So Judges chapter 13, if you
have it, and I want to read a very familiar verse to you if you
have read the book of Judges. You hear this over and over.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the
Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines
forty years. Let me read just a little farther
here and let this man come into focus. And there was a certain
man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, the tribe of Dan,
whose name was Manoah, and his wife was Baran, and Baranoth. And the angel of the Lord, who,
if you read further, may I not get it said as we study, is none
other than the pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now thou Baran, and
bearest not but thou shalt conceive and bear a son." That's emphatic
language there. So that sort of gives us a setting
in respect to the life of this man, Samson, who comes on the
scene. That's the son who is to be born. Now, if you go back, I'll take
this time to go back. If you go back to the beginning
of the book of Judges, just a short book here, go back to the third
chapter of the book of Judges, and so many times it is made
mention of in this a pulpit by those of us who are public spokesmen,
of the term or the number seven, which is highly significant as
you study the Word of God. This happens to be what I read
in your hearing, seven straight times that we hear of the children
of Israel doing evil in the sight of the Lord, or a wholesale declension
in Israel, or rather still, a better word, an apostasy. And this shows
that seven straight times this had taken place in the days of
the judges. See, God sent the Israel judges
to bring those people to their cells to some extent, and then
they'd fall right back in the same old track again. So remember
that while dealing with the Book of Judges, and particularly so,
with the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters, I think it's four
more chapters there, concerning this deliverer called Samson,
who was a deliverer, but a distinctly different deliverer from any
of the other judges. He is an individual and remained
as an individual. But remember that during his
lifetime there were some things that happened to him, and 7 comes
into the picture again in his life. So now we'll go read that
7 distinct times prior to his coming on the scene that Israel
had had a deliverer. Now here we go. Chapter 3. I'm
just going to give them to you so they'll be on tape. Chapter
3 and verse 5. And the children of Israel dwelt
among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,
in the Hivites and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters
to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and
served their gods. Now, just move on down just a
little ways right there, for I'm not going to read it all.
I don't need to take time. But as you read the 7th verse,
"...and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served Balaam and the
groves." Okay, now here it is, one of those occasions. Move
on down to verse 12, I guess it is. As we read verse 11, it
says, And the land had rest forty years, and Othaniel the son of
Kenai died. Now here's what happened. He
was the one who had been raised up. We studied this some time
back under Brother Lane's ministry in the Wednesday night service.
So here it is, just a little refreshing breath of the past
here. And, verse 12, And the children of Israel did evil again
in the sight of the Lord, And the Lord strengthened Aegon,
the king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done evil in
the sight of the Lord." All right, they need another deliverer.
No use to read that whole chapter, for God did send them a deliverer. That's the second time. Then
in chapter 4, the first verses of chapter 4 read thus, And the
children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord,
when Ehud had died. There it is. They did the same
thing over and over again. So we move just a little further.
We have three straight occasions, three straight records here of
what's taking place. Then in the 6th chapter, and
there again beginning with verses 1 and 2, And the children of
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered
them into the hand of Midian seven years." And now you know
the story of the Midianites and Gideonites. There it is again. Then we move over to the 8th
chapter, I believe it is. And we find in that 8th chapter,
or in the middle of the chapter, or near the closing portion of
the chapter, verse 32. And Gideon, the son of Joash,
died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash
his father in Ophrah, and of the Abbaites. And it came to pass, as soon
as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again,
and went a-whoring out to Balaam, and made Balaam bareth their
God." There it is again. So here we are in the 9th chapter,
and we're coming up now to a chapter here in the 13th chapter. But before we get there, we've
got to get to that 6th one. So in the 10th chapter, and beginning
there with the 6th verse, here it is again. Verse 5, I told you who died
and was buried. And then the children of Israel
did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam and
Ashtoreth. and the gods of Syria and the
gods of Zion, and on we go. Here they are, now that's six
times. All right, then we turn to the 13th chapter and we read
this again in our hearing, and with this thought in mind, Samson
comes on the scene. Samson comes on the scene. And
I wouldn't know how to give a subject matter for what I'm planning
to bring to your attention this morning. other than to begin
with just Samson. That's the subject in the 13th
chapter and the next three chapters that follow, just Samson. But
I guess you could say various things about this man coming
on the scene. If you wanted to use some tent
campaign subject matter, you could use a perplexing package
as this youngster comes on the scene, very perplexing. were
the circumstances concerning this fellow Samson. Now, Ben,
as I brought that word to your attention, perplexing, I'll tell
you why it is perplexing. It has been breathed this morning
in the subject matter just ahead of me in language of God's eternal
counsel. And because of God's eternal
ordained counsel, because of that unchanging, eternal counsel
of God, As you and I seem to recognize something of that counsel,
as it is woven into the experience of earth-bound human beings,
it becomes a mystery to us. It becomes something that you
can't get apart, though it is by God woven into a fabric that
making all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to his purpose. But it's mysterious. You can't reason this man's life
out. The number one thing about this
fellow Samson that's going to come on the scene here as we
study is one of God's elect. Which makes the package more
mysterious, brother. You think God in all eternity
chose a man and chose him for the purpose of glorifying God's
own purpose, his person. at the same time to edify that
person and make him like the Lord Jesus Christ. And you begin
to look at the occasion here, and you say, well, things just
simply are not going together like they should go together.
