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The Book of Judges: Samson’s Miraculous Birth and Divine Purpose w/ Eric Johnson (Part 8 of 9)
Have you ever wondered how a miraculous birth sets the stage for a divine mission? In our latest episode, we uncover the compelling story of Samson from his Nazirite vow to his extraordinary birth, as Eric Johnson and I navigate through the historical and geographical landscapes of the Danites and Philistines. Together, we'll explore the profound dedication expected of Samson as he embarks on his journey, drawing intriguing connections to other miraculous births in the Bible.
As we continue, we delve into the nature of divine revelation and human understanding. Reflecting on the contrasting reactions of Manoah and his wife to their encounter with the angel of the Lord, we'll discuss themes of fear, faith, and the true meaning of the fear of the Lord for today's believers. Wrapping up, we'll emphasize the peace that comes from trusting God with the future and living moment by moment, setting the stage for Samson's mission to begin to deliver his people in our next episode. Join us for an enlightening conversation on faith, trust, and divine purpose.
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Speaker 2:Welcome back to Fellowship Around the Table, where we endeavor to have great conversations about life, faith and the Bible. This is part eight in our series on Judges with Eric Johnson.
Speaker 1:Hey.
Speaker 2:Eric, we are recording on one of the hottest days of the year and when we record we have to turn the air off because it creates a huge background noise. And we were just commenting that we need a Tyson towel. It's a little steamy in here.
Speaker 1:Just just a bit yeah.
Speaker 2:But enjoying this so excited. We are getting into the end here and we're going to be talking about Samson. We are All right, get us going, all right.
Speaker 1:So to reset the stage, chronologically, we're coming off of Jephthah here. So we have seen for the first time we've gone through the cycle and there has not been peace in the land at the end of it. I'll point out that also in Jephthah, jephthah fights off the Ammonites, but at the beginning of his story you have a mention of the Ammonites coming in to take to exert God's punishment on the Israelites.
Speaker 1:but you also have the Philistines coming from the other direction and we don't see Jephthah fight the Philistines, so these may be contemporary stories because, Samson's going to be dealing with the Philistines quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and where the Danites are and compared to where the Philistines are, that that makes sense too just geographically yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's, there are. If you look at a map of Israel during this time we kind of talked about the Danites a bit in the last episode If you look at maps of kind of where the tribal land allotments are Right, you'll see Dan in two different places. You'll see their original allotment, which is just north of Judah, kind of in the south, kind of the south central, and then you'll see the actual place where a lot of them ended up, which is at the very north edge of things. We'll talk about where Samson originates, but he's he's born to parents from this town of Zora and that is actually in the original allotment, so he's kind of more toward the south.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Which is closer to the Philistines? In the first place, the Philistines are southwest of the Israelites at this point.
Speaker 2:Okay, they're on the sea there, right. Gaza, yeah, gaza, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. So, kicking it off, in chapter 13, verse one, the people of Israel again did what was evil, on two steps of the cycle. We have Israel's sins, we have God sends punishment. Yeah, so there was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her Behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore, be careful and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean. So what do you make of what do we have so far?
Speaker 2:I mean angel Lord is appearing and it's to a woman that hasn't born any children and gets, I would think, some what feels like some pretty crazy instructions without a ton of information. I always notice there at the end and we'll get into this, I'm sure, as we look at how the Lord uses Samson. But he says he will begin to deliver.
Speaker 1:Israel. We'll focus on that more next week, but yeah, that is a very important point. It doesn't say he will deliver Israel from the Philistines. It says he'll begin the deliverance, yeah, so there's kind of an obvious question to ask after reading that which is what is a Nazirite?
Speaker 2:Well, it comes from the law, I think from Numbers, where there is a vow taken that a person would consecrate themselves and set them apart and follow these three main principles.
Speaker 1:Right part and follow these three main principles, right? So the list is in number six. Okay, the principles are don't drink Right, don't get haircuts Right and don't touch anything that's dead. Okay, so fairly straightforward instructions. Okay, and it's kind of interesting. The rest of the chapter is devoted to what happens at the end of your period of service. So the Nazarite vow was usually taken for a discrete period of time of your period of service. So the Nazarite vow was usually taken for a discrete period of time. It would have a beginning and an end. Yeah, at the end you would offer sacrifices and you would actually cut your hair at that point. And there was a whole procedure there that Samson is not going to get to follow because he's a Nazarite birth to death.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So in the womb this wasn't of his volition. He was called right into it by the moment.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so he's set aside from before birth, actually for his entire life, which is an extra level of devotion and service that's expected of him. So remember those three things for Samson no drinking, no haircuts, no touching dead things.
