Hey There, Delilah

Desire, charming, captivating are some of the root words used to describe the name “Delilah” and looking at the story of Samson in the book of Judges shows Delilah to be the seductress who could bring down the most powerful man of God. She was every bit manipulative, sweet talking, and desirable.

When we read through the book of Judges, we tend to want to learn from women like Deborah who was such a powerful example of Godly femininity but there is also something to be learned from Delilah. Although she is a classic example of femininity used wrongly, she knew the power of femininity and was great at manipulating because of what she had.

In our modern day world where being female is considered weak and women are constantly trying to become like men, I think there is something to be said about the strength that women possess when we truly embrace our femininity. Here are a few of our “secret weapons” that can be used effectively for Gods Glory in our relationship with others:

1. Our Words: Delilah single-handedly caused the most powerful man of her generation to loose his power because of her nagging and manipulative words. Every day we have so many opportunities to speak life to the men in our lives whether that is a husband, boyfriend, brother, teacher, pastor, random guy sitting next to us in class. Life and death is in the power of the tongue and by our gentle words, kind words, wise words people can be drawn closer to the heart of the Father. 

Nagging and manipulative words may get you what you want at the moment, but in the long run it destroys a relationship/friendship.

1. Our Love: I grew up hearing the saying that “behind every successful man is a woman” and oh how true it is! As powerful as men are, there is an extra measure of blessing to them that comes from having a woman that loves and accepts you the way you are. It is a sweet blessing to be respected, nurtured, and . Women are created with a deep capacity to love, we are made to be relational beings and that is why we can come up with several different creative ways to show love to the people around us.

Sometimes its easy to stifle our ability to love and reserve it for our (future) husband and kids, but even as single young woman we have the responsibility to channel this love to serve others in the body of Christ. Not necessarily by seeking to serve the single, good looking young men in church, but by cooking for that old couple that lives by themselves, or keeping the kids of that single mom who will probably never be able to pay you back, or writing encouraging letters to the new Christians in church, or maybe taking out one of the elderly widows for a dinner date night...There are so many unique ways that we can love others in the world around us and we need to take advantage of that because the love of a woman is a powerful gift to the world.

1. Our Drive/Motivation: Delilah had set her eyes upon the money she would receive for bringing Sampson to the philistines and that motivated her to get the job done. We, as women have the powerful ability to do whatever we set our minds to do. We have an incredible opportunity to chose the things of the LORD to be passionate about and then help others to be focused on those . Rather than being driven by money, selfish gains, popularity, lets be driven by compassion and become passionate about the Church, about ending injustice in the world, about leading people to the LORD.

1. Our Beauty: To be the woman who caught the eyes of the most powerful man in the world, Delilah probably had it going on, but what use is it to develop and cultivate a physical beauty with a shallow heart? 1 Peter 3 says we should be women whose beauty comes from the inward radiance of our hearts. The most beautiful of women are those that though outwardly they may not meet the worlds standards of beauty, yet they reflect a beauty that literally draws people to them.

Time in God's presence makes a woman more beautiful!

While it is important to dress up Gods temple in a beautiful way, it is more important not to obsess over the beauty that comes from makeup, jewelry, certain kinds of clothes. We NEED to spend more time with the author of beauty who makes us beautiful rather than trying to create a superficial beauty. Godly women are the most beauty of women and the world sees a radiance when they look at us. Rather than using this beauty to manipulate and draw attention to ourselves, lets us our beauty to point others to the author of beauty!

Ladies, imagine how powerful of a force Sampson and Delilah would have been together for the Kingdom if she had used her “secret weapons” for the Glory of the King?


by Salem Afangideh