Not as we think they should go together. That's the whole thing. That's what was wrong with Manoah
and his wife. They didn't understand. They
were perplexed over a situation that God Himself had ordained. Now let me just give you a few,
I don't have time, but I'll do it anyhow, a few things here
that are introductory to this man Samson coming on the scene.
Had this have been Samuel, for example, whose mother was Hannah, is that
right? And the father, Alcanna, I guess
it was, and first Samson. All right, if you remember, she
was barren. And barrenness in Israel was
a terrible thing. I don't think it is now. I think
the Apostle Paul tells us, come a time, you'd be glad that you
are barren in this awful hour as we go out the door. But coming
in, barrenness in Israel was a thing that really made people
sore. They were sorely afflicted, the
woman was, because of one thing. One thing, and I think this thing
actually was what Eve felt in the Garden of Eden when she said,
I have gotten a man from the Lord, or I have gotten a man
by the help of the Lord. She sure was deceived. She missed
the boat. But every human being living
from the days of Adam and Eve on knew there was coming a Messiah
and that somebody was going to give birth to that deliverer.
The book of Judges is characterized by deliverance. And she prayed for a son, she
actually prayed for a son, and God gave her a son, you remember,
that's Samuel. She prayed for that son, and she dedicated that
son to the Lord before he was born. One of the things in particular
there, I guess, the first chapter of 1 Samuel, maybe the second,
the first chapter I believe it is, one of the things in particular
was that she had something in common in her prayer life with
this particular angel, a particular angel, the Lord Jesus Christ
himself coming on the scene here and doing the dedicating, she
had something in particular with that person, and one was a razor
should not come on his head. That's right, if you read it
there on Samuel's head, all the days of his life. Well, now,
if Samuel turned out to be a pretty good fellow, things ran rather
smooth in Samuel's life, that wouldn't have puzzled the wife
and the husband too much, I doubt. Had it been that Samuel had been
a Samson, and they just put Samuel in Samson's shoes, and Samson
in Samuel's shoes just this moment, had he turned out to have been
a Samson, I doubt sure whether it puzzled them so much, because
I'll tell you why. It doesn't puzzle you. How many
people have I spoken to and how many people have spoken to me
who said, well, thank God I was saved before my children were
coming into this world, so we dedicated our children to the
Lord. And yet strange things happen,
brother. Though you're honest with what
you're doing, strange things happen. But when God himself
And the person of an angel here, the angel of the Lord, is dispatched
from heaven and comes on the scene, and before a person is
born, said, I am going to dedicate him. He dedicated him. They didn't dedicate him. They
accepted the dedication, but it's the angel who dedicated
him, Lord. It's going to be thus and thus and thus concerning
a son. And he's coming on the scene.
What would you expect? What would you expect? What would
I expect? Oh, boy. This is it. This is everything but the Messiah.
