Go with me again to Judges chapter
13. Judges 13. Quite often I have conversations
with brethren on the scriptures, on stories, on people. We talk
about the things of the scripture, and then our conversation will
be over. And that's that happens a lot. But sometimes the conversation
leads to a message. And, um, I was just recently
talking to a brother and he made the passing comment. We talked
for a half hour and he made the one passing comment that he would
like to hear a message on Samson sometime. Just, you know, to
see and understand how he is a picture of Christ. And when
he said that, I thought, I know that Samson is a type of Christ,
but I'm not really familiar with the story enough to know how. So, I went to Judges 13, and
I read it, And I got very interested in
it, too. And I believe the Lord has given us a message from this. Everything about Samson's life
is recorded in four chapters here in Judges. If the Lord would
allow us to, I would like to have a little mini-series on how Samson is a type of Christ,
how he's a picture of Christ, just these four chapters in Judges. The reason I want to make this
really clear for a minute. That is the reason for the story
of Samson. And it's the reason for every
other story and every other account of everything that's in the word
of God. It is here to show us Christ. It is here as a picture of Christ. To point us to Christ. Teaching
us Christ, that's what the Bible is all about. Teaching us Christ,
who he is, what he did. And I will say that as you read
through the story of Samson, if we don't understand who Christ
is and what he did and why he did it and who he did it for,
I can see how this would be very confusing. But when you see it
in light of the gospel, It's amazing. It's really amazing. Tonight we're going to look at
chapter 13. I don't know if we'll do one message from each chapter
or break it down to more messages than that. I don't even know
if we'll continue. This may be the only one, but tonight it's judges
chapter 13. on the announcement of Samson's
birth. All right, that's what this is.
The announcement of Samson's birth. And I believe we're going
to immediately see a comparison to Christ. And that's how I'm
going to present this message. It's just gonna be very comparative,
okay? This is what it says about Samson.
This is what it says about Christ. And we can see that he's a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, here we go, verse
one. And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord. Does that surprise anybody? I love the word again. I love
the word that they did it again. Sin. This whole story begins
with sin. That's where it starts. Sin. That is the condition that God's
chosen people, God's chosen people, that's the condition they were
in when Samson was born into the world. They were in the condition
of sin against God. Every one of them had to say
against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil and
thus I. Verse one, 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 40 years. The Lord delivered them because
of their sin. There are wages for sin. Sin
has caused God's people to be a people of bondage. That's what
every man and woman on this earth is in, bondage. Everybody on
earth is in bondage. Man by nature is naturally bound
to sin, bound to death, including God's chosen elect people. The picture of that in the scripture
has always been physical bondage. Physical bondage. In Jacob's
time, just not long after Jacob's time, God's people were in bondage
to Egypt. In Daniel's time, God's people
were in bondage to Babylon. In our Lord's time, while he
walked this earth, God's people were in bondage to Rome. And
right here in Samson's time, God's people are in bondage to
the Philistines. Because of what they were by
nature, God's people found themselves in the ruin and the bondage of
sin. Verse two, and there was a certain man of Zorah of the
family of the Danites whose name was Manoah. This is the part
of the story where it says, but God. I like it when it gets there
very quickly. But God, like in the story of
Ruth, but Naomi had a kinsman. There was a certain man of Zorah
of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah. The name
Danite, the tribe of Dan from Jacob, Israel, a son. Danite
means judge. And the name Manoah means rest. Judgment and rest, kind of like
saying righteousness and peace. Verse two, there was a certain
man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah,
and his wife was barren and bare not. And to really begin the
comparison, when our Lord was born, he was born of a virgin
who had never born a child. She had borne not. Verse 3, And
the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto
her, Behold now thou art barren and barest not, but thou shalt
conceive and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray
thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any
unclean thing, for lo, thou shalt 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, and he shall begin to deliver Israel
out of the hand of the Philistines. Does that sound familiar? Turn
over quickly to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter 1 verse 26. And in the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph. of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored,
the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God, And behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall
be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. No end. Oh, the might and the
strength. Look at Luke chapter two, verse
34. And Simeon blessed them and said
unto Mary his mother, behold, this child is set for the fall
and rising again of many in Israel. and for a sign which shall be
spoken against. The fallen rising again, look
at verse 36. And there was one Anna, a prophetess. Verse 38, she coming in that
instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him
to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. She said, he is
going to be the redeemer. He is going to be the deliverer
of God's people. This is who Samson is a picture
of. All right, go back to Judges
13. Verse three. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold, now thou art barren
and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now
therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong
drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt 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." A Nazarite
was one who had taken a vow. That was a Nazarite. One who
had made a covenant, made a promise to be sanctified. That means
to be set apart unto the Lord. Set apart unto the Lord. set
apart unto the service of the Lord, set apart unto the work
of the Lord, set apart unto the glory of the Lord. And Numbers
chapter six tells us that this vow could last for any portion
of time. It could be a long period of
time. It could be a very, very short period of time. It was
a vow that someone made. But in that span of time, nothing
that came from a grape could be eaten or drunk. You couldn't drink wine. Nothing that could make a man
to be a fool. No unclean thing could be eaten. Nothing that the law said was
unclean. No razor could come to the hair.
