God's Faithfulness (Samson) 1

We are continuing on in our study through Judges. And as we get into these stories, it's funny in a sad way. When I get into the Old Testament stories that I was taught as a child, at least what I remember taking away from those teachings is very different than what I actually see as the point of the text. For instance, I remember as a child thinking Noah was an amazingly, it's amazing he's a floating zookeeper. Joseph is the fashionable victim of jealous brothers. David, of course, the giant slayer. Daniel, the lion whisperer. And no one gets more confused, really, than I think our story today, Samson. The strong man who killed a thousand people with a bone carries away city gates on his shoulders and is able to capture foxes and then tie their tails together. Yes, he has superhuman strength, but I don't think that's the real point of the story. You know, I remember actually taking Samson and trying to convince my parents they should let me grow my hair out longer based upon this moralistic teaching that I was receiving from Samson. No, that's not the point. We're the Bible. We're not supposed to be looking at these folks as role models. Actually, I think we're actually warned not to see these men, usually, at all as moral role models. Now, as we think about Samson over the next three weeks, You see, first and foremost, this is about God. It's about how awesome and holy He is, how mighty He is to save, over against the sinful behavior of Samson. And as I hope we walk through, we can see how Samson, he is a man of faith. We read from Hebrews last week, chapter 10, and he's listed there with many of the other judges that he's a man of faith, but yet he also is a man of great sin. As we look to Samson, as we look to judges and begin the story, the study through Samson especially, we need to ask, what is God doing? What is God doing? We need to ask, what sin is He seeking to correct and to save us from? And how can I trust and obey Him? Those are questions you're always looking for in a text. Who is God? What is He doing? What sin is He correcting and saving us from? And how do we obey Him? If you want to look at a structure of the story this morning, and the outline just follows this structure. Verse 1, Israel sins again. Israel sins again, that's just verse 1 Secondly God sends a message God sends a message that's verses 2 to 7 Over against Israel sin God sends a message verses 2 to 7 The next thing we see is the message is affirmed verses 8 to 14 The message is affirmed Next, the messenger is affirmed, 15 to 20, and then the message fulfilled, 21 to 25. Israel sins again, God sends a message, the message is affirmed, the messenger is affirmed, and then the message fulfilled. Let's look at sin again. If you've been with us through Judges, and we did take a bit of a break, we see the constant repetition here. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now last week, we pulled out the texture of that a little bit more. They were returning back to the gods of the nations. They were serving those gods. They had forsaken the one true God. And here we see again, they're doing this evil. Over and over again, God has saved them. They're committing spiritual adultery. They're committing evil. And so the cycle as it goes, when God's people reject Him, He hands them over to an oppressor. The second half of verse one. So the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. That's twice as long as any other oppression so far. And here we're getting into the Philistines are gonna be a constant problem for Israel for many more decades. It's amazing. Israel was redeemed out of slavery in Egypt, miraculously. Taken into the wilderness through the Red Sea, miraculously. They've been shown great mercy while in the wilderness, then they're taken into the promised land, they're given great victories, and yet still, over and over and over again, they return to evil. Now, in the book of Judges, you have a number of judges stated. Those are men who God raised up to help His people with these oppressors. But we've seen the cycle of judges six times. They sin again, God hands them over. They cry out. God hears them. God raises up a judge. God delivers them. That's the cycle. Now, if you're looking at the cycle, you want to go to Othniel. He's the first judge with the full cycle. And interestingly about Othniel, there's no detail stated in his judging. He's not like Ehud, the left-handed assassin. He's not like Barak and Deborah. It's just a simple, complete cycle, no odd behavior. And then as you continue to see these different judges and you continue to see Israel, it continues to get weirder and weirder, darker and darker. And I want you to see something with this last cycle of judges. The cycle breaks down. Notice we've only got two steps. The people of Israel did evil. That's the first step in the cycle. God gave them over into the hand of the Philistines as a second. The third thing that's supposed to happen is Israel's supposed to cry out. And after 40 years, they still haven't cried out. So God initiates, by His own mercy, to stop the cycle, even when they're not crying out. This is the gracious and merciful God that we know. That the people have been oppressed