Samson Pulls Down a Temple

Where Samson was. The Philistines had put out Samson's eyes, bound him with bronze chains and made him grind grain in the prison at Gaza (16:21). Sin had taken his eyes, his freedom and his strength. Growing again. “However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven” (16:22). Where the strength came from. Samson's power was never in his hair. Again and again, “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him” (14:6). When he broke his vow, “the Lord had departed from him” (16:20). A sign of the promise. The long hair was the sign that Samson belonged to God as a Nazirite (13:5). As it grew back, it showed that God had not thrown him away. Grace in a prison. Samson did not deserve another chance. Grace means God's kindness that we do not deserve. God was already at work in that dark place. God is faithful. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22). What this means for you. When you do wrong, sin may leave real hurts behind. But God does not stop loving His children. Run back to Him. He is ready to forgive (1 John 1:9).

Sin's road (16:21). Samson was captured, blinded, chained with bronze fetters and set to grinding grain, the work of a slave. The man who had carried off the gates of Gaza (16:3) now walked in circles inside it. Jesus said, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). Began to grow (16:22). The Hebrew verb for began is chalal (say: khah-LAHL), the same word the angel used in 13:5: “he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” God's purpose for Samson had not been called off. Nazirite (Numbers 6:5). Nazir (say: nah-ZEER) means one set apart. The law said, “no razor shall come upon his head… he shall be holy.” Samson was a Nazirite “from the womb” (13:5), set apart by God before he could choose. Hair is not magic. Samson's strength came when “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him” (15:14). The hair was the outward sign of the vow, not the source of power. When the vow was broken, the Lord departed (16:20). The growing hair did not make Samson strong again; it was a sign that God had not let go of him. Real loss, real grace. God did not give Samson back his eyes. Sin left marks that stayed. Yet mercy met him in the prison. Both are true: sin is serious, and God's mercy is greater. “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). For us. Coming back to God does not always remove the scars of sin, but it always brings us home to Him. “They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23).

God set Samson apart before he was even born. He was a Nazirite, which means set apart for God. His long hair was a sign of that. But Samson told Delilah his secret, and his hair was cut. Then the Lord left him, and his strength was gone. The Philistines made him blind and put him in chains. Sin hurt Samson very badly. But the Bible says his hair began to grow again. Samson's strength never came from his hair. It always came from the Lord. The growing hair showed that God was not finished with Samson. God does not give up on His people. When we sin, we can run back to Him.

Samson was in a dark prison. He could not see. But his hair began to grow again. God had not given up on him.

A feast for an idol. “Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice” (16:23). Who Dagon was. Dagon was the main god of the Philistines. They built temples for him in their cities and filled them with worshipers. The wrong god got the praise. They said, “Our god has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy!” (16:23). Dagon had done nothing. Samson's own sin had handed him over. God's name was laughed at. When God's people sin, others may mock God. Samson's choices gave the Philistines a reason to cheer for an idol. Made to perform. “Call for Samson, that he may perform for us” (16:25). The crowd laughed at a blind man. The hero of Israel was led by “the lad who held him by the hand” (16:26). A full house. The temple was packed, and “about three thousand men and women” were on the roof (16:27). It looked like Dagon's greatest day. The real contest. The fight was never only Samson against the Philistines. It was the Lord against Dagon. “For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods” (Psalm 95:3). What this means for you. The way you live tells people about your God. And when it looks like God is losing, He is not. He is still King.

Dagon (16:23). Dagon was the chief god of the Philistines, with temples at Gaza and later at Ashdod (1 Samuel 5:2). His name sounds like the Hebrew word for grain, dagan (say: dah-GAHN), and he was probably honored as a giver of harvests. Who gets the credit (16:24). The crowd's chant is a short poem: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, The destroyer of our land, And the one who multiplied our dead.” In the ancient world a victory in war was counted as a victory of one god over another. The Philistines believed Dagon had beaten the God of Israel. Why it mattered. Samson's sin did more than hurt Samson. It gave God's enemies a reason to praise an idol. Our sin is never only private; it affects how others see the Lord. Perform (16:25). The Hebrew word is sachaq (say: sah-KHAK), to laugh, play or make sport. Samson was turned into entertainment at an idol's feast. The lad (16:26). The judge who once tore a lion apart with his bare hands (14:6) now needed a boy to lead him. Yet his request to feel the pillars was the first step toward God's answer. Eyes that cannot see. “They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see” (Psalm 115:5). The Philistines had put out Samson's eyes, while the god they praised had eyes that never saw anything. Pride before a fall. “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). The proudest day of the Philistine lords came just before their fall.

The Philistine kings threw a big party for their god, Dagon. Dagon was a false god. People made statues of him and prayed to them. The Philistines said Dagon had given them Samson. That was not true. Dagon could not see or hear or do anything. Samson's own sin had put him in their hands. The crowd laughed at Samson and made him perform. A young servant had to lead him by the hand. The strongest man in Israel looked weak and small. The Philistines thought Dagon had won. But the Lord is the only true God. He was still King over everything.

