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[0:00] Judges, Judges chapter 13. It's hard to say 12, that's what I have printed here, but that's incorrect.

[0:21] It's 13. And in a moment I'm going to read the entire chapter. I'm going to read that entire chapter and it really is not the part that we kind of tend to want to get right to.

[0:38] This is the part about Samson's birth. And so we've come to him. The final, actually, the final judge that is mentioned here in the book of Judges.

[0:50] And then we have a number of chapters that deal with some other issues and we'll get to that by and by. But it's going to take us a few weeks to work our way through Samson's life. One of the more colorful characters in the book of Judges, really in the entire book of the Bible or the Bible.

[1:11] And, you know, everyone has heard of Samson. Really, you know, at least in a Christian culture like ours, almost everyone has heard of Samson.

[1:22] I mean, I know a lot about him and I know everything that we know about him and may have never read the story, actually reading the story, the account of Samson's life in the Bible, but they've heard of him and seen him portrayed in cartoons and other things.

[1:39] And maybe they've seen the Hollywood movie about Samson. Who was it? Victor Mature? Right? Some of you are saying, I don't know. I think it was.

[1:51] Okay. I just wanted to make sure you understand. Or that you're with me. So everybody's heard of him and they may not know, again, that Samson was a judge, you know, of Israel.

[2:08] I mean, I really know much about what all that is. And they certainly know the story of Samson and they know that he's in the Bible. I think most people do know that he's, you know, character in the Bible.

[2:22] And what else do they know? They know he was very strong. All right. All the kids know that. And adults as well. He's very strong. And, I mean, where do you think they got, came up with Samsonite luggage?

[2:38] Huh? Came from Samson. I mean, it's just, it's incredible how much the Bible has influenced everything. I mean, it's true.

[2:52] Isn't it? Okay. I mean, Samson, the name Samson's known for strength. I have a piece of Samsonite luggage. Or, yeah, one piece. And it's pretty good.

[3:04] They also know that he had trouble with a woman. Don't you think most people have heard of Samson and Delilah? They go together, don't they?

[3:15] I mean, you know, you have Abbott and Costello. You have, who? Martin and Lewis. You have Astaire and Rogers.

[3:27] Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers. I mean, most of us are of that age that we remember that duo. Huh? What? Oh, no.

[3:38] Not insulting anyone about age. Maybe too many. Yep. All right. I'll allow one question. I have to say, some of us are old enough to remember Lewis and Clark. Now, that is insulting.

[3:55] Or how about this one? Starsky and Hutch. There's a famous duo. Or infamous. One of the two. Lucy and Desi. Lucy and Desi.

[4:07] Mickey and Minnie. Who? Mickey and Minnie. All right. We could just go on and on and on, you know, with that. And then there's Samson and Delilah. All right.

[4:19] Perhaps a famous Bible duo. And everybody knows about that. The two names go together. Because, you know, of the familiarity with a story that has been told and retold and portrayed and put in books and cartoons and movies and all of that.

[4:37] And all of our kids, especially in the Christian community, have grown up having the story of Samson read to them, you know, from storybooks and Bible storybooks.

[4:48] Maybe straight from the Bible. And so he's a very familiar character. And most people know that Samson, now we get, you know, we get a little bit more to the point of understanding the biblical, actual biblical story of Samson.

[5:05] But many people know that he was not such a good guy. You know, that he, you know, was kind of a bad guy for the better part of his life.

[5:17] In a spiritual sense. And maybe some other ways as well. But they also know that he ended well. I mean, most of us know that, don't we?

[5:28] That he ended well. And we'll get to that part of the story sometime. I'm not sure when. You know, he eventually came around. To, you know, the right way of thinking.

[5:42] And God did use him. Not just at the end of his life. But God used him as a judge at many junctures of his life.

[5:52] Now, you know, Samson's life was marked by great victory. Maybe great victories, plural. And we'll study some of those.

[6:04] But also was marked by great failure. Great failure. And I would say this. And this is just kind of by way of introduction to the life of Samson.

[6:15] The account of his life in the book of Judges. But I would say that Samson's life was, you know, really an anomaly. I mean, you know, you think about it.