You couldn't cut your hair. You know, the scripture compares
hair to glory. You couldn't remove the glory.
So a Nazarite was set apart to wisdom, to justice, and to glory. And Christ was the true Nazarite. He was the true Nazarite. He
proved that by saying, I will not drink of the fruit of this
vine again until I finish this covenant that I authored. Verse 5, For lo, thou shalt 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, and he shall
begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
He will begin the work of deliverance. Are you saying that's all he'll
do? He'll begin the work and then somebody else has to finish
the work? No, he'll finish it too. But he is the author and
the finisher. Verse six, then 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 he me his name. But he said unto me, behold,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink 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. At his death, it'll be made clear,
and in the case of Samson, as this type in picture, it was.
If you know anything about the story of Samson and how it ended,
it was, this is saying at his death, it will be made clear
that his vow, his promise, his covenant will be fulfilled. It'll
be fulfilled, it'll be complete. And was it ever with Christ?
Was it ever fulfilled at the time of his death? Was it ever
fulfilled and complete, all finished and complete in him? Verse eight, then Manoah entreated
the Lord and said, oh my Lord, let the man of God which thou
did sin come again unto us. Now he appeared to his wife,
but not to Manoah. So he prayed to the Lord, let
this one that you sent come again. and teach us what we shall do
unto the child that shall be born." Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of the Lord. He believed her. He believed
her. This man, Manoah, heard the Word
of the Lord and by God's Spirit and by His grace, he said, I
believe it. And what a glorious thing that is. when someone would
believe the word of the Lord. I believe it, Lord, reveal it
to me, teach me, teach us. The Lord humbles his people,
doesn't he? Verse eight, 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. And God hearkened to the voice
of Manoah. And the angel of God came again
unto the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband
was not with her. And the woman made haste and
ran and showed her husband and said unto him, behold, the man
hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day. And Manoah
arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said
unto him, art thou the man that speakest unto the woman? And
he said, I am. Who is God Almighty? I am. He said, Moses, you tell the
people I am, hath sent me to you. He said, before Abraham
was, I am. He will always be, I am. He is right now. And he will
always be, I am. Verse 12, and Manoah said, now
let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child
and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware.
She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let
her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing, all
that I commanded her, Let her observe. He said, nothing that
I said before has changed. I am the Lord, I change not. My word shall stand forever. Verse 15. And Manoah said unto
the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee until
we shall have made ready a kid for thee. You stay here and let us roast a lamb for you. And based on the next verse,
verse 16, we know that he was not saying, we would love to
have you stay for dinner. What he was saying was, let us
offer a burnt offering sacrifice to you. Let us worship you. Let us offer an appeasement to
you. Verse 16, and the angel of the
Lord said unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I will not eat
of thy bread. And if thou wilt offer a burnt
offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah knew
not that he was an angel of the Lord. All of God's people will
be taught of God. All of God's people will be caused
to turn from their religious idolatry. That's where every
soul on earth is until Christ turns them. Every soul is born
into the world in idolatry. We're not born right and somewhere
along the way go wrong. We're not born right and maintain
it until we get to heaven. We're all born wrong, all lost,
all in idolatry. And God has to turn us or we
won't be turned. God will cause every one of his
people to have an awakening to this and an awakening to their
idolatry and an awakening to their religious
vain efforts. And he will turn them to worship
and serve only the true and living God. All right, now we're about
to find out that this angel was Christ himself, the true and
living God. But Manoah didn't know that yet.
It said he didn't know it yet. So in his heart, his worship
would have been idolatry if he didn't know that that was the
true and living God and he's ready to worship this man. this angel, he sees a man in
front of him, then it would have been idolatry. His worship would
have been idolatry. And that's what all a false religion
is, idolatry, idolatry. The worship of, how can we tell
if it's a false religion? How can we tell if it's a false
religion? You got all these preachers in all these churches. How can
you know if it's a false religion? The worship of anything other
than the person of Jesus Christ is idolatry. the worship of anything
in addition to Jesus Christ. All right, we have Jesus Christ,
plus we're gonna add this to it. That's idolatry. And God
Almighty will not have it. And he will not accept it. Therefore,
in mercy, in grace, Manoah was turned from it and turned to
worship the true and living God alone. All right, verse 17, Manoah
said unto the angel of the Lord, what is thy name, that when thy
sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor? And the angel
of the Lord said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name,
seeing it is secret? You have a center margin, center
reference in your Bible. Why do you ask after my name,
seeing it's wonderful? Seeing it's full of wonder. Unto us a child is born. Unto
us a son is given. The government will be on his
shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the
mighty God. My name is Wonderful, full of
secret mystery. My name is secret. That's what
everything concerning God is until he reveals it. It is a
secret, a secret mystery. You think about the mystery of
godliness. Think about the mystery of Christ.
