In reading the story of Samson, it is tempting to see it just from the perspective of human frailty, thinking that Samson may have just been careless or overconfident. In actuality, Samson was caught in a spiritual struggle that had preceded his birth.

To understand this struggle is to understand Samson’s invisible enemies. This is why we may need to go back to the earliest beginnings of Samson’s people.

Background to Samson’s Struggle

Israel had a promise from God that guaranteed their possession of the lands of Canaan. This was a special project through which God could lay claim to a nation of His own.

Someone may wonder why God needs a nation of His own if the earth belongs to God. However, in seeking a nation for Himself, there was tacit admission to the absence of any nation over which His will and purpose was supreme.

This situation arose because, through idolatry, the peoples who were dispersed from Babel had granted consent to the enthronement of demon princes in their respective territories. Through the intercourse of ritual worship and sacrifices, these national deities were then able to influence these peoples in terms of:

  • Their spiritual identity
  • Their cultural practices
  • Their national character

In a sense, these nations had become possessed by spirits and were thus extensions of spiritual kingdoms into the earthly realm.

Just as Yahweh later referred to Israel as His son or bride, through idolatry, dark spirits were also able to achieve sonship and marital relationships with people groups. This then created the grounds for the appearance, among men, of a spiritual and pre-Adamic kingdom that was in opposition to God from the eternal past.

In resistance to this development, God decided to create a nation of His own and grant it territorial rights through which He could eventually regain the honor and worship of men, as it was His exclusive right as Creator. To reclaim the human race, He decided to create a holy nation and a kingdom of priests unto Himself.

It is from the context of this struggle between invisible kingdoms and their human agents that Samson’s life and ministry can be best understood.

Notes on the Struggle

  • It is a struggle among spirits for human consent.
  • Human consent is the basis for dominating the earthly realm.
  • Through worship and covenants, sonship and spousal relationships can be formed between spirits and nations.
  • Spirits use these relationships to increase their influence among men.
  • Influence among men allows spiritual kingdoms to achieve physical embodiment.
  • Man, being made in the image of God, grants special influence to any spirit that can command his loyalty.

Through idolatrous practices, these spirits had started the process of kingdom appearance by extending a spiritual government into the institutions, values, and norms of the surrounding peoples—i.e., several unholy nations had taken root in that land. Some of these nations were not just unholy in their practices but in their genetics. Through human-angelic coitus, the serpent and his kingdom had commenced the process of generating spiritual and physical seed among men, as referenced in Genesis 3.

Among the many races whose daughters were willing carriers of the serpent’s seed was the race of the Philistines. This was the race that later produced Goliath, Ishibbenob, and Lahmi.

Background to the People of the Mediterranean Fish God

From the days of their first beginnings, they were a seafaring people and are said to have come from Caphtor. They were also related to the Nile-worshipping peoples of Egypt, according to Moses in Genesis 10.

In the days of Samson, these people were well established in the western region of the land and lived by the Mediterranean Sea. They also worshipped a god that was half-man and half-fish. The name of this idol was Dagon.

When you think about this imagery, the picture of a mermaid or “mammy water” comes to mind. This Dagon was not just the object of Philistine worship but was the spiritual influence that presided over their national character and temperament. It was also the spirit prince responsible for their resistance to Israel and the promise.

In Daniel 10:13–20, the angel said:

“However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Do you know why I have come to you? I must return at once to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, behold, the prince of Greece will come.”

This scripture reveals that Israel’s contention with nations also took on a spiritual form. All the travails that Israel experienced under the Persians, including the extermination threat from Haman, were all manifestations of the displeasure of these demon princes.

Using this scripture as a key, we can conclude that the Philistines were contending with the spiritual ruler of Israel, for whom Samson was a human proxy.

Judges 14:4 states:

“But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.”

The passage above makes it clear that the ruling spirit in Israel sought an occasion against the people of Dagon, the Philistines. The instrument of this quarrel between Yahweh and Philistine oppression was a human agent called Samson.

However, since Yahweh acts through human agents like prophets, judges, priests, kings, or warriors, Dagon also had access to human agents by virtue of Philistine worship. One such agent was Delilah—i.e., Dagon, the spirit prince of the Philistines, also fought back through Delilah.

Background to Delilah, the Daughter of Dagon

Malachi 2:11–12 states:

“Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.”

The “daughter of a foreign god” is the daughter of a demon prince. This passage can then become the key to understanding what Delilah represented, using the following imagery:

  • Daughters of foreign, idolatrous nations are the daughters of their national deities.
  • Every living thing reproduces after its kind.
  • The daughter of Dagon will carry Dagon’s nature and attributes.
  • Dagon is half-man, half-fish (a merman spirit) of the Mediterranean Sea.
  • Dagon’s daughter is a mermaid.

With this imagery in mind, we can now understand that Delilah was an agent of a spiritual kingdom that struggled with the anointed human agent of God’s kingdom.