Satan’s strategy (7)
“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.” (Judges 16:15)
Aren’t there times when you are tired and discouraged? In that case, what should we do? I pray to God for powers. In particular, I personally have five powers to ask the Lord. They are ‘the power of grace’, ‘the power of love’, ‘the power of the Word’, ‘the power of prayer’ and ‘the power of the Holy Spirit’. The reason I seek these five powers is because I feel the need for them. For example, the reason I seek the power of God's grace is because I believe that the more I realize that 'I am what I am because of God’s grace', the more I can thank God and work harder for the Lord's work with the power of that grace (1 Cor. 15:10). And the reason I ask the Lord for the power of love is because I realize more and more deeply that I cannot love even my wife with my own power. Because I believe that I can love my wife only with the power of love from the Lord. Only when I become a garden watered with love and understand the Lord's love for sinners like me more and more deeply, much, broadly, and highly (Eph. 3:19), then I will be able to love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and love my neighbor as myself (Mt. 22:37-39). In this way, I often ask the Lord for 5 powers. But the problem is that Satan is constantly working in my life in the opposite way to these 5 powers. For example, whenever I ask the Lord for the power of grace, Satan keeps trying to instill in me a sense of merit rather than a consciousness of grace. So even though I must confess, ‘I am unworthy servant; I have done only that which I ought to have done’ after I did all the things which are commanded by the Lord (Lk. 17:10), Satan is trying to exalt myself and make me like Diotrephes, who loves to be first among the people of the church (3 Jn. 1:9). In the end, Satan is trying to inject thought into my head in such a way that ‘I became what I am through my own power’ rather than confessing that ‘I am what I am because of God’s grace’ (1 Cor. 15:10). Perhaps, in the case of business Christians, Satan makes them think, “"My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” even though it is God who gives them the ability to produce wealth (Deut. 8:17-18). Satan is also trying to make hatred grow in my heart when I ask the Lord for the power of love, so that I can even hate my wife. Clearly, even though the Bible says, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 Jn. 3:15), Satan not only prevents me from loving even my wife, who is one flesh in the Lord, but on the contrary, constantly working in my life to hate her. Besides this, when I ask the Lord for the power of the Word of God, Satan is making me stay away from His Word without even opening the Bible. Therefore, Satan not only prevents me from learning to fear God, so I cannot observe all the words of God, but also tries to make my heart proud over my brothers and sisters in Christ (Deut. 17:19-20). Not only that, Satan whispers a lie in my ear when I try to get closer to the Word of God, adding or subtracting from the truth. The same goes for prayer. Not only does Satan keep me from continuing to pray, and to keep me from gaining the power of prayer, but he also makes me sleepy many times when I try to pray. Although Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you may not fall into temptation” (Mt. 26:41), Satan makes me sleepy because of my weak body so that I may fall into his temptation. In addition, Satan keeps clashing with me to stand up and solve problems with my own strength, ability and experience when I am trying to cultivate the attitude of mind to solve problems on my knees and the habit of prayer. When I seek the power of the Holy Spirit, Satan is supporting me to live with the power of sinful flesh. In other words, Satan continues to entice me to go against the Holy Spirit and follow the desires of the flesh in order to do the deeds of the flesh (Gal. 5:16-21). In this way, Satan is working diligently in my life, contrary to the five powers I am asking the Lord for. Furthermore, Satan is constantly trying to distance me from the Lord who is the source of all these powers. By attacking my faith in that Lord, Satan keeps asking questions in the realm of my thoughts so that in the end, my heart may doubt about Him. Also, Satan keeps turning my eyes from looking to the Lord, who is the source of strength and perfecter of faith (Heb. 12:2), so that I can see the “wind” and make my heart terrified (Mt. 14:30) instead of fixing my eyes on the Lord and walk by faith. Therefore, he is trying to make me to be drawn into the fearful situation. What should I do to avoid falling into these temptations of Satan?