They didn't know who the Messiah was, or the Lord Jesus Christ,
I guess I should say there, as he appeared. And before his incarnation,
I hope you understand that kind of language, for it did appear
like that in the Old Testament more times than once. But they
no doubt felt, well, if there is a coming one somewhere down
through the ages, well, if this isn't him, this is going to be
close to him, brother. They looked with anticipation,
I would say, with God himself, as I say, sending the Son of
God down here to dedicate the coming of a newborn person into
this world. They said, well, what kind of
man will this be? Well, let's read you to the Father, see what
the angel had to say, and then let's see what happens. Let me say this, I'm wrestling
with such a subject as this, and I'm not too embarrassed about
it because if you take my shoes you'll wrestle with it too if
you attempt to get out of it what's in there. If you attempt
to unwrap such a angle or triangles of angles concerning a man's
life, and at the same time that life was ordained of God, there's
no question about that, and while God ordained the life of Samson,
those acts of Samson over and over and over were sinful acts,
and Samson suffered like nobody's business, and Mama and Daddy
suffered. Now, you try to take that apart and try to just reason
it through, there's no reasonableness to it. Well, in what I want to
do this morning, for a few moments right here, let me give you just
a little hint of what I'm trying to do. I don't want to deal with
the fact that he just necessarily the elect. Thank God he was,
according to the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. He's
one of them, is that right? You'd have never known he was.
You'd have sworn Balaam had come near being one of them, were
it not for the fact that we have the record. Well, thank God for
the record again. It's there. I don't want to deal too much
with the fact that he is just one of God's elect, but thank
God for that. Neither do I want to measure,
as I have measured and others have measured in days past and
gone, that he is the only child. You know, there's a lot said
about the only child. I remember years past and gone. Our evangelist that came this
way, Dusty Rhodes, do you remember the setting? How he magnified
the fact that he was the only child and coming in on the last
leg, just about the time that the mother ceased to be one of
those who bore children. Do you remember that? Well, these
things sort of stick with me. You could keep preaching and
a person like that could just rob the entire 11th, 12th, 13th,
14th, and the rest of the chapters of the book of Judges and apply
that. I'm not interested in that too
much. Though he was the only child, as far as I can see, he
was the only child. And along with that, what happened
to Samson? In the end, the picture sort
of brightened, the sun set rather clearly, but Mama and Daddy had
done gone off the scene. They never knew anything other
than the fact, what a mess, what a problem, what a problem. I'm
not dealing with the fact that he's the only child, I'm not
dealing with the fact that that he is one of the elect, and I
don't want to deal with the distinguishing display of his characteristics
too much, though I must do so if I get there. I must do so
as I bring him on the scene, but I don't want to do that.
I could preach to you this morning and pick up on a Spurgeon's message,
hands full of honey, and speak to you concerning a honey-eating
lying, killing, lady-loving man, or something of the kind. That
would be good preaching. That's in there. But I'm not
interested too much in that, though that does come into the
picture. Neither am I interested in preaching
along the lines of his peculiarity, strictly in the capacity of a
judge of Israel, for he had no armed forces with him. He didn't
act like that. He did it all by himself. Some
have taken it in hand to say that this is a great analogy
between this Deliverer, Samson, and our great Coming Deliverer,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And while Samson took the gates
of Gaza off of the hinges and post pillars and everything,
that the Son of God took the doors off of hell and on you
go and carried them up to heaven. Well, some of that is good preaching.
