Samson & Delilah

Well, take your Bibles then and let's open them to Judges. Judges chapter 16. And I'm going to take that entire chapter tonight. Judges chapter 16.

! Judges chapter 16. I'm not going to read it first. I'm going to read it as a little bit. I'm going to read it as a little bit. I'm going to read it as a little bit. As we move along in it and study this passage and we've come finally to the most familiar part of the story of Samson.

Albeit it's a real sordid story, isn't it? And I would even say that it's probably the most familiar portion in the entire book of Judges. And what I'm talking about, of course, is the story of Samson and Delilah. Everyone knows the story of Samson and Delilah.

Even unbelievers have heard the story in some shape or form or some portion of it. And, you know, the story of Samson and Delilah is, I don't know if the word iconic is correct, but it's almost kind of like that.

I mean, it's just, you know, everybody knows it. It kind of, you know, it gives us the, on the one hand, the, what I might call the Delilah trademark. You know, a woman having power over man, deceiving him and leading him down paths to destruction.

It's kind of a trademark. And we kind of think of Delilah in that regard because of this story. Or on the other side, we might say it's the Samson syndrome.

You know, I'm kind of making these up as I go here. But, you know, a man's foolish blindness to the deception of a wicked woman. Of course, he's a wicked man himself.

And, you know, chiefly it gives us the Delilah or Samson and Delilah metaphor. All right. So we've got either a trademark or a syndrome or certainly kind of a metaphor.

Or, you know, the Samson and Delilah thing, you know. And relationships that turn out badly. And so it's very well known. Books have been written about Samson and Delilah.

There have been movies, of course, produced. I'm thinking of one particular one. Who played the part, the Samson part in this old movie?

Any of you remember? Victor Mature. Victor, yes. Victor Mature played Samson. And so I've seen that movie a number of times. And I'm sure there have been other.

I know there have been other movies produced about the story. Paintings have been painted portraying, you know, Samson and Delilah. Or at least Samson and his great strength or whatever. Certainly Delilah. Music, you know, even music.

You'll find over the years parts of the story of Samson and Delilah showing up in music. And on and on. So it's just so well known.

And I guess the moral of the story of Samson and Delilah is well known. All right. So looking then at this final section of Samson's story, I'm going to give you two main points.

This will be a sermon with two points. Okay. And so when we don't have a third, you'll feel like, you know, there's supposed to be another step there and there's not. Two points.

Though I have a few sub points. Okay. So be all right. First point is this. Samson's folly from the first. All right. That's point number one. Samson's folly from the first.

And then point number two. Samson's faith at the finish. All right. So that kind of helps you remember. And if you know the story all the way to the end of it, then you can see how those fit in there.

Samson's folly from the very first. And really not just from the very first of chapter 16, but from the very first part of his story. When we first meet him, he is a foolish, foolish man.

I mean, we see that over and over again. All right. So let's begin with Samson's folly from the first. Now, in chapter 16, I've not read it yet. One point out that there really are two stories here.

One real short one, a real short story. In fact, it's just three verses. And then the other one, which is the story of Samson and Delilah and leading us all the way to the end of his life and to God's using Samson to judge the Philistines.

We have that story. So there are two stories, but they go together here. And it's interesting when you read the first story, the first three verses, God's not even mentioned in there.

Samson, though he exhibits tremendous strength there, it's not repeated there that the Holy Spirit and the Spirit came upon him. You know, that kind of thing. So it's really just kind of a story that you even wonder why it's in there.

And also the author or the narrator, as he has done previously, doesn't interject any lesson or moral or anything, any kind of spiritual application or anything like that.

There's just three verses and this short little story. And then we have the story of Samson and Delilah. But these two stories go together. The first story sort of sets the stage for the finale of Samson's life, sets the stage for the second story.

And so that is the first thing I want you to see as a sub point under point number one. And that is what I would like to call the fool's stage. The fool's stage.

The stage upon which the fool will do his acting. It's the fool's stage. And so this first story, verses one to three, sets the stage for Samson to play his usual part.

