Okay, turn with me in your Bibles
to Judges 13, and this is a long passage of scripture, and we
will be touching some highlights of it, I trust, and I pray the
Lord will be merciful to us. I want to just go through it,
and I want to look at it in light of two things. I want to look
at it in light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
I want to look at it in light of the Lord appearing, it says
in verse 3, and the angel of the Lord appeared. And what a
glorious thing that our God, who is and dwells in light, can
come as a man and dwell amongst his people and appear to them
and reveal himself to them. But I want us to just look at
who he revealed himself to. And he revealed himself to this
particular family, this particular couple, in this particular nation. And he only ever reveals himself
to certain and particular ones. And listen to how this chapter
begins. And Israel did evil again. Does that describe you? Does that describe all of the
evil that you do? are all the evils that you do
again evils. Israel did evil again in the
sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into
the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. That's a long time
to be delivered into the hands of enemies where they came and
they ruled your land and they stole your cattle and they stole
your crops and all sorts of other things. And then, if you think
about it, Samson was probably 20 years old before the deliverance
began to lay him. in the last 60 years. That's
generations of Israelites who lived under the oppression of
the Philistines, under the hand of God, the Lord. The Lord delivered
them into the hands of the Philistines. But in the midst of all of this
darkness, in the midst of God being faithful to His Old Testament
promises that were made at Mount Sinai many, many years before
this, the Lord came and visited. And there was a certain man of
Zorah of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah. Manoah's
name, as you can imagine, is the word, the same name as Noah. situation for this one who the
Lord will come and visit. They had nothing that ever seemed
anything like rest in all of that year, so his very name would
have been an aberration to many around him. But listen to this,
and his wife was barren and bare not. And this is a picture, of
course, isn't it? The barrenness of women in the
Bible is a picture of the fall of man, and it's also a picture
of the fact that in that fall we have lost all ability to produce
life. It's a picture of the fact that
the only one who can produce life is God Almighty Himself. Now, all spiritual life must
come and bear not." The word is emphasized
to indicate that not only did she not have any children, she
could not have any children. This birth was going to be a
miraculous birth. Such is the state of all mankind
in Adam, isn't it? They all are dead and they are
all spiritually barren. But in the midst of that barrenness,
in the midst of the judgment of God upon those people, the
angel, verse three, the angel of the Lord appeared unto the
woman. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman. but the woman is a picture of
the church. He always appears to his bride,
and when he appears to his bride, it's always in mercy and grace
and love, even though they don't know who he is, and even though
they have nothing in themselves that deserves his coming and
visiting. The Lord Jesus Christ has a bride
in this world, he has a people in this world, and he will come
and he will appear to them. He who will not cause his voice
to be heard in the street. He's not looking for a following.
He's not looking for the approval of men. He appears to his particular
certain people and he appears to them in the time of love. He has a people. in the midst of him, in the Old
Testament times, honouring his covenant at Sinai. But in the midst of his appearing
in all of this, he's going to reveal the eternal covenant of
love and grace and blood in his own, as his own are in distress
and in effectively captivity. Their sin, as I said earlier,
was idolatry. But that's just unbelief expressed
in another way, isn't it? We've all broken his commandment.
We've all had other gods before him. We're all idolaters by nature. But our Lord reveals himself
to women, and particularly to those women who are barren and
in distress. You think of the patriarchs.
Sarah couldn't have a baby. She was 90 years old when she
had a baby, and Abraham was 100. Her daughter-in-law, Rebecca,
couldn't have a baby. Her granddaughter-in-law, Rachel,
couldn't have a baby. And what's that a picture of?
