Judges 2024

Judges chapter 13. Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the lord. So the law delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. A certain man of Zorah named Manoa from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.

The angel of the lord appeared to her and said, you are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a nazirite. Dedicated to god from the wound. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

Then the woman went to her husband and told him, a man of god came to me. He looked like an angel of god. Very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. But he said to me, you will become pregnant and have a son.

Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean because the boy will be a nazirite of god from the womb until the day of his death. Then Manoa prayed to the lord. Pardon your servant lord, I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born. God heard manoa. And the angel of god came again to the woman while she was out in the field, but her husband, Manoa, was not with her.

The woman hurried to tell her husband. He's here. The man who appeared to me the other day. Manoa got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, are you the man who talked to my wife?

I am. He said. So, Manoa asked him. When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy's life and work? The angel of the lord answered.

Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine nor drink any wine or other fermented drink, drink, nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her. Manoa said to the angel of the lord, we would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you. The angel of the lord replied, Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food.

But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the lord. Manoa did not realize that it was the angel of the lord. Then Manoa inquired of the angel of the lord, what is your name? So that we may honor you when your word comes true. He replied, why do you ask my name?

It is beyond understanding. Then Manoa took a young goat together with the grain offering and sacrificed it on a rock to the lord. And the lord did an amazing thing while Manila and his wife watched. As the flame blazed up from the altar towards heaven, The angel of the lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoa and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.

When the angel of the lord did not show himself again to Manoa and his wife, Manoa realized that it was the angel of the lord. We are doomed to die. He said to his wife. We have seen god, but his wife answered. If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands nor shown us all these things or now told us this.

The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samsung. He grew, and the lord blessed him. And the spirit of the lord began to stir him while he was in Mahane Dan between Zorah and Echthale. Well, thank you, thank you, Paul. My name's Chris Tilly.

I'm 1 of the elders here at Cornerstone, and pleasure to be preaching this passage to you this evening and and to you online as well. And here here we are, the last cycle of judges we've been in this book for a little while now. We've been going round and round these cycles, haven't we? Of the people doing evil and God delivering them into their their enemies hands and the people crying out and god raising up a judge and saving them, and then it all starts again. But here we are in the last cycle of judges, the last judge, the twelfth judge, and it's Samsung.

And if you know anything about Samsung, you know that we're in for a wild ride over the next couple of weeks. He's anything but straightforward in many ways. So let let me pray before we before we start. Father help us now, help us to to to come to this with open hearts. Help us to be ready to hear your word, help us to be molded by your word, we pray on him.

So 40 years of oppression is is is where we're at. 40 years of oppression under the Philistines. That's where Israel are at again. We had we had the exploits of Jeffer last week that Pete was taking us through. And then we had a couple of a couple of other guys Ibsan Elon and Abdhan, who led Israel and things were largely okay.

And then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the lord. Again. So the law delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. 40 years I'm only 38. That's my entire life.

My entire lifetime in oppression under a foreign power in slavery. That's a long time where it feels like a long time anyway. The thought I might have to live that again. It's it's actually quite quite quite worrying, but there we go. But god does something he's never done before.

He does something different here. He doesn't wait for the next stage of the cycle this time. He acts decisively. There is no crying out from the Israelites. I don't know if you if you if you notice that, it's hard to notice it because it wasn't there.

It's really difficult to notice something that's not there. It's easier to notice things that are obviously there and wrong, but they just don't cry out, do they? It just goes on. The law delivered them into the hands of the Phil signs, and then a certain man of Zara named Manoa just carries on. And what god does is breaks that cycle The cycle's been going on and on and on and on now we're at the last 1, and god's doing something different.

It's doing something new. And so it just gives you an idea of kind of where is where they're at that they didn't cry out because after all the other judges and all of the other exploits, EHub with his left handed assassination technique, shamgar, with his slaying of a thousand with an with a with a, a farming tool. Military successes of Deborah, Barrick, the original stand of the 300 with Gideon, and all the lessons from Jeff that we we learned last week, and all of the others, you would have thought that Israel by now would have realized that god loves to rescue them. And when they cry out, he does so from the most impossible and desperate of situations, but they don't do it. It's like it's like they seem completely unable to retain the lessons and the stories of the of the previous generations.

