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On Jul 18, 2012: Judges 8-14 Sin Cycle Continues · Teachings On This Day On FerventWord

• You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Here in Judges chapter 8. Now as we look at the book of Judges, again the author of Judges is Samuel, who we'll be dealing with a little bit later as we get into 1 Samuel. The book of Judges covers about 300 years from 1350 to 1075 BC. You know, those are kind of estimated dates. And the theme of the book is the Lord raises up judges who saved them. And we talked about last week as we began this book, the sin cycle that we see repeatedly in the book of Judges, where God's people forsake him, they turn away from him, and they worship these false gods. And then... Because of that, they experience oppression and bondage from the surrounding nations because they've turned away from God. And as they're experiencing this oppression, then they cry out to God. They repent and turn back to him. And then he raises up a deliverer, or also known as a judge, who delivers them from that nation that's oppressing them. And then what we see the repeated cycle happen in the book of Judges is then when that deliverer dies, then the nation turns away from the Lord again and it just starts over. And so I call it the sin cycle or the spin cycle because they just keep going through this process of turning away, becoming in bondage, being set free, and then turning away again. And it just continued to go that way. I was thinking about that as we were singing the last song this evening. You know, mighty is the power of the cross. And that's something to consider as we look at our chapters here this evening. You know, with the coming of Christ, we have such a mighty advantage in the power of the cross that you and I don't have to continue that cycle. Because, well, you and I have participated in this same cycle where we've sinned, we've rebelled against God, we've neglected our spiritual walk, we've experienced the repercussions, the consequences of that, and then we cry out to the Lord and He does a mighty work and delivers us, and then... Things get going pretty good. Not too many difficulties. Not too many problems. And then what happens? We turn away again. We forget about God. We slack off in our devotions. Whatever the case may be. And the cycle continues. But we have such an amazing thing in the power of the cross. That the power of sin has been broken. That we don't have to continue that cycle. But we can choose to walk with the Lord and to be faithful to him. And so remember the mighty power of the cross as we consider our chapters this evening. Well, on our timeline of the book of Judges, the chapters we're covering this evening are right there towards the end of the book of Judges. We're covering a little bit of time. Last week we covered about 300 or 200 years. We're covering another 100 or so this week. And then the last few chapters that we'll be reading in Judges this week really cover a very short span of time. And so we'll be seeing that this week. And then from there, we'll finish up Judges next week. And then we're going to go into the time of the kings with King Saul, King David, King Solomon. And so we'll be heading into that era as we go forward. Here's a list of the judges that are found here in the book of Judges. We looked at the first five there last week. We're looking at these last ones, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Last seven judges this week. Samson's really kind of the last judge and the rest of the book of Judges is dealing with some other things that were happening amongst the tribes and situations that went on. So we're looking at the final set of Judges here. except for Samuel and Eli who come along a little bit later. As far as geography, this is what the geography looked like for the time of the judges. The people of Israel had come into the promised land. They'd inhabited the promised land just like God said that they would. And under Joshua, the land was all divided up amongst the different tribes. And so there you have the divisions of all the tribes and the land that was allotted to them. It was not a united kingdom. It wasn't, you know, that these judges were, you know, ruling over the entire nation, but these judges were really local deliverers. And so when there was oppression and difficulty, it would impact maybe a tribe or a few tribes, but it was not over the kingdom as a whole. That does not come until King Saul takes the throne later on in the book of 1 Samuel. So this is what it looked like. It was all these different tribes. They're all the people of Israel. Collectively, they're the nation of Israel. But they were not governed as a nation. They were governed separately under the different authorities of the different tribes. Well, that brings us now to Judges chapter 8. And the key verse is verse 28. It says, Thus Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for 40 years in the days of Gideon. Well, as we head into chapter 8 this evening, we're jumping right in the middle of the account of Gideon. We started that last week back in chapter 6. As God called Gideon, he was there in the threshing floor, you know, threshing wheat. Actually, he was not in the threshing floor. He was in the wine press threshing wheat. And God called him and called him a mighty man. He said, hey, I'm the least of the least. I don't know what you're talking about. And God said, I want to use you to deliver my people. Because the Midianites had been oppressing Israel for some time and quite severely so that many of them were just living in caves up in the hills. They couldn't even live in the land that God had given to them because the oppression was so severe. And so God called Gideon to lead Israel against