If you join me tonight in the
book of Judges, Judges chapter 13, we have four chapters here
that deal with Samson, and this chapter is leading up to his
birth, and some very, very important things are said about him before
he's born. Now, I wanna say this before
we get into the Nazarite rules, the laws of the Nazarite. I do
not find enough information in the Bible for me to build an
ark. And I don't have to. That's just
simple. It's already been done. We have
the dimensions, but there's a discussion on what dimension was actually
used by Noah. We've come down to a cubit, and
then I had a discussion on whether it was a short cubit or a long
cubit. It doesn't matter. The ark has already been built.
Now, when we get down to the Feast of Weeks, and the Passover,
and the Day of Atonement, and the Tabernacle, and the Sin Offerings,
and all the other stuff that goes on in the Old Testament,
we don't do that anymore. It's finished. It's over with.
In Christ, all of it was completed and done. So, when we get to
looking at the Nazarite, the Law of the Nazarite, we find
out it's already done too. Now, Jesus was not a Nazarite. We never find him even assuming
that thought. He is the fulfillment of the
Nazarites, but we're going to find out he drank wine. He didn't
necessarily let his hair grow long, but if he did, what matters
is it made. My first thought is it's an artist's
conception and probably was in about 400 or 500 when that artist's
conception came about. But we're going to find out a
Nazirite could not cut their hair until a certain time. They were under the old economy
and they were fulfilled in Christ the Lord. A Nazirite was first
an Israelite. Nazirite was first an Israelite.
Becoming a Nazirite did not make you an Israelite. but an Israelite
could become a Nazirite. And some of them, we're gonna
find out, were given that position, that place before they were born. Most of them assumed that on
their own. And we'll read a little bit about
that in the book of Numbers. Now, if God has quickened you,
if God has breathed life into you, it will be revealed by God
that when we read about an incident in scripture, There is the same
amount of the power of God revealed unto us as if we stood there
and saw it. We don't have to have it re-happen
for us to believe it. When we read about the transfiguration,
we get to see in a spiritual way exactly what Peter, James,
and John got to see on the Mount of Transfiguration. And when
we go to Lazarus' tomb and we see that that stone is rolled
away and Lazarus comes out of it and his grave closed, we don't
have to have it happen again. It's happened. The Holy Spirit
gives us the information about it. We believe it with every
fiber of our being. And that's just the way it is
with the revelation of Jesus Christ as found in the Word.
It is real. It is not hollow. It is real. And the church believers have
that as their very own blessings about all of the incidences about
the Lord Jesus Christ, all the prophets of the Old Testament,
all the incidents in the Old Testament are just as if we were
there. Opening of the Red Sea. Man,
I see that in my mind's eye, but I wouldn't have to see it
in my mind's eye. You know, a blind person that's a believer can
see a whole lot more about the scriptures and about the things
that happen in the scriptures than most of Israel when they
saw it happen in real life. When they saw the Red Sea open
up, a person that is a believer and blind was going to see more
about that because they didn't see anything in it. And it wasn't
very long, they're complaining about the God that did that very
thing. So as we look here into the scriptures in the book of
Judges chapter 13, I'd like to read, I think down through verse
7 and just kind of review this a little bit. But in Judges chapter
13, we have the problem. And this problem has come up
a number of times here in the book of Judges, but Judges is
not the only book that this problem is identified, and that is natural
man sins against God. And there is only one cure for
that, and that's the blood of Christ. So we have, and the children
of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord
delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
Now the miracle of the whole thing is there's two people out
of all those people that God appears to. And we're thankful
for the remnant according to the election of grace. Wherever
his people are, it doesn't matter whether they're in Israel. Now,
Israel is that ten tribes that we say the lost ten tribes. Well,
God knew where they were, and we find a couple of those tribes
mentioned in the New Testament. But they were just taken off,
and their kings were rotten. There wasn't one good king among
Israel. They're rotten to the bone and most of their prophets
are rotten to the bone. And yet we find prophets like
Elijah and Elisha was sick to those folks. And one, one Syrian
comes and is declared the word of God by a prophet in Israel. It's just amazing. So we have
a remnant according to the election of grace. And if there is no
more, we still say, amen, Lord. Well, there may have been many
more. We do know that there were 7,000 that did not bow the knee
to Baal, but whenever that was, later or at this time, there
was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose
