“A SAVIOR IS BORN”
I stared in disbelief at the man in the casket. Barely 20 years old, this young man reminded me of Samson. He was a little over 6 feet tall with broad shoulders and impressive physique. You could tell he worked out and took care of his appearance. He even had the long, dark, curly hair you would imagine Samson to have. My college friend was full of potential too, coming from a missionary family and hoping himself to do some ministry work somewhere.
But here he lay in a casket, his once proud chest deflated, each finger broken, his body crammed into a box. A recovery team had found him pinned between two logs. It didn’t hit me at that moment, but as we drove away from the viewing, I suddenly burst into tears. I can’t explain what I felt or why I cried. Some would say it was lost potential, a waste, a “what could have been” moment.
Was it a waste? Was this young man’s life a lost prospect? How did God view this life?
I once regarded Samson as wasted potential. As we will see, he was a child of promise, someone we would say was “most likely to succeed” in life given his beginnings. He had great potential.
On Monday night football broadcasts, Howard Cosell would bluster on about the potential of a young player. His partner, Don Meredith, would reply, “Potential is the heaviest burden in life.” He was correct: potential is nothing more than unrealized possibility. It’s the difference between what you are and what you could be. That’s heavy.
So, at Samson’s 25-year high school reunion, after his selfish pursuits, his womanizing, his detour from God’s plan for his life, would his classmates have said, “Oh, what might have been.” That’s what I have often said about Samson’s story in the book of Judges. What a waste of gifts. What a waste of strength and leadership. What a waste!
Or was it?
1. A People in Need of Saving (13:1)
The times into which Samson was born were difficult for Israel. That difficulty was self-inflicted. Before Samson’s nativity, we read, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years,” (1). In the next verses, God begins to act on their behalf.
We should note three things: a) Israel is sinning again. In the book of Judges, this is the seventh time we read that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. The cycle of sin – oppression – deliverance continues to be a problem even after God saves them. b) Yahweh’s response to his disobedient children is to allow other nations to oppress them, to wake them up, to bring them back. This is Yahweh’s judgment on sin. And it’s the longest period of oppression yet in the book of Judges – 40 years. c) Then the LORD begins a plan to deliver the people from their oppression. However, the savior is not even born.
What’s missing? Did you notice? The children of Israel did not cry out to God. Previously, they felt the boot of the “ites” and would call on the LORD to deliver them. Not this time. There was something peculiar about Philistine dominance. The Philistines had them in such a pickle that they didn’t even cry out to God. No potential deliverer was even born yet so God had to start from scratch in the womb of an unnamed woman.
Why didn’t they cry out? Spiritual apathy for starters. Maintaining the status quo for another. When Samson gets going in chapter 15, a delegation from Judah comes to him to tell him to stop causing trouble for them. They are so used to living in ungodliness that they don’t see anything wrong with it. Forty years they have lived with idolatry and compromise, and it has become the way things are. The Philistines had what they wanted: materialism and sensuality. They didn’t even think they needed saving.
This is where we see a hint of the grace of God. They didn’t think they needed saving, but God did. They forgot God, but God did not forget them. It is easy for us to look back on these people and on this story and judge them for being spiritually dead. How could they not know they needed saving? How could they be so blind?
Weren’t we blind? Aren’t people blind to the consequences of their sin today? Aren’t people rejecting Jesus today, blind to the salvation he offers?
I can’t help but think that we were in the same predicament as Israel in Judges 13. Paul speaks this word to the Romans, and it is relevant to us: God saved us…while we were powerless…while we were sinners...while we were enemies of God. When we didn’t even know what judgment we deserved, God decided to save us. While we were blind, he sent us a child…
2. The Unusual Way God Begins to Save (13:2-5)
God begins his project to save Israel. He comes to the wife of Manoah (we never get her name, but she’s amazing). The angel of the LORD says, “You’re barren…” (thanks a lot. Thanks for pointing out my weakness and shame). But then he utters three powerful words: pregnant, give birth, and son.
Think of Manoah’s wife: her name is not given, she can’t have children, and ultimately, she is hopeless to change her situation. Here is where Yahweh begins to deliver his people – out of obscurity, with a barren woman, who has no hope. The LORD begins where there is no human energy or ability to serve as a starter. Samson’s birth is another instance of God’s way of doing something exceptional with exceptional difficulties standing in the way.
God saves. But we want to help him, don’t we? We want to help him save us. What can we do to help? If we could help even a little bit with our deliverance, we would mess it up. When cake mixes first appeared in grocery stores, cake-mix packages would warn not to add milk, “just add water.” Some housewives would add milk anyways as s special touch. But then the cakes and muffins would fall. Cake mixes told these women not to add eggs since milk and eggs were already added in powder form. Just add tap water? You got to be kidding. Companies realized that these bakers wanted to be part of the process, so they changed the mixes so that “you add fresh eggs.” You do have a contribution to make.