the Midianites and And he gave him 300 men to do it with. And so 300 men took on this massive army of at least 135,000 of the Midianites. And so 300 versus 135,000, you can understand the odds were not really in their favor. And God did that on purpose because he said, I want to make sure that you understand that this wasn't your strength or your might or your great military intelligence, but that I delivered you from the Midianites. And so here in chapter 8, we're continuing on that story. The battle has begun and they're winning. And the Midianite army is fleeing for their lives. They're retreating, they're running, and Gideon is pursuing them. And so in verses 1 through 9, you have in this pursuit Gideon dealing with Ephraim, Succoth, and Penuel. Now Ephraim came against Gideon and said, hey, why didn't you include us in the battle? We want to be part of this. We want to take credit for the, you know, the victory that's going on. And so Gideon deals with them. He deals with them very wisely, gives them a soft answer and turns away their wrath, just as the proverb says. But then he comes to another city named Succoth and that city, he says, hey guys, we're pursuing the Midianites. We're hungry. Can you help us out a little bit? And they said, no way. We don't want to be part of this. What if you lose? What if you're defeated? And then Midian will come and pay us back. And so he did the same thing at Penuel and they said the same thing. Hey, we're not going to help you. And so he had to deal with them there in verses 1 through 9. Then in verses 10 through 21, you have Gideon defeating Ziba and Zalmunna. These are the two remaining leaders of this army. The other two leaders were already captured by the men of Ephraim. And so the remaining two guys, they're leading this army and Gideon comes against them. Now, verse 10 says the numbers that we're talking about here. It says in verse 10, Ziba and Zalmunna were at Karkor and their armies were with them. About 15,000, all who were left of the army of the people of East, for 120,000 men who drew the sword had fallen. So you get the picture here of the size of this army. Originally, there are about 135,000. Gideon came and attacked them with his 300 men. They got thrown into a panic. The Lord turns them upon each other. And now as they've fled away from the battle, there's only 15,000 left. So already there's been a great victory. And as Gideon is pursuing them, he's still outnumbered 300 versus 15,000. Still odds I wouldn't want to be part of. But Gideon is stepping out, continuing to go in faith against this army of that has oppressed Israel. And so he defeats them. God leads them in victory and he returns in victory. Well, we have the account of Gideon's golden ephod in verses 22 through 28. And then finally Gideon's death in verses 29 through 35. Verse 33 is interesting here in chapter 8. It says, And so we see the sin cycle continue. They're delivered as they cried out to God. God sent a deliverer. And as Gideon was alive, they were doing pretty good. They did have the issue with that ephod and it began to be an issue as they began to worship it. But they didn't really turn away from God until after Gideon died. And then once again, they turned away from the Lord. Well, here's the geography for Gideon. He's from the southern part of Ephraim there. He's actually of the tribe of Manasseh, but that's where he lives. He fights against the Midianite army there in the valley of Jezreel. Also, it's the city called Megiddo. And the army flees and he pursues them down towards the south and the east. And so there he goes to Sukkoth and then to Penuel. And then after that, as he continues to pursue them, we don't know the exact location of Karkor, but that's approximately what the scholars estimate. And so he comes and he finds the final victory there against the Midianite army. And so a great victory is won by Gideon. He leads the people back to freedom. But then when he dies, they turn away from the Lord once again. And that brings us to chapter 9. Verse 56 is the key verse. It says, Here in chapter 9, we're introduced to Abimelech. Abimelech is one of the sons of Gideon. He's the son of Gideon's concubine or Gideon's servant. So she's not considered a wife. She's a servant or a concubine of Gideon's. And so the children of a servant or a concubine are considered lesser. So he's a little bit separated and segregated from his other brothers. But he is Gideon's son. His mom is from a city named Shechem. And we find that in Judges chapter 8, verses 30 and 31. You can check that out. So his mom is from Shechem. And so we find in verses 1 through 6 that now after Gideon is dead, he goes to Shechem and he says, hey guys, I'm your brother. Why not have me rule over you? And so they say, hey, that sounds good. And so Abimelech becomes king of Shechem. And verses 7 through 21, Jotham addresses Bimelech and he gives him this parable of, you know, these different trees and he addresses the whole city of Shechem as well saying, hey, basically calling a Bimelech bramble or a bramble bush which, if you could think about it, it's like a, kind of like a tumbleweed. You know, it's just like, just, I don't know how to explain it. But it's thorny. It's, you know, just good for nothing. And he says, look, you guys have appointed the bramble bush to rule over you. Now, the reason why he's addressing him in this way is Jotham is the only surviving son. Gideon had 70 sons. And Abimelech, what he does is he becomes king of Shechem. He leads these men there. To put to death Gideon's sons. His brothers. But Jotham is the only one who escaped. And so he calls him out on him. And he says look this is not right. This is not just. This is not good what you have done. Well Jotham goes off to hide. And then the city