Latest / Jessi Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast / Faith in the Details: Samson's Birth

Transcript

Faith in the Details: Samson's Birth · Jessi Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, hello.
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast, episode 59.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This week's devotional is titled Faith in the Details Birth of Samson.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited for this one.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Let's go.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jesse Morgan.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I used to just share home decor and renovation tips on social media, but now I'm sharing something even closer to my heart my journey and love for Jesus Christ, my Savior.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Hot Podcast.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: This is a weekly devotional.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I started back in May 2024, but the inspiration for it came much earlier.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It was rooted in a faith journey that began when my daughter was born four months early in 2023.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Through that challenging time, god worked in ways that truly amazed me.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: On this podcast, I share personal stories of faith, woven together with scripture, to show just how incredible God's word can be in our everyday lives.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: My hope is that through these stories, you'll be encouraged, uplifted and reminded of God's love and presence, no matter what you're going through.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So I invite you to spend less than 15 minutes with me each week as we reflect on these devotionals together.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Let's all pray within.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Faith in the Details Birth of Samson.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Key passages Judges 13, numbers 6, and Leviticus 21, 1-4.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: We finally finally come to the famous judge of them all, samson.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: So excited to have you all here today.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So, like I said, we are now on Samson.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Look how far we've come in the study of judges Amazing.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Anyways, samson, I'll be honest, I'm not a fan.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I really sat down and read his story and how God used him.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: He's no David, he's no Joshua in battle, but here's where all three have something in common God used them and they were all men of war.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Now Samson, oh Samson, he's honestly extremely reckless, a bit and selfish.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: But we'll get to that soon.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: We'll be discussing Samson for a few weeks because there's just a lot in his story.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: So get ready for a deep dive into the most famous judge of them all.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: But before we jump into the text, I wanted to start with a little personal perspective or story, as I usually do.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: As many of you know, I'm now the parent of a very active 20-month-old.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: She's walking, living her best life and completely wearing me out.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: My goodness, I can't believe.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: She's almost two and now we've started the search for schools.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: My goal is to sign her up by September 1st of 2025 for the 2026-2027 school year.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I was talking to a coworker recently who's out in California and she was shocked at how far in advance you have to apply down here in Miami for a school.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: It's no joke.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I want the best environment for my daughter and let's be real, the school we're hoping to get her into is expensive.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: It's private, but one of the best.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: But it's just one of the best schools in my opinion, and it aligns with how we want to.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: We want her to learn and grow.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Honestly, as of Monday, I had no idea how we pay for it.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about it since last year and even started looking at other options, figuring we probably, you know, couldn't afford it.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: But then one night during dinner this week, I brought it up to my husband I had never really talked to him about tuition and like finding a school and when I, you know, explained the situation to him, he looked at me and he said add up what we pay in child care each month plus the taxes, multiply it by 10 months, since school runs 10 months a year.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: And so I did and we could afford it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Like, how did I not put together?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Like put two and two together, like don't ask.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: It took my husband to help me see what was already possible.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: My mind, my faith had been unproductive, barren, if you might say.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see our finances for what they really were.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: But God used my husband to help me see his blessing.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you, lord.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: As I prepared for this new season of finding a school and all that, I realized I never actually asked God what I should do about the school situation.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: But then, when I asked my husband, I got my answer.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: And that leads us to Judges 13, the beginning of Samson's story.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: So birth of Samson.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: The chapter focuses on really Samson's parents, especially especially his mother, who is never named, but it speaks of her faith.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: She was barren, she had no children, but one day a man of God appeared to her and said it says in Judges 13, 3 through 5 the angel of the Lord appeared to her and said you are barren and childless, but you are going to become a.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: 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 Nazarite dedicated to God.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: From the womb, he will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: So, as we can see, samson's mother ran and told her husband what had happened, explaining that a man of God came and told her she would become pregnant.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Become pregnant, then Manoah, her husband, prayed.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: In Judges 13.8, it says Then Manoah prayed to the Lord.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Pardon your servant, lord, I beg you to let the man of God you sent us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: The angel, as we would say, returned again only to the wife at first, but eventually Manoah came face to face with this man of God, although they didn't realize he was an angel at first.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: And Manoah asked in Judges 13, 12, when your words are fulfilled, what is it to be the rule that governs the boy's life and work?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: The angel repeated the instructions again, just like he had said earlier, and here's like a quick breakdown of those instructions the child would be a Nazarite from the womb, set apart from God, set apart for God.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: His hair must not be cut, his mother must avoid wine and unclean food during pregnancy and he must avoid contact with the dead.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Before we continue here, I just wanted to give a clear definition of a Nazirite, just to make sure everybody's on the same page.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: A Nazirite is someone, a man or a woman who takes a special vow of separation to dedicate themselves to God for a period of time.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: So, to move on, what the angel listed as instructions on being a Nazarite were all signs of total devotion to God, basically.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: So I would encourage you all to read all of number six.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: It goes into detail of a Nazarite, but below I still wanted to read a bit from Numbers to put everything into context.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I want to prep you now with this information because this will also be vital in the rest of Samson's story as we continue for the weeks to come.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: So it says in Numbers 6, 6-7, throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord, the Nazarite must not go near a dead body, even if their own father or mother or brother or sister dies.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: They must not make themselves ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of their dedication to God is on their head.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Normally Nazarites took a vow for a season or so, but for Samson this would be a lifelong calling.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: So what amazes me is the faith of Samson's parents.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Manoah believed his wife before ever seeing the angel.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: He trusted that she had a divine encounter.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: And when the angel returned, manoah didn't wait until the baby was born to ask God what to do.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: He prayed right away Lord, teach us how to raise this child.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: And that challenged me a bit.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: As a parent, I have been stressing about school costs, weighing options, trying to figure it all out by myself, but I never stopped and said God, what should I do here?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I had faith, but it was sitting in the back seat.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Basically, god used my husband, just like he used that angel with Manoah's wife, to show me already, to show me I already had what I needed to put Sage in a good school.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: My faith just needed a nudge.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: God had already made a way.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: So some questions I had to ask myself and you can as well was do I bring everything to God, like my school tuition situation all the time?