[6:27] His life kind of stands in many respects as a supreme contradiction. At many different levels. He was the strongest man that ever lived.

[6:41] I really believe that. I think he was the strongest man who ever lived on this planet. Physically strong. And yet at the same time he was the weakest of men. You know, in reference to his character.

[6:56] But the kind of the anomaly or the contradiction of his life even goes much deeper than that. Than that. He was dedicated to the Lord before he was born. We're going to talk about that here in a little bit.

[7:08] But he was dedicated to himself all his life until he died. What a contradiction. When you think about it in those terms. And I would say this.

[7:19] That he was mightily used by the Holy Spirit. I mean, clearly from the story you see that. He was used by the Holy Spirit. And yet throughout his life he was utterly ruled by his flesh.

[7:32] What a contradiction. That's what makes, I guess, the story of Samson such an interesting story. And one that may be at, you know, several different levels we can relate to.

[7:49] You know, in his fleshly side and so forth. All right. So now other than the heroic act on the last day of his life.

[8:01] Other than that. I think you might agree that there's very little in the story of Samson that we might commend him for. You know, when you think of him.

[8:12] Even though he did some great things. Some awesome things. Some mighty things. And yes, God did use him to accomplish those things. But he didn't do it because he was really serving God.

[8:26] Or in some sense that he was trying to fulfill his calling and his purpose. He did things for himself. And yet God used them. Used those things.

[8:37] So very little to commend him for. Except, you know, that last thing that he did. And we could even find some problems in that last thing that he did.

[8:49] And yet Samson's name appears in Hebrews 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Among, you know, that long list of named and unnamed heroes of the faith.

[9:00] Samson's in there. As were a few other judges. Who also had some major issues in their lives concerning their character.

[9:12] And so here is perhaps the strangest thing about Samson. I would say that he is an example of what the Bible or what a believer should not be. I mean, you really can glean that message from the life of Samson.

[9:26] He is everything a believer should not be. And yet, he was a figure of Christ. He was a figure of Christ.

[9:38] You say, how so? Well, you have to wait a few weeks to get that one. And I'll just give you a hint. You can look at the story yourself. Read the entire story.

[9:49] And from issues related to his birth and calling and all the way through. There is an interesting parallel between Samson and Christ.

[10:05] Samson, a figure of Christ. And we'll talk more about that in a few weeks. All right, so tonight we want to focus on what Judges says about Samson's birth.

[10:18] That will be our focus tonight because that's what you have primarily in this chapter, chapter 13. So let me go ahead and read the chapter. This is not the part of the story that we normally read to our children.

[10:30] It's a little bit later we read about that. Some of Samson's exploits with his strength and so forth. All right, so here it is. Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

[10:42] And the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. So that's how the story begins. And it's the same old story. And we've seen that all throughout the book of Judges.

[10:54] Now there was a certain man from Zorah of the family of Danites, the Danites, the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and had no children.

[11:07] And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Indeed, now you are barren and have born no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.

[11:20] Now, therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink and not to eat anything unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head.

[11:34] For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb. And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. So the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God.

[11:52] Very awesome. But I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. And he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.

[12:03] Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, O my God, my Lord rather, Please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again And teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.

[12:28] And God listened to the voice of Manoah, And the angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field, But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said to him, Look, the man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me.

[12:48] So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. Manoah said, Now let your words come to pass.

[13:01] What will be the boy's rule of life in his work? So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman, Let her be careful.

[13:13] She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, Nor may she drink wine or similar drink, Nor eat anything unclean. All that I command her, let her observe.

[13:24] Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Please let us detain you, And we will prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I will not eat your food.

[13:36] But if you offer a burnt offering, You must offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name?

[13:49] That when your words come to pass, We may honor you. And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name? See, it is wonderful. So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering And offered it upon the rock to the Lord.

[14:06] And he did a wondrous thing While Manoah and his wife looked on. It happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, The angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar.

[14:17] When Manoah and his wife saw this, They fell on their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah And his wife, When Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord, And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die because we have seen God.

[14:36] 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 told us such things as these at this time.

[14:52] So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson, And the child grew and the Lord blessed him, And the spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahana, Dan, between Zorah and Eshtel.