In Judges 16:15, we find the word of Delilah (v. 4), the woman whom Samson loved, who pressed him daily with her words and urged him (v. 16). Her word was “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” (v. 15). Here, Delilah's words, ‘You have not told me where your great strength is,’ was not what Delilah really wanted to know, but rather what the rulers of the five Philistine provinces, who were behind her, wanted to know (v. 5). Since they went to Delilah and said, “Entice him, and see where his great strength lies and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver” (v. 5), she asked Samson four times, “Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you” (vv. 6, 10, 13, 15). In other words, what Delilah wanted was not what caused Samson's great power and how he could be bound and make him submit, but 1,100 silver coins each (total: 5,500) from the rulers of the five Philistine provinces who were controlling her from behind. But Samson lied to her three times: (1) “… If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man” (v. 7), (2) “… If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any other man” (V. 11), (3) “… If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web [and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man” (v. 13). After Samson lied to him three times, Delilah 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” (v. 15), and “when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death” (v. 16). “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’” (v. 17). Upon hearing this, Delilah 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 (v. 18). Delilah made Samson sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strengthen left him (v. 19). “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” (v. 20). As a result, Samson was seized by the Philistines. And they gouged out Samson's eyes, brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison (v. 21).
As I meditated on these words, I pondered a little about how Samson was tempted by Delilah. As I was doing this, I had these thoughts:
My first thought was that Samson didn't know who was behind Delilah.
Samson had no idea that the rulers of the five Philistine provinces were behind Delilah. He didn’t know that those five rulers promised to give Delilah bribe to find out what caused his great strength and how they could bind and subdue him. I don't think I'm any different from Samson. A lot of times I experience that Satan is behind my beloved family and shakes my little faith in turning to the Lord, who is the source of my strength. Satan makes me look at the problems and sufferings of my loved ones only with my own physical eyes, so it often makes me worry and wander around. Satan knows my weakness is that of the family I love. So he continues to drain my spiritual strength through my family members in one way or another.
The next thought came to me was that when I saw that Samson had lied to Delilah three times, and on the third lie he told the secret story of his hair, I thought that Samson was falling for Delilah’s temptation more and more.
We we see the Samson’s first lie that “If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man” (v. 7) and the second lie that “If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any other man" (v. 11), it seems that Samson did not fall for Delilah’s temptation at all, nor did he shake. However, when we see Samson’s third lie that “If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web [and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man” (v. 13), it seems that Samson fell for Delilah’s temptation to some extent. Then, Delilah pressed Samson daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death (v. 16). “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’” (v. 17). In the end, Samson fell into Delilah's temptation. As I contemplated this, I was reminded of the story of Samson's first woman, a woman from Timnah (Ch. 14). Samson went down to Timnah, saw a woman in Timnah (14:1), fell in love with her, and asked his parents to get her for him as a wife (vv. 2-3). So Samson's father went down to the woman; and Samson made a feast there, and gave a riddle to the 30 friends he had made (vv. 10-12). But the 30 friends could not solve the riddle posed by Samson, so on the seventh day they said to Samson's wife Timnah: “Entice your husband, so that he will tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father's house with fire. …” (v. 15). So, Samson's wife continued to weep for seven days during the feast (v. 17). And when she pressed him so hard, Samson could not bear it and on the seventh day he told her the answer to the riddle (v. 17). In this way, even though Samson had already experienced being urged by the first woman from Timnah, and told her the answer to the riddle because she wept and urged him for seven days, Samson told Delilah all that was in his heart regarding the secret of his strength when she pressed him daily with her words such as “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,” and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death (16:15-17).
As I meditated on these words, I remembered Potiphar's wife, who seduced Joseph day after day (Gen. 39:10). She looked Joseph, who was handsome in form and appearance, with desire at Joseph, sand said to him, “Lie with me” (vv. 6-7). Then Joseph refused her request (v. 8). The reason was because not only Joseph did not want to sin against Potiphar, who withheld nothing from Joseph except his wife, but also Joseph did not want to do great evil and sin against God by sleeping with her (v. 9). But look. Like Delilah, Potiphar's wife also urged Joseph day after day (v. 10). But Joseph did not listen to her and did not lie with her, nor was he with her (v. 10). Even when Joseph was alone with her at her home, when she grabbed his garment saying, “Lie with me!” he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside (v. 12). Samson should not have listened to the Delilah’s word, “How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? …,” even she pressed and urged him daily. But Samson eventually listened to her and told her all that was in his heart (Judg. 16:15-17).