It's like They just don't retell those old old stories to to their kids and the information gets lost or or or they've just become like myths and legends or they just don't tell them at all or or they just think God won't do it in their day and age. Whatever the case is, they just don't seem to be able to recall that information and act on it. They're pretty they're just pretty useless at this. You would have thought by the twelfth time round, they would have learned something. And here they are, not even back at square 1, but actually they're further back.

They're further back than square 1 because they're so far gone that they don't cry out. They're just gonna live their lives under slavery under the under the Philistines. For 40 years, they're just content to live their lives under slavery. And they they may as well not be in the promised land. They might as well not be there.

They might as well not be there at all. In fact, they may as well just be back in Egypt. It's no different. To what was going on? Like, do do you see what's going on here?

God rescued them out of slavery in Egypt. And brought them through miraculously the Red Sea through the wilderness and into the promised land. He gave them the promised land. It was theirs, and they were to clear the prompt promised land of all of god's enemies. Not leave any of them there because to leave god's enemies there means that they would fester like a saw, and here we are.

They've they're coming back haunt them all that time later because they didn't listen to god and do what he said in the first place. And so now they're slaves in their own land. They've gone back to slavery because they never dealt with things as they were told to. They didn't listen. And they keep on not listening, and then they don't even bother to cry out anymore because they're so far gone.

And I just thought at this point, isn't that just so like us in so many ways? If we're gonna be completely honest with our with ourselves, Because all of us here, if we call ourselves Christians, are in slavery to sin, but Jesus has rescued us from it. He rescued us from it to become part of his kingdom, part of the promised land, just like the Israel and when we fail to remind ourselves and so easily turn back to our old evil ways, whatever they may be, whatever it is that that that is our issue. We sell ourselves back into that slavery, don't we? Whatever form it takes, and we forget that god loves to rescue and restore us from that.

That's his character. It's his whole mission. We forget to cry out to him. How often do we forget to cry out? How many times Have we been in a situation where we've done it again and we don't even want to cry out anymore?

Because we forget or we're ashamed. To come to him. And so we just let Sylvester in our lives, and it keeps coming back to haunt us We act as though we're not saved out of this world for the promised land at all. So we need a hero. That's what we need.

We need a hero. Exactly what Israel needs right now is a hero. I don't even know they need 1, but they need 1. So someone from outside of ourselves that can can rescue us from this madness. And that is exactly what god does.

In spite of not even being asked this time, he raises up a hero. He breaks the cycle. He breaks the chain. And so that brings us on to the first point. The first point is a promising hero, a promising hero, is, is is what we get.

Now, if you've been under foreign occupation and slavery for 40 years, what what sort of a hero do you, do you think you would have been looking for about about this time. You'd probably want someone, courageous, I think, decisive someone who's gonna take action, someone inspiring, in this situation, probably a military strategist of of some kind, and also a great warrior but you also want someone who can sort everything out after all of that's been and done. So you probably want like a spiritual or political leader as well. You wanna you want an all rounder that's what we're looking for here. And and from the get go, it looks like we might get some of this with Samsung.

It's it's a pretty promising start. And and at least, you know, he has about as good a start in life as you could possibly want, doesn't he? When you when you start looking at it. So just read with me in verses 2 and 3, the angel of the lord appeared to her and said you were Baron and child. I said, thanks for that.

Thanks for the reminder. But you're gonna become pregnant and give birth to a son. Brilliant news. So his birth is announced by a messenger from heaven. I don't know about you, but that didn't happen when I was born, unless my mom hasn't told me something, and that would be a bit of an odd thing to leave out of the story, wouldn't it?

And it definitely hap didn't happen when my daughter was born unless I wasn't there at the time and just sent it to Bernadette, and she just didn't tell me, which would again be a bit weird. This doesn't happen for about 99.999999 percent recurring of all of the people who have ever lived on the planet. So this is a seriously special child that we've got here. His birth is gonna be miraculous, we're told. His his mother's Baron, when, when the angel appears to, Manoa's wife, you're Baron and childless.