All of these patriarchs are a picture of the fact that life must come
from God. It is God who gives all life,
both physical life, but also, particularly, he gives spiritual
life. God loved his bride. And when he appears, he will
appear to her And he says to her what she is. He declares
to her her state, doesn't he? He said to her, verse three,
behold, now thou art barren, barest not, but, don't you love
the buts of the gospel in the scriptures? But thou shalt conceive
and bear a son. Thou shalt appear and bear, thou
shalt conceive and bear a son. And this son, is a miraculous
son. All of these sons are pictures
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who Mary was visited by the angel
of God, and she was told that she was gonna bear a son, and
you'll call his name Jesus, and he will save his people from
their sins. And this son, this particular
son, Samson, was going to be a Nazarite. Listen to what he
says. I pray thee, Verse 4. Drink not wine, nor strong drink,
or eat any unclean thing, for lo, thou shalt conceive and bear
a son. I love how the Lord repeats his
promises about bringing life out of what is dead. And no razor
shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite
unto God. A Nazarite means to be consecrated,
to be separated unto God. The Lord Jesus Christ was separated
from the womb of eternity, wasn't he? He was separated. He came
into this world consecrated and separated. and listen to what
he says, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands
of the Philistine. The son who is born miraculously
is going to be a deliverer, just like our Lord Jesus Christ is
the son born of a promise, born miraculously, born to be a deliverer. When the Lord appears, He appears
to the church. He appears to the woman. When
the Lord appears, it's always the Lord Jesus Christ. Both God
the Holy Spirit and God the Father are known, as they are known
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no doubt that
this is the Lord Jesus Christ. was caused to see, he said, we
have seen God. We have seen God. The angel, the word angel means
messenger. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
messenger of the covenant and he is the covenant itself. When
the Lord God appears, he appears to the church. where is her barrenness? And
he appears in the Lord Jesus Christ, but he appears with words
of sweet, sweet promise, doesn't he? When he appears, he appears
in such a way that people are caused to be in reverential awe
of him. Listen to her description of
this meeting in verse six. The woman came and told her husband,
saying, a man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like
the countenance of the angel of God, very terrible. He was awesome, awesome in her
sight. And he was so awesome, and his
promises were so amazing, that she didn't ask him where he came
from, and she didn't ask him what his name was. She had been
overwhelmed by the very presence of God and overwhelmed by the
promises of God. When the Lord appears, there
is a revelation of His glory and His holiness to His people. And there is, as we see later
on, there is ultimately a bowing before him. You look at verse
20 with me, at the end of verse 20, when Manawa and his wife
looked on the angel and looked on the sacrifice going up to
heaven, they fell on their faces to the ground. But also because
of who he is and because of the terrifying nature, the awesomeness
of his very presence, When the Lord appears, there is a humility
in the bride, a glorious humility, a delightful humility. Manoah's
wife is unnamed throughout the whole chapter. Rosemary means Noah or rest,
and it's a picture of the rest the Lord's people have in Christ
for life and for salvation. And she is the bride, and she's
delighted to be known as the bride. The God's people, having
met God when he has appeared to them, they don't want any
glory for themselves. We walk by faith and not by sight. And her identity is in her husband
and in her union with her husband. Of course, all the women in the
Old Testament and all the women, particularly those who were barren,
are pictures of the fact that every woman in those Old Testament
times was thinking that she might be the woman who brings forth
the Saviour as promised in Genesis 3, verse 15. This woman represents
the Church. The Church brings forth a child
and this child is the Saviour of Israel. He's picturing saving Christ is birthed in his bride
and Christ is birthed in his church as he appears and as he
promised. God and He reveals the glory
of who He is and how He saves. When the Lord appears there will
be an appearance to the woman. There will be an appearance in
the form of the Lord Jesus Christ, the messenger of God, the angel
of God. And when the Lord appears, there
will be humility. When the Lord appears, there
will be life from the dead and a new life which comes from God
alone. This is the only place that life,
all life comes from. But particularly, it's the only
place that all spiritual life comes from. When the Lord appears,
there will be the word of his promise which brings his life.
He brings it through his word. A virgin conceived and brought
forth the Messiah. The Lord appears. Don't you love Ezekiel 37? Ezekiel's
taken out into that great valley and there is this vast army and
all it is is dead bones, whitewashed, dead, dried up bones. Ezekiel's asked a question, can
these bones live? Can these bones live? Can something as dead as we are,
dead in trespasses and sin, can we have life? Can there be life
out of that? I love Ezekiel's response, you
can read about it in Ezekiel chapter 37, Lord you know, great response isn't it? If there's
going to be life you know about it. If there's going to be life
you're going to bring it forth and you're going to bring it
forth in a situation where there is no earthly hope whatsoever
of spiritual life. The woman Immediately after this
visitation, when the Lord appears, there will be a great desire
to go and tell others. Listen to what she says. As soon
as she saw him, verse 6, she said she came and told her husband.