for 40 years. They haven't cried out. And then we see how the good news starts. God sends a message. Verse 2. We're introduced to a very specific man. Normally here is where we see a judge being raised up, but it's a different kind of story. There was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of the Danites whose name was Manoah. We're going to get to know a lot about Manoah here in a moment. You just heard that there's a lot of interactions with him. But what I want you to see is that his unnamed wife, if there is a human hero in the story, it's her. God is always the hero of the story. God is always the Savior. But here she is presented, even though not having her name mentioned, she's presented, I believe, as the ideal Israelite woman. She's a woman of faith. Notice what it says about her. He has his background given, and then his wife. And his wife was barren and had no children. Now, this is a difficult trial for any woman at any time, any place. The barrenness, the wanting children and not being able to have children, that is a particularly difficult trial for any woman or any people at any time. One of God's greatest gifts to women is being able to be mothers. Now I'll be very clear, being a mother does not make you more of a woman or more godly. But being able to carry the offspring, to be able to conceive and bear the image of God, to be able to give that nurture and care, that is one of the great blessings for women. And if you think about that for a moment, it's very sad that our culture treats getting pregnant as a burden, and something should be removed because of its difficulty? Children are one of the most amazing blessings that God gives us. The way our culture treats children is the exact opposite of Manoah's wife's culture, where they would have seen her being childless as a sign of being cursed. Being barren would have made her feel insignificant. Being barren would have made her neighbors look down upon her and wonder what kind of sin did she commit, or did her husband commit, or her parents commit. Barrenness was seen as a sign of sin and a curse. And so her being barren and without child makes her life sad. Now the next character is the one who breaks into this very difficult story. Not only their story of barrenness, but Israel's story of being handed over to the Philistines. Verse 3. Look at what happens. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and says to her, Behold. The backdrop is they're oppressed. The backdrop is this family has no child. And God is going to change both of those stories. Notice how the angel does not shy away from the problem she's facing. Behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. This is such good news for her. Now her name isn't even mentioned, but here she's taking the forefront of this story of salvation because her story is being changed. She's going from being barren to bearing a child, to having a promise that she would bear a child. And I believe that for following what's happened so far in the books of the Bible, for following God's story so far, this has really helped us to point us back to Sarah. If you're not familiar, you can read Genesis 12 to 20 in your free time this afternoon. Genesis 12 is when God brings about a promise to his first promised people, and he brings the promise to Abram and his wife Sarah, whose womb is closed. And God does so intentionally. Well, we can also see it connected to Rachel. The wife who can't bear a child, but eventually gives birth to Joseph, or to Hannah next, the next Judge Samuel. She's barren, and she prays, and God gives her a son. God's promises confront this particular dilemma. One, I believe it's because the womb is one of the most sacred places God has created. It's where image bearers are conceived and grow, and ultimately how the Savior of God's own people is going to enter into this world, Jesus Christ, as our kids are learning the Apostles' Creed. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. You see, if we go back to Genesis, we'll see the womb received a great consequence from the sin of Adam and Eve. The womb now has pain. It has difficulty. I believe this is opening up the picture that the womb, the barrenness, the miscarriages, they're all difficulties caused by our fall, our rebellion. And we see here with Sarah, and Rachel, and this unnamed mother of Samson, and then Hannah later. God is attacking that very particular personal difficulty with his grace to show how powerful he is to save. His promise overcomes the power of sin. He changes their story. And he changes the story of all the people by bringing about this young man who's going to begin saving Israel. Now he gives this good news to this woman who's been longing for a child. And then he gives her the instruction. Look at verse 4. And what we see here in verse 4, it's the Nazirite vow, verses 4 and 5. You can look at this from number 6. This is where the Nazirite vow comes from. Okay, so he's meant to be set apart. Now what's very unusual about this particular instruction is the Nazirite vow is normally, or it's prescribed in number six, to be a voluntary, volitional vow. So a person would actually commit to being a Nazirite for a particular purpose at a particular