Samson’s strength obviously came to him from God, but what does it mean for you and me to embrace God’s strength? The Bible repeatedly tells you to be strong in the Lord, but how?
What we’re going to see is error in Samson that we can learn from, and grace from God that we can be blessed by!
And in everything, you’ll be pointed to life in Jesus as the means for you to embrace God’s strength as he works through you for his glory.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church, Wirral, in July 2026. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Beware spiritual disaster (1-20)
The chapter splits into two episodes: Firstly with Delilah, and secondly at Dagon’s temple. The Delilah episode alerts you to spiritual disaster, and how it creeps up on you when you tiptoe towards it.
Samson has had some big successes up to this point. He’s clearly able to deal easily with external enemies, piling the bodies high! A man of incredible strength, he was completely blind to his own weakness.
Delilah was in it for the money. She was scheming and conniving, grasping and greedy. Love gives, but lust takes. She presented to Samson as a loving wife, upset that he wouldn’t open up to her and tell her everything. Like Balaam, hired to curse Israel in Numbers. He couldn’t engage in battle or curse, so he enticed to idolatry and sin. When Satan can’t get you directly, he will entice you.
So Delilah asks for the secret of Samson’s strength. It’s reasonable to assume he didn’t look like Mr Universe or Arnold Schwarzenegger: His strength wasn’t obvious to the eye. So in v6-9 he gives his first dummy answer. It was as big a mistake as his last answer. Taking the first step towards sin is deeply troubling – you’re dulling the sense of sin in your conscience, making the next step (and the last one) easier.
By the time he gives his third answer, he’s already speaking about his hair (in the loom). He’s veered perilously close to a fall. Beware over-confidence. You’re not as strong as you think you are. Beware compromise and drift to sin.
He gives the full explanation in v15-20, saying that if his hair is cut “my strength will leave me” (v17). But that actually displays his complete lack of relationship with the Lord, or even a lack of value of God’s grace. He thought his strength would leave him, but it was much worse: “The Lord had left him” (v20).
See how he tiptoed towards trouble, relying on himself and his own guile and strength? And all the while, spiritual disaster was creeping up on him.
Watch out. You’re not as strong as you are. Stand firm.
But there’s an even more fundamental issue: Spiritual disaster is inevitable without the Lord’s presence. To see that, we need to ask what the Samson chapters are really about anyway. And the answer is simple: He’s a mirror of Israel.
Born in such hope with high expectations, dedicated to the LORD (like Israel at Sinai in Exodus 19). But Samson lived as he pleased, presuming that the Lord would bless. Again, just as Israel did. Don’t assume lots of religious stuff in your life can mask your unbelieving heart: it won’t. God sees you. Samson and Israel saw all the strength and blessing from God as their own, to abuse or throw away if they chose, rather than as a spiritual gift to be used for God’s glory. And so as Samson and Israel disobeyed covenant promise, the Lord left them to their own devices.
Without the Lord to guide his actions, Samson was foolish. Without the Lord to strengthen his arm, Samson was weak.
Apart from the Lord, he could do nothing. A lesson Israel ignored, and a lesson for you to keep.
So you need to be really honest with yourself: What is going on in your inner life that you would not want to be aired here – or even in heaven? Where is your foot slipping a bit into temptation? Is it your bad attitude to others, things you watch on TV or online, or is there a relationship going in the wrong direction? How’s your time with the Lord? Are you drifting away?
Jesus wrote to drifting churches in Revelation 2 and 3. He warned them of consequences of their sin, but in each case he called them to repent, to return to him, to overcome, to live!
Spiritual disaster creeps up on you as you tiptoe towards it. Spiritual disaster is inevitable without the Lord’s presence. Go back to Christ your first love, and keep close to him.
So much for Samson’s life. What about his death?
Receive spiritual life (21-31)
The Philistines blinded Samson and put him to work reserved for slaves and women. They could have killed him, but they wanted more: It was a deliberate humiliation, crowing over their defeated enemy.
V21-22 describe his humiliating circumstances, but there’s a glimmer of hope: His hair was growing again. There was nothing magic in his hair. But it was a symbol of his Nazirite status, dedicated to God. God wasn’t finished.
In v23-25, the Philistines are having a very happy time! Read Judges 16:24. Happy days in Gaza. And that, obviously, is not only humiliation for Samson – it’s also dishonouring to the LORD, the living God.
So in v26-30, with Samson at his absolute rock bottom, weaker than he’d ever been, he prayed: Read Judges 16:28. In truth, his prayer was as self-centred as ever. And yet it was a prayer of faith: He knew that only God could provide the strength he’d need. That’s why Samson is listed in Hebrews 11:32 as one of the heroes of faith of the Old Testament.
So read Judges 16:29-30. The great deliverance of Israel came as Samson’s lowest point, his greatest humiliation, even his death. God will not be mocked. He will always bring honour to his own name in the end.
And he’ll do that even in spite of the sins of his people. You will sin, but the Lord is more determined in his grace than you are stubborn in your sin. In spite of all Samson’s waywardness, the Lord answered his prayer of faith, though Samson had to be brought so very low before he’d pray it.
A partial salvation was achieved in the death of one man. But it’s just yet another picture of a greater saviour to come.