name was Manoah, and his wife was Baran and Baranah. Now we
want to just say it again, that there's no time in this whole
chapter or in the four chapters that we have the name of Manoah's
wife mentioned. We have a woman, we have a wife,
we have a mother, but we don't have her name. We have his name
and we find out that she was Baran and Baranath. Now that's
a double negative, Baran and Baranath. She had never had children
and she's not capable of having children until the Lord appears
unto her and gives her an open womb. It says there in verse
three, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said
unto her, behold now thou art barren and bear us not, but thou
shall conceive and bear a son. Now she's going to bear a son
in the natural way. Mary bore her son in a most unnatural
way. We're going to find out women
in the Old Testament that were agents. Sarah was one of them,
others who were barren, but they bore their children in a natural
way. Even in their ageness, they bore it in the natural way. But
we find out that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world in
the most unnatural way, and that was he was conceived by God in
Mary's womb. And then in verse four, now therefore
beware, I pray thee. And drink not wine, nor strong
drink, and eat not any unclean thing. Now, would you turn with
me to the book of Hosea? The book of Hosea. Verse 4, it
says, beware. Turn over here to the book of
Hosea, if you would. I was talking to Brother Wayne,
and they're going through the book of Hosea on Wednesday night,
and he says, wow, that's a good book. The book of Hosea chapter
two, Hosea chapter two, and there in verse six, now we find the
same word here that we find over here that was translated, beware,
in this passage of scripture. It is the word hedge. So the
Holy Spirit through this angel of the Lord is speaking unto
her to beware or guard yourself or hedge yourself. And here it's
used with regards to God's great work of grace. Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up thy way with thorns. So he's going to do that. He's going to guard. He's going
to protect. He's going to put this great
hedge. And I'm so thankful that God
does that for his people. He hedges us about. We wouldn't
do what we need to do until we're hedged about and we're caused
to do. So he hedges us about. And then
it says there, hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall and
he shall find not find her paths. So the word hedge here and the
word beware over here are the same original word, just translated
a little bit differently, but the thought is to guard. And what was that to guard? Let's
go back to the book of Judges again, the book of Judges chapter
13, and we have this brought out, Judges chapter 13 and verse
four, it says, Beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor
strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. Now there's very
few people that I could find in the scriptures that was given
this instruction, mothers in particular. I can only find one
Nazarite that is actually called a Nazarite from birth, and that
is going to be Samson. Now we're going to find other
Nazarites, But most of them assumed that a Nazirite law or rule upon
themselves. And after a certain amount of
time, they were over the Nazirite law and they went away, it went
away. Now, some people feel John the
Baptist was a Nazirite because of some of the things that are
said about it, but it doesn't say he was. And some people say
Samuel was a Nazirite, but it doesn't say he was. He has the
appearance, some of the appearance of a Nazirite and so does John
the Baptist. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
not a Nazirite, even though he fulfills everything about a Nazirite. He had a vow and he kept it.
And he did not have any of the problems that the other people
had in keeping it. Take, beware, I pray thee. I
beseech thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink. Now, it's interesting. There's two verses or passages
of scripture in the book of Isaiah that I want to read along with
this idea of drinking not wine nor strong drink. Now, we know
the Lord Jesus drank wine. He was called a winebibber. Was not right, but they called
him that. Called him a drunk. But he drank
wine. He was not under this Nazarite
rule. But we find here that this man, Samuel, and, excuse me,
Samson, and his mother, in fact, was under this rule of not drinking
strong wine or strong drink. Now, turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Isaiah, chapter 28. Isaiah, chapter 28. In the
book of Isaiah, chapter 28, we have a problem, but I think it
is more, if we look at it from a spiritual context, we find
that it's a real problem. The real problem is drunkenness,
but it's not inebriation. It is falling and following after
false gospel, false doctrine. That's the real drunkenness of
the world. The real inebriation of the world,
that's the real inebriation of Israel in the days of Samson. They fell off the wagon. In fact,
they couldn't keep on the wagon. In fact, they never were put
on the wagon. They just had this constant going back to idolatry. And so here in the book of Isaiah
chapter 28, verses one, two, and three, it says, woe to the
crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim. whose glorious beauty..."
