JUDGES CHAPTER 12-13, “Ephraim Dealt With / Samson Called To Separation”

By

Jim Bomkamp

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. In our last study, we looked at chapter chapters 10-11, and we saw some “do-nothing” judges as well as this man Jepthah who delivered the sons of Israel from the sons of Ammon who had been oppressing them.

1.1.1. We looked at Jephthah who was called by the Lord to be a judge of the children of Israel and was faithful in that calling even though he had several smears against his name, including:

1.1.1.1. He was an illegitimate son of a prostitute.

1.1.1.2. He had been run out of his own home by his half-brothers.

1.1.1.3. He had gathered together around him some men who were “worthless fellows.”

1.1.2. Jephthah was called by the children of Israel to be the leader and head over them so that they might be able to go out and conquer their oppressors, the Ammonites.

1.1.3. We saw the rash and foolish vow that Jephthah made to the Lord if He would give him victory over the Ammonites, Israel’s oppressor.

1.2. In our story today, we are first of all going to finish up our story of Jephthah and look in chapter 12 and the contention of the sons of the tribe of Ephraim after Jephthah is successful in battle against the Ammonites, and then we will look at chapter 13 and the calling by the Lord of this man Samson.

1.2.1. Ephraim is contentious and draws up in battle against Jephthah and the men of Gilead claiming that Jephthah didn’t call them to come to the battle as they went up against Ammon.

1.2.1.1. Ephraim had acted the same way earlier in the book when Gideon was judge and after his great victory over the Midianites., however at that time Gideon sought to deflate the crisis they had created by flattering the sons of Epraim.

1.2.1.2. Just as happened with Gideon, the sons of Ephraim claimed that they had not been called to battle when in fact they had been called. They were just jealous that they were not getting the glory and the spoils from the victory over the Ammonites, and in general they were just contentious people, always causing strife.

1.2.1.3. Jephthah decides that he will deal with Ephraim by disputing their contentions, and then when they do not accept his response to them, then he goes up in battle and defeats Ephraim.

1.2.1.4. We will see that jealousy is at the heart of the contentiousness of Ephraim.

2. VS 12:1-7 - “¹ Then the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you.” ² Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon; when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. ³ “When I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” ⁴ Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, O Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” ⁵ The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” ⁶ then they would say to him, “Say now, ‘Shibboleth.’ ” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim. ⁷ Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.” – Jephthah deals with Ephraim who again has become contentious and now threatens harm against Jephthah and Israel

2.1. We saw already in the book of Judges that after his victory over the Midianites that Gideon had this same tribe of Ephraim come to him with these same contentions. Gideon had called the tribes of Israel to come to the battle and pursue the fleeing Midianites, however the tribe of Ephraim hadn’t heeded that call. They had however captured a couple of the kings of Midian. They came to Gideon though complaining in the same way that they hadn’t been invited to the battle, when in fact they had been invited but had declined the offer. At that time Gideon decided to deflate the crisis by flattering Ephraim telling them that his victory over the Midianites was nothing compared to their capturing the two fleeing kings of Midian. Here we see though that Jephthah decides to take a different approach in dealing with the tribe of Ephraim.

2.2. Ephraim was jealous of the glory that Jephthah and those with him received after defeating the sons of Ammon, but they hadn’t been willing to come and fight the battle in the first place. Just as they had been with Gideon, Ephraim wanted the glory but didn’t want to risk their lives nor do the work of going to battle!

2.3. Jealousy is always a deadly sin when we allow it into our lives.

2.3.1. In Gal. 5:20 we find jealousy is listed as one of the expressions of the sinful nature when it rules our lives.

2.3.2. In James 3:13-18, we find jealousy and selfish ambition paired up as that which hinders a person from walking in the true wisdom of God in his life, “¹³ Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

2.3.2.1. Notice that James writes the following about jealousy:

2.3.2.1.1. It is not from above (from God), but is earthly, natural, and demonic.

2.3.2.1.2. Where it exists there is also disorder and every evil thing.

2.3.3. Jealousy led Cain to kill his brother Abel because Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice to the Lord, one which the Lord accepted.

