When we read God’s Word, seeking to know God by His Word, we learn more about how He works.  We also begin to see the character of God displayed as He works daily to rescue, save, and deliver His people who choose Him.  Throughout the centuries, from the fall of Adam to salvation in Jesus; it is God at work.  Even though evil tempts and taunts; it is not God’s desire that anyone perish from evil.  Peter, the disciple who walked with Jesus for three years and observed how He related to everyone, writes this testimony about the Lord God;

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9

Israel has turned away from God again.  He allows them to live with the consequences of evil for forty years but has not turned from them. God is always at work and always will be at work on behalf of His created.  Even we are unfaithful; God is forever faithful to us, His created. A new leader who will deliver the Israelites is soon to be born to a childless couple.  What a blessing!  Samson is the story of God at work in and for His people.  God begins the work of deliverance in this couple, so giddy with excitement that they ask, “teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”  Notice that it seems they want to do the right thing but maybe forgot what doing the right thing looks like in a fallen world.  They do remember that sacrifices are important so they offer a sacrifice to the angel messenger; but the angel instructs them, “…if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.”

God intervenes in a fallen world with a message from His angel to a childless couple with great news! The message; “you will have a son.”  The couple who will later give birth miraculously to a baby boy who will grow into a man who will deliver Israel.  Yes, that’s how God works! When all seem to be doom and gloom, with no hope—God delivers Hope. 

Judges 13

The Birth of Samson

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

² A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. ³ The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. ⁴ Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. ⁵ You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

⁶ Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. ⁷ But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.’”

⁸ Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

⁹ God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. ¹⁰ The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!”

¹¹ Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”

“I am,” he said.

¹² So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”

¹³ The angel of the Lord answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. ¹⁴ She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”

¹⁵ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.”

¹⁶ The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)

¹⁷ Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

¹⁸ He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” ¹⁹ Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: ²⁰ As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. ²¹ When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

²² “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”

²³ But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”

²⁴ The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, ²⁵ and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Again and again, the nation of Israel gave up their identity as God’s Chosen to fall for the evils of the culture around them.  They forgot God and His commandments that kept them close to God and to each other.  Punishment often resulted by allowing them to live the consequences of living without Him. Yet, God retained his covenant with these obstinate people.

During the time of the judges, God provided a deliverer. A baby was promised to a childless couple created with the purpose to deliver God’s people from the oppression of the Philistines. When he was born, he was named Samson.  He was to live a dedicated life to God and for God. 

How and why do people once close to God suddenly turn from God?  We don’t just wake up one day and decide to leave God; it happens most often in day-to-day behaviors that slowly erode our desire to please God. Our pride has a lot to do with this erosion of faith in God. With a little success on our own, affirmed by the applause of others; we begin to seek to please others rather than God. We slowly, and at first reluctantly, accept the behaviors of the culture around us that is opposite all that is God.

We find a new idol of worship—self.  Lucado writes; “Pride makes us drift from God’s commands. We feel “I can do it on my own,” or we become confident in our own ability to handle each day. Yet, like Israel, we often remember to turn to God when life suddenly gets hard. Pride is idolatry—the idol is self.

Jesus, who could have called ten thousand angels to deliver Him from dying on cruel cross of publicly humiliation; but He did not.  Jesus chose God’s will be done to remove our sins in this way.  God’s Plan of salvation once and for all, came with a demonstration of humility for us to imitate later—Jesus set aside his own interests for the interests of others. Paul writes of this characteristic of Jesus;

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:3-8

And then God declared Him King of all.  Our King of kings and LORD of lords is our Deliverer forever!  Jesus paid the price for our redemption. Can we just pause to gratefully bow before Him in pure praise?!  Hallelujah!

And what does the Lord require of us?

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Humility is the opposite of pride. We decide daily who to lean on for wisdom and understanding with guidance to all that is truth.  Choose wisely.

How do we respond?  Pause to reflect and evaluate. Ask God’s Holy Spirit to help us.  Has our pride led us away from God? Have we become so self-reliant that we no longer follow God’s advice?  Do we lean on our own understandings instead of God who knows all and is in all?

Here is what is to come as the life of Samson occupies the next four chapters of Judges. Samson was unpredictable and undependable because he was double-minded, and people like that are “unstable in all [their] ways” (James 1:8). It has well been said that “the greatest ability is dependability,” and you could depend on Samson to be undependable. 

We will learn much from the life of Samson, the hairy hulk who had great strength—until he got a haircut!

Oh Lord,

May the sin of pride be overcome by the power of Your Holy Spirit’s work within us. Help us to think and behave more like you. Help us to develop your mind who guides us to all things opposite of evil.  May your peace then rule our hearts.

In Jesus Name, for Your glory and our good, Amen