of Shechem continues. And there in verses 22 through 49. You have now things have changed. And they're no longer content with one another. And so Abimelech battles Shechem. He was appointed king of Shechem, but they didn't really like his leadership after a while. And so now there's a conflict. There's another guy who comes in named Gaal and Shechem begins to follow him. And now there's this conflict between Abimelech and Gaal. And so Abimelech ends up battling and conquering Shechem. And then we have Shechem's or Abimelech's death there in verses 50 through 57. As he continues in his battles, he goes against the tower and the woman throws the millstone off of the tower onto his head and he dies in that way. So here we have Abimelech. He's from Ophrah where his father Gideon is from. But his mom is from Shechem which is just a little bit north there. And so that's where he becomes king. But then later on that's also where he attacks and is killed nearby soon after that. And that brings us to chapter 10. Chapter 10 of Judges verse 6 is the key verse. It says, And so here we have the continuation of the cycle. Again, they forsake God. We have the two, they're referred to as minor judges because we don't know much about them. Tola and Jair, they're in verses 1 through 5. We don't really know much about them except for where they're from and we'll see that in a moment. But the main point of chapter 10 here is Israel forsaking the Lord again. They're in verses 6 through 18. And they forsake the Lord, they turn away from him. And once again began to follow the gods of all the surrounding nations. The book of Judges really shows the depravity of man. And it shows for us the danger of forsaking the Lord. The danger of compromise in our lives. Again, as I was reminding ourselves as we were praying to begin the service this evening, the word of God is a mirror. And as we look at the sin cycle of the people of Israel here in the book of Judges, it needs to be a mirror for us, the reflection of us that we would understand this is the danger of compromise. That they were not Turning away from God in that they were saying, hey, we're not going to follow the Lord anymore. What they were doing is they were adding on to their worship of the Lord, the worship of all these other gods. And so it wasn't that they were, you know, seeking to not have anything to do with God, but they were just trying to make him one of many gods that they worshiped. And that is an issue that you and I face. And we have to pay attention to in our lives. That we have to guard our hearts against those things that creep in. That try to cause us to give the devotion, the passion that belongs to God to other things. That other things begin to take the priority and place in our hearts. And become idols in our hearts. And it... starts within us the same kind of sin cycle or spin cycle where it leads us to forsake the Lord and that he's no longer first and foremost in our life. And what that brings in our life is bondage, destruction, because the wages of sin is death. And so we will experience the results and consequences of sin. And as we allow other things to take priority of our hearts, we will experience the consequences of that. Now, if we're like Israel, then we'll begin to cry out to the Lord as things get tough and difficult. And as we cry out to the Lord, God is so gracious and merciful. Just as he did in the book of Judges, he raises up a deliverer. And he begins to work and set us free. And it doesn't always happen overnight, but there's this process where he delivers us from the mess we got ourselves in. But it doesn't begin with you and I waking up in the morning and saying, you know, I think I'm going to abandon God today. I'm just going to turn away from Christianity and I'm going to pursue everything that I want to pursue. No, it happened with them just the way it happens with us. You know, there's a little bit of encouragement here. Hey, why don't you focus on this? Why don't you get involved in this? And little by little, we began to compromise and turn away from the Lord so that he's not the first priority any longer. And so we very easily can forsake the Lord just like Israel did. I would ask you to consider, where are you in that cycle? Where are you? Are you in the period where while the judge was alive, Israel was doing good? Our deliverer is Jesus. Mighty is the power of the cross, right? And as long as He is alive in your heart, that is, He's your focus, He's your passion, you'll be walking with Him and you will not have these other idols in your life. If He's first. If He's on the throne of your heart. But when He dies, that is to say, when... The importance of Christ begins to lessen in our hearts. The importance of that relationship with Him lessens in our hearts. Then other things begin to take His place. Where are you at in that cycle? Are you reaping the consequences of, well, God is not the first priority, the first passion, your first love, your first devotion any longer. Where are you at in that cycle? And if you're, you know, tired of asking that question, I would ask you to consider, where's our nation in this cycle? You know, we started out good, wanting to be a place of freedom where people could worship the Lord, but now our nation is turning from God, violently forsaking God. What's going to happen, do you think? The same cycle here. There's going to be oppression. There's going to be bondage. We already see it. We'll see more as our nation continues to forsake the Lord. And it's only if we cry out to Him that we will find deliverance. Well, there's very important dialogue that goes on between the nation of Israel and the Lord here in chapter 10. Would you look with me, please, at verses 10 through 14? I'm just going to read through them