2.3.4. In Numbers chapter 16 we read about the rebellion of Korah who enlisted also Dathan and Abiram. Korah came up to Moses and told him that he wasn’t so special and that the Lord could use anybody besides Moses. After Moses fell to the ground he told Korah to assemble the next day and the Lord would choose between them. We read that the earth opened up and swallowed all of those men and their families. In Psalm 106:16-17 the Psalmist writes that the reason why these men came against Moses was that they were envious of him.

2.3.5. Many times we Christians can become jealous of other people’s lives, both Christian and non-Christians. In the church we can become jealous of other people’s callings and ministry, but this is sinful and wrong and we instead ought to be happy for others and rejoice in the Lord when God is using them in a great way.

2.4. Jephthah knew that Ephraim was eventually going to have to be confronted and dealt with. Here in these verses, Jephthah uses a more direct tact than Gideon had used in dealing with the tribe of Ephraim in their contentiousness. He tells them that in fact that he had invited their tribe to the battle but that they had declined to come. Then, he had risked his own neck and gone up against the Ammonites alone and conquered them. Therefore, the tribe of Ephraim had nothing that they should be upset about.

2.4.1. Rather than fight their enemies Ephraim used their energies instead to be contentious with their brothers. This sounds like things that some churches do today.

2.5. Jephthah next went up against Ephraim in battle and the Lord caused him and his army to mightily conquer the Ephraimites who lost because they were out of God’s will for their life.

2.6. Jephthah however went overboard in his conquering of his brothers the Ephraimites. Instead of just allowing a conquered and humiliated army of his brethren to flee to their homes, Jephthah set up a check point for the fleeing Ephraimites. At the checkpoint the men were required to say the word, “Shibboleth,” and when a man from Ephraim would say the word he couldn’t pronounce the first consonant and so he would be discovered as being from the tribe of Ephraim, and then they would kill him. It says here that 42,000 men of Ephraim were slain as a result. These are tragic consequences for Ephraim…

3. VS 12:8-15 - “⁸ Now Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel after him. ⁹ He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage outside the family, and he brought in thirty daughters from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. ¹⁰ Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem. ¹¹ Now Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel after him; and he judged Israel ten years. ¹² Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. ¹³ Now Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel after him. ¹⁴ He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys; and he judged Israel eight years. ¹⁵ Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.” - Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon judged Israel

3.1. In our previous study I noted that there are in the book of Judges some of what I called “do-nothing” judges. These were judges of Israel who either were not known for any great deeds that they had done for Israel in delivering them, or they were known for a lifestyle that was really decadent and showed that they were using their influence as a judge only for their own personal benefit.

3.2. We see here that Ibzan judged Israel but is only known for having had 30 sons and daughters. Again this was just evidence of his affluence and that he had married many women, not that he was faithful before the Lord in his calling as a judge of Israel.

3.3. We see next that all that is known of Elon is that he judged Israel for 10 years.

3.4. Abdon judged Israel for eight years but all that is he is remembered for is having 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode 70 donkeys. Like Jair, this man used his affluence and influence just to spoil sons and grandsons by giving them donkeys to ride (our equivalence today of giving them Corvette Stingrays to drive).

4. We will see in this next section of our study that the children of Israel come to be oppressed by the Philistines and this leads to the Lord’s calling of this man Samson to be a judge of Israel. As we read from the book of Judges about his life, Samson was one of the most interesting of Bible characters.

4.1. After the death of Jephthah, for the 7^th time the sons of Israel fall away from the Lord into apostasy.

4.2. The Lord now raises up the Philistines to be their oppressors.

4.3. The Philistines were a sea people from Greece and the area of the Aegean Sea who had been run out of their homeland and arrived by boat on the African continent about 1200 BC. They initially attacked Egypt but were beaten back and so they settled in southern Palestine and established the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath, and Gaza.

