Dear people of God, I invite you to open your Bibles in Luke chapter 1 for New Testament reading. Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin bethrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb. and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end.’ And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called Beren. For nothing would be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s go before God in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you one more time this morning. because we love you, because we want to hear your voice, because we want to be convicted of our sins. We want to be comforted by your grace and your power. O Lord, we ask for the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds and hearts, to open our eyes to see wonderful things in your law. Help us, O Lord, to grasp the wonders of this gospel. and help us not only to understand with our minds and hearts, but to practice them in our lives with our hands. In Jesus’ name that we pray, amen. You may be seated.

I invite you to open the Bible in the book of Judges. The book of Judges chapter 13. I’m gonna read about the birth narrative of Samson. a very well-known character of the Bible. Kids, you probably know him well for his strength, for his hair, big hair, and all that stories that you read in the books. And today we’re gonna read from the Scriptures the birth narrative of Samson and try to understand how God used this man and the promise of the birth of this deliverer. to save his people from oppression. So let’s give attention to the Word of God, chapter 13 of Judges, the story of Samson.

And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. For the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. There was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink. and eat nothing unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No rather shall come upon his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistine.’ Then the woman came and told her husband, a man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, please let the man of God, whom you sent, come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the feud. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. And Manoah arose and went after his wife, and came to the man and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission? And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. She may not eat, of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her, let her observe. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? So that when your words come true, we may honor you. And the angel of the Lord said to him, why do you ask my name seeing it is wonderful? So Manoah took the young gold with the grain offering and offer it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders. And Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. But his wife said to him, If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as this. And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahanadan between Zorah and Ishtoel.

Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are in the midst, actually in the end of the book of Judges. And this book in many ways is very obscure book. It is a morally obscure book because of what is happening here in the life of the people of God and the promised land. We read basically in the end of the book of Judges that the people did what was right to their own eyes. It says repeatedly by the end of the book that they had no more the standard of the law to live their lives, to live their daily lives. They were doing exactly what they wanted to do, what their hearts wanted to do. Not very different from what we have today in this country and many countries in this world. People do not do the law of God, do not love the law of God. They are law for themselves. They love their desires. They love what they want to do apart from God. And this is what was happening here at this point in time in the life of the people of God. But how did they end up in this situation? If we go back to chapter 2 of Judges, we will see a little bit of context of why the people were doing what was right to their own eyes and wrong in the sight of the Lord. In chapter 2, verses 8 and 10, we read the following. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. Verse 10, and all the generation also were gathered to their fathers. They die as well. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. What was happening here in the promised land? The people just simply forget about the Lord. The next generation after Joshua and the victorious Israelites who conquered the land by God’s promises and by God’s grace, they fail to pass to the next generation the works of the Lord, His wonders, His promises, His grace, His law. And the next generation, just like that, did not know the Lord. And basically, what we have here is a twofold problem, right, that causes this failure in passing to the next generation the message of the gospel. It’s a twofold problem. First of all, syncretism. This is a hard word, so let me explain. Syncretism is when the people of God was marrying the people of the land, people who worship other gods. This is what happened when we have a syncretism, people from different religions, so to speak, They marry and they mix together. And now the next generation will be mixed in this sense. And this was a very important concern to God before they come into the promised land. And God told them over and over again, do not marry the people of the land. It was not a racial issue. It was not an ethnical issue. It was a worship issue. Because God has said to them, if you marry them, you will be idolaters like them. You’ll worship their gods instead of worshiping me. So syncretism was one of the problems that made the next generation to not know the Lord. And it goes without saying that even in our days today, right? If we marry someone who is an unbeliever, what happens is that the house is divided. And this compromises the message of the gospel to the next generations. The Puritan John Bunyan would say that mixed marriages like this are like hybrid marriages. Because in the next one or two generations, the gospel will be gone completely. It’s not always the case by the grace of the Lord. Fortunately, but this is usually how it goes and it was happening here with the people of God in the promised land But secondly, of course, it’s it’s following this first problem of sympathism is the failure in parenting Of course, right because how how could that be that the next generation your son your grandson would not know anything about the Lord How is that possible? Because the people of God were not taking seriously their call as parents to disciple their children in the ways of God. And this is what happened in here and what makes the people of God do what was right to their own eyes in the context of this book. And this twofold problem, this problem here causes a pattern to occur in the book of Judges. So if you follow along with me, we’re gonna read some verses of chapters three through chapter 10. And I want to show you this pattern, what is happening here. There’s a pattern of four steps that happens over and over again because the people were doing what was right to their own eyes. The first step is that the people did what was wrong to the eyes of the Lord. They start to worship other gods. Secondly, God send them oppressors. To oppress the people? Thirdly, the people cry out to the Lord, and fourth, God sends the deliverer. This is a pattern that occurs throughout the book. Look with me to chapter 3, verse 7. Look at this pattern here. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord, their God, and served the Baals and Ashtoreth. This is step one. And then secondly, what happened? Verse 8, Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia. And then in verse 9, But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up the liver for the people of Israel. Again, we see this in chapter 4. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Verse 2, And the Lord sold them into the hand of the king of Canaan. Verse 3, then the people of Israel cry out to the Lord for help. And verse 4, now Deborah, the deliverer, comes. And then you skip to chapter 6, you see the same pattern. Look with me in verse 1. The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And then in verse 6, And the people of Israel cry out for help to the Lord. And then from verse 11 on, we have the story of Gideon, the deliverer. And then when you skip to chapter 10, you see the same four steps again. Same pattern. Chapter 10, verse 6, the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. Verse 7, so the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the Ammonites. Verse 10, and the people of Israel cry out to the Lord. And in chapter 11, we see the story of Jephthah, the deliverer that God provided.

