OK, you can turn in your Bibles to Judges Chapter 13. You get to start with Samson tonight. Everybody's favorite Bible hero. Judges 13, I'll read beginning in verse one.
Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. Now there was a certain man from Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, indeed now, you are barren and have born no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
So the woman came and told her husband, saying, a man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God. Very awesome. But I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. And he said to me, behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.
Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, O my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.' And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said to him, look, the man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me.
So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said to him, are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. Manoah said, now let your words come to pass.
What will be the boy's rule of life and his work? So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her, let her observe.
Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, please let us detain you, and we will prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know he was the angel of the Lord.
Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name, that when your words come to pass, we may honor you? And the angel of the Lord said to him, why do you ask my name, saying it is wonderful? So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on.
It happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar. The angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord.
And Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. But his wife said to him, If the Lord had desired to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would he have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time. So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.
And the spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahana Den between Zorah and Eshter. Amen.
Introduction to the Samson Cycle
Well, thus begins the Samson narratives, which continue till chapter 16 and verse 31. He's the last of the deliverers recorded in the book of Judges, specifically by God, raised up to deliver his people from their oppressors. And basically what we have is this extended call narrative, birth narrative, call narrative, in chapter 13. And then in chapter 14, verse 1 to 1520, it's Samson and the Timnite woman.
So basically, he's in Timna for those two chapters, and then chapter 16, he's in Gaza. He first goes to the harlot's house in Gaza, and then there is the incident with Samson and Delilah. Davis says concerning this particular man, Samson is such a rollicking, entertaining, break-the-mold fellow that we may become preoccupied with him. We must not allow our focus on the Savior God raises up to eclipse the God who saves.
And truly, he is the one that is preeminent through the chapter. It is the Lord. Twelve references to the angel of the Lord who had come to Mrs. Manoa, or the mother of Samson, and to Manoa twelve times, and many things concerning God are indicated in this wonderful chapter of Scripture.
You'll want to look at this particular chapter under two broad considerations. First, the sin of Israel in verse 1, and then secondly, the agent of deliverance. And that's the bulk of the chapter, verses 2 to 25. And there we have the promise of a deliverer, the birth of the deliverer, and then the empowerment of the deliverer, even Samson, the judge.
The Sin of Israel
But let's look first at verse 1, under the sin of Israel, something we've come to expect with the children of Israel during the time of the judges. There's nothing new about verse 1 except for one small detail which we'll notice in just a moment. But verse 1 tells us, again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Back in chapter 2, when the theme of the book is indicated, verse 11 tells us, then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.
And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths." Here's that pattern.
The judge is alive and the people of Israel tow the line at least to a certain degree, but when the judge dies, then they revert. And as it says later in chapter 2 and verse 19, they revert and they behave more corruptly. And we see evidence of that here in Judges chapter 13, which we'll see in just a moment. Notice, again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years.
So the Lord God is sovereign. It is the Lord who delivered His covenant people into the hands of the Philistines in order for them to be chastised for the sins that they had engaged in. They again did evil. So God raises up the Philistines in this particular instance and then they rule over or they subjugate the children of Israel for 40 long years.
That's a long period of time. And as we jump to verse 2, we'll note something is missing. In each of the other instances, several times throughout the book, we see sin, oppression, and then distress. The children of Israel cry out when they're being oppressed by a foreign oppressor.
Israel's Comfort with Oppression
That's absent here, which indicates they've made peace with the reality that they are now subjugated to the Philistines. This is a very bad sign. They not only are not crying out to God in repentance, they're no longer even crying out to God because of their distress. They have become comfortable with the Philistines.
They have become comfortable with this manner and this way of life. So I've said, the cycle and judges, sin, oppression, and deliverance. But in between oppression and deliverance, the children of Israel cry out to God because they don't like the harsh oppression. In this instance, that is absence.
The deliverance or the distress is missing in this particular degree. The nation had fallen to such a level that they were not even bothered by their subjection to the Philistines, nor did they even see their need for deliverance. So there are two things going against them at this particular point. They don't see their need, and they've become comfortable with the pagans around them.
