The Enemy Within 6

The Enemy Within 6.

He woke up suddenly and looked around him.  He had a bad headache and seemed to be suspended between two worlds. He felt completely lost. Two candles were almost burnt out in the holders.

A woman lay beside him. Her hair covered the pillow. She moaned softly and rolled over. He looked closely at her. It was Suki.

He dragged himself out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. Alcohol did more to distabilise him than a thousand Philistine soldiers. He entered the bathroom and poured some water on his head. The water ran down his locks, his back and dripped on the floor.

“Who’s there?” Suki asked from the bedroom.

“Go back to sleep,” Samson murmured.

There was some ruffling of sheets and seconds later she went back to sleep.

Samson sat on a chair. The window beside him was open and the darkness crept in, making the candles struggle to brighten the room.

It  was like the state of his soul: open, vulnerable and dark.

He shook his head to clear it but the effects of the alcohol clung to him, like a blood thirsty vermin, refusing to release his mind to think clearly.

The Enemy Within 5

The Enemy Within 5

“Don’t accept that invitation. It’s a trap!”
“My friend don’t be so dramatic,” Samson read through the golden scroll he had just received from a messenger. “It’s a party organised by Delilah to honour my contribution to the people of Gaza.”
“I swear it is a trap!” Jahula insisted.
“So you overheard two people discuss how they will set a trap for me. That doesn’t mean anything.” Samson said.
Jahula was getting frustrated with his friend. He just wasn’t listening. Samson could be so obstinate.
“Do you know how many people plot against me daily? They come up with crazy plans and I always outwit them. Last week, when I was in Suki’s house, I saw some strange movements around the house and suspected that the Philistines were planning to trap and destroy me there. I woke up at midnight and carried the gate of the city on my shoulder. They couldn’t do anything to stop me.”
“But if you hadn’t been at Suki’s house that wouldn’t have happened in the first place. You weren’t supposed to be there.”
Samson was lost in thought. “Suki was very good to me. I plan to see her again this week.”
Jahula held his friend’s arm. “Forget about that ungodly woman and listen to me. They seek to destroy you at this party.”
Samson snatched his arm away. “Can’t you tell by now that I am indestructible?”

Hearing those foolish words proceed from the mouth of his friend made Jahula cringe. This wasn’t the man he had known for the past twenty years. This was a different man. A certain darkness had come over Samson’s soul, it had blinded him to the dangers surrounding him. Now he thought he was indestructible. The sin in his soul had deceived him. Samson used to be deeply spiritual but he seemed to have lost the spiritual fervency he once had. It began with the parties, the wine, then with more successes at war came the women. Beautiful women wanted him and he wanted the very worst of them. Samson seemed to have a death wish because he always fell in love with the most treacherous of women. It was either a prostitute today or the daughter of a priest of baal tomorrow.

The Enemy Within 4

The Enemy Within 4

Suki wrapped the robe around her tired body.
The last client had used up all her energy. It was a hard life. Nobody told her that selling her body for a living could be such hell.
A man entered the sparsely furnished room. He looked around and his eyes settled on Suki lying on the bed.
“How much for the night?” he asked.
“Three silver coins,” she whispered.
The man did not bargain with her. He murmured under his breath, parted his robe and searched for the money.
Suki’s eyes widened in fear as she saw the blue sash under his robes. That was the mark of the secret police! He was there to apprehend her. He wanted to catch her in the act before bringing her before the judges. Prostitution was illegal in Gaza. Secret police like this one pretending to be a customer, made life very difficult for them.
Her hands trembled slightly as she collected the money from the table.
“Are you okay?” The pretender asked her.
“Let me freshen up for you,” she said and entered an inner room. As soon as she was out of sight, she changed into a dress that would give her room to move.
“Don’t take too long,” the pretender said.
“I’ll be with you shortly,” she put all her money in a pouch and tied it around her waist. She heard some footsteps enter the main room. She opened the door slightly and peared into the room. Two other men had joined the pretender and were looking around the room.
Suki opened the back door of the apartment. It creaked loudly like a wailing banshee. Suki swore under her breath. This accursed door would get her arrested.
“How long do I have to wait?” The pretender asked.
Suki didn’t wait to give him an answer.
She fled into the night.

The Enemy Within 3

The Enemy Within 3

“Get out! All of you! Out!”
Delilah hit a tray of red grapes off the trembling hands of a female servant and sent it crashing to the floor. The liberated grapes rolled on the floor and hid in dark corners.
Servants and bodyguards scurried out with heads bowed.
“Not you Aselah. You stay.”
A blond Swede played a harp in a room decorated in blue. She played skilfully.
Two eunuchs remained motionless in their positions.

“How dare that Jew treat me like a commoner. Treated me like a whore!”
Dinner was set on a large table in the centre of the room. It had been prepared for the seduction of Samson, but unfortunately he wasn’t going to be around tonight. Delilah picked up a plate of kebabs from the table and threw it at a mirror. Pieces of broken glass flew in different directions.
“A Jew. Defied by a Jew!”
She walked among the statues of pagan deities which had incense burning before them. She stood before the statue of Isis, the Egyptian goddess.
“How could this have happened to me? I am feared and respected by friends and foe. People pay me a lot of money to bring men to their knees!” She pushed down a flower vase.
Aselah hastily followed her enraged mistress around the apartment, picking up and arranging after her.

