Wasted Potential

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Before their season was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, the University of Arizona men’s basketball team had a record of 21 wins and 11 losses, including a win in the first round of the PAC-12 tournament. In most places a team that won 66% of its games and that was headed to the NCAA tournament would be considered a success. But for me, and for most of the other Wildcat fans, the season was actually considered to be a big disappointment.

That’s because of the talent level on that team, with three players that will almost certainly be picked in the first round of the NBA draft this year - something that no other team in the country can claim. So while the team’s record certainly wasn’t horrible, I think the reason so many people were disappointed is because the team did not live up to its potential.

Tension

So I’m pretty sure that Coach Sean Miller and the players on the team could probably relate to this Charlie Brown cartoon:

Charlie Brown Cartoon - “There’s no heavier burden than a great potential”

Today, we’re going to begin a five week study of a man whose life certainly illustrates that idea. He is one of the strangest characters in the entire Bible. His name and his exploits are well known, but the man himself remains something of a mystery. He is the very embodiment of a familiar phrase coined by Winston Churchill:

"a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

As we’ll see this morning, no man in the Bible started out with so much going for him, with so much potential. But for reasons that we can’t totally understand, that potential became such a burden that no one ended up with less.

Truth

Obviously, I’m speaking of Samson. His story is found in the Old Testament in the book of Judges. In chapters 13-16 we find the story of his privileged beginning and his ultimate fall. It is a story that could easily be made into a movie today - a story full of intrigue, violence, sex and strange plot twists.

Originally I was going to subtitle this series “Man Up” and address it primarily to the men in our church family. That is because even though God is sovereign and ultimately in control, from an earthly perspective the future of our families, our churches, our communities and even our world, rests largely on the development of godly men who will fulfill their God-given potential and be the men that God intended them to be.

But, as we’re going to see this morning, that doesn’t mean that women don’t also have an indispensable role as well. So in order to make sure that I didn’t immediately turn off half my audience I decided to eliminate that subtitle

We’re going to begin in Judges chapter 13 this morning and go back to the events that led up to the birth of Samson. This chapter, as we’ll see, is actually quite comical in many respects, even though we can’t say the same for the culmination of Samson’s life. We’ll just work our way through this chapter section by section and draw out some applications along the way. But before we begin, let me share the big idea that I see in this chapter:

It’s not how you begin, but how you finish that matters

Samson’s story actually begins before he was born.

Judges 13:1 ESV

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.

If you’re familiar at all with the book of Judges, you know that it records a cycle that continues to repeat itself throughout the book.

Cycle of sin graphic

The people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord

God did exactly as He had promised and subjected all or part of Israel to the rule of surrounding pagan nations.

The people cried out to God

God raised up a deliverer who “judged” God’s people

The land had rest

This is now the seventh time this cycle occurs in the book of Judges, but there is one phase in that cycle that is missing here. For the first time, the people do not cry out to God. Even though they are under the rule and oppression of the Philistines, they have become so comfortable that they don’t even feel the need to cry out to God.

Interestingly enough, the Philistine hadn’t come to rule over Israel by military might, but rather through trade and through intermarrying. The people of Israel had not been conquered by military might, but rather they had been seduced by materialism and sensuality to the point that they no longer realized their need to cry out to God. Sound familiar?

But even though the people didn’t cry out for His help, God was about to send a deliverer anyway.

Judges 13:2–7 ESV

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 Nazirite 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 Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”

Here we have an appearance of “the angel of the Lord”. Whenever that term is used in the Old Testament, it is almost certainly what is known as a “Christophany” - an earthly appearance of Jesus prior to His incarnation. We’re going to see some further evidence to support that idea later in this passage.

So Jesus appears to the wife of a man named Manoah. Interestingly we never do find out her name, likely because it is Jesus, and not the woman, who is the central figure in this account. Although she has been barren up to this point, Jesus tells her that she is going to conceive and have a son. That son is to live as a Nazirite “from the womb”. This is just one of many passages in the Bible that indicates clearly that life begins at conception.

We find the background for the Nazirite vows back in Numbers 6. But there, we find that this was to be a voluntary vow that a man or woman would make in order to be set apart for service to God for some limited time. And during the time that the vow was in place, the person making the vow was to refrain from three things:

He was not to drink wine or eat or drink anything that was produced from the grapevine.