The part we've come to be used to. And that is the part of the fool. And so this first story, again a very short story, clues us into the fact that Samson is about to play his final part in the play.

In his whole story. Really the final part in his entire life. So these first three verses kind of set the stage for that. And so looking there at verse one. Now Samson went to Gaza.

And saw a harlot there. And went into her. All right. We understand what happened here. All right. So he went to Gaza.

That's Philistine country. And, you know, when you think back over the story of Samson. He is either a complete idiot.

And he probably was. Or he is so, has such a God syndrome. That he doesn't fear anything. That's probably true too.

I mean, he had this enormous strength. And so, you know, he kind of goes in and out of Philistine, among the Philistines. And every time he goes in, he kills a bunch of them. And then he leaves.

And then he goes back. I mean, you remember, he's just killed a thousand of them. The jawbone of a donkey. And I would think you'd want to lay low for a long time after that.

You know. But no, Samson's going to go back. Back into among the Philistines. And so, here he is. He went to Gaza. And he saw a harlot there.

You remember at the beginning of the story of Samson. He saw a woman. And he said, I've got to have her. Get her for me. At least he married her. Never did conservate the marriage.

But he did marry her. But this is just a harlot. Right. And he's having immorality. Acts of immorality with her.

All right. And so, you know, from the very first. Samson has had no qualms about fraternizing with the Philistines. The enemies of Israel.

He drinks with them. He parties with them. He jokes with them. And wagers bets with them. He marries one of them. And he's, you know, he's going into this harlot that's one of them.

And, in fact, really, it kind of seems that he spends more time with the Philistines than he does with Israel. And he's supposed to be one of their judges. He's not supposed to be fraternizing with the enemy.

He's supposed to be conquering them. And he just doesn't get that. But he plays the fool everywhere he goes. And he's supposed to be a judge.

But he's supposed to be a deliverer. But he's just rubbing shoulders with the Philistines and having fun with them. All right. So now Samson is fornicating with one of them.

But the important thing to note here is right here at the beginning of the story. And this is why I say this sets the stage for the rest of the, not this story, but also the next one.

You need to notice that he went to Gaza. And that's a clue for us. In going to Gaza, Samson has now gone as far as he could go away from home.

Geographically. But the, but what the writer is trying to convey to us is that he has also gone as far as he can go spiritually.

Because this is going to be the end of it. This is going to ultimately lead to Samson's final hurrah. But, but it's not yet. All right. So this is just the stage setting for the fool to play his part.

And so he sees a harlot and he commits immorality with the harlot. And then verse two says the Gazites find out that Samson is in town. I'm just kind of paraphrasing.

You can read it in depth on your own. But, but so they find out he's there. They know about him. Even though this is quite a, quite a ways away from, you know, where he's been, you know, doing his, his dastardly things with the Philistines.

They have a mind then to capture him and to kill him. They've heard about his murderous exploits against their countrymen. They've also heard about his great feats of strength too.

All right. They know about that. And so they're kind of testing the waters here. And so they surround, it's a little difficult to understand if they're surrounding the city because it mentions the city gates.

They're laying and lying in wait there for him to come through the city gate. But it says they were surrounding the place and probably just simply the place of the harlot's house where Samson is.

And, and so they, it says there in verse two, they lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They said in the morning, there in verse two, when it is daylight, and that's a real smart move on their part.

I mean, you know, they've heard about this guy. You don't want to try to take him at nighttime. So daylight is maybe your best option.

So they're going to wait until the daylight. And capture him. Kill him. They say. We're going to kill him. There in verse two. Now, you know, understand that the houses of prostitutes were typically near the front, front gates, easily accessible.

In fact, quite often they were part, you know, positioned even by the walls of the city. Remember Rahab, her house was on the wall of the city, even had a window that looked, looked out.

That's how she let the spies down so that they could escape. And so it's near the gate. So this is, this is why they are going to capture him at the gate as he's leaving on the next day.

