Judges, Chapter 16 - Samson & Delilah | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome back to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the Book [music] of Judges chapter 16. My name is Jeremy Kempel. I'm here with Ari Abramowitz and this series is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. We have arrived at the final epic chapter of Shimshon, of Samson, one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible. He was chosen before he was born, blessed with unimaginable strength. He was set apart for a mission and yet somehow it all unravels in the end. And how? In chapter 16, we encounter the most famous saga in Samson's life, his relationship with Delilah, with Delilah. But this chapter isn't just about temptation, it's about what happens when a person forgets where their strength and might truly comes from. And so the chapter opens with a scene that feels almost like a warning shot. This is verse one. Vayelech Shimshon Azata, Vayar sham isha zona, Vayavo elah. And Samson went to Gaza and saw there a woman who was a harlot and he went to her. And at this point, we're starting to see Shimshon crash. I mean, it's hard to justify this one. A Gazan prostitute? So the Philistines hear that Samson is in the city, they surround the gates and they say they're going to kill him in the morning. And Samson rises up at midnight and he does something that's almost absurd in its audacity. He walks to the city gates, the massive wooden doors, two iron posts, the bar. He tears the whole thing off and carries the gate on his shoulder to the top of a hill facing Hebron. Hebron is the capital of Judea and it's just one of the most bizarre images in the entire Tanakh. I mean, Gaza is totally flat by the coast. The hills of Hebron, that's kilometers away. So inside of uh for like just displaying this incredible strength, it shows how powerless the people of Gaza were to Shimshon. He's like walking alone with a giant gate on his back. He's seemingly vulnerable for kilometers and not one Philistine even goes after him. They're totally powerless. He's untouchable and he knows it. And so from that story, that's really where the problem begins. So the chapter then pivots and it says like this, verse four. And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek and her name was Delilah. And so two words you got to pay attention to here. The first one is Sorek, the valley of the vines of grapes. Samson is a Nazirite. He's forbidden from wine and all the grape products from his birth. I mean, his mom didn't even eat have any wine when she was carrying him. And here he falls in love in the Valley of Sorek, of the grapevine, and Delilah. It's rare, but here for the first time in the Prophets, it says that Samson loved her. He loved Delilah. And it was like a forbidden love. But her name is a wordplay. Shimshon comes from the word shemesh, which means sun. And in English, it's kind of nice. Delilah from the word layla, which means night. And just as the night overcomes the sun, so Delilah will overcome Samson. And the names themselves tell you what's about to come. And so she's the only one in the entire Samson story who's given a name, by the way. It's like every other woman, his mother, the woman in Timnah, the Gazan prostitute, nameless. But this one is named because this is the one that really matters. This is the one that Samson really fell in love with. And so the lords of the Philistines come to her and they offer her 1,100 pieces of silver. And they say, "Please find the secret of his strength. Where does it come from? How can he be bound up?" And so Delilah immediately goes to work. And what follows is just one of the strangest, it's the most psychologically confusing sequences in all of Shoftim. She asks him three times where his strength come from and how he can be bound up to be afflicted. And three times he lies to her. Seven fresh bowstrings, wrap me up with new ropes, weave hair into a loom. Three times she calls out, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And three times he rises up, breaks free and walks away. And she's like, "That's an obvious question." Like, he knows what she's doing. He knows she's trying to deliver him to his enemies. He's watched her try three times and each time he gives her a false answer and then she immediately uses it and it's not a trick, it's completely obvious. And yet he stays. He keeps on coming back. He keeps lying, which means that he's playing some kind of game with her. I mean, maybe he sees himself as the most powerful, the most in total control. He's the sun that can never be extinguished. And maybe, I don't know, maybe he really loved her and he couldn't leave. I don't know. And but the fourth time, she shifts tactics and all of her feminine powers, they come to pass and they subdue Shimshon. Vatomer elav, "Ech tamaraftich?" And she says to him, "How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me?" And then she presses him day after day and the text uses this powerful