Most of the time, we see only part of God’s plan and have to trust him for the rest.

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s parents in Judges 13, they weren’t given much detail. Who was this mysterious visitor? Where did he come from? What was his name? Why did their son need to take a vow? What were his parents to do with the boy? What was his mission? So many unanswered questions.

God’s will often contains a degree of mystery. He doesn’t usually give step-by-step instructions. We know the next step, and that’s all God gives us at the moment. We simply have to obey, and then wait before more of his plan is revealed to us.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your understanding,” Proverbs 3:5 says.

Even when you don’t have all the answers, and there are still many “what if’s,” you can choose to take the next step.

God says he loves a cheerful giver, and so we give. God says, “Work heartily as to the Lord,” and so we work. God says, “Do not forsake assembling together,” and so we find a local church and plug in.

Even when you don’t know exactly how every detail is going to work out, you take a step forward, continuing to trust God and obey. This is just one of the life lessons from Judges 13 and the story of Samson.

I preached this passage a while back at Calvary and tried posting it earlier today on my blog and sermon podcast. As it turns out, that audio file was actually for a different sermon altogether on Psalm 128! Since I don’t seem to have the audio for that sermon, I’ll share my preaching notes below…

GRACE UPON GRACE
(AN EXPOSITION OF JUDGES 13)

Introduction
• Please turn to Judges 13
• Back in February and March we started a chapter-by-chapter study in Judges. Took a little break before Easter and then did a couple topical sermons on prayer, on the new covenant, and last week on the gift of family. Now we return to Judges which I expect we’ll finish up this series by early summer, and then I’m thinking and praying about going into 1&2 Thessalonians.
•I entitled this series, “Arise,” as reading the book of Judges should provoke us to the dangers of remaining quiet and passive when there is cultural and moral decline. Challenges us to stand up and accept the responsibility of leadership. Not to grow apathetic to spiritual culture around us. Be provoked to serve the Lord, not accept the spiritual compromise. Reference to Judges 5, “Arise, Barak, lead away your captives!”
• Samson – one of principle characters in the book of Judges. So much so that an entire chapter is dedicated just to his birth narrative. We could break story down into four points…
• Outline: Moral Decline, The Mysterious Message, A Marvelous Name, A Merciful Savior

Moral Decline (v. 1)
• “the people of Israel again did what was evil” (1)
• Anyone here still have a record player in their house? There’s been a renewed interest in vinyl over the past few years. Some say even better. One of the fun quirks of record players is sometimes they’ll catch and begin to repeat over and over, what we call a “broken record.” This phrase in Judges is like a broken record. Israel has a defect, and so the same phrase keeps playing over and over.
• See 2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1.
• This phrase provides one of the main outline markers in the book, the “cycle of disobedience.”
• Downward spiral. Sort of a downward descent. Their iniquity becomes worse. Their idolatry becomes. Their oppression lasts longer. Their judges become more and more corrupted.
• As we read it, we’re to think, “Ah, we’ve been down this path before. This is growing painfully familiar.”
• This is the sixth and final cycle, but there is something unique about this one. Each of the other times, Israel would say, “And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help.” (3:9, 15; 4:3; 10:10). It’s almost as though they stopped even believing there was a God, asking for his help, or recognizing that their bondage was God’s discipline for their iniquity.
• In our own days, we have seen a kind of moral decline as well. Over past fifty years or so, we’ve seen a sharp rise in divorce, in unwed pregnancies, in sexual immorality, gay marriage, anxiety, disrespect, addiction, cursing and swearing and profanity, lies, greed, gambling, violent crime, abortion, suicide, sharp drops in church attendance, a renewed interest in witchcraft and the occult. People are searching for purpose and meaning and happiness, seem willing to go almost anywhere, except to the Bible itself. Unique opportunity – God has placed us here for such a time as this. Not the easiest time in church history, but the church has the opportunity to be a shining light against a morally black backdrop.
• >>Moral decline in Israel, so God judged them. They didn’t even ask for a rescuer this time, and yet God in his mercy sent them one anyway. This brings us to our second point…