And also the guards quarters would be there at the city gate. And so quite a lot of them, they would have a number of, of, of places for the guards to be stationed as well as to actually live during their, their time of duty.

All right. So verse three then says, and Samson lay low. I love that. That's how it's translated. New King. He was laying low. Good idea.

Till midnight. So apparently he knew that they were out for him. That they were going to capture him. And so he lays low till midnight. Then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city.

Now get this description. He took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gate posts, pulled them up bar and all, put them on his shoulders and carry them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

That's pretty, pretty incredible, incredible, amazing kind of feet of sheer strength. Now we don't know, you know, it leaves out some of the details. Again, it's just kind of setting the stage.

In fact, really, this story is, is to be kind of whetting your appetite for the next story. Because there, there, there are several correlations between this story and the next one.

I'll mention that here in a minute. So it doesn't tell us exactly how this way they're late. They're waiting there for him at the gates. To capture him, but he gets all the way to the gate.

And I don't know. I guess I just kind of visualize that here are these Philistine soldiers and they have trapped him. Think that they have him cornered there at the gate because the gate is locked shut.

And he's there at the gate, but he's not cornered. He just turns around and grabs the whole gate. You know, all of it. Picks it up on his shoulders and runs off with it.

In fact, it says here that he carried them all the way to the hills, the hill that faces Hebron. And the best we can understand is geographically, that would be about 40 miles.

Carried, carried it for 40 miles uphill all the way. All right, so it's meant to reveal to us the sheer strength, superhuman strength of Samson.

But it is merely setting the stage. I think it's raining. Setting the stage for what follows with the next story.

And you can see some correlations. Samson's immoral escapade sets the stage for the same thing in the very next story. Also, this unnamed harlot, she, in a sense, sets the stage for Delilah in the next story.

And Samson's incredible strength, this display of his incredible strength, with the gate, you know, that sets the stage for what he's going to do to Dagon's temple with thousands of Philistines present when he brings the whole building down on top of them.

It just sets the stage, kind of whets your appetite. In fact, it's bad enough, this short little story. Bad enough in how it portrays Samson and this harlot.

And it's awesome enough, you know, his great strength in carrying that gate. But that's just nothing compared to what's going to happen next.

And so it's the fool's stage. Samson may be able to uproot the gates of the major city and carry them uphill for 40 miles, but he cannot stand against the wiles of a woman by the name of Delilah, which is going to come next.

All right. So I guess, you know, I think we would all agree that Samson is all brawn and no brain. Right? He's a fool. Stupid. He's an idiot.

And that's not even getting into the spiritual problems that Samson has. All right. So first, the fool's stage. Second, the fool's stupidity.

The fool's stupidity. Will Samson ever learn? Well, yes, he will. But then it'll be too late. Be all over with after he finally learns.

And we get that to the when we get to the end of the story. But now we get to the story of Delilah and all of that. And now, what is the kind of point in time here in relation to the previous story?

Well, we don't really know. Verse 4 says, after it happened. That is, after this, this little story, you know, in Gaza. Sometime after that.

And what's the place? The place, it says in verse 4, the Valley of Sarek. Sarek. And the best we know is that's near Gaza, in the region of Gaza. It's in the land of Philistia, the land of the Philistines.

And who is the person going to be introduced here? Well, it's Delilah. Verse 4 says, he loved a woman whose name was Delilah. And by the way, this is the first woman in the story that is given a name.

First one. And she's Delilah, you know. Interesting. I mean, the story doesn't even name Samson's mother. But names Delilah here.

All right. Now, what follows is very much like an ancient version of a spy movie. It has all the elements of it, by the way. It has a male hero of the story.

A James Bond of the story, okay. It has a female double agent. A femme fatale, you know. And it has money for bribery.

It has love. It has death. And it has an ironic reversal in the end. It has an unexpected ending. It's all right here in this story.

And, all right. So, from the divine side of the story, which we've looked at before, not really focusing so much on that until we get to the end.