in respect to just what we'd call the likeness of Samson being
seen only as he typifies somebody else. I don't want to deal with
that. I don't want to deal with that. I'll tell you what I want
to deal with. I want to bring something down
home where we live, where we live. I want to deal with the
parent and child relationship of this man called Samson. Now,
put yourself, if you possibly can under God, in their shoes. And let's read again. Look what
happened. Listen, there is somebody coming on the scene, Mama and
Daddy talking about this, that an angel from heaven? And finally
they decided it was the Lord God himself appearing in what
we call Christophany? They are anticipating something,
brother, I'm telling you what. The providence of God, expectation. And then suddenly those awful
perpetuities in the life of Samson and disappointment closed the
days of Mom and Daddy. Well, let's look at him with
this thought in mind. And the children of Israel, again, verse
1 of the 13th chapter. And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered
them into the hand of Philistines forty years. And there was a
certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was
Manoah, and his wife was barren, and she barren not. 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, listen, here comes the dedication of
this son. She didn't run and tell her husband
that the angel said, We're going to bear a son, and let's dedicate
him to the Lord. She didn't get the opportunity
to do that. I'm telling you, Almighty God
dedicated him. 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 barest son." Keep
on reading, the angel is talking. Now, therefore, beware, I pray
thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and eat not anything
unclean. The anticipation of this newcomer
on the scene was affecting Mother to this extent. Now, you've got
somebody coming on the scene, and he's vitally a part of you,
so you listen to me. Along with that, outward appearance. For lo, thou shalt conceive and
bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head. Now, I'd like
to preach on that because this long-haired outfit today who
can't even read, much less inspiration when the scripture plainly says
that it does not nature itself. Can't you see it? A dog has long
hair, not a man. Does not nature itself teach
you that long hair belongs to man? And we get into a question
of what long hair and what short hair and so on and so forth.
The question is, what's the significance of long hair in the Bible? This
generation has no significance to it. It's a defying of God
in respect to some significance to this thing of long hair for
Samson. God ordained that for Samson
to do that. And when you see Samson out there,
you're going to see him just like you would see Samuel, no
razor comb on his head. Listen, I am a peculiar person
dedicated to God. Do you think this generation
feels that way about it with their long hair? then don't follow
them. It might be that if you pick
your hair out of a purse today, just cut your hair off and you'll
look different. I'm not preaching on that, and I drop it out, it
doesn't cost me anything. For lo, thou shalt conceive and
bear a son, and no raiser shall come upon his head. And I tell
you what he'll do, he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the
hands of Philistine. David finished the job, I think,
if you study history. Then the woman came and told
her husband, and we won't get anything but the setting, I'll
see you there from the clock. Then the woman came and told her husband,
well, that's a sensible thing to do. He appeared to her both times.
Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, a man of
God. Now, we've been studying some
things in respect to those people called angelic beings. Now, you
know who these people both of them at the time, but this particular
time, Manoah's wife, do you know who she thought this person appeared
to be? A man of God. Does that ring
with you, teachers? That's an Old Testament prophet.
Do you remember that? Let's make a room on the end
of this house for this man of God, this man of God. They thought
whoever this was in appearance was an Old Testament prophet.
That's simple if you read the scripture. A man of God came
unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an
angel of God. That's an expression they use
again over and over in the Old Testament. Very unusual and very
terrible. But I asked him not whence he
was, and he told he me his name. Well, that's of God, too. He
wouldn't have told you if you did ask. Do you remember whence
you did ask? I'm going to let you in on a
secret. And 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." This
was the typical significance of his hair as well as that which
they were not to eat, and he was not to eat. A Nazarite to
God from the womb to the day of his death. That's necessary,
as you stated there, to the day of his death. The day of his
death he was doing business for God, brother. He did more business
on that day. You folks talk about doing good
business. He did the best business on that day ever been done. He
did more business that day than he'd ever done. He killed more
for less things. That's what God raised him up
for. But it cost him something. It cost him something. Maybe
I should have said a few moments ago, as you weave into this earthly
sojourn the ordained, eternal counsel of God, with that of
the life of the sojourner which is so imperfect and so sinful." You better bet Samson was a sinner
saved by grace, and you are a sinner saved by grace. I guess one reason
why this seems to bear upon me at this particular time now,
studying Every now and then I pick up an old booklet, which is not
worth picking up and better to throw it in a trash can, but
you like first-hand information lots of times. The Ideal Home
by some crackpot. Boy, he tells you how to rear
the children, how to do this, and quotes a verse or scripture
or two, takes them completely out of their context. If he hears
I outline his three points, he takes the subject, leaves the
subject, never returns to it, and dupes the mind of people.
Why don't we take the Bible to find an ideal home? Huh? What's wrong with the Bible?