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Do I invite God into everyday decisions?
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Do I ask him how to raise my daughter?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: This chapter reminded me that, yes, we need to talk to the husband always, but we also need to talk to the third parent, our Lord, when things feel barren, confusing, uncertain, unproductive.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: We I mean, are we just asking God to fix it or are we seeking his wisdom?
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Are we seeking him for instruction and direction?
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Let me say this, my friends, who's listening?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Parents, god should be your partner in raising your kids.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Students, god should be your study buddy in this life.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Christians, god should be the one who fills the gap when you feel the void.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Amen, let's pray.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the study of Samson.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being that third parent, being that third friend, being that third co-worker in any tough situation we're going through, we just need to ask for the guidance, lord.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: We just need to ask for the details, the instruction that you're going to give us in order to bless us, in order for us to move forward and represent you in the best way possible.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Father, we thank you so much for the study of Samson and his parents and the faith they had even before he was born.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And, father, we hope that we can apply this to our lives every day, every month, every year.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Lord, father, thank you so much for your love and compassion.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the study of judges.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Father, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening guys, till next time.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Well, that wraps up this week's episode.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I hope these devotions help you draw closer to God each day.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: If this episode encouraged you, please share it with someone who might need the same message, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a weekly episode.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Also, if you feel compelled, leaving a nice review would be so appreciated as well.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: For more information or to reach out, check the show notes or visit jessimorganhomecom or find me on Instagram at jessimorganlife.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Remember God's timing is always perfect.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Keep trusting him Until next time.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: This is Jessi Morgan praying on Jessi Morgan Devotions behind the scenes starting right now.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Scenes starting right now.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Jesse Morgan Behind the Scenes.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be here today with you.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Just a little extra, you know, encouragement here or there.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: For today I wanted to come on here and talk about this really quick to just encourage people that are going through.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: It's not just this situation, but how this can be applied to different things.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: As I was studying, or starting this study, of Samson, it blew my mind again that I didn't realize that Samson's mother who we don't know her name, but we just know him as Manoah's wife she was a woman who was barren and I, just after hearing that, and then how God came to her and said I have a plan for you.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: It made me sit back and go back and kind of research some of the women that I have studied in the Bible, some that I have heard about, and it just blew my mind.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: And let me just because I want to mention this, because we know today, in 2025, there's so many families that deal with personal battles of fertility and how, oh, it's just such a thing now, it's just more and more and all these things and I just wanted to, you know, encourage people that are going through that or going through something really tough, that's just not productive, that is feeling so draining and don't understand the meaning of it, that you know you put your faith in God and you start proclaiming in advance that the blessings are going to come.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: God is going.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: You know God will bless you in the way that's suited for that.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: But I wanted to go back to Manoah's wife being barren because you know we talk about, oh, this is such a thing now, such a thing, and it's just because people, you know, maybe people are talking about it more, but if you go back into scripture, I just wanted to just mention if we go back to you know, so maybe people are talking about it more, but if you go back into scripture, I just wanted to just mention if we go back to you know, we know Sarah Abraham's wife was barren and she finally had her first child, you know, over like the age of 80.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: We go into Hannah, hannah I will be talking about Hannah, cause I'm going to be jumping into that in the next cycle of podcasts in my next series, but Hannah was the mother of Samuel.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: She was barren for many years and then God came to her, gave her a son and she raised him in a way that he was then dedicated to the Lord.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: You look at Rebecca, which was the wife of Isaac.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: She was barren for 20 years until Isaac prayed over her, and then she had Esau and Jacob, and then the last one I mentioned last year during Christmas we talk about Elizabeth, who was the relative of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was an older woman in age and she was barren, and then God blessed her with John the Baptist, and I don't want you to look at it as, oh, all these women then became pregnant, but all these women were part of a plan that God had had in store for them.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Women were part of a plan that God had in store for them.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: And I just want to encourage you if you are feeling barren, if you are feeling unproductive not just in fertility situations which obviously, if you are, that's fine too but just in finances and mental health and you know struggles in relationships you just have to remember that if you can just keep that faith and understand that God has a plan for you and you may not understand why it's going on right now, but in the end you will if you really put your faith in the Lord and you look at every single step in your life and the good that happens is a blessing.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: As little as it may seem, and you keep praising God in advance of the blessing that's to come, it just changes the trajectory of your mindset, of your faith.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: That's something I really had to do.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: You know, when I dealt with my infertility situations, when I dealt with my daughter being in the hospital for four months with multiple surgeries, I had to praise God in advance for the blessing that he was going to give me tough consequences.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: They saw it at the time when they were going through it, just understand that tough situations have been going on for so long and that's why the Bible is just so covered with it.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: But it also is in a way that it teaches you of how to handle those things.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: It teaches you that God has a plan.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: If you have your faith in the right place and you know you can't keep complaining, you can't keep well, if worse comes, you know worst case scenario, no, you can't do that.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: You can't think the worst and say, well, if I think the worst, at least I will be disappointed.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: That is just such a terrible way to, you know, handle your faith.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: So I just want to encourage you and this behind the scenes today just really it touched me and I really wanted to talk about that.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: So be encouraged.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: If you need prayer, if you need, you know, any type of conversation, support, you know, message me, email me.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: All my information is in the footnotes.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Love you all.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: God bless.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Have a wonderful week.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Jesse Morgan praying off.