phrase, "Vatitshalach nafsho ad mavet." And his soul was vexed to death. I mean, she drove him absolutely crazy. And so the man who tore a lion apart with his bare hands, he carried the gates of Gaza for miles in the dark. He like a thousand Philistines with a donkey's jawbone. That man was worn down, exhausted by the words of the woman that he loved, a love that was forbidden. That was his downfall. And so it's like the sun didn't fall in battle, the sun was extinguished by the slow, persistent arrival of darkness. And then he tells her everything. Verse 17. And he told her all his heart. It kol libo. All his heart, it's not just the secret. He loved her and revealed all of his heart to her. Well, I I think that this is perhaps the most important phrase in the chapter. Because in chapter 14 and chapter 15, Samson never told anyone anything. His whole power was in his silence. He kept the lion from his parents, he kept the the honey from his parents, he kept the riddle from his companions. Every secret held was a strategic advantage and here he tells her all his heart. The last secret keeper in Israel finally opens up to the wrong person at the worst possible moment. Yeah. You know, he tells her that he's a Nazirite to Hashem from his mother's womb, that no razor has touched his head and that if his head is shaved, his strength will leave him and he'll become like any other man. And so she knows this time he's telling the truth. She sends for the lords of the Philistines, they come with the money. She's just so evil. She lulls him to sleep on her lap and then a man comes and shaves the seven locks of his head. The sages of Israel say that the hair was the sign of his consecration. That was his connection to Hashem. It was like a visible testimony that he belonged to God. And when that was severed, the connection was broken. And there wasn't like magic in his hair. That hair expressed faithfulness in keeping it long. And then Delilah calls out, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." He wakes up and thinks, "Okay, I'll just go out like I did every other time." And here it's like your heart wants to just break. >> [gasps] >> The verse in this Samson story, it's like verse 20. And he did not know that Hashem had departed from him. He didn't know. I mean, I find that really interesting. I mean, I would imagine when you're filled with the spirit of God, you know. When it leaves you, you would know. But it's really a deep lesson for us. Samson felt like he always felt, just as confident, just as energetic and Hashem removed his spirit from him while keeping Shimshon feeling exactly the same way. I mean, the man who carried Hashem's spirit through every battle, every escape, every miraculous act of strength, he woke up and he didn't notice that God wasn't with him. He assumed the power would be there like it always was and he reached for the strength and he found nothing. I mean, can you imagine what he felt like in that moment? And it's not just Samson's tragedy. This is the warning of the entire Book of Shoftim. The most dangerous spiritual condition that Israel can fall into, it's not rebellion, it's not even idol worship, it's the person who's been running on Hashem's power so long that they've stopped noticing that it's his power at all. And they wake up one morning and they don't even know it's gone. And it's like, "Good morning. It's October 7th and all your power, all your intelligence, you thought that was yours?" It's gone. And now Hamas with sandals on pickup trucks can just devastate you. And so the Philistines, they seize him. They gouge his eyes out. They bring him to Gaza in bronze chains and they set him to grinding grain in prison, like the work of a blind slave. Shimshon, the sun, is blinded in darkness because of Delilah. He's in chains grinding. Jeremy, the measure for measure here, the midah keneged midah, is devastating. You know, the sages explicitly teach that Samson sinned with his eyes. He saw the Timnite woman, he saw the woman in Gaza, he followed his eyes his entire life, and in the end, his eyes are taken from him. What we follow becomes what controls us, and what controls us eventually destroys us. Midah can negate midah, the attribute for attribute runs through the this story like a thread from beginning to end. And not only through the story, but through the entire Tanakh, and if we have the eyes to see it, I think through our own personal life journeys, all of history as well. It's one of those themes that pervades reality. That's right, but the chapter doesn't end there because it never ends that way in Shoftim. By vachalasa aro shol et samach in the hair on its head began to grow again after it had been shaved, verse 22. The Philistines are celebrating. They bring Samson out to perform for them in the temple of Dagon, this idolatrous god. 3,000 men and women on the roof, all the lords of the Philistines assembled. They're mocking the god of Israel through the ruin of his champion. Yeah, Jeremy, I just