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According to researchers, along with my 30+ years of studying marriages, the top three reasons for divorce are infidelity, communication issues, and money. Almost 100% of the men that I have counseled have experienced losing a sexual battle due to compromising with lust. Today, we will observe the devastating effects of lust in Samson's life. We will witness him sacrifice his God-given purpose on the altar of selfishness and sexual desire. His potential is diminished by a heart of lust, resulting in a life-long battle with sexual sin.
We first meet Samson walking the streets of Timnah, about six miles from his home in Zorah. He is checking out the forbidden babes (14:1). With lustful eyes, he spots his would-be wife and tells his parents: "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes" (v. 3). The law of Moses forbade marrying foreign women because they would steer one's heart away from Yahweh. Similarly, Christians today should not be unequally yoked or marry unbelievers. Samson would marry this woman anyway but abandon her during their wedding feast. Because of her affiliation with Samson, she was burned to death (15:6).
Lust is propelled by appearance, but love is concerned with the heart. If you are looking for a spouse, lust is not the best way to choose. Proverbs 31:30 says, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised." Samson is continually led by his lust: 1. He hires a prostitute in Gaza and narrowly escapes a trap for his life (16:1-3). 2. After discovering a plot to ambush him, he didn't just tear down the gates of Gaza, but he carried them 37 miles. 3. Samson's final rendezvous with lust would be a sexual relationship with a Philistine named Delilah (16:4).
The Lords of the Philistines lived in Gaza, Gath, Askelon, Ekron, and Ashdod. They offered Delilah 5,500 pieces of silver to discover Samson's strength and turn him over to them (v. 5). After three failed attempts to trick Samson, she finally wears him down. Samson informs her that his strength lies in his long-uncut hair (vv. 6-17). Note that each lie Samson told took him closer to the truth. How dangerous is compromise! King Solomon said, "There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is death" (Proverbs 14:2).
"She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head... And she said, 'The Philistines are upon you, Samson!' And he awoke from his sleep and said, 'I will go out as at other times and shake myself free,' but he did not know that the LORD had left him" (vv. 19-20). Verse 20 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible! Samson's compromise rocked him into a spiritual coma. He was totally weak without God. Samson's strength was not in the jawbone of a donkey, his sobriety, or in his lengthy locks of hair—his strength was in the LORD, and he squandered it.
Samson's end illustrates the blinding, binding, and grinding results of sin. 1. Compromise Blinded him. 2. Compromise Bound him. 3. Compromise Burdened him to grind in slavery. He found himself enslaved by the enemy, the very people that he was commissioned to save Israel from.
Lust and sexual sin destroy non-Christians and Christians alike. "For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world" (1 John 2:16). Read the following verses: 1 John 2:16, 2 Timothy 2:22, and Proverbs 4:23. Meditate on how the Bible instructs us to combat lust.
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