Money

Immortalized as one of history’s most famous couples, the names of Samson and Delilah can be found in poetry, in pop songs alongside the likes of Romeo and Juliet, and in international folklore. The reality of immortality though is the most tragic part of the story of Samson and Delilah. Somewhere today their souls are agonizing in torment or euphoric in bliss. The eternality of immortality is larger than finite minds can comprehend. Samson and Delilah, having been in one of these two places for several thousand years have not completed any fraction, however small, of the total time they will exist in this place. We cannot go there in our minds. The concept is surreal to us; and yet, it is extremely real to each of us. Sixteen verses in Judges sixteen complete the earthly narrative of Delilah. Yet she still lives. She still regrets the choices she made in the valley of Sorek on the now distantly removed planet earth. How is the narrative of your life coming along? Its brevity in comparison with eternity is mind boggling. Get busy getting ready for a place far removed from this temporary planet earth.

Her Motive was Money.

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” (Jud. 16:5).

Is money one of the key driving forces in your life? Delilah was willing to sell relationships, personal integrity, and ultimately heaven for eleven hundred pieces of silver. Oh, eleven hundred pieces of silver was no small reward; it was about two talents. It only took about twenty nine talents of gold for the completion of the entire holy place in the tabernacle (Exodus 38:24). They wanted this man of iron and they were willing to use Delilah’s greed to get him. The amount was enticing. It might be added that it was significantly larger than the price given for the betrayal of Christ.

But Delilah thought she was selling a man. It never occurred to her that the materialistic choice she made in that conference room with the Philistines had eternal consequences for her own soul. Do the eternal consequences of our financial decisions occur to us? Are we sometimes willing to sell our souls? The devil is always ready to make a deal.

Taken largely from Women of Troubled Times, by Cindy Colley, Publishing Desigms, Huntsville, AL