Now, I can just hear a preacher preaching against drunkenness.
We've got this right here. Well, we missed the point. Now,
there's nothing said in the Bible about drinking, but there is
a lot said about even inebriation, drunkenness. It's just not a
very good testimony. but whose glorious beauty is
the fading flower which are on the head of the fat valleys of
them that are overcome with wine. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty
and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
as a flood of mighty wazirs overflowing, shall cast down to the earth
with the hand, has a mighty strong one. And then in verse three,
the crown of the pride, the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under
feet. So we're gonna have Ephraim as
an illustration of those that we read about in the book of
Galatians. that went after another gospel. They were drunk on another
gospel. They would not give up on the
other gospel. And you know what? Left to ourselves,
we would not give up the other gospel. We would have continued
in that until our last breath, until the Lord of Glory came
along and had a visit with us. So this drunkenness that is illustrated
here has something to say about the attitude that they had towards
the gospel and they always went after another gospel. Now not
far from there in chapter 29 of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah
chapter 29, we read these words that go along with this Don't
drink, strong drink, don't eat raisins. A lot of rules that
we're given. Just to illustrate the point,
keep the gospel clear. Don't go after that other stuff.
There's plenty of people around here with their finger going
like this saying, join us. I just heard today about one
of the great evangelists of our time praying that the cardinals
would pick the right Pope. You illustrated a point. You
don't know the first thing about the gospel. What a sham, what? Anyway, he's drunken on another
gospel. All right, here in the book of
Isaiah chapter 29, verse nine, it says, stay yourselves and
wonder, cry out and cry. They are drunken, but not with
wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink. For the Lord had poured out upon them the spirit of deep
sleep and has closed their eyes and prophets of their rulers
and seers hath he covered. So we have this. completely blind
to the truth of the gospel. You know, as drunkards in this
passage mean so much more than just being inebriated, we find
that there was a whole lifestyle based upon false gospel and false
teaching, and they fell into it. And that's what we have by
nature. In the book of Ephesians, You know, there's two verses
of scripture, and I'm gonna bring them up tonight, two verses of
scripture that I've always been concerned about because half
of it is physical. I was taught that way. Half of
it's physical and half of it's spiritual. Well, if we look at
it from a spiritual standpoint, we find out both of them speak
about the spiritual things. So turn with me to the book of
Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. In Ephesians
chapter five, we read this as the Holy Spirit led the Apostle
Paul to write to the saints at Ephesus. He brings up this, be
not drunk with wine. Where is excess? But be filled
with the Spirit. Now, how do you bring those two
things together unless you look at them, both of them from a
physical standpoint or both of them from a spiritual standpoint?
To be not drunk with wine means don't go along with the Galatians.
Be not drunk with wine means don't get mixed up in a false
gospel. Being drunk with wine means keep
the gospel clear, plain, simple. The simplicity of Christ. But,
and be filled with the Spirit. Be, but be filled with the Spirit. Be not drunk with wine. Follow
not that stuff. Don't go after it. Now, if you
want to apply this about inebriation, go right ahead. Not going to
hurt a thing. But don't follow another gospel. That was the warning that the
Apostle Paul shared with the Galatians. Now there's another
place in the scripture that I've often been concerned about because
there's five or six spiritual things and then there's one in
there that has always been turned out physical. But I want to look
at it. And that's found in the book of Ephesians chapter four,
verse one. Ephesians chapter four and verse
one. I'm kind of taking a rabbit trail here. Ephesians chapter four and verse
one. Now in this chapter, the very first of this chapter, the
word one is used several times. One body, one spirit. All right. I therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called. Now I don't think that that's
talking about our job. I think it's much more serious
than that. We have been called out of darkness to his marvelous
light. We have a calling. God calls
us. And you know, if the Lord, if
God teaches us, we will come to Christ with all lowliness
and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of
peace. There is one body and one spirit. Even as you are called
in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, and then
we have a word that is so often says, well, you see, you have
to have water baptism. I think we've made a mistake.
We need the baptism. And I'm not talking about that
baptism of the spirit that the world talks about today. I'm
talking about the new birth. We need that. Now, water baptism
will follow. But we need that first. We need
that one baptism. And it says there, one God and
father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.
