Sermon Tone Analysis

JUDGES: The Birth of Sampson

SAMSON - Judges 13:1-25

BLANK SLIDE: Introduce yourself.

Been gone but back.

Pneumonia.

Recap the timeline….

SLIDE: We’ve been in this series all summer, we took a break last week for the picnic.

Weren’t the baptisms amazing?!

It was so fun to be together with Glasstown church too.

So since we took a break I want to just do a brief recap of Judges up to where we will be in Chapter 13 today.

SLIDE:

Joshua dies - and the people need a leader.

In that transition the people do evil in the sight of God and serve false gods that they were supposed to overthrow when they came into the land.

As a result, God allows for oppression to come on the people so that they would repent.

Cushan-rishathaim - 8 years

40 years of rest - othniel

Eglon - 18 years

80 years of rest - Ehud

Jabin - king of Cannan - 900 chariots - 20 years

40 years of rest - Deborah

Midian - 7 years

40 years of rest - Gideon

Abimelech - 3 years

Shamir - 23 years

Jair - 22 years

Philistines Oppression - 18 years

Jephthah - 6 years

Ibzan - 7 years

Elon - 10 years

Abdon - 8 years

Philistine Oppression - 40 years

SLIDE: Timeline: Photo

About 240 years of this cycle

SLIDE: Judges Cycle: Photo

This cycle starts to change though….after

Gideon there are no more instances recorded in the book of Judges where it records any periods of ‘rest’.

Instead of being steps 1-6, it goes down to 1-5, and as you’ll see, it ends up reduced pretty much to just step 1.

I don’t know that it was the later judges that weren’t all that successful in fighting enemies, but I don’t see any of the later group of leaders that really called the people to the heart of God.

After Gideon we actually have self-absorbed leaders who seem to be in it for themselves, for their kids glory or the prestige of a position.

During the time of those later leaders you don’t even really read much about oppression from outside forces because the people of God were so stuck on in-fighting and mis-treating each other.

They were destroying themselves from the inside out.

So none of these later judge-leaders really pan out.

And we find the story back in an “unwanted familiar place".

The hand of oppression has to come upon the people again.

And wouldn’t you know it, we enter back into the story at another low point for the people of God.

Judges 13….

The Birth of Samson

SLIDE: 13:1 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 forty years.

40 more years of oppression, granted by God.

Last time I spoke I said,

Sometimes, oppressive authority is better than self-governance.

It may be necessary for us to ask, is the oppression I experience self-induced?

Is what you’re experiencing because of something ‘evil in God’s sight’ that are you are giving your allegiance to?

Not everything is, but it’s worth doing that kind of soul searching.

This oppression is on the people again - Remember 240 years ago, if the people of God had followed what God told them to do, this problem would have been long solved.

So what’s going to happen now?

What do you think God is going to do with His people?

One ore Judge.

Today is just the first part of his story, you’ll hear the rest in the weeks to come.

Judges 13 breaks down for us into 4 Episodes-Scenes.

Let’s find out what God is going to do for His people.

SLIDE: EPISODE 1

2 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.

3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 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.”

6 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, 7 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.’”

Did you catch what God is going to do? He’s going to pick a judge for the people even before conception!

God is taking the opportunity to do something new - A new generation.

SLIDE: STICKY STATEMENT: God is always creating a next generation of leaders.

I believe this chapter lays out some essential things that are needed by the current generation to help raise up the next generation.

Something about young adults, singles, youth here…..When stories like this come up where a woman can’t have kids and then gets told she is going to have a baby - it can take a couple of cross sections of the room and make them check out.

If you are a young adult, a single or unmarried person, even a teenager - don’t check out.

What we’re going to see in this story today is something God is inviting you to be part of to.

You have a chance to be on the front end of something beautiful.

Raising up & Leading the next generation is not solely the privilege of parents - this reality is for us all to embrace.

So let’s unpack this story more.

An angel appears to Manoah’s wife and tells her she’s going to have a baby.

That’s good news!

But not just any baby.

A baby set apart for God - a Nazarite - a baby with a mission statement: ‘begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines’.

SLIDE: v. 5b - 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.”

We need to pause for a minute and understand what the Nazarite vow is.

SLIDE: NAZARITE:: An Israelite consecrated to the service of God, under vows to abstain from alcohol, let the har grow, and avoid defilement by contact with corpses.

(Nazirite means one separated, or one consecrated).

Numbers 6 - 1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.

He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried.

4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.

5 “All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head.

Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy.

He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.

6 “All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body.

7 Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head.

8 All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.

The goal of this vow is to separate oneself from good things, in order to be devoted to God for a period of time.

In the case of this next generation judge, in order for this baby to be fully set apart - this woman is asked to change some things in her life - HER eating habits - so that the will of God for this child can happen.

She has to take up the eating habits of the Nazarite vow.

Monoah’s wife has to take on discomfort and disruption to her normal flow of life so that this next judge will be set apart.