But you're gonna have a child. Now Samsung's nameless mother, did you notice that? If she never gets a name, Manoa gets a name, his father, but she doesn't. Would have felt quite a large degree of shame, in this situation, being unable to have children. Now old testament Jewish women, held child bearing.

I mean, all cultures do, but that they held it in high honor because through them, may come the Messiah. 1 day, 1 of them may just give birth to the Messiah. Now that's a high honor, isn't it? That's an incredible thing. And so to not be able to do that, to not be able to participate in that, it it it it's it's shameful.

It's it it's somehow a stain that you can't really can't really shake. And because of this, his miraculous birth restores the family honor, which is good. Right? That's a good thing. The next thing we're told in in verse 5.

Now the old, the the old, the new NIV kind of waters it down a little bit because it says he will take the lead in the deliverance of people, but it misses an important point when it does that. The old NIV in verse 5 says something slightly different. It says he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. Now that's important as we go through. So just hold that.

He will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. And it's probably hard to understand just how much of an effect that line would have had on Samsung's parents after those 40 years of oppression. You're miracle sun is going to begin the deliverance of your people from the hands of the Philistines incredible incredible He's been chosen by god to do that. That's incredible. Not only this, but even more promisingly, the boy will be a nazirite from the womb to his death.

He's been chosen to be a nazirite in in If we read in verse 4, the the angel says, gosh, where am I? I'm looking at the wrong chapter that's, that's probably not helpful. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. Because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head because the boy is to be a nazirite to set apart to god from birth.

Set apart from god, to god from birth. Now I'm not gonna give you all of the details on what it means to be a nazirite. If you wanna you want to look it up, you can go to number 6 and that gives you the full lowdown of of of what a Nazirite vowel means. But essentially, essentially, the requirements of these, you are consecrated and specially set apart for god. You are not to be in the presence of anything dead.

And if anyone just, does randomly expire in your presence, then there's a certain set of things that you have do with the priests and sacrifice to offer in a certain amount of days that restores you back to the the original vow. You're not to consume any alcohol of any kind or any products of grapevines. So raisins are out. Grape juice is out. If you like, stuffed vine leaves, don't know anyone here really would, but they're quite nice.

They're out. It's all out. It's all gone. You can't have any of it. No wine.

That's it's it's a real shame. And crucially, for Samsung, you are not to use a razor on your head. You don't cut your hair. So for his whole life, he cannot cut his hair. It's gonna be like down here.

You know, I don't even know how you deal. I don't know how long his hair would have got, but long. He cannot cut his hair. I mean, he led Israel for at least 20 years. It's at least 20 years of of hair growth going on before, before, it'll get shaved off.

Now quite what the origins of the Nazirite Val prior to number 6 are with no 1 really knows. It's it's kind of lost to to history, but that doesn't really matter because what is clear about the Nazirite vow is that people only normally took this for a limited amount of time This was never really meant to be a lifelong thing thing. It's a bit like, it's a bit like fasting. You know, if you're gonna fast you do it specifically for a specific reason for a specific time, that's that's how that works out in in scripture. The Nazirite Val is is exactly the same thing.

Now for Samsung, it's crucial to his whole story. It's really important this nazirite vow to the whole story of Samsung because he from the womb was supposed to be specially set apart for god and god's purposes. And there were these very specific lifestyle attributes that that were supposed to mark him out as different, as noticeably different to everybody around him, as dedicated to god in a seriously special way. And like I said, nobody anywhere other than possibly Samuel and maybe John the Baptist did this voluntarily for long periods of time. But and here comes a really big statement.

The vow of the Nazirite and the laws of the Nazirite provide an old testament picture of what every new testament disciple should be. Did you get that? I'll say it again. The vow of the Nazirite and the laws of the Nazirite provide an old testament picture of what all of us, if we call ourselves Christians, should be. So, so no more cutting of air, no more drinking of wine, no more any of this, no, that's not what it means.

That's not what it means. But the principle carries over. Yeah? That's what we're talking about here. The principle of being radically different And utterly devoted to god is something that we all signed up for when we were saved.

