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- [00:00]
W. Robert Godfrey
The judges have become progressively weaker and the judges themselves have become progressively more sinful, and the fruitfulness of their deliverance has become shorter term. And so we can almost anticipate what's going to happen with this next judge who's about to come.
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Renewing Your Mind Host
Progressively weaker, progressively more sinful. That's the pattern of the judges, and it makes for a compelling narrative. Maybe that's why many of us are at least somewhat familiar with the story of Samson, who was the last judge. This is the Saturday edition of Renewing youg Mind, and today we'll see the need for Samson. These past few weeks you've heard messages from W. Robert Godfrey's series the Life of Samson. Over 10 messages, Dr. Godfrey highlights vital theological lessons from Samson's life and explores what this judge tells us about Christian living. As this is the final message you'll be hearing from the series, be sure to request the entire study when you give a donation@renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. But don't delay as this offer won't be repeated next Saturday. So who was Samson and specifically who were his parents? Here's Dr. Godfrey.
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W. Robert Godfrey
Well, well, we're returning to Samson. We've looked a little bit at the riddle of Samson when we started and then a little in the last lecture on the need for judges. And now we're going to turn to the need for Samson himself as it's presented to us, beginning at Judges 13:1. The Samson story takes up four chapters in the book, chapters 13 through 16. Of course, we know these chapters are all added later, but still they're helpful for us today to find out where we are and orient ourselves. And there we find the book of Judges declaring in verse one and the people of Israel again. And that certainly is the case. It's again, this is the fourth or fifth or sixth time this is said in the Book of Judges. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now that's a perfectly good translation, but in light of what's going to happen in this story and happens in other stories in the Book of Judges, we might have left it just a little more literally, because literally what it says is, and the people of Israel again did what was evil and in the eyes of the Lord. Now that's important because eyes are very important in this story. It's going to very much revolve around what Samson sees and what Samson does in relation to what he sees and how at the end Samson loses his sight. So the theme of sight is introduced Here by the author right at the beginning, it's not only going to be a story about Samson's eyes, and it's also going to be a story about the Lord's eyes. And this is set down right at the beginning. Again, the people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now you notice there's no great detail given here about what that evil was. And our expectation is that almost certainly it was just like the evil that had been done in earlier times in the Book of Judges. And the most detailed statement of Israel's faithlessness is found in chapter 10, in the description of what happened before Jephthah was raised up as the Judge in Israel. And at judges 10, 6, we read the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord or in the eyes of the Lord, and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of of the Ammonites. So here's the description of what was at the heart of the evil that Israel did in the eyes of the Lord. They went after false gods. And if you turn back, for example, to Deuteronomy 4, a grievously neglected book in the Old Testament, I think Deuteronomy is the third most quoted book in the New Testament. Jesus knew Deuteronomy backwards and forwards. If you look at Deuteronomy 4, Moses is pressing the claims of the covenant on the people of Israel. And he's making the point that the single most important point of the covenant, which is the sign of fidelity and everything else, is whether you're an idolater or not. And in Deuteronomy 4, he makes at great length the point. When you were at Sinai and the Lord your God came to make covenant with you, and the Lord your God spoke to you, and like no other people in the history of mankind, you heard the voice of your God speak to you, you saw no form, and therefore you are not to make images of anything in the heavens or anything in the earth, anything in the skies, anything in the waters under the earth. Because when the Lord came to you, you saw no form. And this is to be a test for Israel. After all, if you can't do this, one simple thing, namely not make an image. He's not asking even that you do something positive. He's saying, just don't do this. If you can't discipline yourself enough to avoid this one external action of disobedience, how can we have any assurance that your heart is connected to the Lord? And so here Israel is showing the heartlessness of her relationship to God because she cannot avoid idolatry. Not even. I mean, she's worse than the idolatry in