You can turn for just a moment to chapter 14, where you see evidences of this, even in the Samson narrative itself. 14.1, Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. So he went up and told his father and mother saying, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me as a wife. The man who would be deliverer is fraternizing with the very people that is oppressing them. And then verse 3, then his father and mother said to him, is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren? or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" Certainly his parents try to exercise a bit of godly restraint, try to direct him in another way and position.
But notice what he then says, get her for me, for she pleases me well. You have the new King James, you'll note the margin. She is right in my eyes. This will come up later two more times in the book of Judges.
There was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That doesn't bode well for the situation that they are facing. So in Judges 14, the man that's going to deliver Israel himself is going to marry a Philistine woman. Look over at Judges 15 in verses 9 to 13.
The Philistines come to get Samson because he wreaks havoc upon them. Now notice in verse 9 of chapter 15, now the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and deployed themselves against Lehi. And the men of Judah said, why have you come up against us? So they answered, we have come up to arrest Samson to do to him as he has done to us.
Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the Rock of Edom and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us? This is absolutely atrocious. This is absolutely horrific.
The first tribe indicated in the book of Judges that went about conquering and to conquer was the tribe of Judah. Chapter 1, verses 1 to 20. doing their business and gicking the tails of these Canaanites in this particular land. Now the Philistines come to collect Samson. And instead of Judah resisting that Philistine opposition, they now go to Samson and they say, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us?
What is this you have done to us? And he said to them, as they did to me, so I have done to them. But they said to him, we have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Are you getting this?
Do you see how bad it is in Israel at this time? Not only do they not cry out for distress, but they don't want to upset the status quo. They don't want to offend the Philistines. They would rather hand Samson, one of their own, over to these godless, uncircumcised wretches than try and resist those people.
And then notice, Samson says to them, swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves. So they spoke to him saying, no, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand. But we will surely not kill you.' And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock." God willing, we'll consider the rest of that when we get there. But just notice how bad it is.
Bloch says, accordingly, Not only does the divinely raised deliverer fraternize freely with the enemy, but the Judahites also resist any actions that might upset the status quo. In fact, Yahweh must seek and create an occasion to disturb the relationship between oppressor and oppressed. That's the reason why Samson goes to take a wife from Timnah. If we continue reading in chapter 14 at the end of verse 4, but his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, that he was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
God had to intervene in such a way so that the nation would finally see that it's not good to be subjugated to this Philistine opposition. I think there's a lot of lessons that we can learn just in verse 1.
Three Lessons from Israel's Failure
We see first the similarity with the wilderness generation in Numbers 13 and 14. Remember the Numbers 13 and 14 situation. Moses sends out 12 tribes to spy out the land of Canaan. The 12 spies return and initially they report the land is good. 12 of them do.
Two of them say the land is good, we can take the people, let's go in and kill them and take everything. The ten spies are kind of cowardly men. They start off by saying the land is good, but there's giants in the land. By the time the end has come, they say the land is bad, the giants are too much, and there's no way that we can overpower them.
They had become content with the status quo, and instead of saying with Joshua and Caleb, let's go at once and take what the Lord God has promised, they were content to be slaves and to die in the wilderness. A second thing we learn is that there is a danger of assimilating culture in such a manner as to no longer be concerned with the violation of God's law. This is very practical to us. Do you ever stop and think, what more has to happen in Canada before the church gets serious about praying for revival and awakening?
I mean, babies are murdered to the tune of 110,000 per year in a nation of 30 million people. Just south of us, there's about 1.4 million babies murdered in a nation that's about 300 million people. What's it going to take before the church gets serious about prayer and fasting and those sorts of things? Sodomy, it's legalized, it's being exalted, all these sorts of things and yet very often, and I'm not saying on every hand, people don't know what's going on in our prayer closets or what's going on in our churches, we can't surmise that everybody has made peace with these things.
But to a certain degree, it looks as if, at least in North America, we've made peace with some of these anomalies. And there is a danger in this, of assimilating culture in such a manner as to no longer be concerned with the violation of God's law. The people of Israel were not distressed by Philistines, almost called them Philippines, Philistines worshipping Dagon. Is the church affected by the reality that throughout this nation people are worshipping Dagon?
I mean, these things ought to affect us. Remember that bit in the book of Acts in chapter 17. Paul is in Athens and he's waiting for his companions to meet up with him in the town. And as he's standing in Athens, he's looking around at the city.