Manoah’s wife had a contribution to make. She was told to drink no wine and not to eat anything unclean. She was to be a Nazirite. We’re not familiar with this kind of vow in our time. It comes from Numbers 6 and Nazirites were people who made a temporary vow before God and signaled it with three obvious actions: a) eat or drink nothing from the vine, no grapes, no raisins (IOW abstain from luxury items); b) touch no dead thing, not a person, not an animal; c) don’t cut your hair. The Nazirite vow was temporary and voluntary, but in Samson’s case it was ordained by God for his whole life.
What a bizarre requirement! But it’s important. Three times this instruction is given in this chapter. Samson will be break each of these vows in his story. So, he’s disqualified from serving the LORD, right? This too is unusual.
At the end of the chapter (24-25) we are told that Samson grew, and the LORD blessed him, and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him. Okay! And in the next chapter, Samson sees a Philistine girl and tells his parents to get her for him as a wife. Those two things don’t go together.
Let’s do the math and sum this up for a moment:
· The angel of the LORD announces the great nativity of a deliverer.
· Manoah’s wife faithfully believes in the announcement.
· Manoah accepts it too by faith but wants clarification.
· Samson is supposed to be a Nazirite but breaks every vow.
· The LORD blesses Samson and stirs him up.
· Samson wants to marry a Philistine (an enemy).
Something’s not normal. This is an unusual rescue operation.
3. “Tell me how this salvation works”
Samson’s mother expresses no doubts in what the angel of the LORD tells her. And when she tells her husband, Manoah, he also has no doubts. But he has questions. He prays to the Lord in v. 8 that this “man” will come again to teach them how to raise this amazing child. And God answers him.
We need to pause just a moment to appreciate the advantages of this child. Not only is Samson appointed before he is even born to deliver Israel from the Philistines, but he also has godly parents who believe God’s promises. In an age of compromise and assimilation to the godless culture, this is an amazing blessing.
Manoah asks his question of the angel of the LORD, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?” (12 ESV). The angel of the LORD repeats the Nazirite conditions, but to the question of mission, the angel says nothing. Nada. Manoah is curious, “Tell me how this salvation works.” And the angel implies that it is “nunya” as in “nunya business.” That’s it!
Manoah then asks the angel (he doesn’t know he’s an angel) to have supper with them. No! the angel says.
Manoah asks the angel’s name. Can’t tell you, the angel says. “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” (18). The NIV says it is beyond understanding. But the name of God is best explained as “too wonderful for words.” It is beyond us. It is so grand we cannot pull it all in. In Psalm 139 we find the same word used of knowing God, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it,” (6). My character is too much for you. That doesn’t mean we can’t know God; it does mean that though we may know God truly, we do not know him exhaustively.
When the angel of the LORD ascends up the flame of fire from Manoah’s sacrifice, he realizes who he’s been talking to (just like Gideon); it is Yahweh himself (19-20). Then the fun begins.
Manoah and his wife are left in shock. The exchange between them may have gone like this:
Manoah: We’re going to die
Wife: Why do you say that?
Manoah: We’ve just seen God, and no one can see God and live.
Wife: If God wanted to kill us, we’d be dead already. Why did he accept our offering if he wanted to kill us? And why did he say we’re going to have a baby if he’s going to kill us? How could we have a baby if we’re both dead?
Manoah: Good point.
Tell me how this salvation works. Manoah’s question is valid. But God doesn’t explain it. In fact, it’s weird and out of character. The Spirit of the LORD stirs Samson…and he goes to take a Philistine wife. After studying this story, I am more convinced that Samson did exactly what God wanted him to do to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. God sent a man to irritate everyone!
But aside from that, this salvation comes not through an army with a valiant general, not from an uprising of the tribes against their enemies, not even a miracle battle like Gideon’s, but through one man who no one follows. He is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
How does this salvation work? An angel comes to a young woman and tells her that her baby son is going to deliver Israel…from their sins. He will act alone. He calls on some men to follow him, but the work of salvation is his alone. After healing many, casting out demons, explaining the scriptures so people can actually understand God’s laws, he is arrested and killed on a cross. Can you explain how this salvation works? How does an innocent man dying on a cross save you from sin and heal you and reconcile you to God? No wonder the angel of the LORD refused to answer Manoah, it is too wonderful to grasp.
What a waste, someone might say. Jesus could have healed many more people if he had not died at 33. His teaching would have helped many more to understand God and God’s kingdom. Oh, the potential! Oh, what might have been!
You and I have come to a place where we put our faith in Jesus. Even though we do not fully understand the cross and how Jesus dying saves us, we have the potential to grasp the meaning of it. We have the potential to participate in this great salvation and share it with others.
Paul declared, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” (Eph. 1:3). He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (like Samson) …he predestined us to be members of his family…he redeemed us through the blood of Christ…he made known to us the mystery of his will through Jesus…he has given us the same Holy Spirit who stirred Samson to accomplish his purposes.
Oh, the potential we have in Christ.
What are we doing with the resources God has given us? I pray that none of us will look back and say of our lives, “Oh, what might have been.”
But I am encouraged too to look at Samson and say, “The Lord’s ways are too wonderful for me to nail down.” He takes the unusual route, the unlikely persons, the flaws and weaknesses of my character, and he turns it into glory.
AMEN
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