time. Here it's prescribed by God that he shall be a Nazirite. It's someone who makes a vow to not have strong drink, to not cut their hair, to not touch a dead carcass. It is interesting that Sampson does all three of those. The instructions are for her and for him, and notice the job description. That's the qualification for the job. Now we see his job description. And he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. All right. The people have been oppressing Israel for 40 years. Israel has not cried out. But God is already setting up the man who's going to begin to save Israel. God's people need help even when they don't realize it, and especially when we don't even ask for it. that God is initiating this. They need help. They need saving. They need a deliverer. And it is important to see he's going to begin to save Israel. Samson does not crush the Philistines. After him comes Samuel. He does not finish off the Philistines. After him comes Saul. He does not finish off the Philistines. It's not until we get to David that we see Israel finally being free from the suppression. But here's Samson, he's going to begin that salvation. As we think about this, well, let me continue. The woman came, she told her husband everything that was just said to her. As we think about this, we too often want to jump to Samson and think about how strong he was and how great that must have been. But the real story of Samson isn't about how strong he was. The real story of Samson is that he's set apart by God for God. Samson is about being set apart by God and for God. It's important that we notice this is the first birth narrative since Moses. You think something big is going to happen because the last time we were introduced to this much detail about a child's birth, it was Moses. And so we see a man being set apart. No, it's not because he had great power that God set him apart. No, God set him apart and then gave him power to fulfill his purpose. Samson's not a good person. He's a real rascal. I don't even think he's strong naturally. It'd be interesting if we ever got to see a picture of Samson. What if he was a little guy? Wouldn't that be just like God? Not the big dude, but the little guy did all this. just to show God is great in strength and our weakness. That's just like Him, isn't it? We can get all worked up about the great acts that He did and what such great strength. But we need to really step back and be amazed. In order to save God's people, God set this man apart. That's the only thing anybody can boast of, is that God would set you apart. That God would take you out of the world, out of the kingdom of darkness, and transfer you into the kingdom of His own beloved Son. It's God's commitment to do a great work. It's God's commitment to save him. He lacks all real strength. The man has no inner strength, Samson. He lacks all self-control. But God set him apart. to do mighty acts for his people. Now I want to work out this dilemma for a moment. The book of Hebrews says Samson is a man of faith, and yet we see him constantly only doing what's right in his own eyes. How is that? How can we look and see he's a man of faith? And I believe if we look at something a little later in the Scriptures, the story, we'll get there, but we can really see his life separated between his mission and his manner of life. I believe Samson had great faith in God when it came to God committing to doing his mission. Samson was ready to take up and go to battle when God wanted him to go to battle. He had faith that God would empower him to win the battle. However, we see that he lacked faith when it came to his manner of life. He did not trust God when God said, don't do that, do this, in terms of obedience. God blessed Samson in his acts of victory to save his people, but we do not see God blessing his disobedience. Because he was a man who was committed to doing what was right in his eyes, he died without his eyes. But yet, God still used him. It's really amazing. God's plan does not fail when we lack faith. He doesn't need us. That's the amazing power of God's grace. The other thing about it is God invites us in to be obedient, to be used by God. We see those two things here with Samson. God's plan is not thwarted. God does use him for his mission. And I believe we see Samson actually trusting God. Yes, I will go to battle and God will fight for me. When it comes to his own life, he only does what's right in his own eyes. Let's look to our next section. So we see here this unnamed wife who has been wrestling with the lack of children, a closed womb. She receives such a good message, and so she runs and she tells her husband. And now the emphasis is now turned to Manoah at some level. And I want you to see what Manoah does. Manoah prayed to the Lord. and said, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do when the child will be born. Now, they are somewhat confused about who came and spoke. All right, they're still calling the man of God. We're gonna see that that's a little different. The wife is at least recognizing he has the appearance of awesome. But here we see Manoah, and he's a hard character to figure out. What is he doing? Why can't he trust what his wife has reported? What does he