Mysterious Message (vv. 2-7)
• A messenger appears to Manoah’s wife. She doesn’t know where he came from, and she doesn’t even know his name (v. 6), and she’s afraid to ask him. What she does now is that he has brought a message she’d always hoped of hearing, “You’re going to have a baby.”
• Apparently, Manoah and his wife had been trying for years to have a baby, but had been unable. “His wife was barren and had no children” (v. 2). The angel of the LORD said as much in v. 3. “you are barren and have not borne children” (v. 3).
• Miracle babies in Scripture – Sarah would give birth to Isaac, Hannah to Samuel, Elizabeth to John the Baptist, and of course, the virgin Mary to Jesus the Messiah.
• There was more to the message. Not just that she would have a child, but that he would be set apart, even while still in his mother’s womb.
• Read vv. 4-5
• History and significance of the Nazirite – Numbers 6. No wine or strong drink or vinegar or grapes. No razor shall touch his head. “Let the locks of hair of his head grow long.” Not go near a dead body. Not even if one of his family members dies shall he make himself unclean. Nazirite literally meant “untrimmed,” like a vine that was unpruned on the sabbatical year and allowed to grow wild. For a specific period of time of dedication, then at the end of your period of separation, you would go to the tent of meeting, bring a gift to the Lord, and offer a sacrifice. This boy, Samson, was to appointed by God as a Nazirite, and was to remain one his entire life. He was chosen and set apart by God.
• In v. 5 the purpose – “he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
• >>Manoah and his wife are given the basic details, but still, there is much mystery to the message. Who is this man? Where did he come from? What was his name? What is the purpose of this special vow? What are they to do with the boy? What is to be his lifestyle and mission? So many unanswered questions.
• Application: God’s will often contains an element of mystery. It doesn’t usually come with detailed step-by-step instructions. We know the next step, and that’s all God gives us at the moment. We will simply have to wait before more of his plan is revealed to us. God says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your understanding.” Even though you don’t have all the answers, and there are still many what if’s, you choose to take the next right step. He says, “Give to the Lord. God loves a cheerful giver.” Even though you don’t know exactly how every detail of your budget over the next year is going to work out. God wants you to be responsible. But he also wants you to be obedient and learn to trust him.
• Manoah and his wife ponder this mysterious message and still have many unanswered questions. And so, Manoah prays that the messenger would return, and God graciously answers his prayer by sending the angel of the Lord a second time…

Marvelous Name (vv. 8-21)
• In vv. 8-21, Manoah prays, “please let the man of God come again.” God listens, and sends the angel back, but ironically, again to the woman. Manoah is not with her, so she runs and gets him, and the angel waits.
• Manoah arrives and asks, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he says, “I am.” In the Hebrew, literally, “I.” “It was I.”
• Manoah asks questions (v. 12). The angel responds by giving no new information. It’s as though he says, “I’ve told you all you need to know for the moment.”
• Manoah offers some middle eastern hospitality (v. 15). I will not eat, but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to Yahweh. For (key statement), Manoah did not know he was the angel of the LORD.
• He kept referring to him as a “man of God” (v. 8, 11). His wife did say there was something unusual about him – “his appearance was like the angel of God, very awesome” (v. 6). But Manoah had no idea the full extent of who he was talking with.
• “What is your name, that we may honor you?” (v. 17)
• Interesting response in v. 18, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” That word (פֶּלִאי) means wonderful, marvelous (CHALOT). Related root word to be surprising, hard to comprehend. Psalm 139:1-2, 5-6 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. V. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. You can’t understand who I am. Your puny mind cannot comprehend my glory. An ant would more easily scale Mount Everest than you would scale the heights of my wisdom. A dove would more easily fly to the moon than you could comprehend my greatness.
• He dwells in unapproachable light. 1 Timothy 6:16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see…
• God has revealed himself to us, but we see only in part. We can see accurately, but we cannot see fully. 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
• Manoah makes the offering, and then “the angel of the LORD went up in the flame” (v. 20). They fell on their faces, and Manoah knew (v. 21). This was not a prophet, or even a man at all, not even an ordinary angel, if there be such a thing. This was the angel of the LORD – a theophany. God himself had been in their midst. They had just experienced something that very few had done before. Jacob had wrestled with this angel of the LORD. Moses had encountered him through a burning bush. Gideon too had seen him back in chapter 6. After he put the meat and unleavened bread on the rocks, the angel reached out the tip of the staff and fire sprang up from the rock, and the angel vanished. Judges 6:22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” In that passage, the angel assured Gideon, “Do not fear; you shall not die.”
• >>That is Manoah’s first thought as well. “We shall surely die.” But God has other plans for this couple.

Merciful Savior (vv. 22-25)
• Manoah’s wife has the more reasoned response. God does not intend to destroy them.
• God’s grace. “Grace upon grace.” Waves of grace come over this couple, like waves of the ocean, just one wave after another of God’s goodness, kindness, and mercy.
• Striking similarities between this story and the Christmas story in the NT. An angel appears first to the mother. Her husband is at first doubtful, but then receives an angelic revelation as well. The angel announces to a woman who is unable to have children, “You shall conceive and bear a son.” God’s people are being oppressed by foreign nation that has invaded them. A deliverer is promised, who will be set apart for a special task. This deliverer will be set apart from the day of his birth to the day of his death. Even in his death, he will bring about a great deliverance. Most importantly, “He will save his people.” But there, the parallels end. Samson will be the last of the judges, but as we will see in the following chapters, he has certain flaws that go even beyond Gideon and Jephthah before him. He will indeed “start to save his people” from the Philistines, but it will take Samuel and David to more fully weaken their chokehold on Israel.
• Application: God will send his son. What will God’s Son be like? What will happen when God comes to earth? Will he be like a divine executioner? A judge?
• John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
• The point of Judges 13 – begins the sixth and final cycle of disobedience. We are introduced to the family of Samson. Learn he will be special, set apart, learn of a rescuer that will “begin to save Israel.” Yet although this story starts out more promising than the last couple judges, we are about to see just how tragic a character Samson is in the chapters ahead.

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