Speaker 2:We'll see how he does on those points as we move forward.
Speaker 1:That's what a Nazirite is. It's someone who's dedicated to God's service, and they have a strict code that they're supposed to follow of those three rules.
Speaker 2:Okay and notice too. The Lord just has a pattern of working with barren women in the Old Testament Sarah, rebecca, Rachel, hannah, elizabeth.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah. The thing I like to mention here is that there's five stories in the Bible, by my count, where we hear about someone being born and we don't know anything about their parents before the story of them being born. So, like for David, for instance, we don't know how he's born. He the five the list of five that I have is Moses, Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist and Jesus. Okay, and each of those five A is obviously a noteworthy person, but B there's something unusual about the birth itself, and in three of those, as you mentioned, Samson and Samuel and John the Baptist is born to someone who already has children, but his survival is the remarkable part of that story. And when he's born, the Egyptians are killing all Israelite infant boys. And then Jesus obviously is born to a virgin and there's a lot going on with his birth.
Speaker 1:That we don't necessarily need to get into right now. So we go back and if you'll take Samson's mother's reaction and starting in verse 6.
Speaker 2:Then the woman came and told her husband, saying A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. But he said to me Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God, from the womb to the day of his death.
Speaker 1:So how'd she do in terms of recapping what was told to her?
Speaker 2:Pretty good, pretty good she just, she just seems to take the messenger at his word and relays it just as it was said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yeah, all right. So then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us, come again to us and teach us what we were to do with the child who will be born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. The Noah is the one who really wants the information, but the angel specifically appears to his wife again while she's by herself. So she runs quickly and tells her husband behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said I am. Manoah said now when?
Speaker 2:your words come true. What is?
Speaker 1:to be the child's manner of life and what is his mission.
Speaker 2:I'll let you take the response here. It's so human. I love it. Anytime, I think we, even when we're sincere and want to follow the Lord, a lot of our prayers and a lot of our thoughts are just tell me how it's going to be in turnout and what to do, and then I'll do it Right. And the Lord just doesn't work that way it is. Today is your daily bread and he's got tomorrow in his hands. But I totally appreciate Manoa. I feel that as a father like oh, just tell me how to raise these kids, tell me what school to send them to. Tell me where they should go to college. Tell me what car to get them.
Speaker 2:Tell me you know, just tell me all the things that I had to do to make it all right, and then I'll do it. It's reverse engineering.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, oh, but.
Speaker 2:I I appreciate him, but I love the Lord's response.
Speaker 1:What does God say in response, or what is it? We can talk about the angel of the Lord if you want to, but yeah. Yeah, so you'll see the angel of the Lord appear at various times in the old Testament. You can get into discussions about whether that's God himself or whether that's a pre-incarnate Christ or whether that's just an angel. The thing I tend to look for are the pronouns. So if the angel says I and me, it's probably God. If the angel says God, then it's probably an angel.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's helpful.
Speaker 1:In this case. I think we'll get that a little later maybe.
Speaker 2:But just to recap so far, the angel of the Lord appears, gives the woman a message. She seems to take him at his word, relays it correctly to her husband. And I love even going back to earlier, to Manoah's response. He seems to take her at her word and then he goes and prays to the Lord. You know, tell me more, you tell me directly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean even in Manoah's request from the angel. He says now, when your words come true, he's not saying is this actually going to happen?
Speaker 2:He's saying when this happens, he's assuming it's going to happen. Yeah, I just see some, some seeds of faith in both of them. Definitely, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's kind of easy to to be critical of them sometimes, for especially things that we haven't seen yet but that we'll see as we go through the passage. But remember, the state of the Israelites at this point like this is you know again, in those days Israel had no King. Everyone was right in his own eyes. They are, but by and large not following God. They're worshiping other gods. It's, it's a whole mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And yet you have these two people who run into the. You know, the angel of the Lord appears to Manoah's wife. She identifies him as the angel of the Lord. She doesn't think he's some other God and she goes and tells her husband and both of them immediately believe that what God has said is going to happen. That's probably pretty up there in terms of the best Israelites you can find at this point. I'm with you. All right. So if you will read the angel's response to Manoah, starting in verse 13.