4.4. For 40 years beginning in about 1095 BC, the Philistines oppressed Israel. The events recorded in the book of Judges of Samson’s judgeship against the Philistines began about 1075 BC. The Philistines were finally defeated by King David.

4.5. The Philistines didn’t attempt to come in and conquer Israel using force. They had a much more successful tact that they implemented. Just as the Borg in the Star Trek TV series, they sought instead to assimilate Israel. They sought in any way that they could to get the sons of Israel to marry their daughters. Plus, having learned to smelt iron they made iron farm implements and weaponry to sell which Israel then came to be dependent upon them for.

4.6. By the time that Samson came on the scene, the sons of Israel were so assimilated by the Philistines that they were apathetic towards the Lord to the point that they didn’t even care to be delivered by the Lord. Not once do we see that the children of Israel even cried out to the Lord to be delivered from the Philistines.

4.7. The only army the sons of Israel put together during Samson’s era was one to come and arrest Samson and turn him over to the Philistines so that they could have peace.

4.8. So, compromise with the world was almost absolute for the sons of Israel. However, the Lord hadn’t given up on the sons of Israel so He sent them a deliverer in Samson to keep them from being completely assimilated by the Philistines.

4.9. Samson’s parents were godly people, however his mother could not bear any children and was barren. Thus, this couple must have prayed often and fervently to be able to have a child. God gave them more than a child however, He gave them a son who before birth was called to be a judge and deliverer of God’s people.

4.9.1. Isn’t this the way it is with the Lord so often in our lives. We pray and ask the Lord to work in our lives but when He answers our prayers and works on our behalf He does so much more than we ask as He is using those opportunities to work out His perfect will in our life.

4.10. We will see in our study that “the angel of the Lord” appears to Samson’s mother initially and tells her of the fact that she would finally have a son and that this son was to be raised up under a lifetime Nazirite Vow.

4.11. In Numbers chapter 6 we read what the regulations under the law were for anyone taking up a Nazirite Vow, and they are the following:

4.11.1. It was a voluntary commitment.

4.11.2. It was a temporary commitment (in Samson’s case it was to be for a lifetime however).

4.11.3. It was to be a life of separation and thus while a person was under this vow he could not do the following:

4.11.3.1. Drink anything made from the vine.

4.11.3.1.1. Grapes and wine symbolized the joys of life and a Nazirite vow was one of separation from normal life in order to be committed to and live entirely dedicated to the Lord.

4.11.3.2. Touch any dead body.

4.11.3.2.1. You were to be holy to the Lord and separated unto the Lord’s service and contact with a dead body brought about uncleanness that would keep a person from being able to go to the tabernacle and participate in any worship.

4.11.3.3. Cut his hair.

4.11.3.3.1. This outward symbol publicly marked those under this vow.

4.12. We always see pictures of Samson which depict him as being this huge “he-man,” however that kind of description is not made of him in the scriptures. He may even have been averaged size or small because the source of his great strength for which he is known is the Spirit of the Lord, not any innate strength of his own.

4.12.1. Samson was sort of like the cartoon character Popeye the Sailorman who was just an average looking guy, however when Brutus had been beating up on him and taking away his girl, Olive Oil, then he would finally eat a can of spinach and when he did suddenly his muscles bulged out and he had super human strength and easily beat up Brutus and got back his girl friend. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson he was able to do incredible works for the Lord.

4.12.1.1. There is a parallel here between Samson and the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers. For when the Holy Spirit falls upon us and baptizes us we are greatly empowered and go out and are used greatly by the Lord because of this incredible anointing power we have received. We need this baptism to be used greatly by the Lord.