The Grace of Yahweh

But when we come to chapter 13, the birth narrative of Samson, we see that there’s something different here in this pattern. And this will point to the grace of Yahweh. This is the first point of our sermon, the grace of Yahweh. Look with me in verses 1 and 2 and try to find those four steps here in this verses. And the people of Israel did again, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. And then verse 2, there was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of the Danites. And the story goes on. Do you notice there’s something missing here? There’s something missing. This pattern that it came from chapter 3 up to chapter 13 with four steps. Now it’s broken. And there’s something missing here. And what is missing? We have the people of Israel doing what was wrong to God’s eyes. We have God sending oppressors to them, but there’s no cry out to the Lord. The people of God did not cry out to the Lord. It skips right through to the promise of the deliverer. What is happening here is that this pattern of sin over and over again occurring in the people of God, in the life of the people of God, Make them to have no sensitivity anymore for their sins. At this point, they did not feel that they have a need for a Savior. This is what happens when we give in to our sins. We keep sinning over and over again in the same ways. that eventually we will sense that we don’t need a Savior, that we are okay with our sins. And this is what is happening here in the book of Judges. The people were in peace with their sins. They were in peace with their sins. They were living their lives. They were going through the motions under this pattern of oppression, and they were used to oppression. They were used to be oppressed by their enemies. And this is exactly what sin does to us. It oppresses us. And sometimes if you’re not watchful, we can just live in peace with our sins. But you may ask, how does this point to the grace of God, to the grace of Yahweh, right? We were just talking about sin and how sin grips us and oppresses us, and how sometimes we are used to do this, we’re used to our sins, and we don’t sense or we don’t feel that we have the need of a Savior. How this can present us the grace of Yahweh? Well, the answer is very simple, isn’t it? Because God sends to them the promise of the Savior, even when they do not cry out for help. This is what our gracious God does. He sends salvation. He brings forth the Savior and salvation to his people, even when we don’t feel like we need it. That’s the experience of everyone here who is a believer. We were not crying out for the Lord. We are not looking for Him. We’re not searching for Him. And He came with His Spirit and transformed our hearts. This is the work of God’s free grace. Even when we don’t feel like we need Him, He comes anyway. He brings the promise. He brings forth salvation into our lives. And this is what is happening here with this people. These people didn’t deserve this salvation. They didn’t deserve a deliverer. They were okay with their sins. They wanted to be left there. But this is not the heart of God towards His people. He sends a deliverer anyway. But secondly, we see this from verses 2 through 7. How does God deliver His people? We see the manner of His deliverance here. So there’s this announcement, right? This messenger of the Lord that later we will find out that is God himself. It is the pre-incarnate form of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. He’s coming to announce the promise of a Savior. And it’s something very, very important here to grasp. And that’s one of the reasons why I read Luke chapter one as the New Testament reading, because there’s a lot of connections here between this Savior, this Simpson, and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only birth narrative that we have here in the book of Judges to talk about a judge that is coming to deliver the people of God.

