Samson's REAL Failure

(It wasn't Delilah)

Samson’s story is always used as a Biblical example of how a bad woman can be the downfall of a man. And it’s undeniable that Delilah played a big part on his downfall, but was she the actual cause?

Yes, Samson chose poorly when he confided in Delilah, sharing with her the source of his strength. He should’ve known that she was going to betray him —as she had done multiple times before—, and he did let lust, love, and the manipulative nagging of Delilah cloud his judgment.

And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me wherein your great strength lies.”

And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.

And he told her all his mind, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
— Judges 16:15-17

However, I believe that Delilah was only the final chapter of a long, slow collapse, which began much earlier in his story.

Samson’s final mistake was trusting a bad woman. But his real failure occurred much earlier, and it’s something that we fall for on a daily basis.