4.12.1.2. We Christians need to learn to depend upon the Holy Spirit to work mightily through our own lives, for He must perform God’s will through us. If we do this then we too will be used in a great way just as was promised in Zech. 4:6 to Zechariah, after the 70 years of Judah’s exile to Babylon. Zechariah was promised by an angel that the Lord was going to fulfill His word in their midst and that Zerubbabel was indeed going to complete the rebuilding of the temple whose foundations Zerubbabel had laid, and then the Lord told him how this was going to happen, “⁶ Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

4.13. Samson grew up to not really be any kind of a spiritual man however, and thus we see that he violated his Nazirite vow in regards to touching dead bodies and going near grape vines.

4.14. Samson sought to keep the external requirements of the Nazirite vow for the most part, however because he was not a truly spiritual man he didn’t realize that he was also to be separated unto the Lord.

4.14.1. We don’t ever see Samson praying.

4.14.2. We don’t ever see Samson worshipping.

4.14.3. We don’t ever see Samson seeking the Lord’s will for his life.

4.14.4. Samson’s acts against the Philistines were personal vendettas against them instead of a fighting of the Lord’s battles.

4.14.5. Sadly, we see in the book of Judges that the Lord worked through Samson’s life, but He did so in spite of Samson. God was always working good through situations Samson got himself into and using Samson, however Samson himself was just following his own carnal desires and thoughts.

4.14.5.1. It is a sad thing when the Lord works through a Christian’s life in spite of him not because he is obeying and following the Lord closely. There are many people who claim to be God’s people who are not walking in the way that the Lord would have them to walk, some are even in positions of Christian leadership. However, it is a shame that in order for God to use a person He has to work around him instead of through him.

4.15. Samson was a big failure as a judge or deliverer of Israel. His life is one of tragedy and he never completed his calling before the Lord. He never once rallied the sons of Israel to go up in battle against their oppressors, the Philistines. His acts against the Philistines seemed more like immature college pranks than the working of a man of God.

4.16. Samson’s calling to a Nazirite vow as well as his failures in that regard and in fulfilling his calling before the Lord brings us to the consideration of what kind of separation from the world we as God’s people ought to have.

4.16.1. Some Christian groups seek to separate themselves “from” the world and consider that this alone is the fulfilling of God’s will for their lives. Many have become monks and lived completely separated from the world in monasteries.

4.16.1.1. However, being separated from the people of this world is not what the Lord’s will is for us as people because we as Christians have been given by Jesus the Great Commission to go and to win the world for Christ. Plus, just being separated from the world doesn’t insure that anyone will have holy and sanctified thoughts towards the Lord.

4.16.2. Some Christian groups have created legalistic rule after rule to enforce separation from the world, but legalism doesn’t produce life nor does it give you a love for the lost.

4.16.3. Some Christian groups have sought to assimilate the world so that they can win the people of this world to Christ. However, worldliness doesn’t reach that objective of winning the lost either.

4.16.3.1. As a example of how extreme some churches in our day have gone in this regard, in the Thursday, June 12, 2003 Grand Rapids Press newspaper there appeared the following article titled, “New pub serves spirits with the Spirit,” about a church in town which had opened up a bar and served alcohol in order to reach the lost with the gospel, “This Bud’s for God. So say bartenders at Graces, a new downtown pub whose spirits move you in the name of Christian evangelism. “We’ve got a lot of Belgian beers,” said barkeep Steve Vera, who was kept busy serving thirsty patrons during Wednesday night’s grand opening. “There brewed by monks, so you could say they are Christian beers.” The pop-topping Calvin College Theological Seminary student is among a handful of volunteer bartenders in the pub at 134 Monroe Center NW, across from Grand Rapids’ Rosa Parks Circle…Owner Renee Visser says the bar is hardly meant to replace a church it is merely an outpost for faith…”

4.16.3.1.1. More recent articles about this pub have stated that people are picking each other up just like they do at the singles’ bars and that some people are getting drunk.