real quickly. It says, And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, We have sinned against you because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals. Notice this. I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen. Let them deliver you in your time of distress. So we've seen this repeated cycle of Israel turning away and being delivered. And now as Israel cries out to the Lord, God says, that's enough. How many times have I delivered you? I've delivered you from me. He's counting out all the nations. The grace and mercy of God is amazing and it's overwhelming. But it's also important to remember we cannot take His grace for granted that you can't just live in rebellion and say, well, I'm just going to repent at some point. That's a very foolish thing to do. Because the children of Israel come to the Lord and He says, hey, go call out to the gods that you've been serving. Let them help you because you've forsaken Me. We learn here, we see that if you insist on following other gods, God will give you over to them. But as we see here in chapter 10, you still have opportunity to repent. So God says, look, I'm not going to deliver you. But Israel does a good thing here in that they repent anyways. God says, you go cry out to your gods. Let them help you out of this mess. But Israel repents anyways. Look at verse 15. And the children of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems best to you. Only deliver us this day, we pray. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And his soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. You see, we have some great insight. This is really good stuff here in chapter 10 that you need to get a good grasp of. Because the reality is, You and I sin, we turn to other gods when we try to satisfy ourselves with things that are not of God or with things that are not God. We try to satisfy our needs with ungodly practices. Well, what that leads to then is those ungodly practices bring bondage and misery. And on top of that, they don't satisfy the need. So you have a need to have stuff. You have a desire, man, I need to have stuff. And so you give yourself in the pursuit of that covetousness. Well, what you end up with is not being satisfied because now you've got all this stuff. You have all this stuff, you have bondage along with it, and on top of that, you're still not satisfied. Or you have this need to be loved, and so you pursue this relationship. But you pursue it in an ungodly way, that it's not of the Lord. You're not seeking Him. That's the most important thing to you. And so in doing so, you give yourself to that. And then what happens is, you end up being miserable, unsatisfied. You don't experience the love that you're looking for. And you're just in a big mess. And this cycle just leads, because now you're miserable. You've got all these problems. You still haven't found love. And so you try it again, like the woman at the well, right? Jesus said, go call your husband. She said, I've had five husbands and the guy I'm with right now is not even my husband. Because we try to satisfy the need by pursuing these things that are not of God and it just reaps worse conditions upon ourselves. And so this evening, the reason why I'm spending so much time here in chapter 10 is I want to say, hey, break the cycle. Don't continue pursuing things that are not of God. Don't continue pursuing things in ungodly ways. Break the cycle. Repent. You may cry out to God and God will say, hey, you've been looking for love. So try to find love in those things that you've been pursuing. Why are you coming to me to just try to find love? Why are you coming to me for peace? You've been trying all those other things. Why are you coming to me? Verse 14, go and cry out to the gods which you've chosen. You chose those gods. But listen, you still have opportunity to repent because God is gracious and merciful. Don't take it for granted, but He is gracious and merciful. And they put away the foreign gods. And listen, when you repent, when you turn away from your sin, you put away those ungodly practices and you serve the Lord. Well, it says, for their case, his soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. God has such compassion upon his people. He couldn't endure it. He couldn't put up with it any longer. If they had not repented, then he would have had no choice. He couldn't deliver them. But because they repented, it gave God the opportunity to show grace and mercy and deliver them Even though he said, go serve the gods that you've chosen. Amazing. We see the grace of God demonstrated here. But it's also amazing. We see the depravity of man. How we continue in that cycle. And it destroys us. And we must repent. We must repent and turn from sin. I like what Spurgeon says. He says, one grain of faith is better than a gallon of tears. They were sorry many times. They cried lots of tears many times, but a grain of faith, that is obedience, repentance. He says a drop of genuine repentance is more precious than a torrent of weeping. It's not just about being sorry or being emotional, but it's about actually turning away, living differently as you pursue. that relationship with God that He desires to have with you. So chapter 10 is so important. Make sure you got a good grasp of that because that's a good picture of the Christian life when we don't have Christ as the focus, the passion, the first priority of our hearts. Well, here you have the geography of Tola. He was a man from Issachar, it says, but he dwelt in the mountains of Ephraim. We don't know who he fought against or who he delivered Israel from or if he delivered it from anybody at all. He might have just been inspirational and led the people, but That's what we know about him. And then Jair, again, we