We all signed up for that. Radically different and utterly devoted because the Nazirite is a kingdom minded person like the believer. Is a kingdom minded person, the Christians should be kingdom minded. Not worldly minded. God's kingdom minded.

The Nazirite someone whose concerns in this world reflect god's concerns for this world, as should the Christians The Nazirite is someone who treasures god above all else. There's no 1 and nothing more important than god. Utter devotion. Absolute, total, utter devotion is what it means. That is what we all signed up for.

And that is what makes this so shocking because how often does that truly describe our lives and characters? How often can we say that our motivations are driven by those factors? How often can we say that we uphold our side? We don't. We don't.

And that's hugely disappointing, and it leads us onto the second point, which is a disappointing hero. Samsung, for all of the promise of his birth, when we look at his life, we just see how far short he falls of this standard, and we see a reflection of ourselves in it as well at the same time. We see that our promising hero is far from a masterpiece. He's a disaster piece. He's nothing more than that.

He Honestly, if you know anything about Samsung, just flick with me through the rest of the stories. I'm gonna try really hard not to tread on anyone's toes that's preaching in the next couple the weeks, but it's really, really hard. 14 verse 3. Chapter 14 verse 3. What does Samsung do?

He marries a Philistine woman. He marries a foreign woman outside of Israel. That's a huge no no in the in in the in the bible if you if you know anything about that. In in verse 6 of chapter 14, he tears apart a young lion with his bare hands, thereby touching something dead. Breaking his Nazirite vow.

In 3 verses later, he goes back to that lion, and then eats honey out of some bees that have made a hive in there. So he eats food from inside the carcass of a dead animal. Massive no no. In 14 19, he murders 30 men for cheating to solve his riddle and then went to sulk at his father's house whilst his wife is given to another man. In 15 verse 1 to 5, you get, just 1 of the most creative moments of animal cruelty.

I think anyone's ever done in the world. He catches 300 how'd you even catch 300 foxes? And what do you do? Do you set 300 traps and put meat in all of them and bait them? Do you have an army of 300 men that goes out and does it for you?

Do you to employ someone to do it. And then once you've got them, where'd you put them? So like the first ones you catch might be like a month before the last ones you catch, and you got to pin them all up somewhere. And then he ties all their tails together. How'd you hold a fox down and tie its tail to another fox that's also not wanting you to tie its tail together?

And then he attaches torches to them, and then he takes them out to the Philistine's wheat fields and sets them all on fire and lets them run through and burns all their wheat. I mean, that's not, that's not a well person, is it that that that thinks up something like that? In 15 verses 6 to 8, he kills many more Philistines in retaliation for killing the Philistine wife that he abandoned and was given to another. In 15 15, he kills a thousand Philsteins with a donkey's jawbone and then makes up a little poem to brag about it, which I kind of like, actually. He's pretty funny anyway.

In 6 16 verse 1. 1 day, Samsung went to Gaza where he saw a prostitute. He went in and spent the night with her. What on earth is going on? In 16 verse 4, Delila, extramarital relationship, was probably a Philistine.

So again, outside, not even married. And in 16 17, he gives up the secret of his strength and he allows his head to be shaved, and it leads to his death. He is probably the most compromised character Not just judges, but maybe the whole of the Bible. He's capable of highly creative acts of violence, slaughter of thousands, womanizing prostitution, failing as a husband. He's a gambler.

He plays fast and loose with the gifts. That god's given to him. Is this what you picture when you think of the type of man we need as a hero to deliver Israel? So what on earth is going on here? It's not straightforward, is it?

Like I said, How can god's chosen hero be such a monumental disaster? Well, there's a few few things that we can draw out at this point. It's worth us just spending a bit of time on them. 1, god achieves his aims despite or even through our sinful actions. God achieves his aims despite or even through our sinful actions.

So as you go through the story of Samsung, over and over again, we get this phrase. The spirit of the lord came on him in power. The spirit of the lord came on him in power. The spirit of the lord came on him in power, and then he goes and does something totally morally questionable or downright sinful. And breaks his nazirite vows.

Could he have resolved things in a different way in these situations? Probably yes. We always have options, don't we? Choices, consequences? Samsung's actions, when you analyze them in detail, are largely about Samsung.

