SAMSON - THE UNASKED FOR SAVIOR (Judges 13:1-25)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we begin to look at the history of the final judge given to us in book of Judges, however, he is not the final judge in Israel, that distinction would belong to Samuel. In this history there is a heavy blend of passion, heroism, and tragedy. It is the history of this judge that is the longest of all the histories that we have looked at in this book, four chapters are devoted to the history of the judge Samson. Chapter 13 is really an introduction to his life; chapters 14-16 teach us how God used him during the oppression of the Philistines. Though much of Samson’s life seems to be chaotic and a maddening race from one place to the next, underneath all of this there is a steady development toward an already determined end which has a profound theological significance. That significance is that Samson is God’s man, just as Israel is His people, and neither Samson nor Israel can escape the destiny God has predetermined for them. Samson alone has his birth and destiny announced in advance by God Himself, and in his history that we have recorded for us the whole central portion of this book is brought to a resounding climax. This morning we will begin in chapter 13 which is an account of what took place leading up to his birth. Let’s pray and then get into our chapter for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Judges 13:1-25, we will see how far we get this morning as we begin the history of Samson. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along while I read.
Judges 13:1-25,
“Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years. There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.’ Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, ‘A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. But he said to me, “Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.”’ Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born.’ God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, ‘Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me.’ Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, ‘Are you the man who spoke to the woman?’ And he said, ‘I am.’ Manoah said, ‘Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy’s mode of life and his vocation?’ So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Let the woman pay attention to all that I said. She should not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her observe all that I commanded.’ Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ‘Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.’ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.’ For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ‘What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?’ But the angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?’ So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that 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. Now the angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. So Manoah said to his wife, ‘We will surely die, for 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 let us hear things like this at this time.’ Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.” (Judges 13:1–25, NASB95)[1]
APOSTASY AGAIN (Judges 13:1)
After a 25-year rest period under the judgeship of the last three of the minor judges, Ibzan the Bethlehemite, Elon the Zebulunite, and Abdon the Pirathonite the children of Israel again lapsed back into their old ways. If you remember back in chapter 10 when the LORD told them that He would no longer deliver them, they repented by acknowledging that they had sinned against the LORD and they put away their foreign gods and served the LORD. This worship of the LORD seemed to have continued in the lifetimes of the three judges we looked at last week. But as Abdon the Pirathonite passed from the scene, the sons of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. They turned again and began to worship the gods of the Canaanites and the surrounding nations. The LORD gave them into the hands of the Philistines to afflict and oppress them.
Everything about this is bad, Israel abandons the LORD and begins to serve idols again, and this is after He had again delivered them from the sons of Ammon and given them rest, a time to recover and prosper again. Again, they suffer the consequences of their idolatry as God again turns them over to be oppressed by their enemies and this oppression is long, 40 years, the longest that they were in subjection to any of their enemies. This is not the first time we have seen this happen; it has happened many times before. Every other time when Israel became desperate, they appealed to the LORD to save them, and He raised up a savior for them that judged their enemies and drove them from their land. But in these 40 years of oppression we do not read of them crying out to the LORD to save them. It is as though a kind of hopeless resignation has taken over, they have accepted that this is how they are and will always be. Even the men of Judah who were singled out for leadership in chapter one seem to accept the Philistine dominance as an established fact that is pointless to try to change. What has happened to this nation? They have forsaken their God. It is terrible to find something that is evil so irresistible that you find yourself turning to it again and again, and this in spite of all that God has done to rescue you from it. It takes away your dignity, it saps your strength, and it leaves you hopeless. That is the point that Israel has reached at this stage in the book of Judges. No cry for help, no repentance, just existing year after year under the dominance of the Philistines. This is the big picture of the state of Israel. Now this history zooms in on one man and his wife.
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR (Judges 13:2-5)
The author introduces us to this man and his wife in verse 2, “There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children.” (Judges 13:2, NASB95)[2] This is the family that Samson will be born into, and you can see it is a kind of miniature version of Israel as a whole. Manoah’s wife was barren, childless, and she remained so for as long as they had been married. This was a disgrace for her, they wanted children and had probably tried to have them for years to no avail. The problem was out of their hands. Because of this there was no future for the family, no one to continue the family name, and they had given up all hope that this would change or could change. Just as Israel was helpless and hopeless, so were Manoah and his wife. They live in Zorah, a town on the border of the territory of Dan and the territory of Judah, very close to the border of the Philistines.
