Judges 16:11-15: in context

Delilah, bribed by the Philistines to discover the secret of Samson's strength, presses him again and again. Three times he gives her false answers, and three times she tests them, with the Philistines waiting to seize him, and three times he escapes. Yet he keeps returning to her, keeps playing along, keeps toying with the very danger that is closing in on him. How can you say you love me, she complains, when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times. Samson plays with the danger, never fleeing it, until at last it will overcome him.

Samson's folly here is that he toys with the temptation instead of fleeing it. He knows Delilah is trying to destroy him; he sees the Philistines waiting; he escapes their traps three times. And yet he stays, keeps returning, keeps playing along, keeps flirting with the danger, thinking, perhaps, that he can handle it, that he is strong enough to play near the edge without falling. He does not flee the situation; he lingers in it, toying with the very thing that will undo him, until it finally wears him down and he tells her the secret, and he is destroyed. He played with what could destroy him, and it did. This is a folly we are prone to with temptation. We can find ourselves near a temptation that we know could destroy us, and instead of fleeing it, we linger, we toy with it, we play near the edge, thinking we can handle it, that we are strong enough to stay near without falling. We keep returning to the situation, the relationship, the influence that draws us toward sin, telling ourselves we are in control, escaping the trap once or twice and growing confident. But toying with temptation is the path to being overcome by it. Can a man carry fire in his lap, the proverb asks, and his clothes not be burned? To play near the fire is eventually to be burned. Samson toyed with the danger and was destroyed by it. Scripture's counsel is not to toy with temptation but to flee it. When Joseph faced temptation, he did not linger to test his strength against it; he fled, leaving his garment behind. Flee immorality, Paul says; flee idolatry. The wise response to temptation that could destroy us is not to play near it, confident we can handle it, but to get away from it. This searches how we handle the temptations that could undo us. Do we flee them, or do we, like Samson, toy with them, lingering near the danger, playing along, confident we can handle it, until it wears us down and overcomes us? Samson played with what could destroy him and was destroyed; and his folly warns us not to toy with temptation but to flee it, getting away from what could undo us rather than lingering near it in the confidence that we can play with fire and not be burned.

When I am near a temptation that I know could destroy me, do I flee it, or do I linger and toy with it, playing near the danger and confident I can handle it, keep returning to the situation or influence that draws me toward sin, and can Samson, who toyed with Delilah's deadly prodding until it wore him down and destroyed him, warn me not to play with temptation but to flee it, getting away from what could undo me rather than trusting that I can carry fire in my lap and not be burned?