So we have a number of things that are very spiritual. There's
a oneness here, there's a oneness, and we can read about that oneness
in Acts chapter four, when those folks that Peter and John came
back to, they came back to the church and there was a great
oneness there about them and the gospel they were preaching.
And then we get to chapter five and find out that there was some
people in that church that weren't in the oneness. But here we have
a oneness about God, a oneness about the body of the church,
a oneness about the Spirit, the oneness about the calling. There
is one calling. We don't have called by many
different kinds of faiths and many different kinds of gospels.
There's one calling. There's one God. There's one
Lord. There's one Spirit. There's one
baptism and one God and father of all who is above all and through
all and in you all. So as we go back to the book
of Judges, I just want to carry with us the thought that when
this idea that the Holy Spirit through the angel of the Lord
spoke to Manoah's wife and said, here is the requirements for
you. And here will be the requirements
for your son. You will not drink strong drink.
You will not eat grapes. You will not have anything that
is like that. So as we go back over there,
let's stop for just a moment at the book of Judges. Judges
chapter 13, verse five, for lo thou shall
conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head,
for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb." Now,
what part did Samson have in choosing whether he was going
to be a Nazarite or not? Not much. Nothing. This is a contract between Manoah's
wife and the angel of the Lord. And Samson is going to be a Nazirite
from his birth, and he's going to be a Nazirite when he dies. His whole life. Now we think,
my goodness, what a terrible life he lived. And look at the
company he kept. Well, look at the company Christ
keeps. My goodness, to most people,
the Pharisees were in particular. Oh my goodness, he's eating and
drinking with sinners again. How bad is that? So the company
of the Lord is very pictorial of the company that Samson had. All right, and then, when the
woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto
me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of
God, very terrible, but I asked him not whence he was, neither
told me his name. And he said unto me, Behold,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink ye no wine,
nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing, for the child
shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. In the book of Numbers chapter
six, and when we went through Numbers many, some years ago,
Numbers chapter six, Numbers chapter six verses one through
21 is what we have recorded in the Old Testament about the law
of a Nazarite. There's not much else except
people who were identified as a Nazirite. In the book of Numbers,
chapter 6, now it's quite interesting, in the previous chapter we have,
it speaks of unclean, lepers. and how to deal with them. And
in this chapter, it speaks about being separated. That's what
the word Nazarite means, to be separated, to be separated out
of the whole, out of the mix. Speak unto the children of Israel
and say unto them, when either man or woman shall separate themselves
to vow a vow of a Nazarite to separate themselves unto the
Lord, So here it could be male or female, they are saying, but
the first thing that has to be, they have to be an Israelite.
They're not going to become an Israelite by doing a Nazarite
law, rule. They have to be in Israel. We
cannot be set aside. We cannot be, there's no sanctification
whatsoever in us at all, unless we're born again first. We have
to be a child of God. We have to be made alive. We
have to be quickened. And then all of those great blessings
of the gospel are ours. And one of them is sanctification.
Now it's not up to us so much, but we do, I pray I hope you
pray. I pray, Lord, keep me from sinning. I would like to live through
about three milliseconds without sinning. It's not in our best interest
to sin, though we do. It would be wonderful if we could
do what these folks did and have a Nazarite vow and have it all
taken care of. Well, Christ took care of it,
overcame by the blood of the Lamb. Verse three, he shall separate
himself from wine and strong drink and shall drink no vinegar. What did they give Christ on
the cross? No vinegar of wine or vinegar
of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes
nor eat moist grapes or dried, no raisins. All the days of his
separation shall he eat nothing that is made of a fine tree from
the kernels even to the husk. All the days of his vow of his
separation will be no razor upon his head until the days be fulfilled. Now there's some of these things
I don't have, I don't understand what it meant. These folks did,
and since the rules of the Nazarite are over, I don't have to. They
were fulfilled, and Christ fulfilled all the Old Testament law, all
the Old Testament scriptures. So I'm just going to trust him
with it. But we do know this, male or female, and they could
choose a time, a length of time that they were going to be a
Nazirite, except we read about Samson. He was a Nazirite from
his womb. In the which he separated himself
unto the Lord, he shall be holy and shall let the locks of his
hair, of his head grow. All the day shall he separate
himself unto the Lord. He shall come at no dead body. You know, if he is in the presence
of a dead body, his vow is dropped. He has to start over. If he's
on the last day and he comes into the presence of a dead body,
then he has to start over. Well, wow. You know what? The Lord was pleased to touch
dead bodies. He raised, we know of at least
three physically. And how many did he raise spiritually?