When it seemed nothing would change an unexpected visitor showed up. We read in verses 3-5, “Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.’” (Judges 13:3–5, NASB95)[3] The unexpected visitor was the angel of the LORD and He appeared to Manoah’s wife with a message. We have already learned from past appearances of the Angel of the LORD that this is God Himself, a manifestation of God in visible and bodily form before the incarnation, in other words this is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son appearing as a man before His incarnation, before His advent on that first Christmas. He comes with a message of hope and salvation. This message and the fulfillment of it is an act of pure grace. Manoah and his wife were not expecting it, they had not asked for it as far as we know, and they certainly had not earned it. It was just given, this child is a gift of unmerited, surprising grace.
There are two other thing that we must notice about this baby that was to be born to Manoah and his wife. First, we learn that he is to be holy from birth, a Nazirite to God from the womb. The vow of a Nazirite is outlined for us in Numbers 6:1-21. We will look into this with more detail in the coming weeks. It is usually a vow that is taken to separate oneself apart for God for a certain period of time, here it seems to be a life-long vow that begins in the womb. Numbers 6:8 says concerning the one who has taken a Nazirite vow, “All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.” (Numbers 6:8, NASB95)[4] Because Samson was to be a Nazirite from the womb, his mother was to abstain from those things that one who is a Nazirite is to abstain. Specifically, anything pertaining to grapes, she was to drink no wine, nor any other alcoholic drink and she was not to eat anything unclean because the child that she will carry in her womb was to be set apart, holy to the LORD. Second, this is made clear when the LORD tells Manoah’s wife that no razor would be used to cut his hair because he will be a Nazirite to God, in other words, belonging to God, set apart for God to use. This was going to be hard for Manoah and his wife. This baby that she is to bear will never be completely theirs, in fact not even essentially theirs. The woman will carry him and give birth to him, the father will partner with the mother in nurturing him and raising him to manhood. But from the womb he belongs to God and a day will come when God will claim him, and they will have to let him go—to God. He will be a Nazirite to God; that is the word that has been spoken over his life. But for the moment he is their baby-to-be, their boy. The LORD says, “you shall conceive and give birth to a son.” The barren woman will no longer be barren, and her disgrace will be lifted.
There is one more thing that needs to be noted in this message that the LORD tells this woman, He told her why Samson would be separated to God, because “he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” (Judges 13:5b, NASB95)[5] This is important because this is different from the other judges, when they delivered the people, they delivered them completely. The Philistines have been oppressing Israel for 40 years, they are well entrenched and not going to move easily. What Samson is going to begin, others will finish. Samuel, Saul and finally David will subdue the Philistines and drive them back to their place along the coast. That deliverance will begin with Samson.
A PRAYED FOR VISITOR (Judges 13:6-23)
As soon as the angel of the LORD departed, Manoah’s wife went to find her husband to tell him the good news. She finds him and explains to him that a man of God had visited her, she realized there was something special about this visitor, his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. In her excitement because of His message to her, she failed to ask where He was from and He did not tell her His name, but He did tell her that they are going to have a baby. Then she told her husband that this baby would be holy to God, a Nazarite from the womb to the day of his death. I can just imagine her excitedly telling her husband the news and he trying to take it all in and make sense of it.
Manoah wants more information; he wants to know if there is something special that they are to do for this boy who is going to be born. So, he begins praying to the LORD asking Him to send the man of God again so that he can teach them how they are to raise this boy. The LORD listened to Manoah’s prayer, and He appeared again to the woman as she was alone in the field. She quickly went and got her husband so he could meet this man of God as well. When he sees him, a conversation takes place between them, but the LORD basically tells Manoah what He had already told his wife. Manoah makes it clear in this conversation that he truly believes the words spoken to his wife will be fulfilled and he asks when they do come to pass what this boy’s mode of life is to be and what will his vocation be? The LORD reiterates the importance of Manoah’s wife abstaining from drinking wine and any other alcoholic beverages and from eating anything unclean. When Manoah does not get any new information, he requests that at least they can detain this man of God long enough to show Him some hospitality and gratitude by fixing something for Him to eat. The LORD says He will not eat the food, but they could show their gratitude by sacrificing a burnt offering to the LORD. Manoah tries one more time to get a little more information by asking the man’s name, so that when the man’s words are fulfilled, they may honor Him. Again, the Angel of the LORD evades the question by explaining that His name is wonderful. This word translated “wonderful” is a word that can mean “fantastic, or beyond understanding, it carries the idea that it is something that is impossible to understand, with a focus on it as a marvelous, positive mystery. Then to show that not only was His name wonderful, but that He was wonderful, as Manoah offered his burnt offering on the rock and he and his wife were looking on it as the flames of the fire consumed the burnt offering, the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the fire as they leapt toward heaven. Immediately Manoah and his wife knew that this person was more than just a man of God, but that He was God Himself and they fell prostrate with their faces to the ground. The Angel of the LORD did not appear to them again, but like Gideon, Manoah knew that to see God was to die, he knew that God had told Moses, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:20, NASB95)[6] But his wife reminds 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 let us hear things like this at this time.” (Judges 13:23, NASB95)[7] She was right, whatever might normally be true, this is an exception as the appearance of the Angel of the LORD always is in the Old Testament. This appearing of God to this man and his wife meant life, not death. Again, it was an amazing gift of God’s grace to this man and woman.