The Philistines had a big party. They praised a false god. A statue cannot hear or help. Only the Lord is God.

A prayer from the dark. “Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord God, remember me, I pray!’” (16:28). Remember me. Asking God to remember does not mean God forgot. It means, Lord, act for me again. God had never stopped seeing Samson. Just this once. “Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God” (16:28). Samson knew the strength was God's to give, not his own. A mixed heart. Samson also asked “that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes” (16:28). He was still thinking about getting even. Jesus teaches us, “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). Why God answered. God did not answer because Samson's heart was perfect. He answered because He had promised that Samson would “begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (13:5). God keeps His word. Our memory verse. “In the day when I cried out, You answered me” (Psalm 138:3). God hears a sinner who turns back to Him. What this means for you. No place is too dark to pray from. Pray honestly, and ask God to make your heart right too: “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10).

Three names (16:28). Samson prays, “O Lord God… O God.” In Hebrew this is Adonai YHWH (say: ah-doh-NIGH yah-WEH) and then Elohim (say: el-oh-HEEM): Master, the covenant name of the Lord, and the mighty God. Blind and humbled, Samson speaks to God as his Master. Remember (16:28). Zakar (say: zah-KAR) means more than calling something to mind. When God remembers, He acts. “Then God remembered Noah,” and He made a wind pass over the earth (Genesis 8:1). Samson asked God to act for him. A mixed motive. The prayer still carries revenge: “for my two eyes.” Those words are not a pattern for praying about enemies. The Lord says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Romans 12:19). Why God said yes. God's answer rested on His own purpose, spoken before Samson was born: “he shall begin to deliver Israel” (13:5). God works through weak and flawed people without approving their sin. “God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27). Twice at the end of himself. Twice we hear Samson cry out to the Lord: at Lehi, dying of thirst (15:18), and here in Dagon's temple. Both times he had nothing left, and both times God answered. Psalm 138:3. David's words fit this moment: “In the day when I cried out, You answered me, And made me bold with strength in my soul.” “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18).

Samson stood between the pillars and prayed. He said, “Lord God, remember me.” He asked God for strength one more time. Samson knew his strength came from God, not from his hair. He had done many wrong things. Still, he called out to the Lord. He also wanted to pay the Philistines back for his eyes. Getting even is not a good reason to pray. Jesus teaches us to love people who hurt us. But God still heard Samson's prayer. God had promised that Samson would begin to save Israel. You can always call out to God, even after doing wrong.

Samson prayed to God. He asked God to remember him. God heard his prayer. God hears you too.

Between two pillars. Samson “took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple… one on his right and the other on his left” (16:29). His last words. “Let me die with the Philistines!” (16:30). Samson knew this would cost him his life. The temple fell. He pushed with all his might, “and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it” (16:30). Samson died there. The rulers who had paid Delilah to trap him were gone. Dagon could not save his house. The Philistines had praised Dagon for beating Israel's God. In one moment the Lord showed who is really God. “Our Lord is above all gods” (Psalm 135:5). Brought home. “His brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him” (16:31). His family loved him and buried him in the tomb of his father, Manoah. Where he began. He was buried “between Zorah and Eshtaol,” the same place where “the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him” (13:25). God was with him from the beginning to the end. Twenty years. “He had judged Israel twenty years” (16:31). What this means for you. God finishes what He starts. Samson began to rescue Israel. Jesus is the Savior who finished the rescue (John 19:30).

The pillars (16:29). Archaeologists have uncovered a Philistine temple at Tell Qasile whose roof rested on two central pillars set close together on stone bases. A man standing between such pillars could reach both. Let me die (16:30). In Hebrew Samson says, let my nephesh (say: NEH-fesh), my soul or life, die with the Philistines. He was not giving up on life in despair. He was Israel's judge, giving his life in battle against the rulers who had held God's people down for forty years (13:1). The result (16:30). “So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.” The lords of the Philistines, who had planned his capture, fell together with their temple. Only a beginning. God said Samson would “begin to deliver Israel” (13:5). The Philistines stayed a threat until God used Samuel (1 Samuel 7) and later David to break their power. Samson's work was real, but it was not finished. Carried home (16:31). Samson's brothers carried him from Gaza to Manoah's tomb. He was buried with honor, and his life is summed up by his calling: “He had judged Israel twenty years.” Zorah and Eshtaol (13:25; 16:31). Samson was buried in the same place where the Spirit first began to move upon him. God was faithful to the end of a troubled life. Hebrews 11:32. Samson is named among the people of faith: “the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson.” He is there because he trusted God, not because he lived well.

Samson held the two middle pillars of the temple. He said, “Let me die with these Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his strength. The temple fell, and Samson died with the Philistines. Their kings had been cruel to God's people. Now their power was broken. Dagon could not even save his own temple. The Lord showed that He alone is God. Samson's family came and buried him at home. He had been Israel's judge for twenty years. God kept His promise, and Samson began to save Israel. Later God sent the perfect Savior, Jesus. Only Jesus could finish the rescue, and He did.

Samson pushed the big pillars. The temple fell, and Samson died. His family buried him. God kept His promise to Israel.