[15:09] Okay, so there you have the account of the birth of Samson. And so when you look at this part of the story, I think you should understand a few things about God's activity In bringing, once again, to Israel, A judge, a deliverer that could be used, And would be used of God, To deliver his people from the oppression, The bondage, The, The, The, Of the enemies, Their enemies, The Philistines.

[15:48] Now this is taking place In the tribe, Primarily in the tribe of Dan. And you know all the judges Were living in different parts of Israel, Of different tribes.

[16:00] And so the oppressors each time, Those God used to judge Israel, Were different from different countries, Surrounding countries, Nations, Some even within Israel.

[16:16] And their primary oppression took place In local areas. And so God would raise up a judge To lead his people And free his people from this oppression.

[16:28] All right now, The three things that I want us to notice About the birth of Samson. First of all, It was announced.

[16:39] All right? Not always do you have births announced In the Bible. And yet we already know Of quite a few of them Throughout scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, Of the births of specific people, Great people, People that God would use mightily.

[16:58] You have them announced beforehand. And that was the case here With Samson. And so when we think about His birth announced, We can notice, I think, Several interesting features Relative to that.

[17:12] In the first place, It came from heaven, didn't it? The announcement of Samson's birth Came from heaven. It came from God. It was a heavenly announcement.

[17:24] Verse 3 says that very clearly. In the angel of the Lord. In fact, you're going to see that Repeated a number of times. Sometimes angel of the Lord. Sometimes angel of God.

[17:35] But it was the angel of the Lord. The angel of God Who appeared to the woman. That's what verse 3 says. We don't even have her name. That's Manoah's wife. You know.

[17:45] Later, Samson's mom. And I don't know her name. Pretty typical of, you know, Of women in the Bible. So we don't know her name.

[17:56] But the angel of the Lord Appeared to her. And said to her, Indeed, now you are barren. Just reminding her of something That was a major affliction In her life anyway.

[18:08] You're barren. You have no children. But you shall conceive. So here's good news for you. You shall conceive and bear a son. Now the question is always Who is this angel of the Lord?

[18:22] This angel of the Lord. And you see that A lot of places in scripture. Is it Gabriel? No. Some might ask. Okay. You know, Gabriel did announce The birth of someone quite great In the New Testament, right?

[18:42] Whose birth? Jesus. Jesus. All right. So Gabriel did that. He announced the birth of Christ. So maybe this is Gabriel. Well, I don't think so.

[18:54] I agree with Wes back there On the back pew. This is not Gabriel. All right. So maybe it's some other angel. Just some unknown angel.

[19:05] But I believe, And I'm going to give you Some reasons why. I believe this is a pre-Bethlehem, Pre-incarnate, Pre-New Testament appearance Of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[19:23] He's the angel of the Lord. I believe this is an appearance Of God the Son. Now, why can we come to that conclusion Based upon this particular text?

[19:34] Well, a number of reasons. For one, his name. The name he gives. He said, well, that's a bit cryptic, You know, And especially if you have A King James Version There.

[19:49] But he does answer Manoah's question, you know, About what your name is. You know, Mrs. Noah came to her husband And said, you know, I had this visitation From the angel of the Lord And he didn't tell me his name.

[20:02] He didn't know where he was from. In fact, really, I think at that point They just thought he was Some messenger, Some man. And so then Manoah, In verse 17, Said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name?

[20:16] What is your name? That sounds very much like Moses. You know, remember he said, What is your name? So that, you know, When I go and they say, Well, why have you come? And whose name have you come? I can tell them.

[20:27] And so he asked the question, What is your name? So that, you know, When your words come to pass, Your promise is fulfilled, Then we can honor you for that. So what is your name?

[20:38] And the angel of the Lord said, Why do you ask me my name? Seeing it is wonderful. Now in the King James says, Secret.

[20:49] And really, That's not a wrong translation. The Hebrew word here Literally means incomprehensible. Now that's not a word That you're going to necessarily find In the Bible.

[21:02] And, you know, The translator is not going to pick Incomprehensible to put in there. But that's basically What the name means. Now, most versions Translated wonderful.

[21:13] In fact, Every modern version That I consulted Other than, you know, Other than the King James, It's still, We call that a modern translation, I guess. They have wonderful Rather than secret.

