When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us.
So they, all of them, offered this enormous bribe to her if she would discover the secret of this fella's strength. So Delilah said plain up to him, "Hey, what is the secret? Where is it that your great strength lies?"Samson said, "Well, if they would bind me with green vines that have never been dried, then I will be weak just like any other man." So she began to, you know, run her fingers through his hair, that kind of stuff. Pretty soon he fell off to sleep and she commanded the Philistines to come in with green vines, never dried and they bound him up.She said, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you." And he jumped up and these things snapped off like they were threads that were burned in a fire and he cracked the skulls of the Philistines.And she said, "You lied to me. That isn't really true. You weren't weak like other men. Tell me. Don't lie to me. Tell me, what is the secret of your strength. Where does your great strength lie?"And he said, "Well, the mistake people have made is they never bound me with new ropes. Now if you would bind me with new ropes then I will be weak just like any other man."So again she soothes him off to sleep and ordered the Philistines to bind him with these new ropes never been used for any other purpose. Then she said, "Samson, the Philistines be upon thee." And he jumped up and these ropes snapped off and again busted their skulls.She said, "Oh, you lied to me again. Tell me Samson, come on, I want the truth this time. What is the secret of your strength?"Samson said, "Well, if you would braid my hair in seven braids then I'll be weak just like anybody else."Now, at this point you may be thinking "Good Samson, you're not revealing the truth. Keep her guessing." But in reality, Samson is guilty of a compromise, which is always dangerous. When she said, "What is the secret of your strength?" He should have said, "It's none of your business. I'll never tell." But he's playing games thinking that he is cleaver. But notice he's getting closer to the truth. He's wearing down. He's talking now about his hair.There are times when people have made a special commitment of their life to God. Maybe at a retreat, maybe just at a time where God has really spoken to their heart and they responded and they've made their determination, "I'm gonna really live my life now for God." And the phone rings and it's one of their friends and they say, "Come on over tonight. We're gonna have a party. Someone's got a keg," you know and "we're gonna have a good time."Now this is the life you say, "Hey, I'm not gonna do that anymore. I know that that life is a life of folly. I'm not gonna enter that anymore and I'm gonna live for Christ." You've made that commitment within your heart but now here's the invitation and you say, "Ah, thanks. I really appreciate you calling me but I don't feel so good tonight. I think I'm gonna go to bed early."And they say, "Oh, that's too bad. We're really gonna have a blast, you know." You think "Wow. All right, chalk one up for victory," you know "I didn't go." But wait a minute. You weren't totally honest either and what you have actually done is left the door open for another invitation.Now, if when they called and said, "Come on over tonight. We got a keg. We're gonna have a great time", if you had said "I appreciate you calling but I've committed my life to Jesus Christ and I'm not gonna be doing any of that stuff anymore. I'm gonna just be living for the Lord because that's the only way to live. Man, the time of the end is close and I'm gonna just really get it on for the Lord. None, no more of that stuff for me." They'd never call you again.You see, now you're being honest, you're being true. You're closing the door, which we need to do on evil. We need to close the door on evil. We're not always doing that. A lot of times we're leaving the door open, little excuses so that the door is still open. This was Samson's problem. He was leaving the door open but he is weakening. He's breaking down.And so again she caused him to go to sleep and she braided his hair into seven locks and for good measure they took spikes and pinned them to the planks of the floor. And then she said, "Samson, The Philistines are upon you." And he jumped up and pulled the planks of the floor up with him and went out and took care of them. Now women know when everything else fails, try the tear route. And so Delilah began to turn on the tears. "You've been deceiving me. You don't really love me. You've just been playing games with me. You don't really love me." You know, "You're just making a fool out of me. Tell me Samson," and she began to press him daily making it miserable for him.So finally Samson said, "Look, all my life I've been a Nazarite unto God." There it is; that was the secret of his strength. The word Nazarite is "separated." "All of my life I've been separated unto God."The strength of Samson lay in his commitment in his life to God, which was done really before his birth. For before Samson was ever born, the angel of the Lord, in announcing to his mother that she was to have a son, told her never to bring a razor to his head, never to allow him to have anything from the vine, wine or whatever because he was to be a Nazarite from his birth unto God; separated unto God from his birth.Now in Numbers, the sixth chapter, you have the law for the Nazarite. There were many times when a person wanted to have a special dedication of his life to God for a period of time. It's more or less as the traditional lent period today where people, you know, make sort of a commitment prior to Easter and sacrifice or give up something for the lent period.Well, in Israel they did the same kind of thing in a period, and usually before their feast days, the holy days of their feast, they would take a vow and separate their lives unto God. And according to the sixth chapter of Numbers, if you wanted to separate your life and take the vows of a Nazarite you were to bring no razor to your head and you were not to drink any wine, any vinegar made from grapes in a strong drink coming from grapes. You were not to drink any nectar or grape juice nor were you to eat any grapes themselves nor raisins nor anything that came from the grapevine.Now the reason for that I don't know but it was just kind of a self-denial. Raisins were one of the real delicacies in those days. They did not have canning processes or freezing of food in all in those days, so in the summer time they would dry their fruits and all winter long they would eat dried fruits, or you know they could take and cook up the apricots with some water and they'd have apricots. But they did not have any canning processes so the preserving process was always that of drying the fruit. So raisins were really a delicacy. It's something they-it was something that they always had and enjoyed. And so it's sort of a denial in order to make this consecration unto God for a period of time.And then when you came to the end of that time that you have set for your consecration, then you shave all of your hair and then you bring it and offer it as a burnt offering unto God. It was just a sacrifice thing and you, you know, it was just the sacrifice. In Numbers, in the sixth chapter, tells of the vows of the Nazarite.Now his was not to be a separation for a period of time. It was to be lifelong commitment and separation of his life to God, a lifelong type of consecration or commitment. And that was the secret of his strength. "I have been a Nazarite unto God." I've been separated unto God. And therein his great strength did lie, that separation unto God or that Nazarite vow was indicated by his hair having never been cut.And so he tells her, "I've been a Nazarite unto God. There's never been a razor come to my head. If I would break that vow, if I would shave my head the vow would be broken. It would be over. Then I would be just like any other man." He told her all that was in his heart. He laid his heart open before her. And it said that Delilah knew that this time he actually laid his heart open. He told her the truth.And so she went out to the lords of the Philistines, she said, "We've got him."And so they all gathered together and again she relaxed him so he could go to sleep. You think "Oh, that poor stupid oaf." You'd think that the guy would know better. You know, after all she's done everything she said so far. He said tie me with new green vines, tie me with new ropes, braid my hair; she's done the whole thing. He ought to know that she's gonna do it. You'd think that he'd get out of there.Paul said to Timothy, "To flee youthful lust which damned men's soul in perdition." Samson, sort of bolstered by the victories of the past, having become self-confident over the past power, went to sleep. Now you hear so often that Delilah cut off his hair. No she didn't, she called a barber and while he was sleeping there on her lap the barber shaved his head.