But on the divine side, it revealed, this story reveals the sovereign purpose of God through Samson to judge, to finally judge the Philistines. But now, from the human side of the story, it reveals the stupidity of Samson.

The stupidity. He never learns. Never learns. He just keeps doing the same thing over and over, thinking somehow the results are going to be different. And so, starting with verse 5, let me just kind of read, kind of take us through the text here.

Verse 5, chapter 16, And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, that's Delilah, and said to her, Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies.

They knew all about his strength. You know, it already, demonstrated that, in Gaza, with the gate incident.

And they've already heard, I'm sure, all the stories, and all of the Philistines, that Samson has killed. And so, they want to know, what is the secret of it? And remember, I said, one other time, that his secret was not obvious.

I mean, I don't think Samson, had these huge, bulging biceps, you know, that he looked like, an incredible Hulk kind of person.

I think his strength, was a mystery to them. And so, they want to know, what the secret to it, might be. And so, where does it lie? Entice him.

And, by what, and they go on, and by what means, we may overpower him, that we may bind him, to afflict him, and every one of us, will give you, eleven hundred pieces of silver.

So, this is a lucrative deal. There's money involved here. So, what does Delilah do? Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me, where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound, to afflict you.

And Samson said to her, If they bind me, with seven fresh bow strings, not yet dried, this is very specific here, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

He's just, he's just having fun with her. And it's important to note here, that Samson knew, that he was a Nazirite. And he knew the stipulations, the regulations, of the Nazirite vow.

One of them being, never cut the hair. No razor can come to the head. He knew that. And so he's, you know, she's enticing him, but he's not telling her the truth.

And again, it comes back to this question. Is it all about the hair? Is it? The secret of his strength, is it his long hair?

Well, I mean, you can read through the story, might come to that conclusion, because ultimately, of course, in the story, he's going to divulge that, that part of the Nazirite vow, and she's going to cut his hair, and they're going to capture him, and he can't seem to do anything about it.

So, his strength has left him. But, was it because of his hair? Well, no. His strength, the source of his strength, was God.

And, and until we get to this first story, in chapter 16, every other time, the Bible has said, that the spirit, moved him, came upon him. Now, having said that, the hair, is important, because it represents, his vow, to the Lord.

And so, a Nazirite, must keep that vow, and if, the Nazirite, breaks the vow, then, God is no, longer obligated, to keep his, side of that.

Now, had Samson, already broken that vow? Several times. First, touching dead things. Second, numerous times, wine, getting drunk.

Did he lose his strength then? No. Because, all those, great feats of, of superhuman strength, occurred, after those, those instances.

It's almost as if, this is the third, and final thing, his hair. And so, God, removes, his, blessing from him, his, his, his, his granting of strength, in Samson's life.

All right, so, but he's, he's still, going to be true to that. He's not going to tell Delilah, the truth, about his strength. And really, the truth of his strength, is his, his commitment, to the Lord, his vow, as a Nazirite.

All right, so Samson is playing with her. You know, just, just get seven fresh bow strings, bind me with those things, and I'm powerless, when that happens. And so, the lords of the Philistines, brought up to her, seven fresh bow strings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them.

Now, the Philistines, are they, in the house there somewhere? Probably so. In fact, I think there's a mention of it, a little bit later. Don't, don't get the idea, that she tied him up, and, they're waiting to come in.

This is a test. Now, Samson's playing a game, but Delilah, and her, Philistine cohorts, they are testing. Because they got to make sure, about this thing.

All right, so they bring the seven strings. She binds him. Now, men were lying in wait. All right, so they're, someplace in the house, lying in wait, staying with her, in the room.

And she said to him, to Samson, the Philistines are upon you, Samson. But he broke the bow strings, as a strand of yarn, breaks when it touches fire.

That's very, very visual, isn't it? See, just some yarn, put in the flame, and immediately, it's, it's broken. So he had no trouble, breaking free.

And, and so he, he is free. The secret of his strength, was not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, look, you have mocked me, and told me lies.