Just take the Bible. I'm in an ideal situation here,
the only child coming on the scene. Why don't we use the Bible
for just a little while, and we're bare heads in shame to
listen to somebody else who writes along beside the Scripture and
misleads people and deceives people, and here you are crying
out to God for something that we already have? There are no
ideal homes in this world. You know why? Because of the
coming of the just one who came into this world for one specific
purpose, to save his people from their sins. And all the people
are not his to be saved, they are his by creation. Therefore,
the Son of God drives a wedge in the household. He is not the
great uniter that you hear so much about. He is the great separator. And they of your household and
my household shall be your greatest enemies." When Samson started
down, brother, he went down. The Scripture says he went down
seven straight times. He did not go down by himself. He took Mama and Daddy with him.
That's sad, isn't it? That's sad. I'm relating the
situation, if I get to it this morning, but don't come back
to it. I'm relating the situation of this newcomer into this world
as his coming and his life is related to his mother and daddy,
a parent relationship. Now, who doesn't need that? We
all need that in respect to our children. They come on the scene
and say, as I said just a few moments ago, say, Lord, we want
this child to be brought up in the nourishment of God. And we
want to rear the child as we should rear the child. Every
one of us miss it. Every one of us miss it for two reasons.
We don't know the mind of God over and over and over again.
We don't understand. We're totally depraved. We're
sinners saved by grace, if saved. And that child's totally depraved.
And you think you're going to tell that child what to do and
the child's going to do it? Well, you're crazy. You're crazy. You didn't act like that. Somebody
tell you what to do. We get heartbroken time and again
over the fact that had we listened to the Word of God and studied
the Word of God, what more could we expect? Abraham had two sons,
didn't he? He had two sons, one by a bondwoman
and one by a free woman. Well, God said of Abraham over
there in Genesis, He said, I know Abraham. I won't hide anything
from Abraham, he's my friend. Shall I hide this thing from
Abraham that I do? No, I'm going to tell him. And he said, I know
Abraham, and I know that Abraham will guide his household right,
adhere to my commandments and his children after him. Now,
he either meant all Abraham's children or he meant the elect,
and either way you take it, brothers, they didn't follow God in that
sense. They broke God's commandments.
I'm just reading down through here. They did evil again. That's
Abraham's seed. They did evil again. This idea
of just witchcraft teachings, and that's about all you hear
today. And I repeat, all these booklets coming out about how
to rear the child and have a child that will be a whole lot like
daddy and mama. That's the sad part about the whole thing. It
wouldn't tell the truth about it. And they'll grow up. I tell
you how to do that. Just start them in kindergarten,
teach them a verse of Scripture, and tell them Jesus loves you.
Instead of starting in Psalm 51.5 or 51, where he starts off
there, he says, Behold, when you are big enough to tell one,
say, Behold, you were shaping an iniquity, and in sin did I
conceive you, and you came forth from the womb doing just what
you are doing now, speaking lies. Why, that child sat there and
said, I'm mad at you. Try it, brother. A child old
enough to knowingly know wrong is old enough to knowingly know
what's right. A child old enough to know knowingly what's
right is old enough to do wrong and know they're wrong. You just
tell the child, let's see what they say. Just like speaking
to a man, I here's the law, and said, you're a liar? You just
lied. Well, he said, I don't like that.
I just believed in Jesus. Yeah, that's about right too,
brother. That's when the truth needs to be told. We need to
accept the truth. I didn't ask who he was or where
he's from. Well, sometimes it's best to get an enlightened subject.
He won't ask you any questions. But he said unto me, behold,
thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine
or strong drink, He did an unclean thing, for the child shall be
a Nazarite to God from the womb unto the day of his birth." Now,
who's he going to be a Nazarite to? You need to underline that.
To mom and daddy? No, to God. There's the peculiarities, the
old things. Somebody said that, "'Honor thy father and thy mother,
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee.'" And of course, they quote that scripture. know
nothing but works instead of salvation, they say, well, the
child ought to honor me. No, no, no, forget about me. The most honoring thing under
heaven for a child to do is honor God. Listen, if my child will
honor God, I'll be honored if I'm a child of God. Honor thy
father and thy mother, but remember, honoring God is the way father
and mother is honored. Don't tell the child, now, you
hurt Daddy's feeling, you hurt Mommy's feeling, but how does
God feel about the situation? There's the whole thing. He's a Nazarite to God, thank
God. It wouldn't have worked if he
hadn't have been. They would have done something
different, brother. But he held out to the end, right down to
the end, with his own wayward, sinful acts, though he carried
out God's plan. I do not hesitate to say that.