don't know who he fought against or what kind of oppression there was. He was from Gilead, which is in the region that was given to Gad. And he was buried in Khamon there in the northern part of Gad. Well, that brings us to chapter 11. Verse 32 is the key verse. It says, So Jephthah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. Here in verses 1 through 11, we have Jephthah being made the commander of Gilead. And then we have his discussion with Ammon there in verses 12 through 28. He defeats Ammon in verses 29 through 33. And then he fulfills his vow there in verses 34 through 40. So Jephthah at first is driven away from his brethren there in Gilead, but they bring him back when they have this attack from Ammon. And so they ask him to lead them. He becomes the commander, the leader there of the region. And he has this discussion with Ammon. It's a real good lesson of Israel's history because Ammon is saying, hey, you took my land and it's not right. And Jephthah is clearing the story saying, no, no, no. This is how it happened. This is what God did. God gave us this land. We tried to pass through peacefully, but they came and attacked us. And so we defended ourselves. We won the victory. God gave us this land. We didn't take it. And especially they didn't attack Ammon, but Ammon was accusing them of doing so. But The king of Ammon won't listen to reason. And so he comes and attacks anyways. And God gives Jephthah victory against Ammon. One of the difficulties of this chapter though is the vow. Because as he's going into battle, he says, man, I really need something to strengthen my faith. And so he makes a vow. The first thing that comes out of my door when I return, God, if you give me victory, I'll offer it to you as a sacrifice. We don't know what he was thinking. Maybe, you know, he had a goat, a pet goat that he's hoping would walk out of the house or something to that effect. We don't know what he was thinking. But he comes back from battle. He's victorious. And the first thing out of his door was his daughter. Now this creates a conflict for a lot of people because Now is he supposed to, we know the severity and the importance of keeping our vows. Does God want him now to sacrifice his daughter? There's this question, this conflict that takes place. As we consider this though, it's important to look at and understand what's going on here. First of all, he says, you can look with me actually. Let's look at verse 30. So the Hebrew scholars look at this verse and they say, that doesn't have to be and. That also could be the word or. And so it could be that Jephthah is saying... It will be dedicated to the Lord or it will be a burnt offering, whatever comes out the door, depending on what's appropriate, depending on who's come out of the door. So, you know, if it was a servant, that servant would be dedicated to the Lord. If it was an animal, that animal would be sacrificed to the Lord. And that is most likely what Jephthah is vowing, that he will dedicate or offer as a sacrifice, whichever is appropriate. Whether he meant that or not, we can't say for certain. But what we can say for certain is that God would never have wanted him to fulfill that vow if it meant sacrificing his daughter. And the scripture is very clear on that. God says throughout the law that we've been studying in Deuteronomy that the other nations practiced... their children. You're not to do that. That hasn't entered my mind. God's very clear that's not what he wanted from his people. And so if the question is, you know, should he have fulfilled his vow in that way, if that's what he meant, then the answer would be certainly no. Warren Wiersbe says it this way. He says, Jephthah's daughter was dedicated to serve the Lord at the tabernacle and therefore remained unmarried. So in being dedicated to the Lord, she goes and mourns her virginity because now she's not able to be married because the rest of her life she's going to be devoted to the Lord and dedicated to the Lord at the tabernacle. And so that's probably the best understanding of this vow that he makes. as he goes into battle against Ammon. So Jephthah is from the land of Gilead. He is victorious against Ammon. And then as we go on into chapter 12, we continue the story of Jephthah. And verse 7 is the key verse. It says, And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead. So verses 1 through 7, we have Jephthah's conflict and victory over Ephraim. Then we have three other kind of minor judges and that we don't know a lot about them. Ibsen, Elon, and Abedin. And we'll see those guys in just a second. But Jephthah comes back from victory against Ammon and Ephraim says, hey, how come you didn't tell us you were going to battle? Very similar to the conversation that Ephraim had with Gideon. So this seemed to be a tendency of this tribe that they really wanted part of the glory. They wanted, you know, to be part of the victory. And you can see that it's the glory that they were after back in chapter 8. Because when Gideon says, hey, you've accomplished so much more than I've ever accomplished. And they said, okay, yeah, you're right. We are pretty wonderful. Okay, never mind. We're not mad at you anymore. So you can see the, you know, the intense of their heart there in chapter 8. And once again, they're upset. Hey, you went into battle and... He didn't invite us. So we're going to fight against you. You know, just you see kind of the foolishness and the depravity of the tribe of Ephraim there in this case. And so Jephthah has victory over Ephraim. And I thought it was interesting and maybe you could consider later on the contrast between how Jephthah and Gideon dealt with Ephraim. because they faced the similar type of accusation and upset. You know, this tribe is upset. Hey, how come