Speaker 2:So the angel Lord said to Manoah let the woman pay attention to all that I said. She should not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. Let her observe all that I commanded. Yeah, just do what I said before. Yeah, commanded.
Speaker 1:It's like, yeah, just do what I said before. Yeah, You're fine, it's not?
Speaker 2:complicated. I love it and this is once again this is upside down from the current culture that the Lord came to the woman and delivered the information to the woman. Definitely I just the Lord's always fascinating that way.
Speaker 1:And it's fun too. He honors the request. He shows up again, but he just says do what I told you before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like I already gave you all you need.
Speaker 1:You don't need anything else, just do what I already said.
Speaker 2:But tell me the mode of the boy's life and his vocation, and right, like I want to know, you know what.
Speaker 1:It wouldn't necessarily be what school he should go through this time, but like what? What trade should we raise him up in? Like, should we? Should we have him on the farm? Should we send him off to learn to become a blacksmith, or something Like. Tell us what to do. Yeah, just do do what I already said Raise him as an Azurite.
Speaker 2:Don't drink while you're pregnant, which is probably good advice to begin with, but we do, we want we? I think we live under a little bit of an illusion where, if we just had more information, we would follow the Lord even better. Right, If we, just if we had a little more instruction, you know, and really just keep it simple.
Speaker 1:You know who had a lot of instruction? The Jews at the time of Jesus. That's right, oh man, all right. So, picking up in verse 15, manoah said to the angel of the Lord please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah if you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord, for Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord what is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you? And the angel of the Lord said to him why do you ask my name, seeing it as wonderful?
Speaker 2:Oh, tell me about that. I have dug into that last phrase there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I may let you take that one. The main thing I'll say is that, depending on your translation, wonderful may be secret. Yeah, which are, which are kind of. We don't think of those as being the same word, but the combination of them, I think is is kind of telling because it, I suspect the word could be interpreted in either direction. So it's, it's a wonder, but it's a wonder that people aren't supposed to know.
Speaker 2:Right. I got the impression when I did a deeper dive into that that it's like it's so wonderful that it's be, it's like beyond me it's. It's so wonderful that it's like beyond me, it's so grand that you can't even put it all in and in a sense that's a secret, because it's like it's so big and so grand and so awe that you can't even fully know it Right.
Speaker 1:The thing that comes to mind is in Revelation there's a part where something happens in, I think, the throne room of God and John writes it down and then an angel comes and tells him don't put that in the book. People aren't supposed to know about that.
Speaker 2:It's too wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's wonderful and it's secret.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's a great reminder. I love how Keller always phrased it in a lot of his apologetics, and he would always say I'm on a need-to-know basis with.
Speaker 1:God, that's a great way of putting it, yeah.
Speaker 2:He has given us sufficient, but not complete knowledge of him.
Speaker 1:Right, because it's not even possible.
Speaker 2:you know in some sense or in a real sense, but he has given us enough so that we can know him and believe in him and trust him, but not everything.
Speaker 1:And he doesn't give us everything because we can't handle it.
Speaker 2:We would not be able to handle it.
Speaker 1:If you think back to Moses, if you see God's face, he will die.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So he gives us enough to go on, but he doesn't reveal his entire self to us, because then we would die.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, that's one of my favorite Babylon B memes, the headline, something to the effect that everybody was singing a worship song. Show me your glory.
Speaker 1:And like God showed his glory and like half the audience died. Anyways, okay, all right. So, picking it up, manoah took the young goat with a grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now, manoah and his wife were watching and they fell on their faces to the ground. I like that. The author works back in to the Lord, the one who works wonders. Yeah, one who works wonders. Yeah, obviously, manoa and his wife are learning this at the moment, but he's also reminding the audience specifically. Yeah, don't forget who we're, who we're talking about here yeah, I love to just that whole setup.
Speaker 2:There's a part of this where they're just, they're showing hospitality, reverence, and there's a part where they like I think if we detain this messenger, if he's hanging around longer, maybe we'll get some more information out of him. And I just love the Lord's response there when he's like oh, you can detain me, but I will not eat your food. And that phrase has stuck with me for a long time out of this that we can't obligate God. God is not a thing where if we check the right boxes or do the right thing, then out comes the output that was guaranteed. God is too wonderful, too secret, beyond all of that, and we don't get to obligate him Absolutely. He will not eat our food.
Speaker 1:So the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord, and Manoah said to his wife we shall surely die, for we have seen God, wow. But his wife said to him if the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these. So what's Manoah's reaction and what's his wife's reaction?