Not about god, and yet god uses them to further god's purposes. Isn't that amazing? Look at 14, verse 4 with me again. But Samsung said to his father, get her for me. You've seen a woman that he likes.

He's the sort of guy. I've seen a woman go and get her for me. She's the right 1 for me. Doesn't know anything about it. Just get her for me.

Well, she doesn't wanna come. Anyway, his parents did not know that this was from the lord, who were seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines for at that time they were ruling over Israel. God is at work whilst Samsung is just being a general nightmare, but god is at work through what Samsung is doing nonetheless. Isn't that incredible? That's quite a hard thing to get our heads around and understand, but have you never experienced anything like this even on a small scale in your own lives.

Have you not if you think really hard, have you not experienced anything like this? King's kaleidoscope, great band. They've got a song called Felix Colper. They've got a line that says my sins are stories of grace to be told. God takes my sin and turns it into a story of grace, where he works out his purposes through it.

My clearest example that I can give, when my parents got divorced, no 1 could see how that was gonna ever be a good thing, and it wasn't. And yet through it, god saved me, my sister, and my father, and restored my mother who was in a seriously rocky place. No 1 could see that coming. We we were not doing things in line with god and yet he was working out his purposes. It's exactly what Joseph is talking about in Genesis chapter 50, if you remember that, when he's, meeting his brothers again.

After all of those years, when they sold him into slavery, and Joseph says says this to them. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of god? You intended to harm me, but god intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done the saving of many lives.

That is what god is all about. He takes our mess and he saves people through it. That's incredible. And if you know anything about that verse, then you'll know that what it's really talking about is Jesus. You'll know that that that that the chief priests, the people, the Romans intended to harm him.

But god intended it for good. To accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. It's incredible. The point is is that god's saving work is not happening separately from this world or separately from our lives. God's saving work is happening in this world.

And the stunning thing about that is that God has to and is willing to work with sinful people to bring about his aims. Even the most deeply compromised and flawed people and their actions can be redeemed and used for holy purposes. That is stunning about God. Now now now why is that such a good thing? Well, let's get back to Samsung.

Because when you read the list of Samsung's failures, did you not see anything of yourself in them? That's quite a hard question, isn't it? Because I'm basically asking is there any violent murderous sex crazed animal abusers in the room? No 1 put their hand up? No.

Okay. Well, let me phrase it slightly differently then. Do you ever feel like your life is car crash off the car crash off the car crash of messy sinful situations and actions? Because I often do. Despite my best attempts, I say what I did not want to say, I do what I did not want to do.

I find myself in the same situation again as frustrated as I was last week and yet I know I know that god just doesn't let me go. Somehow in the middle of all of that, he's growing us and refining us and maturing us as we have to come back to him in repentance. We have to cry out to him. Ask for forgiveness. Our forgiven are restored.

And so move on. Pick ourselves up. God picks us up, dusts us off off you go. Do it again. Try again.

Even our blundering ways can be used to save and build others up, can't they? And that's kind of what's going on with Samsung here. Samsung Samsung is just about really when you really look at it, his revenge, his pride, he's protecting, all the lustful desires that seem to just govern him uncontrollably. And I and it's really only right at the end of the story that Samsung's brought to a place of true repentance, and he's exactly where god wants him to be in that moment. Anyway, before I trash whoever's preaching that bit and and whatever's coming next, I I don't want to go anymore into the rest of Samsung story, but There's 2 points we need to pay attention to.

1 is that god works in and through our sinful attempts to serve him, and even our sinful attempts to serve ourselves, And that should be a major, confidence boost and comfort to us because what an outrageous, outrageously merciful and gracious god. What an outrageously merciful and gracious god we're supposed to be like Nasorites, utterly devoted, and yet we do anything but and yet he uses it anyway, and yet he brings about good from our bad. How does that work? And the other point is that Samsung is not the hero that we really want or need. You don't want a Samsung walking around.

You definitely don't want more than 1 anyway. Because he's only human in the end. He's only a man. He's a fallen and impure and stained human just like the rest of us. So he cannot be the 1 to truly rescue his people.

