\nI’m told that back in the day, and the day wasn’t so
\nlong ago, the town of Hanover NH had a coffee shop called \u201cThe
\nPerfect Woman.\u201d \u00a0The sign for the shop featured a woman’s
\nsilhouette, without a head, implying that the perfect woman was a
\nbody existing for male pleasure without a voice with which to express
\nherself. \u00a0The coffee shop had been named during a time when Dartmouth
\nhad only male students and that reality created a hyper masculine
\nworldview around those parts. \u00a0The store name and sign reflected the
\nvalues that attracted customers at that time.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nSometimes the Bible has a hyper masculine worldview too,
\nand one of the most blatant expressions of hyper masculinity is found
\nin the narrative of Sampson. \u00a0Sampson’s story is complex, it has
\nclearly been retold over the years so that Sampson is at the same
\ntime supposed to be one particular man, all the judges in the Hebrew
\npeople’s history, AND the nation Israel itself. \u00a0There are layers
\nupon layers of meaning, and most of them express distrust of the
\npower of women.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nIn order to start to make sense of any of this, I think
\nI better start by explaining \u201cwhat is a judge?\u201d \u00a0You may remember
\nthe story of the people of God being enslaved in Egypt and then led
\nto freedom by Moses. \u00a0After they had wandered around the desert for a
\nfew generations and Moses died, Joshua led the people into the
\nPromised Land. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nOnce the people got into the Promised Land they didn’t
\nhave a king and they didn’t always have a unified leader. \u00a0Instead,
\nfor several centuries, there was a pattern of events. \u00a0Things would
\nbe going pretty well and then one of the neighboring countries or
\ntribes would want to take over Israel. \u00a0A leader would emerge
\n(assumed to be the leader God wanted) and lead the people in a
\nmilitary victory over the aggressor. \u00a0The military leader would
\ncontinue to have the respect of the people and offer leadership to
\nthe 12 tribes until his or her death at which point the tribes would
\ngo back to functioning on their own. \u00a0The next time an aggressor
\nshowed up a new leader would emerge. \u00a0Those leaders \u2013 the military
\ngenerals who gained power through winning battles and kept the power
\nfor their lifetimes without creating dynasties \u2013 those were called
\nthe judges.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nSo now you know.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nSampson is the last judge, and that has resulted in his
\nstory also being used to reflect on the era of the judges as well.
\nIt may be worth remembering the stories of the Hebrew Bible were
\nwritten down after centuries of oral tradition around the time of the
\nBabylonian exile. \u00a0Thus they were written down more than 400 years
\nafter King David and even longer after the judges. \u00a0They were written
\ndown in a time when the people were trying to answer the question
\n\u201cwhy did God allow us to be defeated by the Babylonians?\u201d and the
\nparticular ways that the stories got told were formed by trying to
\nanswer that question. \u00a0In that way, he’s the nation Israel too.<\/p>\n
\nSampson is presented as supernaturally strong, I mean
\nSuperman strong. \u00a0I don’t say this to make any sense of it, just to
\nhelp you understand the story.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nSampson is a Nazirite. \u00a0That meant that he was a holy
\nman set apart from others by his devotion to God. \u00a0Generally
\nNazirites avoided alcohol and anything unclean (like dead bodies) and
\ndidn’t cut their hair. \u00a0In the beginning of Sampson’s story his
\nbarren mother is told to avoid alcohol even during her pregnancy to
\nset him up for the work God had for him. \u00a0I say that GENERALLY
\nNazirites did this stuff because Sampson broke every rule other than
\nthe hair one well before this story. \u00a0However, the ANGEL who came
\ndown to speak to his BARREN mother about her upcoming conception is
\nmeant to get our attention about the greatness of the man who would
\nbe born as well as to remind us of the matriarchs in Genesis \u2013
\ncreating the symbol of Sampson as the nation itself who was born
\nbecause those barren women gave birth. \u00a0The angel who spoke to his
\nmother told her that \u201che would begin the deliverance of Israel from
\nthe hands of the Philistines.\u201d (13:5b)<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nSo, Sampson’s mother is the madonna of any madonna-whore
\ncomplex, she is faithful, pure, and subservient. \u00a0Sampson is really
\nattracted to non-Israelite women. \u00a0Women are his downfall. \u00a0First he
\nlaid eyes on a Philistine woman and decided that he had to marry her.