the wilderness, because at least initially, the idolatry in the wilderness was making an image of the Lord God. I mean, the golden calf was an image of the Lord God, and the Lord showed his anger about that. But this is much worse because these are images of false gods. And you see sort of the comprehensive way in which this is described. The people did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the male and female gods of the peoples that surrounded him. The gods of Syria in the north, the gods of Sidon in the northwest, the gods of Moab in the southeast, the gods of the Ammonites in the east, the gods of the Philistines in the west. You see, they've played the harlot with the gods all around them in every direction. This is the grossness of the betrayal. And this is why the Lord says here that he crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year for 18 years. They oppressed all the people of Israel. So they're sent into an oppression by the enemies for this sin for 18 years. Well, now we turn back, and that's sort of the context in which to read. They again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. It must be that again, they had become idolatrous. And we know that this story will end in the temple of Dagon, right? Well, it doesn't quite end there, but it nearly ends there. And it's clear that Israel has been going after the gods of the Philistines. That's what the again means, I think this idolatry is back in their life. And so what happens? So the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. Now think how dramatic that number is. For 40 years we've been in the land of promise. God has brought us to the land flowing with milk and honey. He's blessed us by giving us this land. And now it's like we're right back in the wilderness. It's almost like we're back in the slavery of Egypt because the enemy has oppressed us. This protracted period of time. 40 years. 40 years. And it's a sign, it's a symbol of how far they have fallen, that it's as if they've been taken out of the promised land. And of course, that's ultimately what will happen to Israel, isn't it? They'll be exiled after centuries of kingship. But already it's all being anticipated here. They're enslaved in their own country. 40 years. Think how long that is. And here is the tragedy that is besetting Israel. And what's the solution? Well, the solution has to be that God will raise up a judge again. And God has been doing that. But the judges have become progressively weaker. And the judges themselves have become progressively more sinful. And the fruitfulness of their deliverance has become shorter term. And so we can almost anticipate what's going to happen with this next judge who's about to come. But that's the background now for the need for Samson, for Samson to arise. And now we get to the Samson story. But of course, as we look, we discover we don't get Samson. 25% of the Samson story is about his parents before he's born. So again, we're a little bit surprised by how this story is told. I think most of the time in Sunday school, when we talk about Samson, we don't spend a lot of time on his parents. But 25% of the story is given to the story of his parents before his birth. And so clearly the Lord intends that this be a preparation for us to really think about something. Samson and the context in which he's born, the task that the Lord is giving to him. And as we're going to study and as we're going to see, this story is very intricately told, very carefully thought through. And I think one way of thinking about the whole Samson story is a story in four acts. It's almost a play, a story in four acts. Act one is the parents of Samson and the preparation for his birth as we find it in Judges 13. And then Act 2, which is his marriage to the Philistine woman. And the disastrous consequences of that, which really take up chapter 14 and 15. And then Act 3, which I think is Judges 16:1, 3. I think Acts 3 is just three verses. I'll explain that as we go along. And then the fourth act, maybe the most famous, Samson and Delilah. Sixteen, four to the end. So here we have four acts. We could also say maybe four snapshots. We've seen snapshots all through the book of Judges. Four snapshots. Four acts out of his life. Judges Israel were told for 20 years. Which is a relatively long time. And yet these snapshots we have. These acts of his life are really very short. The few days around his marriage to the Philistine woman. And the tragic consequences of that. Maybe another week or two. The one day of Act 3, those three verses, the beginning of Chapter 16. And then the Samson and Delilah story, which is maybe another few weeks. So out of 20 years, we really only have the story of a few weeks in his life. But obviously, these are the things that the Lord wants us to know. These are the highlights. These are the spiritually key factors in the life of Samson. And it's intriguing that each of these four acts in the life of Samson revolves around a woman. Now, this is part of the key to Samson. Women are important in the life of Samson. More important maybe, than they ought to be. But each of these four acts revolves