He is not the Messiah. What we need is a real hero, and that's the final point. Because all Samsung really does in the end is point us towards the need for someone far greater. And we all know who that is. So where is Jesus in all of this?

Where is Jesus in all of this? Cause he's not gonna be born for, like, over another thousand years. You know, he's a ways off in in the historical timeline. Well, another shocking thing is that, Samsung, is 1 of the clearest foreshadows of Jesus that you get in the in the old testament That's ridiculous, isn't it? Samsung is 1 of the clearest foreshadows of Jesus that you get in the old testament.

How on earth can you say that? What makes me say it? Well, he's got a miraculous birth. Firstly, Jesus had that. However, whereas Samsung's birth brought honor to his family, Jesus's birth was surrounded by shame and disgrace.

Everyone thought that Marriott had it off with another man and that Jesus was a was a bastard child born in disgrace. Samsung's parents restored and honored Jesus, disgraced and shameful. Throughout his life, Samsung is Zealous, for fighting the enemies of god, albeit he wages a physical war, whereas Jesus wages a spiritual war. Samsung takes whatever he wants as the leader of god's people, whereas Jesus leaves his throne in glory for a life of simple security and oppression, he leaves everything and gives it up to come and have nothing and be vulnerable. Samsung, who shouldn't even be in existence takes everything that he sees in front of him.

When Jesus is attacked, he does not respond in kind, rather he exposes the motives of people's hearts and calls people to follow him, whereas Samsung is more likely to rip your heart out. And doesn't really seem to care for anyone other than himself. And at the end of Samsung's life, He is betrayed, beaten, tortured, and dies with his arms outstretched. Bringing down the temple of the false gods crushing the enemies of god's people in the process. And if that doesn't make you think of Jesus on the cross, I don't know what will.

Jesus is the hero we need in all of this. And Samsung points us towards that. But here's the really stunning thing about this passage. Jesus isn't it? Did you see it?

Did you get that Jesus is actually in this passage? I don't know if you really got who the main character is here, but it's not Samsung, and it's not Manoa, and it's not Manoa's nameless wife. The main character in this passage is in verse 3. The angel of the lord came to her and said. Who is the angel of the lord?

Who on earth is that? Is it just an angel? A normal angel? A normal everyday angel? Well, I'll show you why.

But to not get too technical, the theologians would say it's a christophanes. Now I think that's just over complicating nonsense. It's the son of god in human form. Let's just keep it simple and say that. We would know him as Jesus of Nazareth, and yet here he is, over a thousand years before Jesus is born, talking to Samsung's mother and father in the flesh.

That's incredible. That's an incredible thing. He's here raising up a judge who in the end only points to the need for him. And and and, and, and now look, I'm not saying that he looks exactly like Jesus, this angel of the lord, but then, you know, none of us know who what Jesus looked like, so he could exactly like Jesus. It's a moot point, but that's not the point.

What makes me so confident of this Well, look at verse 6, a man of god came to me, Manoa's wife says, in verse 10, The man who appeared is here again, Manoa's wife said, and she runs to get her husband to come and speak to this man. This is a man a human speaking with Manoa's wife, but it's also he's not just a human. He's something else as well. He's He's fully human, but he's fully he seems to be something else. In verse 11, Manoa got up and followed his wife, When he came to the man, he said, are you the man who talked to my wife?

I am. He said, now if that's not setting off all sorts of bells, I do not know what will. I am is the name that god gave for himself when Moses asked what his name was. I am who I am. God said to Moses.

Yahweh is the other name for it. I am I mean, an angel is not gonna say those words lightly because they know exactly what they mean. Then Manoa in verse 17 inquired of the angel of the lord. What is your name so that we may honor you when your your word comes true. He replied, why do you ask my name?

It is beyond understanding. If you look in the footnotes, it says, or it is wonderful. It is too wonderful for you to understand. Then, Manoa took a young goat together with the grain offering and sacrificed it on a rock to the lord and the lord and the lord did an amazing thing while Manoa and his wife watched as the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Menoa and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.

When the angel of the lord did not show himself again to Manoa and his wife. Manoa realized that it was the angel of the lord. We're doomed to die. Manoa said, Oh my goodness. We're in trouble.