\n His faithful parents objected, indicating that if he was going to
\nlead the Hebrew people it would best if he married a Hebrew wife. \u00a0He
\nrefused to listen, and he married the Philistine woman.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nWhy do we care, you ask? \u00a0Well, we may not. \u00a0But his
\nparents did because the Philistines were at the time the aggressors
\nwho were trying to take parts of the Israelite land and engaging them
\nin battle and having the leader of the Israelites marry one of them
\njust didn’t seem like it would help.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nIt didn’t. \u00a0The story is too weird to summarize well but
\nthe Philistine wife ended up manipulating Sampson by indicating that
\nif he didn’t do what she wanted he didn’t love her. \u00a0Then she
\nbetrayed him, so he left her. \u00a0Then, in order to appease his rage the
\nPhilistine’s killed her and her father. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nAt some point later Sampson saw a woman he liked so he
\nslept with her, she was a Philistine prostitute, and the Philistines
\ntried to kill him while he slept afterward, but he got away because
\nof his supernatural strength. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThen comes this story. \u00a0This story fits well into what
\nwe already know about Sampson: he is strong, he is rash, he is
\nfickle, he is susceptible to the charms of women, and his enemies are
\nlooking for a way to take him down. \u00a0This fits all three versions of
\nthe Sampson story, as does the perception of Delilah as an evil
\nseductress. \u00a0The story of Sampson as a man is the story of a man
\nwhose Achilles heel was his attraction to inappropriate women. \u00a0The
\nstory of Sampson as the judges is the story of leaders whose moral
\ncharacter was lax, who could be distracted as easily as by a
\nbeautiful woman. \u00a0The story of Sampson as Israel itself during the
\nExile is the story of a nation of men who choose foreign women and
\nwere ruined by the way those women led them to unfaithfulness to God.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nDelilah is the symbol of temptation and seduction as \n<\/p>\n \nThat is, unless you look at the story from her \n<\/p>\n \nDelilah would have known all this. \u00a0She knew that it was \n<\/p>\n \nWe also don’t know Delilah’s ethnicity. \u00a0She is said to \n<\/p>\n \nDelilah decided to seek the information she needed. \u00a0We \n<\/p>\n \nHe \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nSermon 1<\/a>Dennis
\nwell as greed. \u00a0Her name means, \u201cflirtatious\u201d1<\/sup><\/a>
\nwhile the name of her town means \u201cchoice vine.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a>
\n \u00a0It is intentional symbolism. \u00a0She represents all of humanities fear
\nof the power of sexual attraction and the way it make us lose our
\nhead. \u00a0More specifically she represents the mystery of womanhood and
\nthe fear that some men have about women and their different ways of
\nbeing. \u00a0Delilah could easily step in as the negative female character
\nin just about any simplistic movie or book. \u00a0She’s the one the hero
\nis attracted to, she’s the one who brings him down, she’s the
\noriginal femme fatale. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nperspective. <\/b> <\/b>Sampson had taken a walk one day, seen a
\nwoman, and married her. \u00a0That woman had no say in it. \u00a0His wife had
\nattempted to do right by her people, and had gotten killed for it \u2013
\nalong with her father. \u00a0Delilah, similarly, did not have any say in
\nentering a relationship with Sampson. \u00a0The text says \u201che fell in
\nlove with\u201d her. \u00a0It does not say, nor imply that the love was
\nreciprocated. \u00a0It does not suggest that they got married. \u00a0It
\ncertainly seems that they were intimate, but he was so important that
\nhe got what he wanted and normal limits didn’t apply.<\/p>\n
\ndangerous to have Sampson in love with her, that it could end as soon
\nas it began, and that no one was going to help her if that happened.
\nWe have no way of knowing if he was kind to her, but we also have no
\nreason to assume he was. \u00a0He isn’t presented as a man with a lot of
\nempathetic or listening skills. \u00a0Most of what is said about him
\nsuggests he may have been abusive.<\/p>\n
\ncome from a town that is on the border, just inside Israel. \u00a0If she
\nwas from there she may be an Israelite nor she may be a Canaanite.
\nBut since the Philistines come to her, and since every other woman
\nSampson is said to have been attracted to is Philistine, I think it
\nis likely that she was a Philistine. \u00a0Now, we can’t KNOW this, but
\n2\/3 three choices mean that Sampson was not the leader of her people,
\nand I’m willing to take that seriously. \u00a0While the way the text is
\nusually read blames Delilah for selling out her man\/leader for money,
\nit may well be that she was trying to save her people as well as her
\nown skin. \u00a0If she was a Philistine then what she did was patriotic!
