Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“So Delilah said to Samson, ‘Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so that one could subdue you.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, October 16, 2020
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This Samson guy is a total idiot. Seriously. Twice the woman he’s in love with tries to betray him into the hands of the Philistines, and the only reason they fail to capture him is that he’s smart enough in the moment to lie to her about the source of his strength. But then, when she pouts and says, “If you really loved me, you’d tell me the truth,” he tells her the truth! And winds up captured by the Philistines, gets his eyes gouged out, and then dies exacting revenge.
Honestly, this story has always bugged me. What are we supposed to learn from this other than watch out who you date? I deeply dislike the relationship portrayed between Sampson and Delilah—it stinks of misogyny. I don’t like the idea that God grants Sampson his strength back so he can kill himself and take out a bunch of other people with him. But the bottom line is that lots of stories in the Bible are full of violence and betrayal, and they’re in there for a reason.
So let me try this on. Maybe, just maybe, I can take away the lesson that I should never put my faith in other people above my faith in God. That I have no control over what other people choose to do or say, but I can keep right with God and set healthy boundaries. I should never feel I have to put myself in harm’s way (physically, emotionally or spiritually) in order to appease another person. Yeah, I think I’ll go with that.
Do I allow others to hurt me in order to avoid conflict with them?
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