The transcript of A Sermon on Judges 13:1-25 has been lightly edited.
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If you have your Bibles, please take them and turn with me. We are back today in the book of Judges. We’re going to begin the last of the Judges recorded in this book. We’ll talk a little bit as we go through the rest of the book of Judges that Samson is not the last Judge, but he’s the last Judge recorded in the book of Judges.
And just to kind of let you know where we are going, we’re going to cover Samson over the next two or three weeks. And then we’ll spend a couple of weeks looking at the religious and political failure of the nation of Israel, which parallels the political success at the beginning of the book and the religious failure at the beginning of the book.
And we’ll see how dark and deep into sin the Israelites have gone. After that, we will cover the book of Ruth. And Ruth gives us some good news during the period of the Judges.
And we’ll do a short series, probably on marriage after the book of Ruth. And then after that, we will move into 2 Corinthians. So just kind of let you know where we are going.
And to just recap where we’ve been in the book of Judges, we have this cycle where God rescues the people and establishes them in peace within the land. After a period of time, a period of time that has gotten smaller and smaller throughout the book of Judges, the Israelites rebel against God and worship the gods of the Canaanites. God sends a nation to them to oppress and to discipline them.
They most of the time cry out to God and God sends a rescuer to them and then reestablishes them in the land with an ever-decreasing period of peace. And it’s after one of those cycles that we come to the passage that we have before us today, which is Judges 13, beginning in verse 1.
“And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years.
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, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.
Then the woman came and told her husband, A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from and he did not tell me his name, but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are 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.
So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. And 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.
And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life and what is his mission? And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink or eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her, let her observe.
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 that it is wonderful? So Manoah took the young goat with the 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. 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. 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.
And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahana Dan between Zorah and Eshtael.”
Let’s pray. God, this is your word. And we humbly come before this word seeking your will, seeking your glory, seeking a ray of light in the darkness of our world. Lord, may your spirit give me the words that your people need to hear. And may your spirit open our ears so that our hearts might be changed, so that we might know and love you better, so that we might experience the glory of your love, and so that we might be drawn to be more like Christ day by day. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
INTRODUCTION
So have you ever asked yourself, what is God’s will for me? Or maybe even if you have children or grandchildren, what is God’s will for my children or grandchildren? A lot of people spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what God wants them to do. Today, we are going to look at God’s grace. We’re going to look at God’s demands, and we’re going to look at what our response should be.
And my hope is in looking at these things that we will see that God’s act of grace toward us demands our holiness.
GOD’S GRACE
First, God’s grace. This passage opens up with a refrain that we have heard over and over again throughout the book of Judges.
We’ve heard it so many times, it’s easy to skip over and it’s easy to get complacent with this. It says, the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Throughout the rest of the book, that sentence is completed with the statement that they have gone, chased after, hoared after, and served and worshipped the gods of the Canaanites.
But we get it in a short form here because it’s almost boring at this point. We have heard it so many times that it’s easy to think, yeah, there they go again. And even the Israelites, as we go through the rest of the accounts of Samson and his time of judging Israel, they are even complacent with their idolatry.
In chapter 15, in verse 9, we have the account where Samson has done something to the Philistines and he has gone to Judah, to the area where Judah lives and he is hiding in the mountains in Judah. And Judah and the Philistines come to Judah and they say, give us Samson or we’re going to do violence against you. And the men of Judah go find Samson where he’s hiding in the caves and Samson says, what are you doing here? And they say to him, quit rocking the boat.
Let us turn you in so that the Philistines will leave us alone and we can just get on with our lives. Even the Israelites have become complacent with their idolatry. This is a time of darkness This is a time of sin and idolatry in the life of Israel.
Once we get through the account of Samson and we get to the conclusion of the book of Judges, we’ll see the Israelites acting more like the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah than we do the rescued and redeemed people of God. That is the darkness of the nation of Israel that we see this account in. It is so bad.