And the text is very, very specific. It says that his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city given over to idols. The word provoked there is the word paroxysm. It means to be stirred up to irritation.
It's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to refer to God and His response to idolaters. So when Paul is standing in Athens, he doesn't say, well, everybody has their own freedom of worship. Everybody has their own way of expressing themselves. Everybody can bow down in whatever manner they want, because it's legal here in the empire.
It may be legal in the empire, but that doesn't mean the true believer isn't grieved in his spirit over the things that are going on. Now, as I am going through this, I'm not suggesting we go with armed revolution and go tear down Roman Catholic churches, and as fun as that might be, or not fun, but as exhilarating as that might be, I'm not suggesting that, but we ought not to have peace with the reality that idolatry is so widespread. We need to be aware of assimilating culture, sucking it in, drinking it in, taking it in, in such a manner as to no longer be concerned with the violation of God's law. And then a third principle, I think, jumps out from verse one, is the necessity of uncompromising allegiance to Christ in the midst of a compromised culture.
In other words, just because the culture is doing this doesn't mean we must. Sometimes we read these prayer letters and we see that these people are in different religious systems than we are. And we ask the question, what about the Orthodox Church? that this Mariam is a part of. They are Trinitarian, as far as I know.
In fact, some of the early men that were in the East were very solid men. We owe a lot to Cyril of Alexandria in terms of our developed Christology. He's one that the Orthodox Church would claim. There's doctrinal differences, to be sure, but we've got to respect a woman that's going to say, I'd rather confess Christ then get out of this jail to tend to my particular child.
I mean, there's something about that that is a model and a paradigm for all of God's people, the necessity of uncompromising allegiance to Christ in the midst of a compromised culture. If they tell us we can't preach against particular sins, we must obey God rather than men. We don't have to kowtow to them. What's the worst that's going to happen?
They throw us into prison. What's the worst that can possibly happen? The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. I mean, we are seeing a culture more and more given over to idolatry, to lawlessness, and to godlessness.
And it really ought to concern us that there is a whole host within professing evangelicalism, and even in the reform community, that sees that these things really aren't so bad. Now, not launching an armed revolution, but being faithful to our Lord in whatever circumstances, in whatever situations we face ourselves, or we face. The Church is not supposed to engage in armed revolution against the governing authorities, but she should certainly pray that God will deal with the governing authorities. What did Mary Queen of Scots say?
She feared John knocks in his prayers more than an army of men. Why is that? Because armies of men can be defeated. You don't defeat the Lord God Most High.
And when a Knox is at the throne of grace asking for the Lord God Most High to overrule a particular wicked regime, there's far more threat in that. As well, we need to live in a manner that is well-pleasing to our Lord and not the culture that we find ourselves in. We need to resist the tendency and the pull, much like these people did not. They got comfortable with the Philistine occupation of their particular land.
That is something that is a cause for concern.
The Agent of Deliverance
Now notice the agent of deliverance promised versus to and following. The first section deals with the promise of a deliverer and his parents are indicated.
The Promise of a Deliverer
Now this is the first time in the book of Judges that a birth narrative is given of one of the Judges. Samson was grown for this particular task. The other judges were picked from the rank and file of Israel. But what we see is that Samson was groomed for such a time as this.
The father's name was Manoah. He was from the family of the Danites. And then notice, we see whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and had no children. This is a recurring theme throughout the Bible.
It manifests the power, the sovereignty, the majesty, and the excellence of God. This whole idea of God coming to a barren woman and using her to bring forth someone that would bring redemption, help, assistance in some form or other. We have Sarah bringing forth Isaac. Rebecca brings forth Jacob.
Rachel brings forth Joseph. Hannah brings forth Samuel. Elizabeth brings forth John the Baptist. So the barren woman is quite a popular theme in scripture that God seizes upon and uses in order, as I say, to demonstrate his power and his majesty.
What appears to be utterly weak, what appears to be utterly helpless, what appears to be utterly marginalized is what God uses to bring redemption, is what God uses to bring help and victory to his people. And so the angel of the Lord appears to the woman, verse 3, and said to her, indeed now you are barren and have born no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. What a beautiful thing. I'm sure this just made her gay.
