Wednesday September 28th 2022
Part of September 22 Notes

Samson

Judges 13
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed them for forty years.

  • In the Lord’s sight / in the eyes of the Lord
    Judges 2.11; 3.7, 12; 4.1; 6.1; 10.6

  • In those days, everyone did what was right in his own eyes
    Judges 17.6; 21.25

  • Sin doesn’t mean we simply violated our conscience, or failing to live up to our standards, or make a high enough quality effort or even doing something that upsets others in our home, school or workplace.
    Sin is when we violate the holiness of God.

Romans 3
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

1 John 1
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

  • Sin violates our relationship with God: He is the Creator, we are the Created. When God says it’s a sin, it IS sin, and what the eyes of the culture or experts or even the guy in the mirror says does not matter. It’s sin.

  • From “Judges for You“: My eyes, my judgment is a trap: “We must remember that the heart of their sin and ours is idolatry, and idols are not always bad things, but good things turned into ultimate hopes and goals. So the line between hard work and making an idol of work, or loving your family and making an idol of it, is a thin one. And an idol is by its nature deceitful. It tells us we are being sensible, careful and wise to work so hard - even that we are being unselfish - when in fact we have set it in God’s place in our hearts, and are thus doing evil in the only eyes in the universe that really count.”

Judges 13
2 In those days a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children.
3 The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son.
4 So be careful; you must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. 5 You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”

  • The Nazirite vow is found in Numbers 6.1-21
    Three basic things:
    1. No haircuts during the vow (Samson = lifetime)
    2. No drinking any produce from vines, either alcoholic or non alcoholic
    3. No contact with a dead body
  • The vow was a commitment made to seek the Lord’s help for a critical time. The Nazirite, by making the vow was living a ‘priest-like-life’ in the presence of the Lord every day.

What other instances did God work through a child who was a “miracle baby”?
- Isaac, born to Abraham and Sarah (who was barren) Gen 11, 21
- Samuel was born to Hannah (1 Sam. 1.5-7; 19-20
- John the Baptist born to Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1.7ff)
- Jesus born to Mary and Joseph (Luke 1.26-27; 34)

Romans 4.17
Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.

  • Interesting that the birth of Jesus - the most off the chart of all the miracle babies - stands apart from all the others. In the case of Isaac, Samuel, John the Baptist and our guy Samson, the promise of a child took away disgrace from the mothers. In these cultures, it was a shameful, sorrowful, ‘less than’ life to be childless. So God visiting these women shows his rich mercy and incredible grace.

  • The life of Jesus though is something else. Jesus was born under a cloud of scandal and suspicion. “This reminds us that while the other ‘saviors’ gained honor and glory in order to do their work, Jesus set aside all his honor and glory to do his.”

Judges 13.6
The woman ran and told her husband, “A man of God appeared to me! He looked like one of God’s angels, terrifying to see. I didn’t ask where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 But he told me, ‘You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.’”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, saying, “Lord, please let the man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born.”

9 God answered Manoah’s prayer, and the angel of God appeared once again to his wife as she was sitting in the field. But her husband, Manoah, was not with her.
10 So she quickly ran and told her husband, “The man who appeared to me the other day is here again!”
11 Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife the other day?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy’s life and work?”
13 The angel of the Lord replied, “Be sure your wife follows the instructions I gave her. 14 She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food.”
15 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for you to eat.”
16 “I will stay,” the angel of the Lord replied, “but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.” (Manoah didn’t realize it was the angel of the Lord.)

17 Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you.”
18 “Why do you ask my name?” the angel of the Lord replied. “It is too wonderful for you to understand.”
19 Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. 20 As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the Lord ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.

21 The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the Lord, 22 and he said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God!”

23 But his wife said, “If the Lord were going to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles.”
24 When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew up. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he lived in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol.

  • Manoah wanted to collect rules and lists and standards and practices and steps.
  • God showed Manoah who God is. His name is ‘beyond understanding’.
    God has not revealed himself to us to destroy us, but to redeem us.

  • “We think we need ruled, but we need to know God. God does not and will not, give us a guidebook for every twist and turn, every doubt and question in our lives.
    He gives us something much better – Himself.”

  • Mrs. Manoah and Mary?

Luke 1
30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel[f] forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.”

38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.