and still doing that. He shall not make himself unclean
for his father nor his mother. You can't even be around your
dead parents, a dead brother, a dead sister. When they die
because of the consecration, God is upon his head. All the
days of his separation, he is holy unto the Lord. There's a
separateness. You know, I'm so thankful that
that is taken care of for me. All the days of my life shall
be holy, but it's the holiness of God given to me. And if any
man die very subtly by him and have defiled the head of his
consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day shall he save
it. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves and
two young pigeons to the priest, the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation, and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering
and the other for a burn offering to make an atonement for him,
for that he sinned by the dead and shall hallow his head that
same day. And he shall consecrate unto
the Lord the days of his separation and shall bring a lamb for the
first year for a trespass offering, but the days that were before
shall be lost. because his separation was defiled. So we're starting over. And this
is, and I'm thankful, at least for myself, that I don't have
to start over. I am incorporated into the covenant
of grace that was made out before the foundation of the world,
and it covers me every day. Verse 13, and this is the law
of the Nazarite, when the days of separation are fulfilled,
he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and he shall offer his offering unto the Lord. One lamb for the
first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one new
lamb for the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and
one ram without a blemish for peace offerings. we do find out
that the requirement placed upon him was always to offer a lamb
as perfect as he could offer. Now we've mentioned this in the
past, we don't know what the inside looks like, but we do
know that the outside had to have the appearance of being
without spot and blemish. Now when it comes to our lamb,
the inside was just as perfect as the outside. His being, his
thoughts, everything about him was perfect. The outside was
perfect. He had no sin. He committed no
sin. He didn't commit sin in his mind
and he did not commit sin with his hands. And a basket of unleavened
bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened
bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering and their
drink offerings. And the priest shall bring them before the Lord
and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering, and shall
offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord
with a basket of unleavened bread. Priest shall offer also his meat
offering and his drink offering. And the Nazarite shall save the
head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation and shall take the hair of his head of his separation
and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the
peace offering." I wish I had understood more about, maybe
I will in time, what all of this symbolizes. But we find out that
this was on purpose. The priest shall take the sodden
shoulder of the ram and one eleven cake out of the basket and one
eleven wafer and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite
after the hair of his separation is shaven. Now we are going to
find out when we get to Samson that he had tremendous strength
as long as he kept that hair. And when his girlfriend shaved
it off, he's just like us. He lost his strength. The priest
shall waive them for a waive offering before the Lord, and
it is holy for the priest to waive breasts and heave shoulder.
After that, the Nazarite may drink wine. And this is the law
of the Nazarite, who hath vowed of his offering unto the Lord
for his separation. Beside that, that this hand shall
get according to the vow which he vowed. So he must do after
the law of separation. Now, sometime when you have a
minute, go online. and type in Nazirite and you'll
find pictures of modern day Nazirites. Now their hair is, it's that stuff that they wrap
around and it's not clean at all. There's no need for a Nazirite
today. The only reason people are doing
it today is for show. They're just doing it for show.
And they still do it. People recognize them as Nazarites.
But the rule of the Nazarite, the law of the Nazarite, died
when Jesus died on the cross. There is absolutely no need for
it. In fact, everything is not for show. It is only a relationship
between us and Christ. So we have that 21 verses there
that share with the rules of the Nazarite. The Nazirite term
signifies separated, and Samson has a message to share with us. If you'll turn with me to the
book of Judges, he, in retrospect, is looking back on his life about
a Nazirite. It is found in Judges chapter
16, and we'll get there in time, but I just want to read this
tonight, Judges chapter 16, and there are verse 17. Samson's
words about being a Nazarite. Now he told her her heart. If
we look back here, we find out that she's not a very impressive
person. You know, in many respects, she's
just like the church. There is nothing about us that
would cause God to be attracted to us. Only his grace makes the
difference. All right, in verse 17, and he
told her all his heart. You know, I think in some ways,
John 17 is the message that God reveals to the church, all his
heart. It is such a tender message. It is a prayer. And the Lord
Jesus did not pray that prayer for show. I'm thankful the Holy
Spirit had it incorporated into the word so we can read it. But
it was not for show. It was a message between God
the Son and God the Father. And he covers the church in that.