you didn't include us? That's not right. That's not fair. We're upset with you. And Gideon gave them a soft answer. As Proverbs 15, 1 says, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. And so he dealt with the situation. He handled it in a way where they said, oh, okay, I guess that's right. And then they didn't fight anymore. But they would have fought Gideon, but God gave him wisdom, and so he gave them a soft answer. But Jephthah didn't have that soft answer. He kind of came back at them and said, hey, I called for everybody, and you didn't come help me. What's your problem? And in doing so, it just escalated the situation, and so now they came to blows. And Jephthah is victorious, but still, it was a battle that really wasn't easy. because they're part of Israel. You know, they're brethren and yet they're fighting against each other. So it's a good lesson and reminder of the importance of dealing with those conflicts in our lives in a wise manner and using those soft answers that turn away wrath so that we don't have to go to blows and we can handle those situations a lot better. So Jephthah, again, he's from Gilead. This campaign, he goes against Ephraim and he is victorious. Well, then after him, we have Ibsen. We don't know much about him. We know he was from Bethlehem and he judged Israel. Now, there is also another Bethlehem in the northern part of Israel in the land that was given to Zebulun. So he could have been from either of those Bethlehems. But he was from the tribe of Judah. And then we have Elon who was from the tribe of Zebulun there in the north. And he was buried in Aijalon. And so that's where he reigned. We don't know much about him or any of the enemies that he fought against or the victories that he accomplished. And then we have Abdon who is from the tribe of Ephraim. And we don't know much about him either. But he also ruled in Israel as a judge there. for the nation. Well, then that brings us to chapter 13. Verse 24 is the key verse. It says, So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. Now in chapter 13, we begin for the next few chapters, we'll be looking at the life of Samson. One of the, you know, famous guys of the Bible. One of the most commonly known people in the Bible is Samson. Well, the beginning of his life begins with really a revelation of the Lord himself. As we see in verses 1 through 7, the angel of the Lord appears to Manoah's wife. Now, we don't know Samson's mom's name. She's just referred to as Manoah's wife throughout the passage. So he appears to her. She tells her husband about it. He prays, God, please send your angel again. So that we can understand what you're saying to us. And so verses 8 through 23, the angel of the Lord appears again, this time to both Manoah and his wife. And then in verses 24 through 25, we have the fulfillment of what the angel of the Lord promised them. And that is the birth of a son whom they named Samson. Now starting in verse 1 of chapter 13, again you see the sin cycle. Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for, notice, 40 years. So they're in bondage. They're being oppressed by the Philistines for a long amount of time. For 40 years, the Philistines are oppressing them. And again, as they're crying out to the Lord, God sends a deliverer, who's going to be named Samson. And so the Lord reveals himself to Manoah and his wife, and he says, there's a certain rule that you need to follow for this son. That is, he's going to be a Nazarite for his entire life. Now a Nazarite is, you can go back to Numbers chapter 6, verses 1 through 6, God talks about and gives all the parameters for what's called the Nazarite vow. And the Nazarite vow was a vow of dedication where you said, hey, I want to be set apart unto God for a certain season. And the time frame was up to whoever was dedicating themselves to God. So you could say, I'm going to do it for a day. I'm going to do it for five days. I'm going to do it for three months. That was up to you. That was your vow to the Lord. I'm going to set myself aside for you, Lord, for this amount of time. Well, what was unique about Samson is God says... to Manoah and his wife, that Samson is to be a Nazarite for his whole life. So he's to be dedicated to the Lord, consecrated for the Lord, for his whole life. He's to be separated unto the Lord. Now this vow consisted in a couple things. First of all, you were to be separated unto the Lord. That was, you're to be devoted and to be about the things of God, the things that the Lord would want you to be part of. The other part was that you were not to partake of anything from the vine. So no wine, no grapes, nothing that came from the vine, they were not to partake of. The next parameter was that you were not allowed to cut your hair. So when you took the vow, you would cut your hair, and then for the duration of your vow, you would not have a haircut. And that would be part of the vow. And then the final parameter was that you were to have no contact with dead bodies. Okay? And so these are the parameters of the Nazarite vow as found in Numbers chapter 6. And this is what the angel of the Lord tells them. This is to be the rule of his life. He's to be a Nazarite for his whole life. He's to be devoted to the Lord. Now we'll see that Samson doesn't hold to that. And that's one of the tragedies of Samson's life. Well, it's the angel of the Lord who appears to Manoah and his wife. Now, this specific phrase, the angel of the Lord, we've seen several times already. But what we've seen as we've seen the different occurrences is that this is not just any angel. This is not just, you know, an angel who appeared. But when it uses the phrase, the angel of the Lord, it's a specific phrase that refers to an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. that