Immediately she had to go and tell someone. When the Lord appears
to his bride on this earth, we immediately want others to know
about how glorious he is. We'll be stunned by the responses
of others, but we've seen something that's glorious. We've seen something
that's amazing. We've seen something that has
brought life. We've seen Him through the gospel priest and
through his new life that he puts into the hearts of his people. As I said earlier, when the Lord
appears, there will be reverence. There will be a revealing of
Him in His holiness. Always there will be that revealing. Paul is a pattern on the Damascus
road. He, like Manara and his wife,
he fell to the ground as a dead man. in the very meeting of God, all
of his religion, and all of his righteousness, and all of his
wisdom, and all of his heritage, everything that was about Saul
of Tarsus, ended up in the dirt, which is a great place to put
it. It's a great place for it to be. And it rises up again
and again in our flesh, and we want to build ourselves up, and
we want to be caused to be esteemed of others, and we want to be
acknowledged for what we've done, and what we can do, and what
we might do, and what we haven't done. Saul passed us through
it all way. He said it's all just rubbish.
He said it's done. It's what it all was. Why? Because he'd met God. Because he had met God. I love what Manoah's response is. Read with me in verse 8. Then,
having heard all this and heard these promises, and heard the
testimony of his wife, then Manawa entreated the Lord. It was then
that he prayed. It was then that he called out
to the Lord. He visited us once, There is
a great desire in all those who have been visited by God Almighty
when He has appeared to them. His visits are fleeting in special
and significant ways, even though He promises never, never, never
to leave us nor forsake us. The visits that bring such heartwarming
communion with Him are often so short and we're crying out
again and again, Lord, will you come again? Will you come again
as you've promised? All who have received The heavenly
gift of life and faith in Christ. Desire more of him. The newborn
babes, what's Peter saying? The newborn babes, they desire
the sincere milk of the word. They're crying out for it like
a little baby cries out for its milk. That's why we come again
and again and again back to church, because that's why church is
so special, isn't it? I need to hear again about my
Saviour. I need to hear again about how
glorious He is. I need to hear again about how
He absolutely rules and reigns over all things. I need to hear
again how that He can bring life to these dead bones and this
dead heart and this dead mind, and He can bring life and He
can bring His word of promise with such itself. I made the manna from heaven. One more time, I just made to
feed upon the manna of heaven. And the Lord appears, there's
reverence, there's a word of promise that brings life. And
listen to But Manoa goes on to say, and the angel of the Lord
came again, but Manoa, her husband, was not with her. We don't know
where she was. She sat in the field, but she was on her own.
And the woman made haste and ran and showed her husband and
said unto him, verse 10, behold, the man hath appeared unto me
that came to me the other day. And Manoa arose and went after
his wife and came to the man and said unto him, And Manala said, don't you love
this? This is what David, if you read
it in 2 Samuel 7, you'll be delighted to see it again. When David had
received those amazing promises from God about there being this
kingdom that was going to last forever and ever, he, like Manala,
said, in his word, the word made flesh
that dwells among us. And he will appear with a word
of promise and he'll say, let your will be done. Do as you
have promised. You're going to do as you have
promised, but do as you have promised. Let thy words come
to pass. Let thy words come to pass. I'll just go down to verse 15.
When the Lord appears, there'll be a desire for him to come back.
But when the Lord appears to his people, there'll be a desire
for him to remain with them. And Manoah, verse 15, and Manoah
said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee. Let us detain thee. Isn't that
extraordinary? In his condescension to us, he
allows us to detain him. Paul speaks of being apprehended. You know what apprehended is? You find it when you meet a policeman
and you're on the wrong side of the law. He says, I've been
apprehended. I've been apprehended. We detain him. We ask him to
remain. We ask him to stay with us, to
not leave us. I've lost my page. Oh, here we
are again, sorry. Don't you love the story after
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord met
those two men on the way to Emmaus. I'm almost always amazed when
he's been revealed to be appearing in Jerusalem, he'd be wandering
off to Emmaus down the road, miles and miles and miles while
they're going in the opposite direction. But I love what they
said to him. after he made, as though he would
have gone further in verse 29 of Luke 24, and they constrained
him, they constrained him, saying, abide with us for his tawd evening
and the day is fast bent. And, listen to his response,
he went in to How important is it for us for
Him to be with us? He's promised to be with us.
He's promised to never leave us nor forsake us. It's impossible
for Him to go back on His promise. And how often in this life do
we feel the weight of His absence from us? And we call Him and
we want to restrain Him and we want to detain Him. And we want
to detain Him in such a way that we might honour Him. Listen to how the Lord responds
to this, and it's glorious. This last part of this chapter
is just such a glorious picture of the assurance that the Lord
brings to his people. The angel of the Lord said unto
Manna, although thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread.