In view of this fact, I made some contrasts between Samson and Joseph. At the same time, I thought about why Samson could not resist the temptation of a woman like Joseph. Of course, there is a difference that Joseph did not love Potiphar's wife and Samson loved Delilah. But I think the fundamental difference between these two men is that Joseph feared God, hated evil (Prov. 8:13) and turned away from evil (Ref.: Job 1:1, 8; 2:3, 28:28) while Samson did not fear God and did not live his life properly as a Nazarite (Judg. 13:4, 7). Not only did Samson was close to three unclean foreign women [the woman of Timnah (Ch. 14), a harlot in Gaza (16:1), and Delilah (v. 4)], but also he was close to honey from the body of the dead lion, scooped out with his hands and ate but also gave them some to his parents so they ate it too (14:6-9). Samson, who disobeyed God's command and did not live like a Nazarite dedicated to God (13:5, 7), did not know that the rulers of the five Philistine provinces were controlling behind Delilah, whom he loved, and also lied to her three times when she enticed him three times (16:5). So in the end, the rulers of the five Philistine provinces did what they wanted. Like Samson, I, too, cannot live as a servant of the Lord who supposed to be dedicated to God, and eventually fall into Satan's temptations and sin against God countless times. My heart wants to act like Joseph, who feared God, but my body, like Samson, fell into temptation, hiding the glory of God, and committing the sin of giving occasions to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme (2 Sam. 12:14). Satan stimulates my weak points, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16) to make me sin against God, making me discouraged and draining my spiritual power.
Another thought was that Joseph did not listen to Potiphar's wife, so he did not lie with her, nor was he with her (Gen. 39:10),while Samson fell asleep on Delilah’s lap (Judg. 16:19). I don't understand how Samson managed to fall asleep on her lap even after telling Delilah, who had seduced him, that if she shaved his head, his power would go away. It seems that Samson believed Delilah because he loved her to that extent. To that extent, it seems that Samson was completely unaware of the dangers of the rulers of the five Philistine provinces, who were behind Delilah, whom he loved. So he fell asleep on Delilah's lap, telling Delilah all the truth and never expecting the outcome.
As I meditated on these words, I was reminded of the story of the frog in the kettle. A university laboratory conducted an experiment on the neural reaction of the frog. It is said that when a man put a frog in boiling water, it immediately reacts and jumps out to live. However, it is said that when the frog was put in cold water and heated slowly, the frog, which did not feel the change or respond to the situation, was slowly boiled and died (Internet). I think Samson has a similarity to the frog in the kettle that was slowly boiled to death. As if putting the frog in cold water and gradually heating it up, Samson fell deeper and deeper into the love of Delilah, and thought that he fell asleep on her lap even after he had revealed all that was in his heart. In the eyes of the rulers of the five Philistine provinces, this behavior was nothing other than ‘Eat me.’
It reminds me of the unwise young man who ruined himself in Proverbs chapter 7. When this foolish young man passed through the street near the corner of an adulteress (Prov. 7:8), he should have avoided it and not passed by it, but rather turned away from it and pass on (4:15). But he did not turn away from the way of the adulteress, but rather walked closer to the corner of her street and headed towards her house, even in the twilight, in the evening, in the middle of the night and in the darkness (7:9). I think the reason this foolish youth went to the adulteress’ house secretly in the middle of the night was because he did not look to the word of God with the middle of his eyes and didn't keep it. He may have been secretly looking at the adulteress with his eyes at the window of his house, through his lattice (v. 6). And when this foolish young man went to the adulteress' house (v. 8), the cunning adulteress greeted him with hidden intention (v. 10). The hidden intention was to set a trap that would make him unfaithful in marriage. In other words, the adulteress’ hidden true intention was to force many married men to break the covenant they had made when they got married (Yoon-sun Park). With this hidden intention, the adulteress led the young man with persuasive words and seduced him with her smooth talk (v. 21). This word ‘seduction’ is derived from Latin, and its literal meaning is “to lead astray,” meaning ‘to lead in the wrong direction,’ ‘to deceive,’ or ‘to corrupt.’ When used negatively, this word is associated with seduction and flirting, which arouses a person's sexual arousal into a choice of action, which in turn leads to his or her depravity (Wikipedia). How, then, did the adulteress seduce and corrupt the foolish, ignorant young man? There were at least three: (1) The adulteress seduced the foolish young man with the sight [(v. 10) “Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute …”], (2) The adulteress seduced the foolish young man by touching [(v. 13) “She took hold of him and kissed him …”], (3) The adulteress seduced the foolish young man by her words [(v. 21) “With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk”].
Even now, Satan tempts me, a fool, to corrupt me. Satan is sexually seducing me to commit adultery with my heart. As a result, Satan is draining my spiritual power. Therefore, I cannot help but ask God for power while meditating on these words today. I ask the Lord for the power of grace, the power of love, the power of the Word, the power of prayer, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The reason is because I have no power. I have no power to fight myself, the world, sin, and Satan. The reason is because I have sinned against God by falling into Satan's trap countless times, and I am and will continue to do so. So I ask the Lord for power. The reason is because only the Lord is my power.