Judges 16:28

New International Version

Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

For Meditation

He knew he had sinned and played the buffoon with Delilah. How could he not have known what she was after all those three times? But the Judge of Israel had a soft spot for women, so the constant emotional pleas from Delilah whipped Samson into a marshmallow. He turned a treacherous threat to his life into a game and lost miserably (Judges 16:4-21). Solomon was right.

“The lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,

    and her speech is smoother than oil,

 but in the end, she is bitter as gall,

    sharp as a double-edged sword” (Proverbs 5:3-4).

His counsel to everyone is to keep to a path far from the adulterous woman and not go near the door of her house (8). Samson did not and suffered for it.

His eyes gouged and bound with bronze shackles, the Philistines took the strongman of Israel a prisoner and reduced him to a grinding machine.

Their relief deserved a public celebration, so they held a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and called for Samson to entertain them. They did not know this precious statement in Judges 16:22 that had changed everything for Samson. 

“But the hair on his head began to grow after it had been shaved.”

With a broken and contrite heart, the Lord renewed His Nazirite covenant with His servant, with the sign of his growing hair on the head. 

I believe everything the Philistines did, grieved Samson, and he wanted revenge for his two eyes (28). He knew he had set his heart right with the Lord, but with his two gouged eyes, how could he move around to fulfill his life’s purpose? It was better for him to die by collapsing the temple of Dagon and taking the philistine celebrants with him (26-30).     

There is no one like our God who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of His people like our Jehovah (Micah 7:18). His name is holy, and he is the high and exalted One who lives forever. He lives in a high and holy place, but also with the person who is contrite and lowly in spirit. He revives the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15 paraphrased). 

As David said, the acceptable sacrifice of the sinner is a broken and contrite heart, which God will not despise (Psalm 51:17). Our sins can never override His mercy and grace. 

Whether your sin is like that of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Manasseh, or Paul, Calvary has a cure for you. There is a healing balm and Physician there for the sinner than Gilead ever had (John 1:9).

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