Of the two of them, Mrs. Manoa certainly seems like the brighter bulb, intellectually, and she's certainly more spiritually savvy. And it's as if the angel of the Lord understands that, of course he understands, this is the second person of the triune God, and he deals with her in a very gracious and a very wonderful manner. The woman is never named in the narrative.
I'm calling her Mrs. Minoa, but that's just what I'm calling her. Her name's not given, at all. She is the one that will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Samson and he will begin to deliver your people from the Philistines.
I mean she has a choice role in this whole affair and yet we don't even know her name. Davis says, here in Judges 13, the woman is both barren and anonymous. We don't even know her name. She is Manoah's wife and becomes Samson's mother, but her name is not given to us.
To her sterility, the Bible has added obscurity. Yahweh often begins precisely here, in human obscurity and hopelessness, where there is no human energy or ability to serve as a starter. Samson's birth is another instance of God's way of prefacing an exceptional work with exceptional difficulties. Yahweh will bring salvation out of nothingness.
It's really beautiful. I mean, these two people, Manoah and his wife, minding their own business, Danites, in an obscure place, in an obscure situation, the angel of the Lord comes to her and says, I know that you're barren, you don't have a child, but I promise that you will have a son. And then the angel of the Lord stipulates the Nazirite vow is going to be unique to Samson. This is in Numbers chapter 6.
Consecration or separation specifically unto God. Not that all the nation wasn't to be separated unto God, but there were those who took the Nazarite vow either for special service or just as a means of demonstrating their devotedness to the Lord. So verse four, now therefore please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink and not to eat anything unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son and no razor shall come upon his head.
For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. So this is the purpose for the son. Not so that you'll have someone to take care of you and your husband in your old age. It's not so that you'll have an interesting fellow that can jump onto the pages of scripture that will interest people in the 21st century as they study the book of Judges.
What's the point of the narrative? Verse 5. He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. He would not do this completely. 1 Samuel chapter 7, we see them subjugated. 2 Samuel 8, 1, it happens decisively under David.
As I said, it's a birth narrative, but Bloch says the whole is a call narrative. Just like we find with these other judges, whether they're short, whether they're long, God calls a servant to particular service. Bloch says, this is a call narrative, unconventional to be sure, but its purpose is to describe how God provides Israel with a deliverer to deal with the Philistines, whom he has himself sent as agents to punish them for their spiritual infidelity. Both the messenger and the narrator, however, recognize that he will provide only a partial solution for the crisis.
The completion of the agenda will await another day and another man. So it probably points to David in terms of the Philistines, but in the larger picture, these deliverers, as I mentioned many times, are typical of the deliverer, even the Lord Jesus Christ. So what he starts here in partiality, Christ completes in terms of the redemptive purposes of God Most High. The angel of the Lord comes to the woman.
Manoah's Prayer and God's Answer
Now notice, secondly, the prayer. Verses six to nine. So the woman came and told her husband, saying, a man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God. Very awesome.
Now, Manoah and his wife are godly people, but there's even evidences and indicators in their story. They don't use the name Yahweh. They don't use the name of the Covenant Lord. They use the name Elohim. or God until they don't use Yahweh till the very end.
This is something that could indicate just this lack of communion and relationalism with their God. Of course, the whole nation is at a point of declension. They're certainly the shining lights thus far among the others. But she comes, she tells her husband, A man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God." Very awesome.
But I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. And he said to me, behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
So she tells Manoah, and now Manoah prays. Look at this text. Beautiful. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord.
This is not Manoah. It's the narrator that describes God as Yahweh. He says, oh my Lord, or Adonai, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born. Now the next few words are just glorious.
God Hears Prayer
And God listened to the voice of Manoah. Isn't that beautiful? And that's what's unique about our faith, our religion. God listens to people like Manoah.
God listens to people that are in obscurity. God listens to people who cry out to him. God listens to people that go to their closet and say, Father, hear me. We ought not to take this for granted.
This is one of the boons, the chief boons, of our Christian religion. Davis again says, we have grown so accustomed to the flow of biblical narratives that we fail to see the little miracle here. The prayers Yahweh hears, and God heard the voice of Manoah. We have read such clauses so frequently that they no longer strike us, but the psalmists never take it for granted.