it's an appearance of God to his people, which we understand. We know that that's not the father, but that's the son. Jesus is appearing to his people. Beginning with Hagar, the angel of the Lord appears to her, and then Abraham and Moses and the Israelites and Balaam and the Israelites again, and Gideon we saw last week. And so here in Judges 13, Samson's parents encounter Jesus in the Old Testament. It's amazing. You know, of course, Jesus has always existed. He didn't appear, you know, as a human in that he wasn't born yet because that happens later on in the New Testament through Mary and Joseph. But in some way he manifested himself. He appeared as a man to them, as an angel of the Lord. But you can see that it's more than just an angel because of the different ways that the angel of the Lord speaks and the things he says of himself. He claims to be God. But then we also see in verse 22, it says, and Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. And so it's not just that this angel claimed to be God, but the people he appeared to understood him to be God. And so we can pretty firmly understand and agree that this is an appearance of God, which would be an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. Pretty radical that even from the beginning there in Genesis 16, that the Lord has been revealing himself to his people. Well, as we look at the geography of the life of Samson, he's from the tribe of Dan and he's from a city named Zorah. And so there he was in Zorah. That's where he's from. The Philistines are right there on the southern part of Israel on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. That was their territory. They weren't always there. They migrated there. But that was the land that they occupied. And from there, they oppressed Israel and became a great thorn in the side of Israel. Now again, it says that the Philistines were oppressing Israel for 40 years. And I'd like to just take that occasion to remind you, don't wait so long to cry out to God. You don't have to wait till you're at rock bottom. But that's often when we wait till, you know, there's nothing else. It's been, you know, 40 years of misery and then finally we cry out to the Lord. Listen, you don't have to wait so long. You can cry out to the Lord right now. He's gracious and merciful. Turn from sin, repent, and pursue that relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Well, we finish it off this evening in Judges chapter 14. Verse 2 is the key verse. It says, So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore, get her for me as a wife. Here in Judges chapter 14, we see the beginning of the end. Samson had great potential as a man consecrated to God and the things of God. But we see really from the very beginning, his heart was not devoted to God. He might have kept to these outward things of the Nazarite vow, but his heart was not devoted to God. His heart was not given over to the Lord. And that proves to be a very, very important issue for him. And that this is his downfall. His heart is not devoted to God. Now we're just covering chapter 14. We'll be reading over the next couple chapters over the next couple days. And we'll see the progression of this. But in verses 1 through 10 you have Samson seeking to marry a Philistine woman. Now this is indirect violation of of what God had revealed and declared in his law. He said you are not to intermarry amongst the other nations. Not because he's against interracial marriage, but because he's against marrying those who will lead you into other religions and the worship of false gods. It's the idea of being unequally yoked that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. And so he says you're not to marry the surrounding nations when you go into the land of Israel. But that's exactly what Samson seeks to do. He demands it. I saw this woman. I like her. Get her for me as a wife. Well, his parents cave in and they began to negotiate and prepare for the wedding and they planned the seven-day wedding feast. Well, verses 11 through 18, we have Samson giving a riddle to the men who are there attending this seven-day feast. He gives them the riddle. He says, look, if you answer the riddle within these seven days, then I'll give you 30 changes of garments. But if you don't answer, then you have to give me 30 changes of garments. Well, you know the story. You read it, hopefully today. And they... his wife-to-be to give them the answer. And she cries on him and cries on him and cries on him. And finally he gives in and tells her the riddle. She tells them. They tell Samson. And so he loses the bet and he has to pay. And so verses 19 through 20 records how he paid his debt by going to Ashkelon, killing 30 Philistines and then giving the garments to them. And so we have this situation where he sees this woman. He says... I got to have her. She's amazing. She's everything I've always wanted. It's love at first sight. But there's a problem with that because it was clearly not part of God's will. It was clearly a violation of the will of God. David Guzik says, love at first sight is powerful but a dangerous thing because it's entirely possible for us to fall in love with someone that we have no business falling in love with. This is one of the reasons why we have to walk by faith and not by sight. Not by our emotions, not by what we feel, but by obedience to God. That's really what faith is. It's obedience to God at his word. And so Samson's not willing to do that. He says, no, I like her. I see her. I want her. Get her for me. The issue with Samson we see is that he had such great potential. Such great potential. I'll come back to that thought in just a second. Here's the geography though. So Samson is from Zorah. Timna is a neighboring city. It's not