around. Around a woman. Act one is about his mother, a pious woman. We'll see. Act two is about his Philistine wife. Act three is about a Philistine prostitute. And act four revolves around Delilah. So women are very important in the life of Samson. And part of what's being said, as is being said in the whole book of Judges. Women are very important in the history of redemption. For good, as is the case with his mother. Or for evil, as is the case particularly with Delilah. But with the other two Philistine women as well. So this is a very intricately told story. It's very thoughtfully put together. And its intentionality is going to help us see what is the message. The Lord wanted to have for his people through this. So let's begin Act 1. There are several scenes in this act. If we want to continue the theatrical image here. And Scene one tells us there was a certain man of Zorah. That's the town of the tribe of the Danites. That's the region not far from the Philistines. Whose name was Manoah. So Manoah is the father of Samson. And his wife was barren and had no children. Now, what's interesting here is that as we think about the women in the life of Samson. The first three are nameless. His mother is not. She must have had a name. But we're not told the name of his mother. We're not told the name of his Philistine wife. We're not told the name of the Philistine prostitute. It's only Delilah who has a name in the story. We'll talk about her Name when we get to her, it's an interesting name. But here is a mother who is nameless. And as we look at her, what are we told about her? We are told that she was barren and had no children. And we know that in Israel, barrenness was seen not always rightly, I think, but was seen as a curse of the Lord not to have children meant the family wouldn't continue. Not having the family continue meant not only that family property might be lost, but the line of Messiah might die out in Israel. So at the end of the book, there's a panic because it looked like the whole tribe of Benjamin might die out. So the dying out of families in Israel is a very serious matter. And so here, clearly, the parents of Samson are being presented to us as participating in the kind of judgment and chastisement of the Lord upon his people. And you get a sense, I think, that they are very fatalistic about this. They're resigned, they've given up. Samson's mother, it seems to me, stands in marked contrast with Hannah. You know, when Hannah was not able to have children, what do we read? She pled with the Lord, she prayed, she begged the Lord, she offered vows before the Lord. She, you know, she just was engaged in the Lord coming to her need. This woman seems not engaged in that at all. Neither she nor Manoah seem to be praying about this situation. And there's this sense throughout the Samson story that sort of the life has gone out of Israel, the hope has gone out of Israel. It's almost after 40 years, they're not even looking for the Lord to act anymore. They're resigned to their fate. And so we are introduced to a family in Israel that expresses the character of Israel in these days as pretty hopeless, pretty cast down, pretty despondent. And then, as so often happens in the Bible, in our worst moments, in our worst moments, the Lord intervenes, the Lord acts, the Lord surprises us. And that's what we have in verse three. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman. Now, you know the Hebrew word for angel. Angel is actually a Greek word. And both the Hebrew word and the Greek word mean the messenger of the Lord. Angels are always messengers of the Lord. They bear a word from the Lord. That's why they come. That's their function. And of course, we also know that among angels there's a special angel that most scholars believe, most conservative scholars anyway, believe is a pre incarnate appearance of Christ. This is the eternal second person of the Trinity who takes on a form that can be seen to communicate the message of God to people in the old covenant. So here comes the angel of the Lord who appeared to the woman and says to her, behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. You shall conceive and bear a son. That sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it? Here is the promise, a proto Messianic promise. You're going to bear a son. And it's interesting, as we read along here, that Samson's mother initially seems to think that this appearance to her is a man. She thinks he's a prophet. So he clearly doesn't have wings. This is not an angel. That looks obviously angelic. No sign on his chest that says angel. And that's sort of intriguing too, that we find that a number of times in the Old Testament that angels appear, but they appear in the form of a man and are initially appraised as being a human being. But a little further in the text, we're told that the appearance was awesome, although literally in Hebrew, it sort of was very scary. And that too, it regularly accompanies the appearances of angels in the Bible, doesn't it? What are the first words that angels frequently speak? Fear not, because they're very scary. Whether they just look like very impressive human beings or whether they're actually perceived to be angels from their first appearance. But this angel appears with a promise. This woman who has been barren and has not borne a child, will conceive and will bear a son. And so this has to have been news of great joy to this mother, along with a huge surprise. And then comes further words to the mother that are tremendously important for our whole consideration of this story and why I think the Bible gives so much attention to. To the parents. Before Samson comes on the scene, the angel says, therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean. 