Remember I said in that Judges cycle that there comes a point where they are underneath the boots of an oppressing nation so much that they finally cry out to God. Did you notice as I read this that that part is missing? Israel is no longer crying out to God for rescue.
And so what does God do? He sends a rescuer anyway. He raises up a rescuer anyway. And in this, we begin to see the grace of God to the nation of Israel. You know, it’s easy to look at the Old Testament and to think that there’s a different God in the Old Testament than there is in the New Testament.
That God of the Old Testament was just petty and vindictive and violent. And He cared nothing for life. He cared nothing for salvation.
He just wanted His way. Well, if that was true, He would have eliminated the Israelites a long time before now. And yet even though they do not have the frame of mind to think this could all end if we just cried out to God. Even though they are so deep within the stain and the oppression of their sin that they don’t even think about God, God acts to save them and to provide a rescuer for them.
We see this unfold in this way as we’re told about a man by the name of Manoah, who was of the tribe of Dan. Dan was given an area near the tribe of Judah.
The city Zorah, we don’t know exactly where it is, but based on descriptions throughout the account of Samson’s life, it’s probably somewhere near the area where Dan and Judah’s realm ended and the Philistines’ land began.
The Philistines came over the Mediterranean Ocean. They set themselves up along the coast-lands in five major cities. And they oppressed the Israelites. And so God comes in the form of the angel of the Lord that we know from Genesis, that we know from Judges and Joshua and Deuteronomy and the other books. This angel of the Lord is a physical manifestation of God Himself.
We see that later at the end of the account. The angel of the Lord comes to Manoah’s wife. I find it interesting that Manoah’s wife is really the human hero of this particular chapter, and yet, we don’t get her name.
We are pointed to the work that God has done in all of this. And yet, the angel of the Lord comes to Manoah’s wife and he tells her something that only God can know. You are barren and you have not born children, but God is going to change that.
And He gives her some requirements that we’ll look at here in a few moments. This is how you are to raise your son. He is going to begin, and notice that.It’s very intentional. He shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. We’re going to meet Samuel.
If we were to continue reading through this, we would meet Samuel next after the conclusion of the book of Judges. And Samuel begins the end of the defeat of the Philistines by anointing who? David. The Philistines are once and for all finally defeated and done away with under the reign of David and Solomon.
Manoah’s wife is told that Samson will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines. And He gives her these requirements. And she goes back to her husband and said, I got this great news from this man of God and Manoah wants confirmation.
He said, well, do you think we could pray and see if He’d come back and talk to us again? And I want to stop right here. I think this is an act of grace also. You have a couple in the midst of this idolatry, in the midst of this darkness, who know and trust God enough to pray to Him.
They cry out to Him on their own even though the nation as a whole is not crying out. And it’s a reminder that no matter how dark a nation gets, no matter how deep within the depravity of sin that a nation decides to wade or even swim, God has His people still in that nation.
So they pray and they ask God to come back and the angel of the Lord does come back and Manoah starts to ask questions. He’s like, what’s my son going to do? What’s my son going to be? What do I need to train him in order to be the man that you want him to be?
And what does the angel say? The angel says, I’ve already told your wife everything she needs to know. And she’s already told you everything you need to know. And so Manoah says, can we fix you a meal? And the angel says, I’m not going to eat the meal, but if you really want me to stay, make a burnt offering to the Lord.
And so they do. They provide the goat. They provide the grain. They make a burnt offering to the Lord. And as the burnt offering is going up in flames, the angel of the Lord ascends to heaven in the flames, in the smoke. And Manoah has a proper response to this.
Actually, Manoah and his wife fall on their face and they worship. They fall on the ground. Manoah goes so far as to understand that he has seen God and therefore must die, but once again, Manoah’s wife pipes up and says, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Yeah, I know what Deuteronomy says. I know what the Scriptures say about if you see God, you will surely die. But do you really think God would have told us about the rescue of Israel and would have told us that we’re going to have a son and would have sat here and talked with us as long as he did if he really was going to kill us? Like I said, in all of this, we see the grace of God.