[21:27] But guess what? It is the same Hebrew word That appears in Hebrew, Excuse me, Isaiah 9.6. Ring a bell On that particular passage.

[21:37] It's a messianic prophecy. It is, The Bible says, For unto us a child is born, Unto us a son is given, And the government Will be upon his shoulder, And his name Shall be called Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful Counselor, And so forth.

[21:54] Same word. Wonderful. And so here's the angel Of the Lord Being asked by Manoah, What is your name? And he said, Why are you asking my name? It's wonderful.

[22:06] Seeing it's wonderful. Alright, This angel of the Lord, I think, Is the son of God. God the son. Because second of all, Manoah and his wife, If you recall the story here, They worshipped him.

[22:22] Worshipped him With a sacrifice, A burnt offering. And the angel of the Lord Accepted it. In fact, The angel of the Lord Told them To offer up a sacrifice. They say, Well, The angel of the Lord Told them to offer up A sacrifice to the Lord.

[22:36] Yes, But then, The angel's actions When that sacrifice Was made And the, You know, The fire is going up And smoke is up And he enters into that As a symbol of accepting That sacrifice.

[22:50] He did not correct them Or, You know, Not accept their sacrifice. He accepted it And they worshipped him In response. A mere angel, You see, Would have never, Ever accepted The worship, Worship of man.

[23:09] Third reason, Manoah referred to The angel of the Lord As God. You see that in the story? In the account? He referred to him As God And the angel Did not correct him.

[23:24] You know, There was no voice From the angel No, I'm not God. You've got this wrong. Verse 22, Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die Because we have seen God. We have seen him.

[23:36] Well, They saw The second person Of the Trinity. And, Generally speaking, I think it's safe to say That every time You have God Appearing Or God Interacting with man It is always God the Son.

[23:54] All the way Until when you Get to the cross Or get to the birth Of Jesus Christ You have The visible Manifestation Of God Interacting With man And it's God The Son.

[24:09] And, You know, This is not the only time That Jesus Showed up in the Old Testament. I'll just give you A quick list. He appeared to Hagar In Genesis 16 And 21.

[24:20] He appeared to Abraham Genesis 18 Genesis 22 He appeared to Jacob Genesis 28 And also chapter 32 He appeared to Moses Exodus 3 Exodus 23 Exodus 33 So a number of times There He appeared to Joshua Joshua chapter 5 Remember just before The battle of Jericho And he appeared to Gideon In Judges chapter 6 We studied that A number of months ago He appeared to Samson's parents We have that here In our passage He appeared to Isaiah In that famous Chapter Isaiah chapter 6 He appeared to To Daniel In Daniel chapter 6 And 7 And 10 He appeared to Zechariah In Zechariah Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 6 Getting all that down?

[25:22] This is just some Pre-Bethlehem Pre-New Testament Pre-incarnate Appearances Of the Christ The second member Of the Trinity Of the Lord Jesus Christ Alright so We're talking about The announcement Of Samson's birth It came from heaven Also it came As hope I was going to say It came with hope The announcement Itself was hope According to verse 1 And you know We have that Typical kind of Transition from The previous judge To now the new judge Who's coming We have there That this account That Israel Once again Had rebelled Against the Lord And so Consequently God allowed Them to be oppressed By an enemy This time The Philistines And this Was a Prolonged Period of oppression How long?

[26:24] 40 years That's a long time 40 years Under the oppression Of the Philistines And so You know Hey This announcement Of the birth Of a deliverer A judge Would have been Welcomed This would have been Welcome news They were hoping For this And so It gave the people Hope When God Made this Announcement The announcement Of the birth Of who would Eventually be Named Samson Verse 5 He shall begin To deliver Israel Out of the hand Of the Philistines This is good news 40 years Is a long time To be To be oppressed And you know We've been there We might have been Asking Well where's God We might have been Asking Has God Just absolutely Totally Forever Utterly forsaken us I mean we just Crossed the line One too many times And this is it And God's never Going to Deliver us again Has he forgotten All about us You know Is he blind