Now, please tell me, you can hear her, can't you? Please tell me, what you may be bound with. So he said to her, if they bind me securely, with new ropes, that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

Now, that's already been tried, hasn't it? Remember, the Israelites captured Samson at one point, because they thought he was the trouble, and the troublemaker, and so they bound him with new ropes.

Well, we know how that turned out. Didn't, didn't, didn't work. But Delilah doesn't know about it, and the Philistines apparently didn't know about it. And so, he said to her, so therefore, Delilah took new ropes, and bound him with them, and said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Samson.

And men were lying in wait, staying in the room, that is, they were still hiding out, but he broke them off his arms, like a thread. No problem.

Delilah said to Samson, until now, you have mocked me, and told me lies. You've been playing games with me. Tell me what you may be bound with. And he said to her, all right, okay, here it is.

If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of a loom, is this even believable?

In the first place, it seems to me that, you know, new ropes would be a more plausible, you know, method to bind him, but to take his hair, and take those locks, and weave them into some cloth, on a, on a weaver's loom, you know.

It, it's, you know, it defies belief, that anyone would even think, that, that, that, that's plausible. Then she said to him, how can you say, I love you, when you're, let's see, wait a minute.

All right. So, she wove it tightly, with the, batten of the loom, and said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Samson, but he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out, the batten, and the, web from the loom.

Then she said to him, how can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me, these three times, and have not told me, where your, your great strength lies.

And it came to pass, when she pestered him, daily with her words, impressed him, so that his soul, was vexed to death. There's a little, irony, or a little, little, what, a little humor, to be there.

I mean, you're, I'm about to die, you're bothering me, with this so much. That he told her, all his heart, and said to her, no razor, has ever come, upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite, to God, from my mother's womb.

If I am shaven, then my strength, will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like, any other man. That's what he really believed. So, he told her the truth.

At least, how he understood, the source of his strength, and his source of strength, was God. And it was operational, through, his vow, as a Nazarite. And so, if we break, that vow, then God is not obligated, to continue to bless me, with strength.

And that was the truth. Alright, so when Delilah, saw that he had told her, all his heart, she could tell, he was telling the truth.

She sent and called, for the lords, of the Philistines, saying, come up once more, for he has told me, all his heart. So the lords of the Philistines, came up to her, and brought the money, in their hand.

Then she lulled him, to sleep on her knees, and called for a man, and had him shaved, shave off, the seven locks, of his head. Then she began, to torment him, and his strength, left him.

Now, how do you suppose, she got Samson, to go to sleep, and, to achieve, such a deep sleep, that, his head could be shaved, and he not know it, not wake up.

Well, I think she probably, got him drunk. In fact, I think, she's been kind of, moving that direction, all along. And so he's just, in a drunken stupor, he just falls asleep, and they shave his head, and she, afflicts him, torments him, I guess, you know, slapping him, and just, taking advantage of him.

Maybe as a test, to see if he really, had lost his strength. And, he did lose it. It says, that his strength, left him. And she said, the Philistines, are upon you Samson.

So he awoke, from the sleep. All right, so this is, all of this is, Samson's, stupidity. I mean, he's just, he's just, going down a path here.

And, and by the way, this is very similar, kind of harkens back, to the time when, you know, he told that little, kind of that little, riddle, and he was married, to that lady, that lady from Timna, and the Philistines, tried to get her, to coax Samson, into telling the, the, the, the, the riddle, the answer to the riddle, and, it worked, and here he is, same thing, going down the same path.

Only this time, he's lost his strength. You know, it's kind of interesting, that, Samson, really is the answer, to the riddle.

Hmm? What is, strong? The lion, in that riddle, but here it's, who?

It's Samson. It's Samson. All right, so, his stupidity. Now, number three, the fool's, self-deception. Verse 18, is, is, it's, it's incredible.

When Delilah saw, that he had told her, all his heart, she sent, and called, for the lords of the Philistines, saying, come up once more, for he has told me, all his heart. So the lords of the Philistines, came up to her, and brought the money, in their hand.