\nShe saved her people. \u00a0If she was a Canaanite, there was no reason
\nwhy she should have been loyal to the Israelite leader who had taken
\nover their land. \u00a0And if she was an Israelite (which I think makes
\nthe least sense in the story) she at least had incentive to try to
\nend his life before hers got abruptly ended for her like his first
\nwife.<\/p>\n
\ndon’t know if the money induced her or simply gave her courage, but
\nshe tried. \u00a0She tried a bunch of times and he seems to be playing
\nwith her. \u00a0He certainly seems to know what she’s up to, which is why
\nit makes no sense that he answers her.
\n However, she plays the one card she has. \u00a0This is the key to this
\nstory. \u00a0It is verse 15, \u201cThen
\nshe said to him, \u2018How can you say, \u201cI love you\u201d, when your
\nheart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not
\ntold me what makes your strength so great.\u2019\u00a0\u201c \u00a0She throws
\nhis claim of love back in his face, claiming that if he won’t tell
\nher his secret than he doesn’t really love her. \u00a0This was EXACTLY the
\nway his first wife got a secret out of him. \u00a0Apparently he found this
\nargument particularly convincing.<\/p>\n
\ntold her. \u00a0She did it. \u00a0It worked. \u00a0He was captured, humiliated, and
\nenslaved. \u00a0SHE lived. \u00a0If her people were the Philistines or the
\nCanaanites, then her people were better off as well. \u00a0 She used her
\npower, which in this case was something she didn’t even want to begin
\nwith. \u00a0The power she had was that this man said he loved her (or
\nmaybe did love her) and she manipulated that to survive.<\/p>\n
\nthing is that we often don’t have the upper hand in life. \u00a0Sometimes
\nit is like this: being a woman walking down the street in the village
\nand then suddenly, by force, being the mistress of the strong-man
\nleader everyone fears. \u00a0Sometimes we have that little power. \u00a0But we
\nalways have SOME power. \u00a0Delilah had a little tiny bit of power and
\nused it. \u00a0We have choices we can make and we have the capacity to use
\nour words, our actions, our relationships, our trust, and our energy
\nto whatever end we find worthwhile. Sometimes, like Delilah, that’s
\nin survival. \u00a0When we’re lucky, and we’re surviving already, we can
\nuse it to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms
\nthe present themselves (#baptismalvows) Sometimes we get to resists
\nevil, injustice or oppression – \u00a0big or small.<\/p>\n
\npower we have, as small and insignificant as it may seem, can take
\ndown the strongest human or the most feared enemy. \u00a0Like Delilah
\nthough, it takes persistence. \u00a0A little power goes a lot further when
\nit is used persistently, and even FURTHER when it is used with
\nother’s little bits of power \u2013 persistently. \u00a0 Come to think of it,
\nespecially this far into the Subversive Women sermon Series, maybe
\nthere is something to being afraid of women. \u00a0However, it isn’t our
\nmystery nor our seduction. \u00a0It is that we, too, are humans who want
\nto survive and take care of those we love. \u00a0And if you get in our
\nway, we will persistently defy you and subvert you. \u00a0Thanks be to God
\nfor people of all genders using their power for good. \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n
\nTalk Back<\/p>\n\n
\n\tget into the mindset of the story, who are other \u201cfemme fatale\u201d
\n\tcharacters, and can any of their stories be inverted by taking their
\n\tperspective seriously?<\/li>\n
\n\tdoes conventional masculinity find frightening about femininity?<\/li>\n
\n\tcould Sampson be so easily manipulated?<\/li>\n
\n\tstories can you think of when people with VERY little power used it
\n\tto overthrow oppression?<\/li>\n
\n\tis God in this story?<\/li>\n
\n\tthe enmity between ancient Israel and the Philistines serve to teach
\n\tus anything today?<\/li>\n
\n\tcan we have that much courage and persistence without having our own
\n\tbacks against the wall, fighting for our lives? \u00a0<\/li>\n\n
\n\t\thow can we do that while also living whole and balanced lives while
\n\t\twe’re at it?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\n\telse might we have taken this story?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\n\tT. Olsen \u201cThe Book of Judges\u201d in the New Interpreter’s Study
\n\tBible Vol II (Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1998) p. 858<\/p>\n