[27:24] He doesn't see You know All kinds of questions That we might have If we were there And going through This time This 40 years In fact there were Many people Alive When the announcement Was made That had known Nothing but Oppression In their lives 40 years Is a long time And equates To a whole Generation of people And so this was Good news This heavenly Announcement Again revealed That God's plan Still included Israel And that his plan Was to To rescue them And revive them And restore them Alright So first of all Samson's birth Announced A heavenly Announcement A hopeful Announcement And second His birth Arranged God made some Arrangements here For some Interesting things First of all Samson's birth Involved a miracle It was a miracle

[28:26] God arranged For a miracle To take place In order to Bring his Judge His deliverer For the people Of Israel Verse 3 And the angel Of the lord Appeared to the woman And said to her Indeed now You are barren You can't have Children And you have Born No children So this has been Lifelong Barrens She didn't have Some children And then become Barren This has been Her affliction All of her life And then he said But you shall Conceive You shall conceive And bear a son This is the Announcement Of a miracle That's about to Take place In Manoah's wife And she's going To have A child Now You know It's difficult I think For any of us In this culture To imagine

[29:27] Just how Serious It is For a woman To be barren Now It's serious Even in our culture And it's It's a heartache But I'm talking About something Beyond just The personal Heartache Of not being able To bear children In this culture Every young woman Wanted to have Children Especially sons And it was For every woman It was a dream To be God's Chosen vessel To bring His Messiah Into the world So barrenness Was a very Serious issue For the Jewish People And not only that But to be barren Was considered A curse In this culture It carried With it Shame Not just You know A self imposed Kind of shame That the woman Might feel Or sense Or have But it was A shame That was put Upon her By the culture It was a shame

[30:28] It was It was It was It even There was even A stigma Attached To being barren Because it was Often interpreted To be God's judgment Even though that's Incorrect But it was interpreted That way In this culture And so barrenness Always carried The risk For a woman The risk Of being divorced By her husband After being married And if she can't Have children She might be Divorced And therefore Abandoned And therefore Destitute Because she was Barren This was a Terrible situation To be in You know If a man Did not have Children Especially Sons Then he would Have no one To be his Heir No one To pass on The family Property And holdings And wealth And no one To carry on The line The lineage And this was Extremely important To the Jewish

[31:28] People Why do you Think we have So many Many Accounts Of the lineage Of people You know Over and over You have that In the Old Testament And in the New Testament And so No woman Or no man Rather Would knowingly Marry a barren Woman So this is a Serious situation For Manoah's Wife To be To be in But Manoah's wife Was promised A miracle A miracle In fact The promise Was even greater Than just simply An end To her barrenness God promised That she would Have a child But better than That God promised That she would Have a son And even better Than that God promised That her son Would be The deliverer For her people The people of Israel Specifically the Danites And isn't that Interesting And what a Common Just everyday Person Manoah's wife Was It wasn't Anything special About her

[32:28] And really When you think About that You just Kind of Take a little Chronology Through the Bible When God Made his Covenant With Abraham A covenant That promised Salvation To the people Of every nation And tongue He sent Isaac He gave Isaac To Barren Sarah And when God God Would deliver Israel From the Bondage Of Egypt He sent Moses To Jacob Just a Simple slave In Egypt And when God Would Revive The spiritually Dead of Israel He sent Samuel To Barren Hannah And when The time Came To save The world From sin God Sent Jesus To Mary Just a Peasant Girl You know And it That's God's Way And these Are just Some small Examples Of it 1 Corinthians Chapter 1 Verse 26 Kind of Puts it All together For you

[33:29] See your Calling Brethren That not Many Wise According To the Flesh Not Many Mighty Not Many Noble Are Called But God Has Chosen The foolish Things Of the World And put To shame The wise And God Has chosen The weak Things Of the World To put To shame The things Which are Mighty And the Base Things Of the World And the Things Which are Despised God Has chosen And the Things Which are Not To bring To nothing The things That are That no Flesh Should glory In his Presence And that's Just God's Way So God Arranged Samson's Birth Samson's Birth Involved A miracle Samson's Birth Involved A mandate Second of All This is Something else That God Arranged In regard To Samson's Birth God Mandated Something That would Be very Difficult For Manoah's Wife To Fulfill Verse 4