We leave Samson (the last of the Judges in the book of Judges) wanting a better saviour: One who is ready to die for his people (rather than simply wanting revenge for his own mistreatment). Better still, we want a saviour who will die for his people and yet also live forever! You need a godly, righteous saviour and ruler who will lead you to God. And you need a saviour who has complete victory over his enemies and brings you permanent peace and rest.
In Christ, victory was secured in his death. And victory is assured in his resurrection from the dead.
He brings you salvation – eternal, spiritual salvation from sin and death. Salvation to life in him forever.
And, as with Samson, God sovereignly engineered that salvation through and despite the wickedness of men. And he did it for wicked men and women like you, so that you could become sons and daughters of the living God.
Christ’s death wasn’t just an example of love or self-sacrifice. It was a substitutionary act. You deserve the eternal death of hell’s separation from God. Jesus, being utterly sinless, deserved only life. But he laid down his life to take up your death. Satan loved to use wicked people to kill the Son of God (just like the Philistines humiliating Samson). But that point of “victory” was Satan’s utter defeat: Jesus died, and rose, and defeated sin and death forever. All God’s plan, all by grace, totally unearned by you.
Can you see the determined grace of God?
He came to this world to die for you, to save you. God himself commands you to turn from your sin, and to cry out to him for forgiveness. He’ll forgive you, save you, and even then adopt you.
Don’t be afraid that the salvation he offers is in some way partial, like Samson’s. There is no purgatory to fear. Every sin is atoned for. There is no penance or punishment you can do to add to his work. So receive the spiritual life God is holding out to you.
And don’t think this salvation is just transactional. It’s relational. Yes, your sins are counted against Jesus instead of you. But you then are brought into his love, his heart, to know him. Receive life with him.
Which obviously means you’re not then to presume on his grace by continuing in sin. He lavished grace on you, called you be his child, so there’s no room for living as if he didn’t. Saving faith will always be accompanied by change.
And that change is something God works in you:
Embrace God’s strength
The Lord left Samson (Judges 16:20). But if you have put your faith in Christ’s sacrifice for you, and called out to God for forgiveness, then you are in an eternal, spiritual relationship with God.
That’s true for you in a way it wasn’t for Samson. Jesus has told you, “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20). God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). There’s good news even when you sin: “if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
Jesus has ascended to heaven, from where he rules everything. He has sent his Holy Spirit into the world.
God exists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in the world, leading people like you to conviction of sin, to repentance, and to faith in Jesus. And when anyone turns to God, the Holy Spirit comes to them and stays with them.
You know when you buy something expensive and put down a deposit, a down-payment? It’s a security, a statement of ownership. The Holy Spirit is that in every Christian: A statement from God, to God, of ownership. And an assurance for you that you are his. So the same Spirit who gave Samson his strength is now in you.
We’ve seen that in his life, Samson was a mirror of idolatrous ungodly Israel. And in his death, Samson was a type or shadow of Christ our eternal saviour and ruler. So now, Christ succeeded where Israel failed; The salvation he brings is far more complete than Samson’s; And you’re indwelt by the Spirit of Christ forever; So you can be victorious in Christ where Samson and Israel failed:
Samson and Israel were born in such hope and expectation. In Christ, you’ve been born again from above! You are his chosen possession, dedicated to him, a child of God. Expect his to do great works in you. They lived as they pleased, but by the Spirit in you you have union with Christ. He is in you where you are, and you are in him where he is. The Spirit changes your desires; you hate sin. You know that holy purity and perfect Christlikeness is your destiny, and you want to live that out now.
They abused their spiritual blessings and strength, but you are Christ’s, with gifts he has given you for his church, for his purpose (not for your selfish pleasure). And apart from the Lord, they could do nothing. But Jesus is the vine, and you’re the branches. When you are weak, then you are strong. Stronger than Samson. To do God’s works.
God brought you salvation through the weakness of the cross, so embrace your weakness and give God the glory as he gives you his strength to accomplish his works! And it’s his work, his glory that matters most of all.
Don’t buy into the world’s rhetoric or values: a humble life is fine. It’s ok to have a job, not a career.
It’s not a sin to be old, or ill. You’re not a burden to be discarded.
Also, trouble in life isn’t automatically a sign of God’s displeasure – it could be very much part of his very good plan for you.
Embrace God’s strength as you live for him for his glory: Choose a life of holiness every day. Stand firm. No more lies, or gossip, or slander. Watch your mouth. Choose to love these people here with gospel intent. Turn up for things: It’s a witness to your love for God. Use your talents and gifts for the church – it’s why you have them.
And if you feel weak, God is strong. And he is in you.
When you feel tempted to sin, God is strong. And he is in you.
If you ever feel God is far away, he isn’t. He doesn’t move.
Turn to him again, and in your weakness embrace God’s strength.
So:
- Beware spiritual disaster: It creeps up on you when you tiptoe towards it, and it’s utterly inevitable without the Lord’s presence.
- Receive spiritual life: God’s salvation to you in Christ is all his work for his glory, achieved despite the wickedness of people. Call out in faith, and know him. He is in you.
- Embrace God’s strength: You are weak, but you have the Spirit of Christ in you, bringing you strength for every day.