far away. It's right there next door. And so that's where he sees the woman. That's where the ceremony is. That's where the feast is. He's there kicking back, does the riddle with the guys, but then he loses. And so he goes to Ashkelon, which is right on the coast. It was a Philistine city. There he kills 30 of the Philistines. He's victorious. And then he brings back the garments to the guys. But again, we see in Samson this great tragedy of this incredible potential. It's incredible potential. Because from the very beginning, he was dedicated to the Lord. And he had this great strength from God as the Holy Spirit came upon him. God intended to use him to deliver the nation of Israel from the Philistines. He did end up killing a lot of Philistines. But he never did deliver them from the Philistines. They're a great problem for Israel up and through King Saul and King David. He had great potential. God had a call in his life. God wanted to use him and gave him, he set him up for victory. I mean, how many of you had Jesus appear to your parents and And say, you're going to have a child. And man, I'm going to do great things with this child. And make sure he's dedicated to the Lord. Make sure he's devoted to the Lord. He had this great setup for victory to be used by God. The potential was unlimited really in the power of God and what God would have and could have done. But as we consider the potential of Samson, the reason why I point this out is because, listen, you have great potential. Jesus may not have appeared to your parents today. But He knew you before you were even in the womb. Before the foundations of the earth. He knew you before you began. He's always had great plans for you. And mighty is the power of the cross. He's accomplished great victory for you already. He set you up for the greatest of victories. In that He already defeated sin and death. He's given to us the Holy Spirit. We have great potential. What are we doing with it? Seriously, what are we doing with it? We see Samson here saying, he's not really interested in devoting himself to God. He's interested in just pleasing himself and satisfying himself. I like that woman. Get her for me. Here's honey out of a carcass. I'm not supposed to touch dead things because I'm a Nazarite. But I want honey. He knows better. And that's why it says that he doesn't tell his parents where he got the honey from. Because he knows better. Listen, this is the great tragedy of so many in the church. That you have great potential. But instead of actually devoting yourself to God, you're just kind of putting on the outward show. So that you're not telling people, your family, what you're actually doing and actually involved with. But on the outside, it looks like, wow, you're doing pretty good. You're serving the Lord. You're going to church. But there on the road, all by yourself, you're partaking of honey that you have no business partaking of. It's wasted potential. It's tragedy to put on the show, to pretend to be dedicated to the Lord. Because really what we're doing is just defeating ourselves. This is the beginning of Samson's defeat. He never experiences the victory that God intended because he was never really dedicated to God. You know, there's that saying we often quote, I forget who says it, but It goes along this lines. The world has yet to see what God will do with a man who is wholly devoted to him. And when we quote that, we think about these great evangelists like Billy Graham, Dwight Moody I think is the one who first heard that and he said, I want to be that man. Be wholly devoted. And man, God used these guys to great degree. But there's a little bit of a danger, I think, in thinking about it in those terms because we think, well, that's not my call to be an evangelist. You know, I have to go to work and provide for my family and those kinds of things. And so let me rephrase it for you. Because it's really not a reference to, you know, you have to go into full-time ministry or become a pastor or missionary or evangelist. Let me put it this way. Your workplace has yet to see what God will do with someone who is wholly devoted to Him. Your workplace hasn't seen it yet. Your family has yet to see. Your friends have yet to see. Your neighbors have yet to see what God will do with someone who is wholly devoted to Him. And so as we see the cycle repeated over and over again in the book of Judges, as we see the great tragedy that is Samson, and that he, like you and I, has this great potential, but he just pretended to be dedicated to God instead of actually being dedicated to God. Lord, help us not to make the same mistake. Not to put on the show, but to have a real heart devoted to God. Let's pray. God, I pray that you would help us to look in the mirror of Samson. And God, I pray that you would highlight for us, show us those ways that we're not devoted to you. Show us those areas where we need to repent, to turn back, to stop violating your word. To stop pretending that we're dedicated to you, but to actually be devoted to you. Help us, God, to make real commitments to you. To be fully devoted. And Lord, may our workplaces, may our friends, may our families, may our neighborhoods, may our community see the results of what you can do with people who are wholly devoted to you. Your word tells us we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We have unlimited potential to fulfill your call in our lives as we turn to you and walk with you. So Lord, help us to do so. Not playing around with sin, not dabbling in compromise, but committing ourselves fully to you. Lord, we need your help for that because we're weak, we're prone to wander. Draw us near to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. 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