And if thou wilt offer a blind offering, thou must offer it
unto the Lord. It must be offered unto the Lord.
It must be offered unto the Lord. For Manoah knew not that it was
an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, What is thy name? That when thy sayings come to
pass, he was still acting in faith, he believed, didn't he?
He believed. When thy sayings shall come to pass, that we may
do thee honor. And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, Why ask That word's only used one at
a time in the Old Testament. It's wonderful. He's wonderful. His name is wonderful. Our God
is so wonderful. He must reveal himself. If our God Our God is big and our God is
way, way beyond our understanding. Everything about Him is wonderful.
The wonder of His creation, the wonder of that eternal covenant,
the wonder of union with Him from eternity, the wonder of
His providence over all things, the wonder of Him ruling and
reigning every little tiny thing in this universe for the good
of His people. His name is wonderful. His name
is secret. His name is revealed as he chooses
to reveal it to his people. And he shows particularly how
he reveals it in these final verses. Somanoah, verse 19. Somanoah took a kid with a meat
offering and he offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. wonderfully. That's all he ever
does is wondrous things. If only our eyes were open to
see the wonder of what he is, the wonder of who he is, the
wonder particularly of who he is in the sacrifice. He is the
rock. Read about it in Deuteronomy
20. We have a rock and our rock's not like their rock. We have
our rock Here's the sacrifice, here's
the offering, and where does the offering go? The offering
goes to God. That's why he came, didn't he?
As an offering to God on behalf of dead and barren sinners like
Manawa and his wife. When God appears, he's going
to appear bringing tokens of assurance in himself, his bride
in the sacrifice of himself on the altar. Listen to this, the
angel did wondrously for, and this is the right why it's declared
to be wonderful, for it came to pass when the flame went up
toward heaven from off the altar that the angel of the Lord ascended
in the flame of the altar. remarkable picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The fire of God's wrath fell
upon the Lord Jesus Christ and he consumed the fire of God's
wrath and in his resurrection he ascended up to heaven. After
that sacrifice he ascended in the flame of the altar. When God appears and gives his
assurance, he makes his people to do as Manara and his wife
at the end of verse 20. And Manara and his wife moved
on and they fell on their faces to the ground. They fell on their
faces to the ground. of God when God meets with his
people. God is not playing games with
sin. God is not playing games with
his promise. God is infinitely serious about
all those things. And when he appears to his people, And I love Manawa's wife, the
church's response to doubting Manawa at the end of this is
just glorious. Verse 21, but the angel of the
Lord did no more appear to Manawa and his wife then. Then Manoah
knew that he was an angel of the Lord, when they had no sight
of him any longer, but they had the sight of him by faith and
by promise. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die because we have seen God. That's what God
said on the mountain, didn't he? Manoah didn't see my face
and live. We have seen God, how do you see God? And here's one of those glorious
buts. Manoa's wife said unto him, if the Lord were pleased
to kill us, the first thing she acknowledges is that God does
everything he pleases. He has the right to do everything
he does in this world. And everything he does is right
because of who he is and what his promises are. It pleased
the Lord to make you his children. It pleased the Lord. It pleased the Lord, Isaiah 53,
it pleased the Lord to crush His Son. If the Lord were pleased to kill
us, He would not have received the burnt offering. She sees that all of her acceptance
before God is in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. all
of her assurance is in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
the Lord was pleased, she acknowledges that God has a sovereign right
to do as he likes, but also she acknowledges that he receives
acceptance in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. She also
acknowledges that he is the one that must reveal all these things.
He must reveal her barrenness. He must reveal that life must
come from him. He must reveal that revelation
is absolutely essential to us knowing anything about God whatsoever. He must reveal. Neither would
he have showed us these things. And she also acknowledges speaks, and his words are a word
of promise. Nor would he at this time have
told us such things as these, such things about life from the
death, such things about the sacrifice being acceptable. Nor would he have told us such things
as these. And the woman bear a son, the
word there was life from the dead. And he called his name
Samson, and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. I love, I'm going to close with
this in Romans chapter 4, speaking of Abraham and being not, verse
19, being not weak in faith. He considered not his own body
now dead, but when he was about 100 years old, yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb, everything around him that was there to produce
life was dead. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. And may the Lord cause us to
be like this, to him for righteousness. May
God appear again to us. May we, like Manoa and his wife,
restrain him and detain him and call upon him to come again and
again and lead with us and bring life from the dead. May the Lord
bless his word to our hearts. Let's have a break, thank you.