:03

this to read and here I thank you

20:06

for it because it points out some of

20:08

the ways that the enemy tries to snare

20:10

us as believers and to steal away the

20:12

calling have gotten our lives. But I pray

20:15

that as we can just sit with Delilah

20:17

and Samsung story that you would help us

20:19

to recognize both our own responsibility that we

20:22

have to guard safeguard the things that you've

20:24

given us but then also who are those

20:26

people in our lives that we can put

20:28

in place now to offers accountability that we

20:31

should confess. To the that could see new

20:33

to us or hold us accountable in the

20:35

times that perhaps were scientist to slip and

20:37

lord even in the ways that we have

20:39

persistence and are our allies Lord help us

20:42

so have wisdom around that. To be aware

20:44

of that and to be able to guard

20:46

against that We thank you for the way

20:48

that you kindly reveal your heart for a

20:50

seizure, word and Jesus name We pray. Able.

20:56

A. Friend's his podcast Setting and Power

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content. Resources and prayer throughout

21:17

the week. Hey. I want you

21:19

to know I'm praying. For you know that

21:21

you are so love She died.