And Mama and Daddy never did see any light on the sons of
Samson. Then Manoah entreated the Lord.
Listen to this. This whole thing is dear to me.
In most occasions, I think that would happen to you, you'd say,
wait just a moment now, this man appeared, is that all he
told you? Is that all that took place? You'd ask some questions,
brother. Instead of that under God, Manoah
prayed. He entreated the Lord, he did
the correct thing, and this is the record we have. Then Manoah
entreated the Lord and he said, Oh my Lord, let the man of God
which thou didst send," you sent him, we didn't send for him,
"'come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the
child that shall be born.'" I think I've said enough to say this
by now. If you look at that verse of Scripture, you'll see, what's
this fellow, Manoah, the husband of the wife, what's he interested
in right now? Brother, he's interested in that newcomer. He's interested
in knowing how, that's what he said. What shall we do unto the
child that shall be born? Not before birth, but after birth. He's looking forward to see this
child come on the scene. And brother, this is a child
of God. If there ever was, and he was
a child of God, and the unusual, so we want to know what to do.
That's good. And God hearkened to the voice
of Manoah, and the angel of God came again. He got his prayer
answered. Came again unto the woman as she sat in the field. and what she's expecting, whether
she's working the field or what not. But Manoah her husband was
not with her. Second occasion, the providence
of God. If I were to outline the message,
it would be the providence of God and the expectation of the
parents and the, what shall I say, the perplexities in the life
of the sojourn and the terrible disappointment. that they faced
as they went out of this life. They never lived to see Samson
die. They died ahead of him, or Manoah
at least is said to have died ahead of him. But here we go. Behold, the man hath appeared
unto me, and came unto me the other day. So he's getting his
prayers answered, and that 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 out to his wife and came to the man and said unto
him, Art thou the man? I think you should study these
terms. Art thou the man? Art thou the angel? Art thou
the prophet of God? I think those things are interchangeable
as you study the language of the Old Testament. Art thou the
man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. And that's
his name. am, it's still I am." That's
him. And the Noah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How? Listen, he's interested in this
child. How shall we order the child and how shall we do unto
him? He's just interested in how we
shall rear this child. I see that more and more. How
shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him in ordering
the child? I think he's referring back to
she shall drink no wine, and strong drink, and eat nothing
of the vine, and so on and so forth. They're willing to obey
God's orders. They want to know what the orders are and stand
by those orders. And sure enough, they did, as
far as we could see, for one thing in particular was his hair
was never cut. And I think they stayed by their
guns as well as other things. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Noah, 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, nor strong drink, nor eat anything unclean, or
anything unclean, any unclean thing, all that I commanded her,
let her observe. I think they're willing to do
that. We're looking for this son with anticipation. I'm telling you what, this couple
or the wife has been barren, and here's this unusual visitor,
an angel. We'll say the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself coming on the scene and demanding with no uncertain terminology
that I dedicate this child Not you dedicating the child, I'm
dedicating the child, and it seems to me like that all those
years after being incapable of producing offspring, why, they
just jubilate with joy. Certainly they're anticipating
the coming of this person, and they're believing God, and rightly
so, for they were believers. At least Samson's appears to
be one, so coming on the scene is this person that they're really
looking forward to see and to beg God in respect to rearing
that child. What an anticipation. I don't
know of anywhere in the Bible where you could picture a scene
like this. John the Baptist was, I guess, one of those fellows
that came on the scene. And yet there's more said here
by far than there was about John coming on the scene. And Manoah
said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, he's a praying man
and got his prayers answered, let us detain thee until we shall
have made ready a kid for thee. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy 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." He wasn't
interested in eating. He had meat to eat that they
knew not of. If you go over in the New Testament,
secondly, he was the bread from heaven. And Manoah said unto
the angel of the Lord, What is thy name? Now, Mama didn't ask
that question, but Daddy did. What is thy name? That when the
saying comes to pass, we may do the honors. They're anticipating
that boy coming on the scene. When your saying comes to pass,
we're going to tell this whole story about how you came on the