4.16.3.2. We as Christians are called to be “salt” and “light” to this world.

4.16.3.2.1. As “salt” we are called to be a preservative, to be people who are used by the Lord to keep people of this world from being corrupted by sin and the appetites and desires of their fleshly sinful nature.

4.16.3.2.2. As “light” we are to have our deeds so shine before men that they will glorify our Father in heaven because of our lives.

4.17. We as Christians are to be people who live in this world but who are not of this world. Jesus and how He lived His life is our best example in this regard:

4.17.1. Jesus loved sinners and sought always to win them to Christ, and He was even known as a friend of sinners and tax gatherers.

4.17.2. Jesus lived a life that was totally holy and sinless and which did not commit the sins that the people of this world commit.

4.18. Samson was a man who failed in his calling by the Lord because before he went and tried to conquer the world for the Lord, he first hadn’t learn to conquer himself and his own passions. In the end it was Samson’s own passions which led to his pathetic demise and tragic death.

4.19. No other judge had more potential for being used by the Lord than Samson and yet his life was really just a failure before the Lord.

5. VS 13:1-2 - “¹ 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. 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.” - The children of Israel fell away from the Lord and were oppressed for 40 years by the Philistines

5.1. We see here in these verses the 7^th time that the children of Israel fell away from the Lord and did evil in the sight of the Lord.

5.2. This man Samson whom we will read about in this chapter can be argued as really being the last of the judges over the nation of Israel.

5.3. Monoah, the father of Samson, and his wife were from the tribe of Dan however when the tribe of Dan had moved north this couple stayed in the original territory of Dan. At this point in time Manoah and his wife lived in that territory right between the land of the Philistines and Israel.

5.4. We see that Samson’s mother was not able to have children, and thus she was facing that ultimate life of humiliation and futility as a woman in Israel.

6. VS 13:3-5 - “³ 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. ⁴ “Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. ⁵ “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.”” - The angel of the Lord appears to Samson’s mother and tells her that she will have a son and that he will be under a Nazirite vow from the womb

6.1. Notice first of all that this is not any angel of the Lord, but rather ‘the angel of the Lord.’ Therefore, this is yet another Old Testament instance of an appearance to man in human form of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

6.2. It is interesting that the angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s mother first. We could speculate as to why she would have been picked instead of her husband but all that we know is that He appeared to her first.

6.3. Samson had a very unique and important calling before the Lord. ‘The angel of the Lord’ only appeared one other time to announce a birth, and this was at the birth of Isaac (Gen. 17:9). Remember, it was Gabriele who appeared to announce the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus.

6.4. This Nazirite calling of Samson was a unique one also since his was to be for life, not just for a time.

6.5. Note here that God’s calling for Samson was that he was to “begin” to deliver Israel from the Philistines. Samson’s calling was to be really just the beginning of deliverance from the Philistine oppressors of Israel. Full deliverance would come to Israel later under King David.

7. VS 13:6-14 - “⁶ 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. ⁷ “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.’ ” ⁸ 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.” ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me.” ¹¹ 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.” ¹² Manoah said, “Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy’s mode of life and his vocation?” ¹³ So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Let the woman pay attention to all that I said. ¹⁴ “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.”” - Samson’s mother goes and tells her husband of the angel appearing to her and then he prays to the Lord that the angel will reappear, and the Lord answers his prayer and the angel reappears to Samson’s mother

7.1. Manoah and his wife are very different from most of the folks of the day in Israel for they prayed and earnestly sought and worshipped the Lord.

7.2. Notice here Manoah is an unusual man for he immediately believes his wife’s story concerning this angel of God (whom she believes is a man of God) having appeared to her. Lets be honest men, most of us would have told our wives something like, “Yeah, right honey some guy told you some things that are going to happen to us…”

7.3. It is interesting here that after Manoah’s prayer that the angel of the Lord appears again to Samson’s mother, and not to Manoah himself.

7.4. At this point in time both Manoah and his wife do not understand that this is an angel that has appeared to them. They think that he is just ‘a man of God.’