Delilah sat down before Kali, the sex goddess of the Phoenicians.
“I tried to seduce Samson but he resisted me. How could that be? What is wrong with me?” She looked pleadingly at Kali as if expecting an answer from the dumb idol. She stood up, walked past a wall with a display of deadly weapons, threw herself on a recliner and cuddled a red pillow.
“I Seduce kings. Powerful politicians are reduced to nothing before my beauty. The rich beg to get into my bed. I am irresistible. I am Delilah!” She screamed.

“Since your beauty has failed you, perhaps you should consider other options.” Lizah Chan walked into her bedroom. She was the only one who dared. Her steps were silenced by the Persian rug which covered the entire floor. Her bodyguards remained at the door.
Delilah ended her insane rant, raised her head and looked at her friend.
Lizah was born of a Syrian father and a Chinese mother. She inherited her mom’s oriental features and her dad’s light brown skin and height. She sat beside Delilah on the recliner, her slanted eyes full of uncanny oriental wisdom.

“So you heard?” Delilah asked.
“The news is all over Gaza. It is no longer a secret that your charms could not seduce Samson the Jew. If you don’t fix this, things could go really bad.”
“Nothing can taint my reputation. It took me several years to build this. No one can take it away from me.” Delilah stood up.
“You are wrong my friend. If you don’t do some damage control now, your business of seduction could become a thing of the past. Your reputation will be irreparably damaged. Your rich clients will dump you. You will go broke. You may end up standing on street corners soliciting clients.”
“Surely you must be kidding,” Delilah said.
“Do you see me laughing?” Lizah asked.

The Enemy Within 2

The Enemy Within 2

Samson was on his way to Ashkelon and passed through Gaza to hangout with some of his friends. The rulers of the Philistines heard about his visit and hired a woman to entangle and compromise him. Delilah was an exotic creature, skilled in the dark art of seduction. She boasted that entrapping great men like Samson the Jew was what she did for breakfast. She assured them that he would be dead by morning.

Delilah prepared herself for her encounter with Samson. Understanding that first impressions matter, she decked herself from head to toe with the most beautiful, expensive and seductive outfits from Gaza’s posh stores. After this, she applied some make-up to heighten her sex appeal, then rounded up by dowsing herself with a mixture of some quality Asian scents. She looked at herself in the mirror. She was irresistible.

Samson loved to hang out with his friends at Gaag, a very popular restaurant in the city centre. That was where she found him. They were seated around a table, eating, drinking and chatting. When Delilah walked in with her entourage the group of musicians and belly dancers were as distracted as the rest of the patrons. At an appropriate moment she stood up and walked over to Samson’s table, accompanied by three deadly looking eunuchs.

‘Hi,’ Delilah smiled, exposing perfect white teeth. She didn’t get to be a seductress of great repute without working on her dentals.
‘Hi. I saw you when you entered the restaurant with your entourage of servants. What is your name?’
She pulled down her veil, exposing the rare beauty underneath. ‘Delilah’.
Samson stood up and invited her to join him at his table. As she sat down, Samson made a sign to his friends to leave him alone with her. One by one they began moving to other tables.
‘I have heard tales of your extraordinary strength. Is it true what they say?’ She moved closer and touched his hands.
Samson threw back his locks and laughed.
It was going to be an interesting night.

The Enemy Within

The Enemy Within.

A lot has already been said about the tragic story of Samson in Judges 13-16. However, I would like to draw your attention to an aspect of his life: his failure to conquer the enemy within.

Samson was special. He was blessed with amazing physical strength which gave him great advantage over his enemies. But he had a problem. His strength couldn’t help him deal with the enemy within his own soul. He could fight and defeat the enemy without but was quite clueless when it came to fighting the enemy within.

Fighting external battles was important but fighting and winning the battle within was crucial to his long term survival as a leader in Israel. The invisible battle within his soul was more important than the physical battles he fought and won daily.

Samson never lost a single battle he fought against the enemies of Israel, but he lost many battles within his own soul. When Samson fell, he wasn’t captured by his enemies during a battle, he was captured by the enemy which lived within his soul. Samson lived with that enemy daily. He nurtured it, bred it and fed it until that enemy became a monster that controlled and eventually destroyed him.
He failed to master the enemy when it was little, but in his arrogance he watched it grow until it became a monster in his life.
It is easier to pray against the enemy we can see and totally overlook the destroyer that lurks in our hearts. What we see is easier to deal with than things we don’t see.

From the story of Samson we discover that little things, little weaknesses, never remain little for very long. They grow. They become big and begin to dominate and take control of our lives in unbelievable ways.

Delilah didn’t destroy Samson.
She couldn’t have. She didn’t have the ability to.