So he really shares all his heart about the church in there. Those
that thou hast given me. Those that thou hast given me.
There hath not come a razor upon my head. Now, how old he is here? 18, 20, 25, 30? Has not a razor
come to his head? For I have been a Nazarite unto
God. You notice how he recognized
this? Now, we may say, his life doesn't show that. Well, how
many do? I have been a Nazarite unto God
from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength
will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other
man. Now that's his thoughts about
a Nazirite. We do find that a Nazirite is
a type of Christ, but Christ was not a Nazirite. We do find
that the Lord drank wine. He used it when he instituted
the communion service, the Lord's Supper. We also find that as
a Nazirite could not touch a dead person, we find that the Lord
touched dead people and raised them from the dead. He did not
take the Nazirite vow. His vow is much older. than the Nazarite vow. His vow
is in the covenant of grace. He is a servant of the covenant.
And the servant of God set apart for the work of grace. Now, in
Judges chapter 13, verse five, it tells us, the Lord said unto
Manoah's wife, unto Samson's mother, that he shall begin to
deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. He shall
begin. They've been oppressing for 40
years. They had four quick judges. And
as soon as those judges are gone, we have them lined up at the
gate, waiting for the last breath out of those judges so they could
get back to their old religious habits of worshiping Baal. You
can't tell me that they had been sanctified and set apart and
worshiping God, and lo and behold, at the end of that, they just
decided to go over there. They're at the starting gate. They can't
wait to get back over there. Their hearts are not in the worship
of the Lord. The message given by the woman
to her husband is that, going back to the book of Judges chapter
13, This is the message that she
brought to her husband, Judges chapter 13. It says there, verse
six, and the woman came and told her husband. It's interesting
he was not there when all this happened. So often we find out
we have a blessing given to us alone. And we may share that
blessing, but it's given to us alone. A man of God came unto
me. who's in his countenance was
like the countenance of the angel of the Lord. And we realize who
that is. The angel of the Lord is the
Lord himself in pre-incarnate form. He's a man of God, as she
recognized, very terrible. Now that doesn't mean he was
mean, or unjust. It means, wow, what a sight. In fact, they're gonna compare
notes and say, we saw God and we're still alive. We're not
going to get to that. Very terrible. But I asked him
not whence he neither told me his name. But he said unto me,
Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, and now drink
no wine or strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing. For the
child shall be a Nazarite to God, from the womb to the day
of his death. Now it's interesting to me that
both of them seem to understand what this was, a Nazirite. They were not ignorant about
this. Though I may be, they understood. Then Manoah entreated the Lord
and said, oh my Lord, I just find it so interesting, so blessed,
that out of the whole host that were worshiping false gods, false
idols, and Baal, there are two people that God introduces himself
to, and they recognize him as God. Why? He's breathed on them
the breath of life, and they have become living souls. Manoah
entreated the Lord and said, oh my Lord, let the man of God
which thou didst send come again unto us and teach us what we
shall do unto the child that shall be born. He did not doubt
what he had heard. She came and said, and how often,
how long they had hoped for a child and it hadn't happened. And now
when she comes and mentions we're gonna have a child, He just recognizes
that as this is the fact. Our son, what we shall do unto
the child that shall be born. What faith. Hadn't seen a child,
hadn't heard a child, but he knew that when God spoke, it
was going to be reality. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So here we have Manoah
and his wife, out of all the hosts of Israel, that all we
know about at least, Believing God. They're going to have a
son. His name is Samson. They're going
to get to see God. And they're thankful that they're
not taken. How do we get to see God? Only through Christ. Only way. He is our emissary. He is our ambassador. He's the
go-between. We have a daisman, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, we're going to stop there
for tonight. And Lord willing, we'll pick this up next time.