It's what the Apostle Paul talked about. The mystery of salvation. The mystery of the gospel. The
mystery of substitution. Think about this, that God the
Son was made sin. Is that a mystery? That's a secret
thing. How could we fathom that? How
could we fathom these things? There's only one God who is absolutely
made up of three persons. What a mystery. What a mystery. Is there a Father? Yes. Is there
a Son? Yes. Is there a Spirit? Yes.
Are there three gods? No. He didn't say, who should
I say sent me? Tell them we are sent you. He
didn't say that. There's only one God in the person
of Jesus Christ. The only begotten image of the
Father. You want to see the Father? Look
at Jesus Christ. The only begotten. People think
that means offspring. It doesn't mean offspring. The
only body prepared for God, Jesus Christ. He has no beginning and
no end. I'll tell you a million more
times if the Lord will let me live that long. I can kind of
fathom no end. I cannot possibly conceive no
beginning. I just can't even go there. No
beginning, from eternity to eternity. Everything concerning him is
a secret that must be revealed. Verse 19, so Manoah took a kid
with a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. He said, if you're gonna offer,
you're gonna have to offer to the Lord. So he offered it unto the Lord,
and the angel did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked
on. 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. When the flames of that sacrifice
reached the peak of their height, Manoah had a lamb there under
a fire and he lit that fire. And those flames started building.
And when those flames got to the peak of their height, the
angel of the Lord Jesus Christ jumped into that fire. That's what happened on the cross
of Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ jumped
into that fire. He endured that fire. Christ
was the lamb slain that bore the fiery judgment of God for
the appeasement of the sin of his people. And his sacrifice
was accepted when he went into that fire. The moment he went
into that fire, God accepted him. He was accepted by the sacrifice
of himself. The father accepted his offering
and his people were redeemed. Verse 19, So Manoah took a kid
with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD.
And the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked
on. 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, and Manoah and his wife looked on it, and
fell on their faces to the ground. That is what happens every single
time a sinner truly sees God. They don't hoop and holler and
jump pews and they don't do that. You go through the men of Scripture,
you go through Peter and Saul of Tarsus and John on the Isle
of Patmos and you just go through these men and every time they
fall on their face to the ground. That's what happens when men
seek God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what happens. They fall on their face to the
ground and it humbles them. They see what they are, they
see who this is and they stop their foolishness and get in
the dirt. The end of verse 20, Manoah and
his wife looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground.
But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and
to his wife than Manoah knew The moment he saw that sacrifice
crucified, the moment he saw the angel of the Lord sacrificed,
the moment he saw the consuming fire and the acceptance into
heaven, Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. What does
that mean? Verse 22, and Manoah said unto
his wife, we shall surely die because we've seen God. We were
talking to God. We just looked on God. That was
God. That's a believer. That was God. That wasn't God's helper. That was God. We're gonna die
because we've seen God. When a sinner truly sees God,
fear comes over that sinner. Where there is no fear and no
reverence, a sinner has not seen God. Mark it down. It is a fearful thing to see
the holy God. He said no man can see me and
live. That's what he said. And that's
so. No man can just look. If a man walked up to God Almighty
outside of Jesus Christ and looked on him, he'd die in his sin. All you have to do is look at
him. No man can see me and live unless
this right here happens. Okay, verse 22. And Manoah said
unto his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, if the Lord were pleased to kill
us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering
at our hands. Neither would he have showed
us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us
such things as these." Now this is the glorious news of the gospel.
She said, if the Lord was pleased to kill us, number one, he would
not have received a sacrifice in our stead. Number one. And number two, he would not
have revealed that sacrifice to us. You know why this book
was given? To reveal the sacrifice to us. That's the whole reason. That's
the whole reason. She said he would not have showed
us all these things. He would not have told us all
these things. That can be said to every child
of God. Look at everything he said to us. Look at everything
He showed us and revealed to us in what He has said to us.
Look at how time and time again it points us to the sacrifice.
Look how He just keeps pointing us to the sacrifice. If He were
pleased to kill us, He would never have revealed Christ our
ark. Noah's ark, Noah's ark. Well, everybody just loves Noah's
ark. God's Ark, that's Christ our Ark. He would never have
revealed Christ our Passover Lamb. We would still be looking
to an animal. We would be. We would still be
looking to an animal. The blood of bulls and goats.
If he were pleased to kill us, he would have never revealed
Christ our smitten rock. He would have never revealed
Christ, our serpent lifted up. He would have never revealed
Christ, our kinsman redeemer, never. If the Lord was pleased
to kill us, he would have never revealed Christ to us. He would
not have revealed Christ to us. Verse 22, and Manoah said unto
his wife, we shall surely die because we've seen God. But his
wife said unto him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would
not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands.
Neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would
as at this time have told us such things as these. And the
woman bare a son and called his name Samson. His name means sunlight,
light of the sun. And the child grew, and the Lord
blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtiol. That reminds me of what the scripture
says concerning Christ. It says the child grew, and waxed
strong in the spirit, in spirit, and was in the deserts till the
day of his showing unto Israel. If the Lord will be pleased to,
I would very much like for him to continue this. I'd like to
go through the whole story. Pray he will. Pray he'll continue
the picture for us. All right, let's all stand together.