scene. We want to know who it is so
we can write it up in the newspaper and get it on television. Most
unusual thing you ever heard teller. He said we didn't have such back
there. Are you sure? And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord,
what is our name, that when the saying comes to pass, we may
do the honor? And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, this is indirectly associated with the subject,
but I want to read down here and then we'll have to close
here in just a few moments. And the angel of the Lord said unto
him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? Secret. And we studied that before. The word simply is wonderful. And it's the same person that
the brother brought to our attention this morning. His name shall
be called wonderful. It is none other. This passage
here teaches that it was the appearing of the incarnate, pre-incarnate
Son of God. And the angel of the Lord said
it is secret. So Manasseh took a kid with a meat offering and
offered it upon the rock unto the Lord, and the angel did wondrously,
and Manoah and his wife looked on." I think possibly if a person
was reading this like they should, I cannot read. like I should,
I want to get ahead in the next verse, I want to say something
about it, so I'm a poor reader, mainly for that reason, and tell
you something that I'm saying there. But I think this is some
setting, but what anticipation of a coming son, doesn't tell
him to go be a boy, and determine the whole thing, that going to
some medical society somewhere, we've got it all figured out
here, and I mean they believe in God, brother, so he's coming,
he's coming. Oh, my, we've been under these
Philistines long enough. I just know he's going to take
us out from under their rule this time. This is it. This is
the deliverer, brother. They may be anticipating even
the coming of the just one. I don't know. They did. They
looked forward to him coming. 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, looked on, and fell on their
faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did
no more appear to Manoah and his wife than Manoah knew that
he was an angel of the Lord. Well, they can't talk anymore
to the angel, now they're going to have to talk to each other. Now listen
to what they say. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die because we
have seen God." They began to get a little closer to who they
had seen now. We've seen God. But he's right. He's right. But
he's right, he 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.
They're coming back to the same subject, all these things. Nor
would at this time have told us such things as these." She's
even repeating herself. What things? All concerning this
newcomer. And the woman, and here it goes,
and time will go catch me. I want to touch on seven passages
in the next few chapters by just reading them to you. And the
woman bears son and calls his name Samson, which is little
son. S-U-N is what it means. He rose
as the sun would rise, and came on the scene bright, shining
as the sky itself, and stayed under a cloud until the very
closing moments of his life, and the sun set beautifully."
Have you ever had that kind of a life? Maybe you have now. God
knows the mysterious outworkings of his. A providential hand among
us is, I don't understand. I don't understand. We may go
off the scene not understanding, but God understands. He understands,
brother. And if the sun rises, he says
it will rise, and it's my child that I'm rising the sun on, he'll
set air clearly. He'll set air clearly. Though
we have no hand in it. But his wife said unto him, if
the Lord had been pleased to kill us, he wouldn't have showed
us these things. And the woman bear a son, and called his name
Samson, and the child grew." Now the history of the growth
of the child of God up to a time of what we might call a young
man seeking a wife, or a woman rather, there's nothing there. There's absolutely nothing there.
This is all we have. Hang on to it. And the woman
bear a son, and called his name Samson, and the child grew. And the Lord blessed him over
a number of years, of course. And the Spirit of the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtiol. And here is the setting of what
these parents never once expected would come to pass in the next
few chapters. May I say, may I just make a
few observations that will be helpful to you in studying the
Word of God and studying the life of your own sojourn. This
verse of Scripture in introducing this man now on the scene, the
drama of life, and the Spirit of the Lord began to move in
the times, period. The Spirit of the Lord began
to move in the times. If you read the New Testament,
particularly so the coming of the Spirit of God at Pentecost,
He came with a mighty racing wind. The Holy Spirit comes into
your life more often. with an unusual demonstration,
a violent way of coming in. But many times as a believer,
he slips away secretly and you didn't know that the Spirit of
God had departed you. Did that happen to Samson or
am I just dreaming? Huh? Huh? Did it happen to him? The
Spirit of God came on that man and he just walked out and took
a line and just took him apart like that. He'd take those Philistines,
take a jawbone of ass, kill a thousand of them. You couldn't do a thing
with him. But something happened to Samson.