7.5. Manoah asks the angel of the Lord a single question. He wants to know what Samson’s ‘mode of life’ and ‘vocation’ are going to be. However, the Lord doesn’t answer that question but just repeats what he told Manoah’s wife about the importance of their son keeping the requirements of a Nazirite vow.

7.5.1. We as Christians don’t always have to know all that the Lord plans to do through our lives, do we? We need to be faithful to obediently keep the things that the Lord has shown us to do, but we don’t need to know how God is going to do the things that He has told us that He is going to do. Yet, we often stumble because we want to know “how” God is going to do what He has promised to us.

7.5.2. The Lord often doesn’t tell us the whole picture and how things are going to work either. He expects us to walk by faith in Him, and if we knew what the Lord’s plans were ahead of time we would try to short-cut those plans anyway and take the easy way out.

7.5.3. We Christians need to realize that there is tremendous learning to be had by us during those times when we are walking by faith and just trusting that the Lord knows what He is doing and that He will bring all things to pass in His own timing.

8. VS 13:15-21 - “¹⁵ Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?” ¹⁸ But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ 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. ²¹ 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.” - Manoah asks the angel of the Lord to remain so that he may prepare a meal for him, however the angel of the Lord refuses to eat food but tells Manoah that if he was going to offer a sacrifice from the young goat to go ahead and do this

8.1. Manoah wants to know the name of this man of God so that when his wife gives birth to the baby this man of God has prophesied of that he may honor this man. However, the angel of the Lord asks Manoah why he is asking this question and then he tells Manoah that his name is ‘wonderful.’ ‘Wonderful’ is prophesied to be a name of the Lord Jesus we read from Isaiah 9:6, “⁶ For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

8.2. Not only is one of the Lord’s names ‘wonderful’ but He Himself is ‘wonderful’ and for this reason He has this name.

8.3. In order to convince Manoah and his wife that it is indeed the angel of the Lord who has appeared to Him, when Manoah offers up to the Lord this sacrifice the angel of the Lord ascends up in the flame of the altar toward heaven.

9. VS 13:22-23 - “²² So Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen God.” ²³ 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.”” - Manoah is afraid that he and his wife will die since they have seen the Lord however his wife convinces him that they will be OK

9.1. Manoah’s wife is very level headed we see here. Maybe this is a reason that the angel of the Lord appeared to her first and not to her husband.

9.2. Manoah’s wife reassures him that if the Lord were planning to appear to them in order to kill them, then the angel of the Lord would not have accepted the offering from their hands, nor would He have shown them all of the things that He showed them, nor let them hear all of the things that they heard Him say.

10. VS 13:24-25 - “²⁴ Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.” - Manoah and his wife give birth to a son and name him Samson

10.1. This name which Manoah and his wife chose for their new son means ‘sunny’ and it was the Lord’s plan for Samson’s life that he be not only a great and mighty man in strength but also that he bear much light for the Lord. However, as was mentioned earlier Samson was a failure because he did not understand or appreciate that his Nazirite vow meant that he was supposed to be separated unto the Lord, live a holy life, and be dedicated to the Lord. Samson was a very carnal and earthy man who never matured spiritually or emotionally.

10.2. Notice that the source of Samson’s great strength which will next read about in the book is mentioned here in verse 25, ‘the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him.’ Samson was only strong because the Spirit of God came upon him.

11. CONCLUSION:

11.1. In our Christian walk, lets have a healthy view of what dedication to the Lord involves.

11.1.1. Separation “from” the world is not what is involved in being where God wants us to be.

11.1.2. Rather, we are to have separation from the sinful practices of the people of the world while also being committed to trying to win them to Christ.

11.2. Lets be dependent upon the Holy Spirit to work through our lives and do the will of God through our lives.

11.3. Lets be dependent upon the Holy Spirit to bring this church to the place where the Lord wants it to be.

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