David is another example of someone who got high on LSD; Lust, Sin and Death. When kings were at war I believe lust drew him away from the battlefield to the rooftop of his house, to indulge in watching Bathsheba taking her bath. That lust led him to sin with her by committing adultery. That then led to the death of her husband, which took place when David connived with the leader of his troops to place her husband, Uriah, in the area where the battle was heated. It also led to the death of the child conceived through the adultery, since David was judged for his transgression (2 Samuel 11).

The parable of the sower is another example of lust at work. The story is narrated in Mark 4. Jesus said a sower went out to sow some seeds, which represent God’s word. Some fell by the way side, and birds came and ate them up. Some fell on stony ground, and came up quickly. But because they were not deeply rooted, when the sun came up they were scorched and yielded no fruit. Some fell among thorns and were choked by the thorns. Some fell on good ground and yielded fruit, some 30, some 60, and some 100 fold.

I’ll like us to focus on the third ground; the one with thorns. Mark’s version of the story describes the thorns as the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things. They choke the word. I believe those desires are lusts. The lusts for other things drew the recipient of the seed from God’s seed or Word, and it choked the life out of the word, and it did not bear fruit. There was death. Lust, sin, death.

And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word; Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless (Mark 4:18-19 AMP).

A great story that gives us a picture of what the fatal attraction of lust can do to us is the story of Samson and Delilah. Their story is awesome in demonstrating lust because Young’s concordance translates the meaning of Delilah as languishing. Strong’s translates the meaning of Delilah as lustful. One might ask “why the difference?” Well, to languish means to pine away with longing or desire. It also means to become weak or feeble.

Lust makes you pine away with longing or desire. It makes you weak or feeble just like a drug addict or alcoholic is weakened, or loses their passion for life. A prisoner is languishing in prison when the individual emaciates and loses their passion for life. That is what lust does to you and I. That’s why I believe Strong’s simply described Delilah as lustful. With this in mind, let’s look at their story.

One day Samson went to the Philistine town of Gaza and spent the night with a prostitute (Judges 16:1 NLT).

Being under the control of lust usually doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual process. Usually two factors contribute to us getting into the stronghold of lust. They are a person and a place. Either you go to a person who takes you to that place, or a place takes you to that person. By person, I mean someone that will influence you. By a place, I mean an environment. Usually a person will take you to an environment where your lust is stimulated, or you go to an environment and meet someone who can cause you to yield to your lust.

That person could be a friend or an acquaintance. That place could be a bar, club, dorm room, someone’s apartment or some other environment. That place could be a room and that person could be an individual on the flat screen or x rated magazine. In other words someone in a seductive or pornographic display.

In Samson’s case he went to Gaza where he met a prostitute. Gaza means strong place. Sometimes when we are in a “Gaza,” a strong place, we fall prey to strong holds. In Gaza, the place, he meets a prostitute, the person, and fulfilled his lust. This led him to more lust:

Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.” (Judges 16:4-6 NKJV)

So Samson ends up loving Delilah or having a desire for “lustful”; or someone that will make him weak or languish since Delilah means lustful or languishing. Delilah asked Samson where his strength lay and how he could be bound. She asked him upfront what could be done to him to put him in bondage. Similarly, when we indulge in things that we know can put us in bondage, then we can know that we are under the influence of lust. Lust pretty much tells you it’s going to harm you. When we give in to desires that we know ahead of time that are not good for us, then we know we are under the influence of lust.

Notice that the Lord’s of the Philistines bribed Delilah to discover Samson’s strength so that they could put him in bondage. In the Old Testament, the Philistines were the enemies of the Israelites. Goliath was a Philistine that was killed by David, the Israelite. The Philistines are symbolic of the enemy, and the Israelites are symbolic of the church. The Lords or rulers of the Philistines are symbolic of principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness, and rulers of the darkness of this age; all of which are under the power of the main enemy, the devil (Ephesians 6:10-13).