Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes sermon video audio notes. What will Delilah do to you? Delilah will lure your trust and love. She will use you for her personal greed. Delilah will get your head in her lap relaxed, put you to sleep, emasculate your supernatural strength, and gouge out your eyes, removing the vision you have for your life.
WICKED WOMEN OF THE BIBLE
By Pastor Delbert Young
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
Audio
Scriptures: Judges 13:3-5, Judges 13:12-14, Judges 16:1-2, Judges 16:4, Judges 16:5, Judges 16:6
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Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
I thought we’d go ahead and talk about the bad-to-the-bone wicked woman whose name alone is in a category all by itself: Delilah. What will Delilah do to you? Delilah will lure your trust and love. She will use you for her personal greed. Delilah will get your head in her lap relaxed, put you to sleep, emasculate your supernatural strength, and gouge out your eyes, removing the vision you have for your life.
Let’s set her story up. It was a time in Israel’s history when God needed to give his oppressed people a strong leader. A barren woman was working a field.
Judges 13:3-5 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that YOU DRINK NO WINE OR OTHER FERMENTED DRINK AND THAT YOU DO NOT EAT ANYTHING UNCLEAN, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. NO RAZOR MAY BE — USED ON HIS HEAD, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
This is the supernatural birth of Samson. Of course, if you are a Christ Follower, you’ve had a supernatural birth, but it won’t stop you from encountering Delilah. Notice, that it was Samson’s mother, not Samson, who could not drink wine nor eat anything unclean. The boy’s part was no haircuts ever. Can you imagine no haircuts ever? Mine would have grown to over twenty-four feet long if I had hair. Our supernatural strength should grow and grow. How are you doing?
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
The woman told her husband, and not being entirely certain about this, he prayed that the angel would return and give him more instructions.
Judges 13:12-14 So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy’s life and work?” The angel of the LORD answered, “YOUR WIFE must do all that I have told her. SHE MUST NOT eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. SHE MUST DO everything I have commanded her.”
It was Mrs. Manoah, the mother, not Samson, who could not have wine. The Nazirite vow, explained in Numbers 6, includes no wine (including no grapes and raisins), no haircuts, and extremely strict rules about not going near a dead body. You may have heard Samson wasn’t supposed to drink wine or be around dead bodies. God didn’t say Samson couldn’t.
God altered the Numbers 6 Nazirite vow concerning Samson, for in Samson’s destiny were many dead Philistine bodies and lots of wine. Wine and dead bodies did not remove God’s Spirit or supernatural strength from Samson. However, the no haircut, never rule was major! What has God told you to do? It’s likely not the way he’s told others to do it. God’s told you to do something major. Your honoring God by obeying what he said will give you supernatural strength.
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
Mrs. Manoah honored God’s requests, and God honored the woman. Samson was born (Jdg 13:24). What do you desire to birth? Do you remain barren, even sterile? Are you honoring God? If you honor God, God will honor you. He may give you what you’ve waited all your life to birth.
Samson’s exploits are superhero-legendary.
As the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, a Hulk-like strength came, but also a Hulk-like rage. He tore a lion apart with his bare hands (Jdg 14:6). Later, the lion’s carcass became a honey beehive and a riddle, leading to the death of thirty men just so Samson could pay the riddle wager.
He became upset with his “should be” Philistine father-in-law and took his rage out on three hundred foxes. He tied the foxes together, set their tales on fire, and burned grain fields of the Philistines (Jdg 15:5). This led to the death of many Philistines and Samson using the jawbone of a donkey to kill a thousand more Philistines (Jdg 15:15).
What’s interesting is all his legendary superhero exploits surrounded his attraction to a Philistine woman – an enemy, godless woman.
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
Judges 16:1-2 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.”
Their plan failed. Locked gates couldn’t trap Samson. He tore the gates’ loose posts, and all then escaped, carrying their gates away. Again, his supernatural escapade surrounded his one supernatural weakness—lust for women. Even a partial night of passion with a prostitute couldn’t drain Samson’s Superman-like strength, but he was about to meet his Kryptonite.
Samson’s weakness was not the cutting of his hair. Samson’s weakness was his lust for women and his eventual love of a wicked woman. We all have supernatural strengths, but we all have supernatural weaknesses. If you give into your weakness, you will, at some time, encounter your Delilah.
Judges 16:4 Some time later, HE FELL IN LOVE with a woman in the Valley of Sorek WHOSE NAME WAS DELILAH.
Delilah was not a prostitute. She was a woman in the Valley of Sorek, but what a woman she must have been. Samson, who obviously checked out women everywhere, fell in love with this one. Even Samson wouldn’t fall in love with a prostitute. How did Delilah capture Samson’s heart? Was it Delilah’s love for people, compassion, and her godliness? I don’t think so. I think it was her looks, her body, and her ability to use them. Samson’s long, pretty hair gave him strength, but his long, pretty hair was no match for the wickedness of Delilah.
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
Your supernatural strength is no match for the wickedness of Delilah if you give in to your supernatural weakness.
Judges 16:5 The rulers of the Philistines WENT TO HER AND SAID, “SEE IF YOU CAN LURE HIM into showing you the SECRET OF HIS GREAT STRENGTH and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. EACH ONE OF US will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
They were obviously familiar with Delilah’s abilities to lure a man. They’d figured out Samson’s great strength was superhuman, and it wasn’t because of daily workouts, a healthy diet, or steroid injections. They knew the big boy had a terminal supernatural weakness—women. Delilah could use her alluring power to take advantage of Samson’s weakness to discover Samson’s secret for his supernatural strength. Then, they could subdue him.
They wanted to know the secret of Samson’s source of strength, but they already knew how to get to Delilah: her greed. They offered her major money. Judges 3:3 tells us the Philistines had five rulers and each would give Delilah eleven hundred shekels of silver. The best I can figure, each ruler would give Delilah about 34 pounds of silver – 170 pounds total. Judges 17:10 tells of a man who worked all year for ten shekels of silver. Therefore, in their economy, this was a fortune. Delilah could live like a queen for the rest of her life.
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
I like what Liz Curtis Higgs wrote in Bad Girls of the Bible.
“Before we condemn Delilah for the actions that followed, we might ask ourselves which we would choose: (1) the company of a violent man with a rocky reputation and shocking track record with women, who was neither a husband nor a father and who might disappear without a word of regret, or (2) the comfort of cold, hard silver that would keep a woman well fed and finely dressed for a lifetime? Not a hard decision, then or now.”
Judges 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “TELL ME THE SECRET OF YOUR GREAT STRENGTH and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
Next time, we’ll look at what Delilah did to get Samson to tell her how to cause the Spirit of God to leave him, which emasculated his supernatural strength and allowed the gouging out of his life’s vision. We’ll see how he was made into a mockery to all. We will also see how Samson regained the Spirit of God and his supernatural strength, but he died in the process. Delilah is deadly.
Have you encountered Delilah? You’ve had a supernatural birth and were given supernatural power. You also have a supernatural weakness. If you give in and follow the path of your supernatural weakness, it will lead you to your Delilah, and Delilah is deadly.
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
Wicked Woman Delilah – How to Learn from Samson’s Mistakes
Other Related Sermons:
Wicked Woman Delilah part 2 sermon video audio notes
Wicked Women of the Bible Sermon Series video audio notes
It’s Good To Be Alive and Have A Person To Love – sermon video audio notes
Handling Controlling and Manipulative People – sermon video audio notes
Higgs, Liz Curtis (2004-01-20). Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn From Them (p. 117). The Doubleday religious Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.