“D’lilah said to Shimshon, ‘Please tell me what it is that makes you so strong, and how someone could tie you up and subdue you.’ Shimshon replied, ‘If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.'”-Judges 16:6-7
So the little game of cat and mouse between Samson and Delilah begins.
Delilah starts off by asking Samson “Please tell me what it is that makes you so strong, and how someone could tie you up and subdue you.”
Samson, toying with Delilah, tells her that if he is tied up with 7 fresh bowstrings, that would make him as weak as any normal man.
Now, a fresh bowstring was actually quite rugged and tough.
No normal human could have been tied up with 7 fresh bowstrings and be able to easily break out of them.
Yet, given what Delilah knew about how powerful Samson was, it must have seemed hardly believable this would work.
I mean here was a man who was able to slay 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey in one battle.
Any normal person would have said to themselves “Yeah, right” if Samson had told them “tie me up with bowstrings and I’ll be trapped”.
So why did Delilah believe Samson?
It’s because of the number 7.
See, the number 7 was viewed as a supernatural and even magical number in those days.
That’s why Samson’s story seemed believable to Delilah.
So Delilah tells the Philistines what Samson told her.
The Philistines give Delilah 7 fresh bowstrings and she binds Samson with them.
However, Delilah was a smart girl and probably knew Samson wasn’t completely telling her the truth.
She had some men waiting in a room nearby ready to pounce upon Samson at her command.
And when she felt the timing was right, she shouted out…
“Samson, the Philistines are upon you”.
As expected, Samson instantly snapped the bowstrings as if they were dry twigs and broke free.
Here’s the takeaway for today.
In Samson’s mind, he was having fun with Delilah and just playing a game with her.
But the truth is he had just been plunged into a wager that was going to soon turn deadly for him.
And that’s exactly how Satan works.
He likes to lure us in using seemingly innocent and fun temptations.
We go along with the game thinking we’re in full control and we don’t realize we’re being set up until it’s too late.
This isn’t no different than the alcoholic who tells himself I’m just gonna have one beer and then I’ll stop.
Or the porno addict who says to himself, I’ll just have one quick glance at an erotic image on the internet and that’s it.
Unfortunately, it never ends with just one beer or just one glance of a nude photo.
More often than not, the alcoholic wakes up the next morning on the floor wondering what the hell happened.
Or the porno addict finds himself a couple of hours later still clicking away at one hardcore video after another.
Samson had just fallen into Satan’s trap and he was going to pay dearly for it.
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