need to say here, I know I have a lot of of interjections, you know, but notice where they bring him. They bring him to Gaza. Right, he started this chapter in Gaza alone at midnight carrying the city gates on his back, walking away untouched. The Philistines couldn't lay a hand on him. And now he's back, same city, same enemy, but this time in chains, blind, grinding grain in the dark. The text isn't being accidental about that. Gaza is the place of his greatest arrogance and his deepest humiliation and humility uh essentially. And and as we'll see, it will also be the place of his greatest act. The geography itself of Shimshon's entire life arc, the same place, but a completely different man standing in it right now. You know, that's really right. This is a new kind of Samson. He's been humbled. He's blind, standing between pillars, and he does something that almost never happens. He prays. Verse 28. By ikra Shimshon el Hashem vayomar, and Samson called to Hashem and said, "Oh Lord, remember me now and strengthen me just this once, oh God." Remember me now, zachreni na vechasqeini na. Not giving my power back, not I'm your champion, look at what I've done for you. Just remember me. And this is not the invincible man of chapter 14. It's not a man who like tore the gates off of Gaza. It's a broken man, and all he says is remember me. And that prayer, that small, humble, devastated prayer is the one Hashem answers, and Samson takes hold of the two middle pillars, right hand, left hand, verse 30, and Samson said, "Tamut nafshi im Plishtim, let me die with the Philistines." And he pushes, and the temple collapses. The lord of the Philistines, 3,000 men and women, Dagon's house, the house built to mock Hashem, falls. And the text says, verse 30, "And the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those that he had killed in his life." So, in that one final moment, blind, broken, and chained, dependent entirely on Hashem, he achieved more for Israel than any of his all of his lifetime combined. And so, Jewish memory records that Shimshon's influence was felt for 20 years after his death. The fear that he had placed in the Philistines was so powerful that they left Israel alone for two decades after he was gone. From the powerful lion came sweetness for 20 years for Israel. And so, this is the spine of chapter 16, and it's the spine of the entire story of Shimshon. When Samson knew where his strengths came from, he operated in the shadow of Hashem's purpose, he was unstoppable. When he began to assume the strength was simply his, available to him on demand, a permanent condition rather than a divine gift, it left, and he didn't even notice. And I think that is the prophecy this chapter speaks to our time because we're living in a generation that feels so strong. And the eye of the storm that launched us into this unprecedented war was Gaza. And we've built an army, we've built a state, we've built technology, intelligence, power that generations before could only have dreamed of. We've devastated Gaza. Syria fell before us, we dominated Iran, the Hezbollah, they're all on their knees. And now the real danger is if we start to believe that the strength is ours, that we did it, that we can handle anything, that we'll always just go out as we have done before and shake ourselves free like Samson, the warning is clear. The most dangerous moment isn't when you're weak, it's when you're strong, and you forget where your strength comes from, because that's when you wake up one day and it's October 7th all over again. And we felt that. We've lived that. Moments where everything we thought was secure suddenly wasn't. And on October 7th, we realized that power alone isn't protection, intelligence is not salvation. Iron chariots and strong walls or a technological security fence around Gaza, that's not enough. And the chapter doesn't end with loss, it ends really with Shimshon doing teshuvah. It ends with this broken man in chains, blind, who turns to Hashem and says, "Remember me." And that's where the geulah starts. And so, our final victory will come when we remember who we are and who really gives us our strength. All right, my friends, as we close out the book of Judges, Ari said we're opening up something special. The book of Samuel is coming up, and you can bring it to the world. You can sponsor a chapter, you can sponsor the entire book in honor of a birthday, an anniversary, a child, a parent, anyone whose name deserves to be bound to the words of the prophets forever. Your generosity keeps the Torah alive and carries us forward in our work out here in Judea. So, come and speak with us at the landofisrael.com. You can email me directly, [email protected]. And of course, if any of you ever have any questions or comments, I mean, I get so much feedback, but you should know, [email protected], I try to answer every one of the emails that we get. And so, we will see you tomorrow, >> [music] >> chapter 17 of the book of Judges. Chazak u'matz, my friends.