need to hear for himself? These are questions the text doesn't really tell us, but it does appear he's lacking faith and kind of manipulates the situation a little bit. But I want you to see something very important. He prays. Whatever kind of faith he has, we at least see that he turns to God and he prays. He asked God for help. And I want you to look at verse nine. These three words are pretty amazing. All right, I don't see a lot of heads looking at me. Look at verse nine. And God listened. Manoah prays, and God listens. Now, let's just back up. God has spoken a message. Manoah isn't ready to receive that message by faith, so he says, God, would you say it again? And God listens. This is what is unique about the God of Christianity, the God of the Bible. He speaks, and he listens. He's not a dull idol. He's not an idol that doesn't speak, that doesn't listen. No, he's a very active relational God who wants to be known and to know us. He listens. And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel came again to the woman as she sat in the field. Now this is kind of funny. It seems like God's kind of playing a game with Manoah here. All right, you want to hear from the man of God, but I'm going to send him back to your wife who's alone in the field. All right? There's a very intentionality of where God sends the man and when he sends them, not to Manoah, but back to his wife. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, behold the man who came to me the other day has appeared. So Manoah rose, he went after her, and he said to him." And notice what happens next is a series of questions where Manoah is trying to affirm the message. Are you the same guy that spoke last time? I am. Now, when the word came true, what is the child's manner of life, and what is his mission? And the angel said, well, it's... I already told her. Did she not tell you? I already said these things. Just ask her. It's what I've already said. No strong drink, no cutting of the hair, no unclean thing. It seems here Manoah is trying to be in control. He seems like he's wrestling with it. And so the next little section here is a turn. Now Manoah said of the angel of the Lord, verse 15, Let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you." Now, this could appear as just a simple gesture of hospitality in this culture, but this is a big feast. All right? So Manoah seems to be trying to control the situation, the best I can understand what's happening here. And the angel of the Lord does not let him control the situation. And the angel of the Lord said, Manoah, if 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 who he was talking to. He didn't know it was an angel of the Lord. So here we see that the messenger is being affirmed, even though Manoah isn't asking for that. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name, so that when your words come true, it may honor you? And the angel 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 the rock of the Lord to the one who works wonders. And Manoah and his wife were watching. When the flame went up and toward heaven from all the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, and Manoah and his wife were watching. Notice they keep seeing this, they're watching this, and then they fall on their faces because they now see who this was. It wasn't just a man of God, this is the angel of the Lord. Now if it's the angel of the Lord or God himself, I'm not sure, but the point of the story is they've received a glorious, gracious message from the holy, glorious God, and that God, through this sacrifice, is affirming not only who this messenger is, but what he said. They realize they must worship. The final step in the story is the message is fulfilled. The angel of the Lord had disappeared. He's not going to appear anymore. And then Manoah knew that he was with the angel. And then when he finds out who it is, he says to his wife, we see a theological conflict in the home. We shall surely die, for we have seen God. His wife corrects him. If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands. or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these." She's helping him see, no, everything we've just seen is an act of grace by God. Everything we've just experienced is God being gracious to us. We are not going to die. God is showing us grace. Now, Manoah is right in this general principle. To come before the living, holy, righteous, glorious God in our sin, to see Him in our sinful state, means death. He's right. How can we, in our sin, come into the holy presence of God? That is a true statement. And if you're not a Christian this morning, this is where you need to wrestle. The holy and glorious God will not allow us, in our sin, to come into His presence without facing judgment. without facing wrath. There is an eternity of wrath waiting for those who are going to die in their own sin, thinking they're going to come before God and give some kind of an excuse or answer. You see, only God has given an answer for the problem of when we die and face a holy and righteous God in our sin. It's Jesus Christ. He came. He lived the perfectly righteous life that we cannot live, so that when He died on the cross, He died for our sin in place