Love People Not Money

Delilah is only mentioned 7 times in all of Scripture. And in fact all 7 of those come in only one chapter. She isn’t mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, yet her name is universally known. She is introduced in the text in this way…

Some time later, [Samson] fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. (Judges 16:4)

It says that Samson loved her. It doesn’t say she loved him. In fact, nowhere in the entire story does it say that Delilah loved Samson or had any feelings for him at all. This begs the question, who or what did Delilah love?

In the next verse, five Philistine rulers come to Delilah with an offer, a bribe. They promise to give her 5,500 shekels of silver (about 28 pounds) if she will seduce the secret of Samson's great strength out of him and tell them his secret. What did Delilah do? Without hesitation, the very next verse, vs 6, says, 

So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” (Judges 16:6)

There is no hint that Delilah was conflicted about this. There is no hint that it was a difficult decision for her. She immediately went to work trying to earn that money.

So who or what did Delilah love? She certainly didn’t love Samson. She loved money. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” That is certainly how it played out in Delilah’s life. Her greed made her more than willing to deliver Samson over to captivity, humiliation, slavery, even death. It didn’t matter to her as long as she got her money. You may think. “I would never be like that!” Don’t be so sure. The love of money is a slippery thing.

We used to live next door to a young family with three girls. We were great friends with this family and would spend time together often. One day when our families were hanging out one of their little girls got upset because she didn’t want to share a toy with her sisters. I watched her father walk over and lovingly ask her this question. “Do we love things or do we love people?" Then he said, "We love people. Not things.” That cut me to my heart! This father was teaching a lesson to his young child that I hadn’t learned and applied to my own heart yet. 

As Christians we are called to love people and use things. Anytime we allow ourselves to begin loving things, we will find ourselves using people. Be careful that you don’t allow love for money and things to creep into your life, because it will cause you to do terrible things. You will hurt people. You will lie to people. You will neglect people and betray them. And all for what? For just a little more money. And you will end up like Delilah. You will have a nice fat bank account, but you will be empty and alone, isolated by your greed and awaiting God’s judgment. Take this lesson from Delilah’s life. Love people not money.