Mom and Daddy could understand that. They couldn't put their
stamp of approval on it. But again, throughout the entire
episode of his life, the great mystery of godliness, I can only
help you unravel. I do not understand God's ways.
They're not my ways." And that's what took place in the life of
this fellow. And he kept on, kept on, kept
on playing. God's gifts are not for museums,
neither are they for display in museums. They used to be used, but they're
not used anymore. No, you don't play with God's
gifts. Those of us who know the strength
of God in earthen vessels are not to take those gifts as being
hope so, or maybe so. They are real, and they should
be used to that extent. And such a record of this will
let you know over and over and over and over again, I'm just
another Samson. I'm just another Samson. I'm
born just like Samson. Shall I play with this thing,
or shall I go the way Samson went? Well, I'm going to take
enough time on that clock to give you seven steps here that
Samson took. And here he goes, child of God,
he went down. He went down. He went down. The last time he went down, Philistines
took him down. And the curtain falls. Verse
1, And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of
the daughters of Philistines. I'm not saying that the officiant
calls it all. is this woman. I'm not saying
that at all. I'm saying that's the instrumental cause here.
Those things that help a person on their way are seen to be various
things in life, but believe it or not, back of every instrumental
cause is that efficient cause, a mystery of Almighty God's purpose. There was no other way for Samson
to go, though he went a sinful route and knew he was wrong.
Over and over. There are three things he did
right here. He sought. This is exactly what happened
in the beginning. He sought. The lust of the eyes,
secondly with him. The lust of the flesh, he took
that woman. The lust of the eyes and the
pride of life, he showed off. Now if that isn't so, now look
at us over and over. Just take your own life. We are
show-offs. And across my desk, under the
picture of my wife, is a little something I inscribed years ago.
It says, a show-off is always showing up in the showdown. That's
right. The showdowns of God will bring
you and me to a place where you'll live the rest of your days like
Samson did living with the leftovers. I've come to believe, I'm studying
this book of Judges again, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck
it out. I don't believe God tells me to dismember my body. I don't think that's correct.
I don't think he's ever told us to do that. But it's a principle,
brother. He'll do the job. If thy right
eye keeps offending you and you can't keep committing adultery,
I'll get rid of that eye. If thy right hand, I'll take
it off. Samson lives what was left of Samson. His eyes punched
out. You know the story. Well, it
went down, brother. Here's the first down. Second
down, verse 5. Then went Simpson down, and by
the way, who's on his coattail? Be careful, Mama and Daddy. Be
careful how far I go with my child. Well, they're my children. That's the sad part about it.
With my children, you wouldn't go that far. If your children
were my children, I'd go farther. Do you understand? This trouble
in the household, they went down with him. Now, why did they go
down with him? I can't preach on this thing.
I'll come back to it. They had good reason to go down.
They listened to what he said. They didn't know, but he really
did. He sought an occasion to kill
Philistine. I know that. But also, while killing Philistine,
there was in old Samson's bosom a killing, killing man that he
didn't know anything about. Killing Samson, taking him apart.
Then went Samson down, his father and mother to Timnath, and came
to the vineyards of Timnath. And by the way, he just showed
off so much for that. He killed a lot. And he went
down, verse 7, and he went down and talked with the woman. That's
the second time he went down. I'm going to ignore that one
time he went down with his father and mother. And he went down
and talked with the woman. First he saw her, now he's talking
with her. That's good. That will get him in trouble.
And she pleased Samson well. That's good. That's all he cared
for was that Samson be pleased. Let's go over to verse 19. And
the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down." He is
sinking, brother. He went down to Ashkelon and slew thirty men
of them, and took their spoils and gave chains and garments
unto them, which expounded the riddle." See, he had a riddle.
His life was a riddle. There is a joke back here behind
that. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's
house, and there was the occasion This woman had been given away.
He had three of them here, all right? Let's go to verse 8 of
the 15th chapter. Killing the Philistines. And
he smoked the Philistines' hip and thigh with a great slaughter,
and he went down. And he dwelt on the top of the
rock even. Verse 12, and they, this was not one of them, except
indirectly related, and they said unto him, We are come down
to bind thee, that we may deliver thee.