Then she lulled him, to sleep on her knees, called for a man, and had him shave off, the seven locks of his head. Then she began, to torment him, and his strength left him.

And he, she said, then the Philistines, are upon you, Samson. And so he awoke, from the sleep, and he said, I will go out, as before, just like I have, every other time, and, what?

Shake myself free. But he did not know, that the Lord, had departed from him. That is the, epitaph of Samson's life.

He did not even know it. Self-deception. Even though Samson, understood, the importance, of his Nazarite vow, and the importance, of not breaking that vow.

And that if he broke, that vow, this last one being, the shaving of his head, that God was under, no obligation, to continue, to grant him, the strength, that he had.

Even though he knew, that kind of in theory, he didn't really believe it. He thought he could just, don't you think, as soon as Samson woke up, he knew his hair was gone?

I mean, if you've never had, a razor touch your head. I don't know, how old Samson was, but he was certainly old enough, where his hair, was quite long. So long, it had to be braided. And I think, you'd know it immediately, when you got up.

But Samson knew it, but, but he was self-deceived. Self-deceived, in thinking, that really, all those mighty, acts of strength, that that really was him, and not God.

And so he said, I'm going to go out, just as before. And he did not know, that the Lord, had departed from him. And that's the, by the way, the clincher, for the clue, as to the source, of his strength.

Not his long hair, but the Lord. The Lord, had departed from him. That's why his strength, had left him. All right, so we're talking about, Samson's folly, from the first.

The fool's stage, the fool's stupidity, the fool's self-deception, and then forth, the fool's seizure. He's seized, by his enemy, and that's what we have, in verse 21.

Then the Philistines, took him, put out his eyes, and brought him, down to Gaza. They bound him, with bronze fetters, and he became, a grinder, in the prison.

Now think about, this situation, now that Samson is in. I mean, this is a terrible thing.

They blind him, they gouge out his eyes, burn them out, or in whatever way. They bind him, with fetters, and they, attach him, chain him, to the grinding stone.

big millstone, huge one. What a terrible situation. All because, of Samson's, sin. But long, before the Philistines, seized Samson, sin had already, seized him.

Long before. In fact, almost, from the very beginning, of his story. And so, just from this one verse, we should be warned, by what sin did, Samson, sin can do to us.

In the first place, notice, sin's, binding force, on his life. They put, blinding force, excuse me, they put his eyes out.

They blinded him. Samson's eyes, were gone. He could no longer see. That had been his problem, all along. Everything he saw, he just had to have it.

And he was, very visual, and guided by, his flesh, through his eyes. That has been his problem. But long before, the Philistines, blinded him, Samson was blinded, by his sin.

And he didn't even know it. So there's, sin's, blinding force. There is sin's, binding force. They, bound him, with bronze fetters.

And yet, long before, the Philistines, bound him, Samson was bound, by his sin. Do you see? And sin will bind you. In the same way.

And then finally, sin's, grinding force. Grinding, pulverizing, destroying force. He became a, grinder, in the prison. This was the work, of slaves.

But most likely, in this particular situation, it would have been, something they would tie, dumb animals to, donkeys. And so they've got, Samson, he's the dumbest animal, on the planet.

And, and he becomes, a beast of burden. Grinding, the grain. But long before, the Philistines, set him, to the grinding stone, Samson's sin, was grinding, his life away.

Destroying him. And that's what sin does. And we learned that, from Samson. There's a little, Samson in every single, one of us. All right, so Samson's folly, from the first. And then, to close this up, off, we're about, to be finished.

And, and we'll see, Samson's faith, at the finish. His folly, from the first, his faith, at the finish. And so let me read, starting with verse 22.

However, the hair of his head, began to grow again, after it had been, shaven. You know what that tells me? It tells me, the Philistines, didn't believe, it was his hair either.

Otherwise, they'd keep it shaved off, don't you think? I mean, somebody would have noticed, you know, hey, his hair's growing back, we better take care of this, or he's going to get his strength back. They didn't really be, because his hair was not the secret to it.