of us, taking the consequences of our sin, and then He rose again. And now when we face God, He comes before and He says, Father, I have suffered the consequence. I have taken the sin debt. I have paid in full, so that your wrath has been appeased. this is one of ours. He is, she has been washed. They've been sanctified. You must believe that Jesus Christ came to die for you as a sinner and that He rose again in order to actually come before God and be saved from the wrath of God waiting. That is the only way Just as this burnt offering is a sign of God's grace, Christ being the sacrifice of God is the only sign of grace we can believe. As we continue on, the wife said to him, we wanna die? And then verse 24, it gives the conclusion. God made a promise, and then we see it's fulfilled. She bore a son. His name was Samson. That means the sun rises. There's hope of a new day. The sun is rising with healing in its wings. And the young man grew and the Lord blessed him. And we also see that the Spirit begins to do a mighty work in him to prepare him for what he's supposed to be. As we come to the conclusion here, this is a story, but I want us to meditate upon some of the things we've seen. First, let's just talk about what God's done. Without being asked, God interrupts the story. God comes in, even though the people have not cried out, even though the people seem to be content to be under the oppression of the Philistines, the people God has redeemed and given to be free in Him, they're happy worshiping idols and suffering the consequence of it. And so God comes in, and changes that story. He is merciful and kind. Even still, He doesn't just come and speak a message. He's a God who listens. Let those three words just sink in today, Christian. And God listened. It's remarkable. If Manoah went boldly by faith to speak to God, how much more should we be going boldly to speak to God? This is why I wanted to play through the song lyrics we sang earlier. Hath thou not bid me seek thy face? And shall I seek in vain? And can the ear of sovereign grace be deaf when I complain? No, still the ear of sovereign grace attends the mourner's prayers. Oh, may I ever find excess to breathe my sorrow's air. Thy mercy's seat is open still. Here, let my soul retreat. With humble hope, attend Thy will, and wait beneath Thy feet. Thy mercy's seat is open still. Here, let my soul retreat. With humble hope, attend Thy will, and wait beneath Thy feet. We have so much more confidence today than Manoah had. Christ has come. He's died. He's risen. He's now at the right hand of the Father. We get to go before God, who's listening intently with a sovereign ear of grace. Are we talking to Him? What a glorious invitation, Christian. This is grace. God listens when we speak. In the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, we get to go and make requests known to Him. This is a great mercy. So God speaks. God acts in salvation. God listens. God fulfills His promise. Those are all good truths for us to be meditating upon. I also want you to see there's actually two different responses of faith in this story. First is the wife. It's just simple, sincere, quick faith. She hears the good message that she's been longing to hear, that she will have a child. She hears it from God. It's a promise of a miracle, and she receives it apparently very quickly. She seems to be the theologian of the family. She, she seems to just receive this message and believe it's a receptive, simple faith. Praise God. May all of our children have a simple, receptive faith. And that needs to be our prayer. Secondly, we see Manoah. He has a hesitant faith. He seems to need to have questions answered. He needs to seem to test the message. He needs evidence. Now what's amazing is God listens to him. God answers him. God speaks. God doesn't push him aside because he has questions. God's not afraid of our questions. We actually don't realize that God has given us His Word. What more can He say than to us that He's already said? Remember Thomas? The doubting disciple? It was okay for Him to ask. Let me, let me see the hands. Let me see the feet. Jesus didn't rebuke him. But He did say, blessed are those who believe without seeing. If you have questions this morning, if you're doubting, if you, if you wonder, let me encourage you. Ask God. Prayerfully ask God to show you what He has said and understand that what He has said is sufficient for you to believe. And it's right here in His Word. He doesn't have to answer your questions. It's pretty amazing that he does, though. The other thing we're gonna see about Samson, he's always connected to a woman. First his mom, then his wife, who also is unnamed, then a prostitute who's unnamed, and then the only person, the only woman named is Delilah, the woman whom he loved. We're gonna see this pattern, and Manola and his wife, they're not a clear functioning family based upon what we're gonna see later. But we're gonna see here the pattern as you look at Samson, and you wanna look at his life, realize it's patterned by the four women, and he continues to make worse and worse decisions. Ungodly women are his downfall after this. I believe what God does with Samson, He shows us that Samson is very much