We see the grace of God in Samson’s name because Samson literally means little ray of sunshine. In the idolatrous darkness of Israel at this point, God sends His light into the darkness.
We see God’s grace for future generations as well in v. 18 when Manoah asks the man’s name. He says, why do you ask me my name seeing that it is wonderful? Isaiah 9.6, talking about the Messiah of the Lord. He shall be wonderful Counselor. God works wonders and His name is wonderful and that wonderful Counselor has come to this earth to secure our salvation.
And so the first thing that we see in the life of Samson is that God is gracious to His people. Grace is a gift that we do not deserve. The Israelites do not deserve rescue at this point, and yet God begins to provide for it.
You and I do not deserve to be reconciled to God because of our sins, and yet God has paid for and provided the way for us to be reconciled to Him. God is gracious.
GOD’S DEMANDS
Number two, God puts demands upon Manoah and his wife. We have a list here of things that the angel of the Lord tells Manoah’s wife and then Manoah to do. He says:
“Be careful to drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb. And he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.
If we were to turn to Numbers 6, we would learn about this Nazarite vow. The Nazarite vow was something that a man or a woman could take upon themselves. It was a voluntary vow that you would take for a short period of time or a long period of time in order to separate yourself unto God. It’s a vow of holiness, because that’s what holiness means.
Holiness means to be separate from. And for the Nazarite and for Samson here, they were not just separate from something, but they were separate to something.
Now, Samson’s Nazarite vow is a little bit different than the Nazarite vow in Numbers 6. The first difference is I’ve already hinted at. In Numbers 6, the Nazarite vow was voluntary. And here, like Samuel after him and John the Baptist even later after him, he is set apart as a Nazarite from birth. The other difference is that the Nazarite vow of Numbers 6 had an end date to it.
If you took the Nazarite vow upon yourself, you said I’m going to be a Nazarite for X number of days or months or years even. His mother mentions in v. 6, “…for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.” Unknowingly foreshadowing how he would begin to rescue Israel.
So his was permanent. His was given to him by God. And the demand of God upon Samson and upon his family, Manoah and his wife were called to teach Samson to be holy unto God. That’s the demand that he places upon all of his people.
Now, it’s important we get the order right. Grace first, then holiness. It’s tempting to think, okay, if I can be holy enough, then God will give me grace. But if he can be holy enough to earn grace, well, then it’s no longer grace. Because grace is an undeserved gift. But God says, I come to you and I give you grace, therefore be holy.
We see it in the Ten Commandments. I’m the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Here’s ten laws for you.
Grace, then holiness. We see it all throughout Paul’s letters to the church. This is what God has done for you in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Be holy, for you are holy.
Each of us, if you are a Christian, if you have put your faith, your trust, your hope in Jesus, in Jesus alone as your salvation, you have been set apart as holy unto the Lord. You have been given the Holy Spirit to help make you holy.
And we are called to walk in the power of the Spirit and the power of the cross, seeking holiness, being holy in our lives. And it’s God’s definition of holiness. 1 Peter 1, beginning in v. 13, we hear these words.
“Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as He who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Whose holiness are we pursuing? Not ours. We’re pursuing God’s holiness. That’s the bar. Many times we try to redefine holiness in a way that makes us comfortable. And God says, no, I said be holy as I am holy.
So God has given grace to Israel when they do not deserve it. God demands holiness from His people.
OUR RESPONSE
And so what is our response? Well, first, it’s a three-fold response that we are to have to God’s grace and God’s call of holiness.
The first is trust. Look in v. 12. And Manoah said, now WHEN your words come true, what do you think He would have said? We would think, now if your words come true.