We may have relegated God's hearing our prayers to our of course category, but biblical prayers do not regard it as so routine. Rather, God's hearing is the most crucial matter for all prayer. It's not I had a great time of prayer. It's my great God heard me in my prayer.
I've always wondered this. How do we adjudge a good prayer meeting? You ever heard that was a good prayer meeting. What makes it a good prayer meeting?
Because I prayed well. A good prayer meeting is when we list whatever petition, request, supplication, or intercession we offer, and God hears. That's what defines a good prayer meeting. And if we are in Christ, we have access to the Father with boldness.
This is why we ought never to consider A prayer meeting is cold or as dry. If blood-bought children of God offer up their petitions to the great God of heaven and earth, we have the confidence that He hears us and we have the confidence that He's going to do what is best with reference to that petition. You'll hear people say this, you know, I went to the prayer meeting and it just seemed so dry, it seemed so boring. Wait a minute, we need to rework the way we think through these kinds of things.
Good prayer meetings are good because God is there. And if we are in Christ, we have every reason to believe that God is there. He's promised that in terms of the scripture. He is where his people gather together, whether they feel like it or not.
Could you imagine your wife or your husband saying, I don't think you meant when you said I love you because you didn't say it with such gushy-ushy. No, I mean it, sweetie. See, we would never treat our spouses the way that the Christian church treats God. Unless you give me fireworks, unless you give me signs, unless you give me feelings, unless you give me experience, I'm not going to for a moment believe that you're actually in that prayer meeting.
We become practical Pentecostals. We don't believe for a moment that God hears in the midst of the routine, that God hears in the midst of the normal, that God hears when a Manilla says, can you send the angel back so I can confirm everything that he told my wife? That's what Manoah wants. Manoah just wants some validation, similar to Gideon.
There's a lot of parallels with this passage in the Gideon narrative as well, especially when they go to sacrifice. This is what he says. Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born. Didn't his wife just tell him everything?
What else do you need, Manoah? Didn't Mrs. just tell you? The man of God came. He had this awesome countenance.
And here's what he said. Our little baby boy isn't going to be a soccer player. He's not going to be a baseball player. He's not going to be a rocket scientist.
He's going to be a Nazarite. He's going to be separated under God. And it's him who's going to begin to deliver Israel from their oppressors. So Manoah says, I want to hear it for myself.
Believe it or not, the narrative certainly puts Manoah as not the most spiritually savvy fellow in the world. He's a godly man. He's a good man. I certainly don't want to pick on him.
But notice, God answers. God listens to the voice of Manoah. And the angel of God came where? To the woman, not to Manoah.
Why? Because God is sovereign. God is glorious. God is wondrous.
His ways are not our ways. I bet that Manoah probably wondered, why did he go to my wife and not to me? So God listens to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her.
Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said to him, look, the man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me. So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said to him, are you the man who spoke to the woman? And he said, I am probably a came out of Manoah before he goes to verse 12.
Now, let your words come to pass. What will be the boy's rule of life? and his work. So now the Lord addresses him specifically. Of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful.
She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I command her, let her observe. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, please let us detain you, and we will prepare a young goat for you. Probably thinking in terms of hospitality and communion, fellowship.
You'll see that people fellowship and commune over food. Food is a very important thing in the Bible. It's not just life-giving, but it is fellowship-inducing. Hospitality, camaraderie around the table, sharing the loaf, having people over.
This is very common stuff in the Bible, and it's stuff that we ought to practice and participate in. in our own context. So the angel says to Manoah, though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord. Parenthetically, for Manoah did not know he was the angel of the Lord.
This particular point, we might ask the question, why not? His wife knew something in terms of his countenance, in terms of the awesome character of this particular man.
The Name That Is Wonderful
Verse 17, then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name, that when your words come to pass, we may honor you. Beautiful statement in verse 18. The angel of the Lord said to him, why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful. Seeing it is wonderful.
Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, a description of the Savior to come. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The second person of the Trinity here is showing Manoah something of his essence, something of his nature, something of his being, something of his character. He said to him, why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful.
His visitor is far more than Manoah has even begun to think in terms of. He has not even entered into the reality of just what is confronting him or what is facing him in terms of this divine visitor.