Speaker 2:So, manoah, they realize he's seen the Lord and I feel like he has a very what for him. What I would say is a biblical knowledge that that means I'm going to die.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Right, that's the plain Jane interpretation. Like you know, this is the reality we just found ourselves in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if you look at his wife's reaction, it's easy to look back at Manoah's reaction and say, well, that was silly, like yeah, because of course God did just make a bunch of promises to them. He did accept their offering and all this.
Speaker 2:But at the same time.
Speaker 1:I think Manoah's reaction is more than understandable here, because I think it's hard for us to grasp, not having had the similar experience, what it would be like to be confronted with God in person. Yeah, and it's a very common reaction. If you look through instances where people encounter God, one of the most common responses is oh, I'm going to die. Yeah it is.
Speaker 2:But don't you just love her response.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely, I love this woman, I do.
Speaker 2:She is something.
Speaker 1:God's like. This is why I talked to her in the first place. She's the one who has common sense.
Speaker 2:She's the thinker in the marriage.
Speaker 1:So from there, samson is born as promised and he grows up, god blesses him and the spirit of the Lord begins to stir him and we'll see what comes of that moving forward. I guess, to close this one out, there's a phrase that you see a lot in the Old Testament that I think we don't grapple with in the modern church. It's the fear of the Lord. What do you think that?
Speaker 2:means? I think it means a lot. I don't think it's simple. No, I think sometimes we can talk about it just being like in awe, but there's a real fear there too. Absolutely. Not like a horror fear, but that God is God and we are not Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean in Proverbs 9,. It says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's right. And it doesn't say the awe of the Lord, it doesn't say the reverence of the Lord, it says the fear of the Lord. It doesn't say the reverence of the Lord, it says the fear of the Lord. Yeah, and I think that's, I think that's intentional, like it's.
Speaker 1:It's easy for us to try and kind of whitewash what that means from a modern perspective, because we're not supposed to you know, we don't feel like we're supposed to be afraid of God. God loves us. He does love us. Reasonable to have a baseline fear of displeasing him? And you know it doesn't say the fear of the Lord is wisdom. It doesn't say that's the end of wisdom, it's not the completion of wisdom but it's the beginning. Yeah, I think when you understand who God is in comparison to who you are, the natural outgrowth of that is at least some level of fear. Yeah, and if you understand it in a very personal, upfront way, the reaction is you fall on your face and think you're going to die.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that fear that beginning road it drives almost a supernatural humility, god-given humility. Absolutely Right that really you can't take the first step of faith to trust in Christ and then the steps of walking in Christ without that.
Speaker 1:Definitely.
Speaker 2:I've always said, like pride, is that stumbling block? And it just absolutely retards growth in the Christian life the minute it appears 100% yeah.
Speaker 1:Hmm, all right. So in James 3, james says who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. In some translations they get the humility that comes from wisdom there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And going back to Proverbs, it's if you're wise, you're going to be humble, because if you're wise, that means you understand who you are and who God is. Yeah, and you understand how little influence you have over things.
Speaker 2:Such good advice, especially for today. People struggle with that.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:One other thing that has always stuck with me with this chapter and this is one of my most favorite chapters in the Bible I don't know why the Lord has just spoken to me and used this chapter. I think for one of the big struggles I had in my life early on that the Lord has really brought me through is just anxiety, worrying about the future, and I don't know why. But this chapter really spoke to that for me and I understood their or at least Manoa's reaction, like okay, I just got this really big calling or this big thing happened.
Speaker 2:Now tell me everything I need to do and lay out the whole future every step of the way. I don't know how to do that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I need to know everything that needs to happen in the future and then I'll have peace, and it's such an illusion. You have to know him who holds the future in his hands to have peace.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You cannot get it by just getting a little more information. Believe me, I've tried, but I just appreciate that so much and I think about it too and we're going to get into it next week in how the Lord really uses Samson. What parent could handle that future knowledge?
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah, that would be a rough one.
Speaker 2:We can't, and it is such a place of peace to get to the point where you let the Lord handle the future and you walk minute by minute, day by day, with your daily bread. That's where peace is found, not by trying to manipulate what's in God's hands. Right, yeah, all right, is that it for this week? That'll do it Next week. Next week we get the man himself, the man himself, the adult Samson who begins to deliver his people from the States.
Speaker 1:Yep. See you all next week. Thanks for joining Fellowship Around the Table, yep See you all next week.
