Why did Samson give in to Delilah’s nagging? (Judges 16:16–17)
Why did Samson give in to Delilah’s nagging? (Judges 16:16–17) 13 Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.” He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and tightened it with the pin. Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric. 15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” 16 With such nagging, she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it. 17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
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Asked February 21 2019
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Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
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Tim Maas
Supporter
I would say that, despite his consecration as a Nazirite; the superhuman strength that he was granted by God; and his faith in God, Samson was still a fallible (and, at times, VERY fallible) human being, who could allow his carnal appetites to override common sense and good judgment. (However, as noted in Judges 14:4, God was using even these faults to carry out His plans to inflict harm on the Philistines). Apparently, his lust for Delilah was such that he misguidedly chose to overlook what would seem to any objective observer to be clear and repeated indications of her treachery. However, even here, God used Samson (although at great personal cost to Samson himself, including his eyesight and, finally, his own life) to once again punish the Philistines. (As noted in Judges 16:30, the 3,000 Philistines whom he killed when he brought the temple of Dagon crashing down upon them were even more than he had slain previously in his life.) To me, Samson's story is, in a way, reassuring, since it indicates that God is capable of using even the faults and self-inflicted adversities of His followers for His glory, while still allowing them to be regarded as "heroes of faith" (as Samson was categorized in Hebrews 11:32-34).
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