The Bible records that Samson broke all of his
Nazarite vows.
He drank wine, he ate grapes, he touched a dead body and he
did not dedicate
himself totally to the Lord God. When he touched a dead
body he found honey in
the dead body of a lion. He scooped out the honey and
ate some of it then took
the rest of the honey to his parents without
telling them where he had gotten
it.

Samson's great weakness was
beautiful women. Samson fell in love
with a beautiful Philistine woman named
Delilah. Night after night he visited
her residence to spend hours with her.
He thought that he was hopelessly in love
with her because of her great
beauty and charm.

Delilah had been
promised a great sum of money
from the Philistines if she could discover the
secret of his increduible
strength. Every day Delilah teased and begged Samson
to tell her the secret
of his tremendous strength. To get her to stop begging
him on several
different occasions he told her false things that would destroy
his strength
He told her, "If you tie me with seven bowstrings I will lose my
power."

While Samson was sleeping she tied him with seven bowstrings and
shouted, "Samson! Wake up! The Philistines are upon you!"

Samson
awoke,
shook himself free of the bowstrings and fought the Philistines. He
overcame
them with his great strength.

Delilah cried and begged
again, "Samson,
you do not love me. If you loved me you would tell me the
secret of your
strength."

Again Samson told her another lie, "If you
bind me with seven
brand new ropes I shall lose my strength."

Delilah bound him with seven
new ropes and shouted, "Samson, wake
up! The Philistines are upon you."

Samson awoke and shook himself. The
ropes fell off and he fought off the
Philistines. He beat them all.

This time Delilah cried for days, saying,
"You don't love me. You
won't tell me your secret."

Samson then told her
that if she wove
the seven locks of his hair with a loom he would lose his
strength. This
time, in mentioning his hair, Samson was getting too close to
telling the
secret that God did not want him to tell.

Delilah wove his
seven
locks of hair with a loom. She shook him and shouted again, "Samson awake!
The Philistines are upon you!"

As we can guess, Samson shook off the
loom and fought against the Philistines, beating them again.

After
all
of these times that Delilah had committed wrongs against him we should
think
that Samson would guess that Delilah was not his true friend.
Nevertheless
Samson kept coming to her home. Delilah was exasperated with
Samson. He had lied
and lied to her. She wanted that money that the
Philistines had promised her.
She cried and cried, begged and pleaded for
him to tell her his secret. Finally
Samson caved in just to have peace. "If
you cut off all of my hair I shall be as
weak as any other man."

When Samson slept with his head in Delilah's lap
she beckoned the
men to shave off his hair. Once again she shook him and
shouted, Samson!
Wake up! The Philistines are upon you.!"

Samson shook
himself to
fight the Philistines, but his hair was gone. His strength was gone.
The
Philistine soldiers jumped upon Samson and beat him badly. Samson was
overcome. Delilah, in the name of love, had betrayed him completely.

The
Philistines took him prisoner, burned out his eyes with a hot
poker and chained
him to the huge stone wheel pulled along a trough to grind
grain into flour,
around and around, all day long, every day. Samson was
destined to spend the
rest of his days doing the job that an ox would do,
grinding at the mill. He
frequently was put on display for the Philistine
people to mock him and to heap
scorn upon him as their former mighty enemy
whom the Philistines had reduced to
a life worse than death.

One day
Samson felt the breeze blowing through
his hair which had begun to grow
again, and he realized that his incredible
strength was returning. He heard
that there was to be a great festival in the
Temple of Dagon, the
Philistines’ false god. Three thousand people, including
the Philistines’
most powerful political, military and religious leaders would
be present in
the temple, worshipping their false god.

Samson prayed
earnestly,
“Oh, God please forgive me for my sins and please use me for your
glory one
more time.”