like Israel. Samson is like Israel. He's set apart for a purpose, but he continues in disobedience. That's the story of Israel through our judges. They're set apart for a purpose to be a light to the nations, to be God's holy people, but they continue to go after what they think is right in their own eyes. Samson's just like them. He's a little microcosm of what's happening with Israel. It's a warning. Samson's a warning for us. Especially children. It might look good. It might look like it'll taste good. It might look like it'll be satisfying, but that does not mean it's good. What God says for us, what God prohibits for us, That's good. Seek wisdom from above. Do not let yourself be controlled by your appetites. One of the most difficult things, the most dangerous things for Samson is that when he saw something that looked good, he ran after it, and that was normally a woman. It's not many women, young men. There's to be one woman. It's not many pictures of women. It's to be one woman. Do not be compelled by your sinful desires. What's amazing about Samson is he has no self-control. He has no discipline. He lacks real internal strength. As Christians, we realize if we're going to grow as disciples, it requires the same thing any kind of growth requires. It's discipline. You want to be a better basketball player. What's required? Discipline. You've got to practice. You want to be a better computer software engineer. It takes discipline. You actually have to practice. If you want to be a better Christian, it's actually going to take discipline. You have to practice. Jesus says deny yourself, carry your cross, follow me. Why do we feel like that's a tertiary thing that doesn't require any effort or practice? Why do we treat that as if it's something that, you know, God, I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going to go hang out in your house with your people this morning. And then the rest of the week, it's nothing. That is what the hardest command is to fulfill, and only by God's grace do we fulfill it. Why do we treat the discipline it requires to be a disciple of Christ as if it's small? That's the greatest and highest calling and the most difficult. We need to see here that Samson's beginning demonstrates God's power to save. We need to see that his end demonstrates he has faith. He does have a sad ending. He represents the death of Christ for his people. We'll get there in a couple weeks. What God says about us is the most important thing about us. I believe that's what I want us to carry away from this passage. What God says about Samson is the most important thing about him. He is set apart. He did not have strength that God looked down and said, I want that guy because he's powerful. God gave him strength to fulfill what God wanted him to do. He's not from any kind of great heritage. Dan is a tribe of no reputation. You'll see what Dan's about in a few weeks. He's not a kind person. He's short-fused and manipulative. Now the most important thing about Samson is that he belongs to God because God set him apart for himself. Believer, this is essential for us. We have to believe that the most important thing about God is what God says about us. We're blessed in Christ. We're redeemed in Christ. We're forgiven in Christ. We're adopted in Christ. We're to find our delight and assurance in that identity. Let Samson's life be a warning to us that if we actually don't delight in these things, we will suffer the consequences. A couple questions to walk away with this morning. First, and these are things I hope you'll talk about with loved ones and those close to you and in home groups or at lunch today. How can we rejoice more in being set apart by God? How can we rejoice as, as believers? How can we have this constant reminder that we were once in the domain of darkness, but now we're in the kingdom of His beloved Son? How can that reality become more true for how we think about ourselves, talk to one another about each other, and encourage one another? That's what we need to know. We are set apart by God for God. How can we rejoice in that more? Secondly, How can we better order our manner of life and our mission to be aligned with what God set us aside for? How can we better order our manner of life and our mission? Those two things have to go along together. Are we seeking to love God with all our hearts and in our manner of life pursuing that? Is our manner of life and our mission aligned with what God has said in His Word? As we conclude, let us think about these things. Let us praise God that He acts in salvation. Let us praise God that He speaks a word of salvation. Let us praise God that He hears us when we pray. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank You for Your Word, and that it gives us so many different ways of teaching us about You. So many different ways of warning us, of instructing us, Lord, we do thank you that you're the God who speaks the word of grace and interrupts our sprinting into destruction. We thank you, Lord, that your grace is sufficient, that you overcome our sin, its consequences. Lord, as we think about Samson, let us be warned, let us be encouraged, let us praise you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.