[34:29] Says Now therefore Please be Careful Not to Drink Wine Or Similar Drink And not Eat Anything Unclean This is What he Told Manoah's Wife This is What she Must do And God Repeats This To her Husband Manoah In verse 14 And then he Says After verse 4 He says In verse 5 He says For behold Here's why For behold You shall Conceive And bear A son And no Razor Shall come Upon his Head For the Child Shall be A Nazarite To God From the Womb A Nazarite Now The Hebrew Word Nazarite Simply means Consecrated One Set Apart One Or Devoted One And Of course You know That it Is a Reference To the Nazarite Vow That is Found In Numbers Chapter 6 Verses 1 Through 8 We won't

[35:30] Go back And read It You can Read That On Your Own But There's Where God Gave This Nazarite Vow Now Generally Speaking The vow Was Voluntary Not Something That was Mandated By God Generally!

[35:43] Speaking And This vow Was Usually Temporary By all Indication Various Times We find In scripture It was Temporary And It was Taken For a Period Of time Of special Consecration A special Service To the Lord The apostle Paul On a Couple of Occasions In Acts 18 And 21 It reveals That he Took the Nazarite Vow Wasn't Permanent Wasn't Lifelong It was For a Special Time Of Consecration A special Time Of Service And yet Some People Were Bound By Nazarite Vow For their Whole Lives Committed To it For their Whole Lives Other than Samson There's Samuel And John The Baptist Would be Another And by The way Was Jesus A Nazarite No one Want to

[36:43] Take a Dare There Jesus Was A Nazarene Not A Nazarite You know There's Been some Confusion About that A lot Of People I Think Jesus Was A Nazarene Isn't That What It Means He Was From Nazareth He Was A Nazarene From Nazareth But He Nowhere In The Bible Does It Say That Jesus Was A Nazarite Or Had Taken The Nazarite Vow Now Getting To Samson Samson Was Unique He Was Unique In That His Vow Was Non Voluntary I Mean You Can't Make Choices While You're In The Womb You Know Can You Think So You Choose To Kick I Guess But It Was Non Voluntary And Samson So Samson Was A Nazarite From Birth Not Only Was It A Life Long Vow That God Placed Upon Mandated For Him This Is The Exception But He Was A Nazarite From Birth So He Was To Never Ever Eat Or Drink From The

[37:43] Vine Anything That Came From The Vine Wine Vinegar Whatever It Was Eating Or Drinking Anything From The Vine He Was Never To Touch Any Dead Body Or Carcass Be It Human Be It Animal That Kind Of Figures In The Story A Little Bit Later To Never Cut His Hair Excuse Me For That Split Infinity He Was Never To Cut His Hair Or Shave His Beard And This Was Part Of The Vow And So These Were Obviously Outward Signs Of The Consecration Of One's Life To The Lord They Didn't Have Any Particular Grace Attached To Them You Know We're Going To Talk About Samson Strength A Little Bit Later And We're All Going To Be Thinking As We Have Been Told It Was His Long Hair That Gave Him His Strength But That's A Bunch Of Hooey But

[38:45] We'll Get To That All Right So His Vow Was Not Voluntary It Was Lifelong He Was A Nazirite From The Womb Does The Nazirite Vow That's A Good Question Well In The Context Of Christianity In The New Testament I'd Say It Does In Fact It Is To Be True Of Every One Of Us This Consecration To The Lord It Exists For All Of Us We're To Be Holy Consecrated To The Lord Jesus Christ He Purchased Us With His Blood Bought Us Saved Us We're His Property We Are In In In Essence Slaves But We Choose To Be Now Therefore

[39:47] We Have Relinquished Our Rights To Him And So I Think That Is Indicative Of A Nazirite Vow So We Can All Grow Our Hair Long Beards All Right So We're Talking About Samson's Birth It's Announcements And Now It's Arrangement It Involved A Miracle It Involved A Mandate And Involved One Other Thing A Ministry God Arranged A Miracle A Mandate And A Ministry In Connection With The Birth Of Samson Verse Five Says Of The Philistines And You Know I Got To Think About That I'm Sure There Are A Lot Of People There Including Mr.