He was not to go near a dead body.

He was not to cut his hair.

In Samson’s case, this was not to be a voluntary vow - it was a way of life that God was calling him to live throughout his entire life. But, as we study Samson’s life, we’re going to see that he violates all three of these prohibitions.

Jesus also tells Mrs. Manoah that her son is going to “begin to save Israel from the Philistines”. Because of his unfaithfulness and because the nation of Israel isn’t really interested in being saved from the Philistines, that redemption won’t be complete until David becomes king. And there is a sense in which it isn’t fully fulfilled until the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We don’t know why Jesus came to Mrs. Manoah first. Any reason we could come up with would be pure speculation. But how can you not see the humor in this exchange?Jesus appears to Mrs. Manoah and she goes home and tells her husband, “I was just visited by a man of God and you should have seen this guy. He looked like an angel to me and he was really awesome.” By now I have to believe Manoah is beginning to picture that this guy must look like Fabio in the I Can’t Believe It’s Butter” commercials. And so he’s not about to let his wife go see this guy alone again.

So let’s continue and see how Manoah reacts to this news from his wife.

Judges 13:8–20 ESV

8 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.” 9 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. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” 11 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.” 12 And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?” 13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. 14 She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.” 15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you.” 16 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.) 17 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” 18 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” 19 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. 20 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.

Although I’ve made fun of Manoah a bit, and I’ll do it some more in a moment, we do see here that Manoah and his wife were godly parents. The first thing Manoah does when he hears the news from his wife is pray to God. He first asks for the man of God to come again. I think that in part he is motivated to ask that because he wants to see this man that his wife has been raving about for himself. But he also indicates that he believes what Jesus told his wife previously. He believes his barren wife is going to have a baby and he wants to understand how he and his wife are to raise this special child.

Some time later Jesus appears again and once again he appears to Mrs. Manoah. But this time she runs to get her husband. And Manoah asks the angel exactly what he had prayed about earlier - how was this son to be raised and what is his life going to be like? Interestingly, Jesus just repeats what he had told Manoah’s wife previously.

Manoah then offers to extend hospitality to Jesus, who he stills believes to be just a man of God. But Jesus declines that offer and asks Manoah to prepare an offering to the Lord. During this conversation we get several more clues that confirm this is indeed Jesus.

First, in verse 11, Jesus answers “I am” when Manoah asks him if he is the man who previously came to see his wife. This is the same thing God had replied to Moses when Moses had asked God to reveal His name.

Then in verse 18, Jesus replies that His name is “wonderful”. This is the very same Hebrew word that Isaiah uses in Isaiah 9:6 in a prophecy of Jesus.

Finally, Jesus ascends in the flame of the offering that was made on the altar.

No wonder that at that point Manoah and his wife fall on their faces. Let’s pick up the account in verse 21:

Judges 13:21–23 ESV

21 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. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 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.”

This is actually pretty funny, but it also tells us something important about Manoah and his wife. As soon as Jesus ascends in the flame. Manoah finally realizes he has been talking face to face with God himself. This is one more confirmation that the “angel of the Lord” was Jesus. And now he is panicking. After all, he would have been aware of the account from Exodus 33 where God shielded His face from Moses because otherwise Moses would have died.

While he is freaking out, Mrs. Manoah says, and I’m paraphrasing this rather loosely now, “Manoah quit freaking out! Chill out! Think about all that just happened. If God wanted to kill us, do you think He would have accepted our offering first? And why would he come tell us all these things and then just kill us before our son was born?” And apparently Manoah eventually, and probably reluctantly, realized his wife was right.

But what is important for us to note here is that both Manoah and his wife were God-fearing people who were reverent toward God and held him in awe.

Let’s finish the chapter:

Judges 13:24–25 ESV

24 And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

God did exactly what He had promised and Mrs. Manoah had a son. And they named him Samson, which means something like “sunlight” or “sunny” - an appropriate name for a man who was destined to lead the people of Israel out of the darkness of their bondage to the Philistines. It’s just such a shame that Samson never lived up to his name.