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. Of the Philistines. So the word judge is not used here, but the notion of deliverer is used here. And so from this first word of the angel, it's very clear that the son to be born will be a judge, will be a deliverer, will be a savior to the people of Israel. He won't be the last savior. He won't be the complete savior. He's only going to begin to save Israel from her enemies. But that's his commission, that's his task. And so there's this sort of double promise, this double blessing, this double joy that has to have come into the heart of Samson's mother. She'll have a child, a son, and he'll be a judge. So in the midst of this depressed resignation and hopelessness comes a double promise of encouragement. But there comes also a very specific instruction. Isn't there an instruction both for mother and for child? There's a very specific instruction that his mother is not to drink and his hair is not to be cut. And these are not just random directions from the Lord. This is a reminder of the Nazirite vow described in number six. And in number six, we're told that some in Israel will be called to a special consecration, will be called to a special separation from the world and its practices. Not because drinking or cutting hair is wrong in and of itself, but they will mark their, we might say, radical dedication to the Lord, their hyper consecration to the Lord by giving up things that would be all right in other people. And it'll be a mark of how completely their lives are set aside to the Lord. And this in numbers 6 is called a Nazirite vow, which is another case of just not translating Hebrew words. You know, if the word angel is just a Greek word for messenger, why don't we translate it messenger instead of angel? Well, Nazarite in Hebrew is simply the word for separated. So the Nazirite vow is a separation vow or a consecration vow. And so this is really important. This is at the heart of who Samson is. He's to be separated unto the Lord. He's to be consecrated to the Lord. His life is to be different. His life is to have a special dedication. And so he's not to cut his hair. Not because there's anything magic in not cutting your hair, but because it's a constant sign to him that his life is different. If it's something special not to cut your hair, then it must have been common to cut your hair. And so whereas a lot of other men will have cut hair, he will have uncut hair. And this will be a constant reminder to him and others that he's different, that he's separate, that that he's consecrated. And this is crucial, I think, as we conclude this. Look for the need of Samson. What does Israel need in Samson? It needs him to be separate. It needs him to be consecrated. It needs him to be holy. That's one of the meanings of holy. Set apart. We think of Samson as strong. God wanted us to think about Samson as separated and and the tragedy of the story of Samson is his failure to be separated.
- [24:15]
Renewing Your Mind Host
We think of Samson as strong. God wanted us to think about Samson as separated. How easy it can be to miss the message of a life book or story in the Bible, which is one reason why we should be grateful for trusted teachers and and expositors of God's Word. This is the Saturday edition of Renewing youg Mind and our featured teacher today was W. Robert Godfrey, the Chairman of Ligonier Ministries. There are many important lessons in this 10 message series, so if you'd like to continue your study of Samson, be sure to request the complete series on dvd along with digital access to the messages and the study guide. This could be a great resource for your Bible study or small group gain a better understanding of some of Israel's history, the role of judges and the life of Samson. Simply give a donation@renewingyourmind.org Before Midnight Tonight and this series and study guide will be yours as our way of saying thank you. There's also a link in the podcast Show Notes and if you live outside of the US and Canada, Digital access is waiting for you when you donate@renewingyourmind.org global. But be sure to respond today as this offer won't be repeated next Saturday. Well, do you believe in angels? Many people do, even non Christians. But is your understanding of angels biblical or have you been influenced by TV and movies? Next time we'll spend time with RC Sproul on the topic of angels, so be sure to join us next Saturday here on Renewing your Mind.
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W. Robert Godfrey
Sam.