We've seen god. We've gotta let Manoa teach us here. We we often fall into the of thinking these old testament bods didn't really know anything, or we know more than them. I actually think they probably knew more than us. They're in the culture.

They're living it in the flesh. Noah knows what this means. This is god. We've just seen god face to face. And we know that no 1 can see god and and live.

Why? Because he's perfectly pure. And holy, and we are impure and sinful and impurity and sin in the presence of our holy pure god is burnt up. It's why the priests had to do all of the work that they had to do before going into the holy of holies once a year. You couldn't just go into god's presence.

Moses, had to be hidden in a cleft in the rock to speak with god or have his face covered with a veil So how have they survived this encounter? They've just met god and survived. Is because this person whom Manila correctly identifies as god is the son of god. Who comes in human form. Whenever god appears in human form and talks to people face to face, it cannot be anybody other than the son of god, Jesus Christ.

It cannot be. The same who who comes in the form of Jesus, all those years later in finishes the work of god. The same who speaks to people face to face, who touches them. God physically literally touches people because he's human in Jesus, only possible in the form of his son, fully human, fully god. And here he is starting the work of Samsung, giving the news to Samsung's parents.

And his struggle against the Philistines, which is just a picture of the larger struggle, of god and his people versus god god's enemies and the enemies of god's people and satan. Jesus begins the work, not Samsung, Jesus begins the work and Jesus ends the work. When his arms are outstretched, he cries. It is finished. He can say that because un he, unlike Samsung, was totally uncompromised.

And without sin, And so he can pay the price for sin because he is an acceptable and perfect sacrifice for it in our place. He's the real hero this story is all about. And it's great that Samsung is included because that means he includes you and me in this as well. Despite all of our faults. So, to close, something that something that struck me as I was as preparing this is just how involved Jesus really is in his salvation story.

I mean, he appeared at Gideon as well. If you caught that when we were going through it, he's there at the beginning with Gideon. But after Samsung begins this work that Jesus raises him up for of crushing the enemies of god. Do you think the book of judges improves? Do you think it's just a straight line trajectory to the top?

No. It gets worse. It ceases to become about the battles with god's enemies, and it becomes about the all within god's people. It's the it's the war within that rages within. And some of the most sordid and depressing stories ever told, not just in the Bible, ever told, follow on from the story of Samsung.

You ever heard of the Levi and his concubine? Where you will soon. I'm sure we're gonna be preaching it at some point. It's a low. You know, sometimes when a work begins, there is a dip before things start to improve.

Well, isn't it good that what follows on from the end of judges isn't more judges? Imagine if you got judges part 2 after judges part 1. Imagine that, that would be a tough read, especially if it just carries on the way it was going. What you get at the end of judges is the book of Ruth. And if you know anything about the book of Ruth, it was set in the time of judges.

It says that. And some even say maybe in the time of Samsung, it doesn't, you know, matter too much, but let's just run with that. This is conjecture, by the way. So, you know, you can think what you like, but this was just my mind going on this, and it really hit me. Ruth is a story of decency and hope in the midst of chaos anything, but what Samsung's about.

And yet, Samsung may have been at work at the same time as the story of roofs going on. And after judges, it's like a refreshing balm for the soul, the book of Ruth. You get themes of redemption of love of restoration and it centers around this this love story between Ruth and boaz, boaz, who's the kinsman redeemer for Ruth. And I I do often wonder if in some way Samsung's actions created breathing space for that story to happen. For for so that Ruth and Boaz could meet Mary and have their son Obed.

Obed, of course, who was the father of Jesse. Jesse, of course, who was the father of David, who would become king David, who would end the struggle and complete the victory over the Philistines. But it doesn't even end there, does it? Because you fast forward a thousand years and you follow the line of David all the way through, And you from David, you end up with Joseph, Joseph, who was the father of Jesus of Nazareth, who was called the Christ. And in him, we find our true and final judge, the 1 who doesn't wait for us to cry out.

He acts in advance. He pays the prices for our freedom before we even think to ask for it. That's the real hero that Samsung points us to. That's who we need.