The Sacrifice and the Ascent
Now note the sacrifice that he offers. Again, if you compare this, with Gideon in chapter 6, you'll see some similarity. But in verse 19, Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on.
It happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar." So Manoah and his wife witnessed this together. They have seen this. They have observed this. They have seen this one who says that his name is wonderful, now go up with the flame and ascend back into heaven.
And now note, when Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.
Fear and Trembling Before God
This is where I think Manoah can teach the church, and Mrs. Manoah can teach the church a lot about the God with whom we have to do. This is a good response. In the presence of God Most High, to fall upon one's face is absolutely appropriate and absolutely fitting and something that you see throughout scripture.
When the prophet Isaiah sees God, sees the Son enthroned, high, lofty, exalted, the angels praising Him, holy, holy, holy, what does the prophet say? Woe is me, for I am out of time. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Why?
For my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts." Ezekiel, the same thing. When he sees the glory of God, what does he do? He falls down as a dead man. What happens when John sees the ascended or the glorified Christ on the island of Patmos in his vision in the book of Revelation?
I fell as a dead man. This is consistent biblical religion. This familiarity and a cozy approach with our God is not what the scripture teaches. He is not the buddy that we just sit on his lap and just frolic with him as if he's our grandfather.
Now there is communion, there is closeness, there is a lap to be sure in terms of nearness, but we need to remember He's God and we're not. So when they see this, they fall on their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. He understood this.
It has come home to him now. And note the response in verse 22. Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. That's what they teach us.
Or this is what Manoah teaches us. When you come into the presence of the Holy God, never forget He's the Holy God. When you come into the presence of the sovereign of the universe, a bit of fear and trembling is absolutely consistent. Davis again, I think he nails it.
Being too near God was not cozy, but fatal. Manoah apparently felt they had seen too much, had been too close. Do you see it in the narrative? This is what's happened.
He's witnessed this angel go up. He falls to his face. He understands what it is that he has now seen. He understands the proximity to which he's been near God most high.
Note the progression in the text. This angel of the Lord that he didn't have a certainty about. This one who is now identified as wonderful. This one who is God himself, as the narrative goes on.
Notice what he says in verse 22. Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. Davis goes on. Manoah may have been wrong in his inference, but he was right in his instinct.
For where did we ever get the idea that the presence of God is not dangerous? Think about this. Think about this. He says, have we really bought Santa Claus theology?
Has God somehow become safe because we live in A.D.? Were the disciples still too primitive to realize that the divine presence did not require human trembling? There is a sense when we enter into the presence of God that fear and trembling are absolutely requisite. See, Manoah teaches us that.
Mrs. Manoah teaches us something as well. Basically, they nail Psalm 211. Between Manoah and his wife, they get it right.
Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Mrs. Manoah's Confident Faith
Note what Mrs. Manoah says. She's got the logical mind. She's got the perception.
She's got the ability here to focus upon the situation and to reason, deduce, and conclude rightly. He says, we shall surely die because we have seen God. But his wife said to him, if the Lord had desired to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands. Don't we love this, men, when our wives are right?
She's right. This is the equivalent of just ask at the gas station. I don't want to ask at the gas station. We shall surely die.
If the Lord had desired to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would he have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time. So what Manoah and Mises teach us is Psalm 211. Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. We get a glimpse of this at the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When the disciples discover that it's empty, they run with fear and gladness. This is what worship is all about. You see, if we only come in fearful that he's going to kill us, we've missed the essence of Christian worship. We enter in fearful, to be sure, but with great joy, knowing that because of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we have access to the Father, we come to the presence of this great, holy, and awesome God, but we can call him Abba.
We can call him Father, and that should flood our hearts with joy. But see, if we only went to the Mrs. Manoa school of worship, and we had no doctrine of Manoa's fear of the Lord, we'd have a worship that was cozy, a worship that was comfortable, a worship that enjoyed everything, but was not cut to the heart with the fearfulness of the situation. I think Luke describes early Christianity in this manner well in Acts 9.31.
It says, then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. You see, fear and comfort are consistent in the Christian life. Fear, trembling, and joy are absolutely consistent in Christian worship.
When we gather in the house of God on the Sabbath day, all those things ought to be part and parcel of our experience of the great God of heaven and earth. His holiness promotes fear. His salvation promotes comfort. All those things work in beautiful harmony so that we can commune with our great God.