We also see here that God blessed Samson and that as he grew up God also equipped him with the Holy Spirit. So we learn in this chapter that Samson had great potential. He was born with every single advantage that someone could want for the role that God had entrusted to him. He was born into a family with godly parents, who genuinely feared and revered God and who had sought God’s guidance in raising him. And not only that he was blessed by God and equipped for his ministry as he was stirred by the Holy Spirit.

But as we’ll see in the coming weeks, he throws all that away. So the life of Samson is the perfect illustration of what we said earlier:

It’s not how you begin, but how you finish that matters

Application

In addition to that main idea, I want to close by sharing several other...

IMPLICATIONS FOR MY LIFE

that we find in this chapter. There is something for each of us.

For the men: Listen to your wife

Had I continued with my original idea of subtitling this series “Man Up”, this would have certainly been the main idea I would have preached on today.

Men, while it is true that God has given us the role of being the spiritual leaders in our families and in the church, that doesn’t mean that we are to be authoritative leaders who don’t listen to our wives. In this case, had Manoah ignored his wife, it seems quite likely he would have never heard from God.

I have shared some of the details with you before so I won’t bore you with them again now, but some of the worst decisions and the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my life have come when I failed to listen to Mary. I can be a slow learner some times, but I’ve come to realize that I need her input and advice. So now, I not only listen when she shares something that she believes has come to her from God, but I actually seek out her input when it comes to the important decisions that impact our family and my ministry.

For the women: God has entrusted you with an important role

While God has entrusted the role of spiritual leadership in your family and in the church to men, that doesn’t mean that women don’t also have a crucial role that is equally important. This is not the only place in the Bible where when God is ready to do a great work, He first announces it to a woman. When His Son was about to be born, He first sent His angel to an unwed teenage girl named Mary who would become His mother.

But we also see here that Mrs. Manoah did not try to usurp her husband’s role. She immediately told him what had happened and allowed him to take the leadership role in the raising of Samson. But she was also the helper he needed to lovingly point him in the right direction when he was about to go off the rails.

For the children: Take advantage of your parents’ training

I know that sometimes you may think that your parents don’t know what they are doing. And sometimes you might even be right. I certainly know as a parent I made more than my fair share of mistakes. But I know your parents, and I can assure you that they are doing their very best to help you grow into godly young men and women. And if you will listen to and obey them, God will use that to help develop you into the people He wants you to be.

For parents whose children have rebelled against God: Don’t blame yourself

Sometimes, like with Samson, you can be great, godly parents and your kids will still rebel against God. But you are not responsible for the choices that your children make when they are on their own. Obviously that doesn’t mean that you despair and give up. Keep praying and doing what you can to influence them for Jesus. But God doesn’t want you to live with constant guilt and regret either.

For all of us: If you had a good beginning, don’t think you can’t fall

Some of you are a lot like Samson. You grew up in a Christian home. Maybe you’ve been going to church all your life. You’ve had every advantage in your spiritual life. But that doesn’t mean that you are immune to being tempted or to falling away from your faith. We see examples of that occuring over and over in this culture - people who seemingly had it all, but ended up in an adulterous affair, or embezzling money, or being addicted or even harming someone physically in a fit of rage. As Paul writes in his first letter to the church in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 10:12 ESV

12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

For all of us: If you didn’t have a good beginning, Jesus wants to give you a new life

Maybe the beginning of your life has been the exact opposite of Samson’s. Maybe you didn’t grow up in a Christian home. Maybe you got hooked up with the wrong crowd while you were growing up. Maybe you’ve never been exposed to the Bible or to Jesus or to the gospel. But, as we saw in our last sermon series that’s OK because the death and resurrection of Jesus has made it possible for your sins to be forgiven, for death to be conquered and for you to be transformed into a brand new creation. Remember, it’s not how you begin, but how you end that matters.

Action

I’m convinced that this morning, every one of us can take at least one very practical concrete step to apply what we’ve learned today. So I want to encourage you to take a piece of paper and write down one way that you are going to apply this message personally in your life. And then put that piece of paper somewhere where you will see it regularly this week, so that you’ll be reminded to pray about it and follow through and actually do it.

Inspiration

I’m pretty sure that Linus was right - there is no heavier burden than a great potential. But the good news is that you don’t have to try and live up to that potential on your own. If you ask Him, Jesus will walk beside you step by step and help you put that potential to work for your good and His glory.