[40:33] And Mrs. Manoa I'm Sure A lot Of People Were Thinking You Know We're Looking For The Birth We're Not Looking For The Birth Of A Deliver We're Looking For A Man To Come You Know We Want A Man Right Now 20 Years Or So So They Weren't Looking For A Baby They Were Looking For A Grown Man To Be Their Deliverer And How Patient God Is When You Consider That His Timing Is Just Not Like Ours Hardly Ever So How Patient God Is And How Inpatient Man Is And How Future Oriented God Is And How Present Oriented We Are We You Know They Had To Wait It Was God's Timing And When You Think About It There Might Be A Lesson

[41:34] Here For Those Of Us Who Are Parents And Still Have Kids In Our In Our House You Know How This Should Change How We Look At The Raising Of Children Some Cases Raising Of Grandchildren!

[41:48] Because A lot Of Times Grandchildren Come Into Into The Home Of When You Have A Child You Never Know Why Or For What Purpose God Gave That Child To You You Don't Have Any Knowledge Of What That Purpose Is Going To Be Therefore You Know We Should Always Assume That God Has A Great Purpose In Mind For Our Children And So Therefore We Should Provide Them Every Spiritual Advantage That We Can So That They May Fulfill God's Purpose!

[42:23] So There's A Lesson Here Alright So Third And Finally Tonight That Is Birth His Birth Accomplished Well He Was Born I Mean!

[42:37] God Made A Promise And He Kept His Promise And Samson Was Born Manoa Manoa's Wife Rather Gave Birth To A Son Just Like God Promised And She Named Him Sonny Boy She Did The Name Samson Means Like The Son S U N So Sonny Boy S U N Y So She Called Him Sonny Well Probably Not She Called Him Samson But That's What The Name Means And If You Had Been Barren Ladies Barren All Your Life And God Gives You A Child You Might Want To Name That Child Something Like That Bring Sunshine Into My Life And And And And And And I Think That Was Behind Her Motivation Or Their Motivation To Nave Him In Such A Way And And I Think We Can Assume That The Early Days Of Samson's Life Were Just That They Were Sunny Full Of Light And

[43:38] Joy And I Mean This Man And Woman Had They Had No Children And They Had No! Children And This Woman No Hope Really Of Having Any Children And She Was Graced With A Child And He Was Like The Sunlight To Them Sadly Little Did They Know That Their Little Sunny Would Turn Out To Be Almost The Opposite And He Would Turn From The Light That He Was Dedicated To From Birth And Live Most Of His Life In Darkness In Darkness And That Is Sometimes The Way Of It How Many Times Have You Seen That Happen The God Of Parents Who Have Done Seemingly Everything Right And Yet Their Child When He Or

[44:38] She Came Of Age Chose A Different Direction It Happens That Way Now Samson Had No Excuse He Couldn't Look Back And Say It Was My Parents Fault Had No Excuse It Was Not His Parents Fault And Certainly Was Not God's Fault And That Is What We See In The Closing Verses Of This Chapter Verse 24 So The Woman Bore A Son Just Like God Said She Would And Called His Name Samson Sunshine Into My Life And The Child Grew That's An Important Phrase The Child Grew Didn't Mean Just Physically This Means That He Grew Rightly In Every Way And The Lord Blessed Him Something By The Way That Judges Does Not Record About Any Of The Other Judges He Blessed Him And The Spirit

[45:38] Of The Lord Began To Move Upon Him There Are Three Things Said About Samson Here In His Early Days He Grew He Matured And We Can Credit His Parents For That He Was Blessed We Certainly Give God All The Glory For That And The Spirit Of The Lord Was Upon Him Began To Move Him Move Upon Him And I Think That That Means That God Began To Reveal To Samson His Purpose His Destiny And Early On I Think We Can Assume That Samson To Some Degree Began To Fulfill That Destiny Perhaps Even In The Right Way He Had A Good Start Credit That To His Parents To The Lord First And To His Parents He Started Right And So Which

[46:38] Is More Important To Start Right Or End Well I Think If You Had To Choose Between The Two End Well Would Be Be The Most Important Thing Well It Interesting In Samson's Case God Granted Him Both Good Start And A Good Ending Even Though A Tragic Ending Thank you.