These two are teaching us theology proper and the way we ought to approach the living and the true God. There is much concerning the Lord in this particular passage. Fawcett says, with reference to her statement, even when God overwhelms us with awe-inspiring glimpses of his majesty, it is not in order to destroy, but to assure us of His power as well as His will to save." Isn't that beautiful? Just read that again.
Even when He overwhelms us with awe-inspiring glimpses of His majesty, it is not in order to destroy, but to assure us of His power as well as His will to save. You see, the non-believer thinks the fear of God sounds horrible. The believer says, promote in my heart the fear of God. Let me know more of it, because I know that fear produces joy, and that trembling and gladness go hand in hand in the heart of the believer, and they terminate upon a great and glorious God.
So they're dealing with the angel of the Lord.
The Birth and Blessing of Samson
Note his birth, verse 24. So the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson. Beautiful. Very much like what we find in the birth narratives of our Lord.
Sometimes people make these comparisons between Samson and the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think the typical nature of these deliverers or judges in Israel do point forward to our Lord Jesus Christ. So she bears a son, calls his name Samson. The child grew. and the Lord blessed him." Again, Davis, I just want to read this.
He says, why would the writer single out Samson's nativity and make such a point of it? Why Samson? Why does he get so much ink? I mean, he is an interesting fellow to be sure, but there's other interesting fellows in the book of Judges.
He says because he wants to show that at least in this case, God didn't merely raise up a deliverer who was, as it were, already available. for example, Othniel or Ehud. Rather, he grew one from scratch. It is crucial that we see this, lest we think Yahweh's salvation is always an ad hoc Band-Aid affair, a piece of divine crisis management instead of a plan that God has had in view far in advance. This is exactly what staggers and gladdens us about the greater than Samson who ransomed us at such cost.
He was marked out before the world was made and was revealed at the final point of time for your sake. First Peter chapter one and verse 20. So he grew and the Lord blessed him and the spirit of the Lord began to move upon him. What would be the evidences of this in this young man's life?
Probably his great strength. I mean, what's Samson known for? Killing a lion with his bare hands. Destroying Philistines.
When we go through the Samson narratives, he doesn't lead armies into battle. He is the army, right? He don't mess with Samson. And incidentally, when we get to chapter 16, It is arguable.
He did not have relations with that harlot. One essay I just read by a man says that what we find in Judges 16 has a parallel in Joshua 2. Remember in Joshua 2 when the spies go to spy out the land of Jericho, they go to the house of a harlot. Samson is on a mission to deal with Philistines.
They wait for him till morning. He lay low till midnight. He's not in the arms of this woman all night long. Now, that's not to say there's some other things in Samson's life and history and career that aren't a little bit interesting.
But we need to get away from this idea that he was just this sex-crazed machine that went wherever he wanted. No, he was a principled man. He was a man of faith, as the book of Hebrews tells us. And he led into victory the children of Israel, at least in a partial manner.
He didn't take armies into battle. He himself went into battle. He did what the Lord God had purposed for him. So the messenger. of the Lord in this passage is revealed. 12 times.
The purpose of the Lord is given in verse 5. The power of the Lord is highlighted in verse 25 with the reference to the spirit of the Lord. So as interesting as this birth or call narrative is, what we need to see behind the scenes is that God is working out his purposes for his people. They sin, they're not even concerned about it.
So God sends Samson to these Philistines to stir things up to show them their need for that deliverance, and he brings it impartial through this man, Samson. Well, let us pray and ask God to bless our time together tonight.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your work, and we have come face to face with some glorious truth in this chapter. God, help us to see you as wonderful. Help us to see you as awesome. Help us, God, to fear and tremble and to rejoice in your presence. whether it be in our private prayers, our family prayer, or in our corporate worship.
God, help us to see the God who you are, and may that affect the way that we approach you. And may we worship you in spirit and in truth. May we know The nearness of God is our good, and may we know the joy of being found in our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you again that these earthly judges pointed forward to that one you sent to save his people from their sins.
We ask that you would go with us now and watch over us and bring us together on Saturday for those who meet early and for the church workday and on the Lord's Day, God. May we truly glorify your holy name. And we ask through Christ the Lord. Amen.