Delilah Extracts His Secret
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.” 16 It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was [k]annoyed to death. 17 So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19 She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his [l]hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. 20 She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. 21 Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison. 22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.
Again, Samson needed to get out, but he chose to stay, until he “was annoyed to death” and gave in to Delilah’s whining. But that’s not what jumps out to me here.
This passage seems to be the end of a strong man, one who could have totally destroyed the Philistine domination over Judah. Samson is captured, they gouge out his eyes, and put him into forced labor.
However, there’s always a “however” when God is involved. Even in this darkest of situations, God wasn’t done with Samson. Why put the “however” in there at all? To set the stage for God to do something big despite overwhelming odds. Samson had lost his strength, his sight, and was a prisoner, what could possibly go right now?
In our darkest days, God has a “however” to redeem our story. Trust Him, and don’t waver, no matter how dark it seems. God is in charge of everything, even the wind, the waves, and the full force of the storm that seems bent on your destruction. He can and will use it for good. Trust Him to be good, and you will not be disappointed.