Delilah from the Bible and Life Lessons from her!

Delilah!

Who was this girl who betrayed the man who loved her for money? Well, the Bible doesn’t give us much information about her. All that we.have is a little story of her seducing and betraying Samson.

In Judges 16:5, the Philistine lords get Delilah to betray Samson in exchange for 1100 pieces of silver: And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

The meaning of her name may give us an essential clue.

Delilah: The Weak One

The name Delilah in Hebrew means “weak; poor.” And in many ways we can see, from the story of Samson, just how weak Delilah was in her relation to Samson. 

✨She Was Weak In Loyalty✨

In Judges 16:5, we'll find something about Delilah’s first weakness:

And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

(Judges 16:5)

In the verses following, Delilah questions Samson’s source of strength, and tests his answers to see if they’re true (v. 6-14).

Why is Delilah so determined to find out Samson’s source of strength?

 - BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO GET THE 1100 PIECES OF SILVER

Here we see Delilah’s first weakness:

SHE LACKED LOYALTY TOWARD SAMSON

✨She Was Weak In Meekness✨

Moving on to verse 16, we see Delilah’s second weakness:

And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death,

(Judges 16:16)

Fuelled with money-hungry ambition and disloyal determination, Samson’s so-called girlfriend pesters him with more questions and enticements to reveal his source of strength. Instead of just simply dumping the poor guy, or forgetting about the whole bribe from the Philistine lords, Delilah kept on persisting.

Here is Delilah’s second weakness:

SHE WAS FILLED WITH TOO MUCH STUBBORN PRIDE

No matter how much she had to ask nor how much she had to do, Delilah was too proud to let go of that 1100 silver piece offer. She refused to give up–all for the wrong reasons.

✨She Was Weak In Love✨

Delilah’s final weakness is found by just jumping all the way back up to verse 4:

Afterward it happened that he [Samson] loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. (Judges 16:4)

If we pay proper attention to this verse, we find that Samson loves Delilah (16:4), but not that she loves him — a hint, perhaps, that she does not love him and will have no regret about betraying him.”

It’s likely that we can now see why Delilah, with stubborn disloyal pride, insisted Samson to tell her the source of his strength. We can now see why Delilah betrayed Samson for money. It wasn’t motivated by pride, nor a selfish desire for wealth. But rather, her betrayal against Samson was motivated by cold indifference.

Here, we see Delilah’s third weakness:

SHE LACKED GENUINE LOVE TOWARD THE ONE WHO LOVED HER

What's for us to learn from her?

In our daily lives as Catholics/Christians, are we like Delilah, and act disloyal toward Christ? Do we betray Him in the little things? Do we betray God just to gain some silver pieces of popularity, worldly pleasure, or–in the literal case of Delilah herself–monetary richness? Are you or I in danger of being a Delilah to God right now?

Sadly, we are! Atleast, involuntarily!

Jesus said to His disciples many years after Samson passed away and Delilah died:

If you love Me, keep My commandments.

(John 14:15)

I believe that what caused Delilah to willfully betray the one who loved her with cold, stubborn, disloyal pride is what’ll cause many of us to willfully turn away from God. A genuine lack of genuine love to the One Who loves us and died for us.