But He doesn’t say if, He says when. Even with His lack of understanding that does show through throughout this passage, even though He fears, He trusts. He trusts that God will do what He says.
We learn this in Genesis with Abraham. Abraham has promised a child. And God says, I’m going to give you a child. You’re not going to have to adopt anybody. You will have a child between you and Sarah. And what does it say? It says Abraham believed God. And it was credited to him as righteousness.
Manoah and his wife trust God. As an aside, there is a pattern throughout the Old Testament, even going on into the New Testament, of God doing mighty works through women who were unable to have children, and yet He came to them miraculously and gave Isaac and Jacob and Samson and Samuel and John the Baptist.
And even though it was a little bit different, ultimately Jesus through Mary. So we are called to trust that God will do what He says He will do.
Secondly, we’re called to obey. The angel of the Lord gave Manoah’s wife everything she needed. She told everything she had been told to Manoah. Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, what do you want me to do when my child’s born? And the angel of the Lord says, do exactly what I told your wife to tell you. Do those things.
We are called to obey God. But we’re called also lastly to worship the Lord.
Manoah and his wife were watching and they fell on their faces to the ground. You know, it’s easy to get bored with the statement at the beginning of chapter 13. The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
But you know what it’s also easy to get bored with? As sinful human beings, it’s easy for you and I to get bored with the glory of God. It’s easy for you and I to look at a sunrise or a sunset. To look at the mountains or the rivers or in a couple months as the trees explode with leaves and the plants explode with flowers and color and beauty and life.
It’s easy to think, ah, that happened last year. It’s going to happen again next year. It’s not really a big deal.
Although if it’s easy for you, that might, you know. Amen on the flowers. Amen on the flowers, yeah.
It’s easy to look at examples of God’s grace in the scriptures, especially if you’ve walked with God for a long time and to just go, okay, yep. I knew that already. But Manoah and his wife were confronted with the glory of the Lord and they fell to their face in worship.
That’s the exact reaction that Moses has after God in Exodus 34, verse six and seven. When we get to verse eight, it says Moses fell to the ground on his face and worshiped. When we think about the grace of God, when we think about the holiness of God, the goodness of God, the justice of God, the righteousness of God, the glory and majesty of God, we should worship.
If our hearts have been changed by the grace of God, worship is what is demanded.
CONCLUSION
So God shows grace. God demands holiness.
And we are called to respond with trust, with obedience and with worship. So what is God’s will for you? God’s will for you is to be holy as He is holy. There’s two things I want us to consider before we move forward.
You know, parents, God calls us to raise our children in the fear and the admonition of the Lord, Ephesians chapter six. He doesn’t call us to be responsible for how they respond to how we raise them. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, church members who have stood at the baptism of a baby and have covenanted with that family to help them raise the child in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.
God is not going to call us to Himself at the end of time and say, you know what? Such and such a kid didn’t respond to how you taught them, so I’m disappointed in you. No. God calls us to do the work and then He takes responsibility for their response to it.
If you have raised your children in the fear and the admonition of the Lord or have done your best as you can in the power of the cross, in the power of the Holy Spirit and your children have walked away, that’s between them and God. All God is going to hold you responsible for is how you raise them.
Secondly, God calls us as individuals to be holy, but God calls us as a church to be holy as well.
He calls us to stamp out sin within the church. He calls us to make sure that we are pursuing holiness according to His definition of it, not according to what makes us comfortable. So what is God’s will for me? What is God’s will for you? Be holy.
Let’s pray. To the great God and Father above, oh, we are so thankful for that amazing grace that You have showered upon us. Lord, it is abundant. And Lord, You keep Your faithfulness and love and grace upon us even when we stumble in our pursuit of holiness. Remind us that everything unholy within us has been put to death at the cross. And remind us by the power of the Spirit that You have already set us apart to be what You call us to live out in the pursuit of holiness. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
BENEDICTION
As we seek to walk according to holiness, we go with this blessing.
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever.”
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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