If Manoah was trying to gain some control here by getting more information about this baby they were going to have, he had failed. Manoah needed to learn that he cannot be in control of this, and neither can his wife, they are caught up in something that is too big for them to control. This baby will never really be theirs to control, he will belong to God and will be moved by God to do what God wants him to do. This will be hard for this couple, but they just need to trust and let God be in control.
A BLESSED CHILD (Judges 13:24-25)
Before we finish up this chapter, I want to make sure you notice one thing that Manoah’s wife said when telling her husband about the LORD’s first visit. In verse five the Angel of the LORD said, “For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” (Judges 13:5, NASB95)[8] But when she reports this to her husband, she says in the end of verse 7 that, “…the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.” (Judges 13:7b, NASB95)[9] Manoah’s wife seems to know right from the beginning that her son’s Nazirite vow, his separation to God—the very purpose for which he would be born—will be brought to an end, will be fulfilled at his death.
So, as we come to the end of chapter 13 the background is dark. Israel is in a desperate situation, and they are helpless and hopeless. But as we look forward, the future before Samson’s death is bright and full of promise, the promise of the beginning of Israel’s deliverance. Listen to the closing verses, “Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.” (Judges 13:24–25, NASB95)[10] Into the dark world in which Manoah and his wife lived, light has come. Interestingly, she named him Samson which means “like the sun.” God had broken through their barrenness and given them hope. A savior has been born. The Spirit of LORD rests on him and begins to claim him for his life’s work of beginning to deliver Israel, the Spirt begins to stir him. It is like the sun rising over the horizon and flooding the world with light and promise. A new day has begun to dawn for Israel.
CONCLUSION:
Everything about this chapter tells us that this child to be born, this child named Samson is an extremely special person. He is holy, separated to God from the womb. His birth is announced beforehand by the Angel of the LORD. He is declared to be a savior—God’s savior. Early in his adult life he is claimed by the Spirit for his divine destiny. And as we will learn in the weeks ahead, he is rejected by his own people, arrested, and handed over to their enemies, tortured and made a spectacle by them, until at last his calling is accomplished in his death. By dying he destroys Dagon, the god of Israel’s enemies, the Philistines. It is a theological victory, not just a material or physical one. It is only the beginning. The Philistines didn’t go away immediately. There were more battles to be fought and more dark days to live through. But those who knew about Samson could never believe, anymore, that the Philistines were all powerful or that Dagon ruled the world. And eventually the work of delivering Israel from the Philistines that Samson began was completed by David. (2 Samuel 5:17-25; 8:1)
But the history didn’t end there either. Other enemies arose. Other gods claimed to be all-powerful. More dark days came, until eventually another angel appeared to another childless woman and said, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” (Luke 1:31–33, NASB95)[11] And to her betrothed husband who did not know what to do with his virgin bride who was pregnant the angel said, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, NASB95)[12] And the words spoken to Mary and Joseph in those days outlived the Roman empire and are still true today. So when the way seems dark around you, when you feel that all is lost, when you want to be in control, but you can’t be and all seems helpless and hopeless, remember this: A Child has been born, A Son has been given (Isaiah 9:6), and by His death he has overcome and defeated the god of this world. He has begun our salvation and will complete on the day of Christ Jesus. And if you believe that—no matter how dark your present circumstances may be, no matter how helpless and hopeless you may feel—you do not need to ever despair. Listen again to Paul’s words from our Scripture reading this morning in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18, NASB95)[13]
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.