But it's just, kind of a, it's inserted there, to let you know, that the hair, was really not the issue. The issue is, that God, is about to do something.

And that, this clues you into that. Now, the lords of the Philistines, gathered together, to offer a great sacrifice, to Dagon, their God, and to rejoice. Rejoice over what?

Well, they said, our God has delivered into our hands, Samson, our enemies. They have a big party, big celebration, kind of an opportunity, to worship their God, for what he, the great thing he did for them.

He, he, he, he allowed them to capture Samson, their biggest enemy. And when the people saw him, they praised their God, for they said, our God has delivered into our hands, our enemy, the destroyer of our land, and the one who multiplied our dead.

Now, they're describing the role and work of a judge, of a judge of Israel. And, and I, and all along, we're thinking, well, Samson's not really fulfilling that job. But in a sense, he was where God was through him.

And so, they're rejoicing over this. So, it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, that means they were drunk, they, they, they said, call for Samson, that he may perform for us.

And this is the part of the movie, that I remember the best. They bring out, you know, Victor Mature. Now, they're blinded. They chain in between the poles, you know, or, or the pillars.

And so they, it said, bring, bring him to, out to us, so that we might enjoy him. Let's see, where did I leave off here? And so they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them.

I don't really know what it was he did. And they stationed him between the pillars. Then Samson said to the lad, who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars, which support the temple, so that I can lean on them.

I mean, you know, I'm, I'm tired. Pushing that big millstone around, and I need to lean on them. I don't think he was admitting, telling the lad what his plan was. It's, it's brought, uh, uh, a lot of speculation here about how a temple could be supported by just two pillars.

And, uh, and actually archaeologists, uh, have been able to answer that. There, there, there are those that are constructed in such a way, and they're multi-leveled, and two pillars are the main support for the building.

And everything fans out from these pillars to support the various, the various stories. But there also have been those who speculated that this is a temple to Dagon.

Dagon was, you know, an idol, obviously. And that Dagon might have been a very large stone idol positioned on the top of these two pillars.

And, and so they, it was a temple, so they would worship him. And so that might help us understand how there could be such destruction when Samson's able to push out those pillars or to pull them down or whatever it is.

All right, so he's telling the lad this, uh, you know, help me position, uh, help me so that I can feel these pillars and lean on them. And now the temple was full of men and women.

All the lords of the Philistines were there, about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. So besides those that were down on the main floor, there were 3,000 up on the, in the balcony.

So this is quite, quite a structure. And holding a lot of people. Then Samson called to the Lord. Here's where Samson makes his turn and begins to understand his calling.

Even though we might call into question some of his motives here that he's going to mention, Samson now is praying. He calls to the Lord. Saying, Oh, Lord God, remember me, I pray.

Strengthen me. I pray just this once. Oh God, that I may with one blow, take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.

That's where the motives come into question there. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple. And he braced himself against them.

One on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he pushed with all his might. And the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it.

So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he killed, had killed in his life. And remember the makeup of these people.

The lords of the Philistines. These were all the leaders. And the wealthy. The people of importance to the economy of the Philistines.

And to the leadership and rulership of the Philistines. And so the kill thousands of this kind of, these kinds of people, would have been a great victory against the Philistines.

Would have been devastating to their country. And so in the end, Samson called to be a judge. In the end, he does what he'd been called to do.

And his brothers and all his fathers, Samson's household came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Ashtorel in the tomb of his father Manoah.

He had judged Israel 20 years. 20 years. So there is Samson's faith at the finish. I really believe that it is. Like we have a similar thing said, narrated for us at the close of chapter 15 about Samson praying and being honest about the source of his strength.

And he had kind of a, kind of a spiritual awakening in a moment. We had a major, terrible relapse. Sinful relapse in chapter 16.

But when he gets to the end of his life, he places his faith in the Lord. And the Lord judges the Philistines through Samson.