The Grace of Jesus Christ

There’s something very unique about this narrative about Samson himself that will point to the grace of Jesus Christ and to the Jesus Christ, the Messiah himself. But how does God deliver his people? What is the manner of his deliverance? He brings this promise. He sends this announcement to this woman. And the way he does this is by sending himself. The salvation comes through him and by him, but he is the one who comes down to earth and communicates this. The manner in which God saves his people is by sending himself. This is the message of the gospel. That we sin against God in Adam, our federal head. That someone needs to come to make things right before God. But the truth of the matter is, no man can do this because now we are corrupt with our sins. So this deliverer must be a man because it was a man who sinned against God. But he needs to be perfect. Because he needs to endure the punishment for our sins, and he needs to obey the law completely and perfectly. There’s only one way that salvation can be accomplished. It’s through a God-man. This is what is happening here as a picture of what is about to happen years later. This is the manner in which God saves by sending himself to his people. But there’s something more, actually, in the way that God uses to bring forth salvation to his people. And notice who he’s using here, right? Because now he’s using an instrument. This woman here, a barren woman. And very interesting because she’s not only barren, but she’s also anonymous. We don’t know the name of this woman. Just like the people of Israel in this time of obscurity, she’s an obscure woman. We don’t know much about her. We don’t know anything about her other than she’s Manoah’s wife. And this shows something about how God works salvation in his people. Because although he sent himself, yes, in the person of Jesus Christ, he is now incarnate in heaven, but he uses you and I to bring salvation to his people, to those who do not believe, to those who are lost. He uses us in our weakness. He uses us in our frailty, just like he used this woman here. And it’s really a pattern that we see throughout the Scriptures, right? A barren woman and an angel coming to give the news that she will bore a son that will cause a salvation or bring salvation to the people. We see this with Sarah, with Rebekah and Rachel, with Anna, the mother of Samuel. We see this again with Manoah’s wife. And we see this later with Mary and Elizabeth. God is showing us that he uses you and I to accomplish salvation in this world. Isn’t that a marvelous thing? Marvelous thing. That we are part of the work of salvation in the life of others. When we preach the gospel. When we disciple someone. When we read the Bible even to our children. This is how God uses his people to bring salvation to the people. He uses us despite us. In spite of who you are. In spite of your weaknesses. We don’t have anything to offer God. We’re like a barren woman that cannot have children. But God gives us fruits. God gives us fruits and He uses us to bring salvation. This is the manner in which God uses His people to bring salvation to them. It was that at that point in time, and it is so also today. But thirdly, we see this in verses 8 through 14, the results of this encounter with Yahweh, right? So what happens here is that this God Himself comes to this couple, and even though they do not know who this person is, they will find out later. There’s something that happens in their lives. Something changes in their lives. And what I want to bring to your attention is that when we have an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, when we have an encounter with God, our lives change. Our lives change. So look at verse eight with me. Look what happens here. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord. I know that it doesn’t seem like it’s too much, but the original, the Hebrew word here is a very forceful word for prayer. It’s not only prayer, it’s something more like to entreat. He entreated, he supplicated, he pleaded before the Lord. A people who were forgetful about God, who didn’t even care about the Lord anymore, is now a people who is praying to God. This encounter with this messenger, even though they did not know it was God himself, it is bringing some results to their lives, to their spiritual lives. It should be the same in our lives as well. And the example here is the example of prayer, right? And I know that prayer is one of the things that It is hard to find someone that is satisfied with his or her own life of prayer. So there’s always room to grow. But prayer is one aspect of the children of God. That men and women who are transformed by God, they are men and women of prayer. There are men and women who supplicate to God, who come about their needs before the Lord, to talk to Him, to have relationship with Him, to communion with Him, to worship Him. But notice also the content of his prayer. That is very interesting. In the end of verse eight, he says, teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born. And then again, in the end of verse 12, what is to be the child’s manner of life and what is his mission? Notice that what we see in the beginning of the chapter is that the people of God, they were a failure in parenting. They were failing in this manner. Now is the very concern of Manoah. Now he’s concerned about what to teach these children, this child. What shall I teach this child? How can I raise this child to accomplish his mission? This is the concern of this seemingly transformed Manoah after this encounter with the Lord. Something that was not important to the people of God now is very important. Now is his mission and he cannot let these men go until he knows exactly how to please God and how to do exactly what God wants him to do in the life of his children. This is a transformation. It’s not in the whole people of God here at this point, but it is in the life of this man and the life of this couple. They’re concerned now to do God’s will. But fourth and lastly, and this is our last point, we see in verses 15 to 23, God revealing Himself finally, the self-revelation of Yahweh. So what happens now is that as you follow along in the reading, the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman, first of all, and then the man wants Him to appear again. He prays to Him. He prays. He shows his concern. And then He comes again. And what is happening here is something very intriguing. And there’s a lot of other connections that we find in other scriptures that we see that little by little this messenger of the Lord is showing them his character is revealing himself to this couple. And just a side application of this is there is no way that we will search for God, that we will ask for the Lord to come, that we will ask to do His will, and He will not answer positively. Everyone who seeks the Lord will find Him. Everyone who knocks His door will have this door opened. And this is what is happening here. They are knocking at the door of this messenger. They want to know more about the mission of this deliverer. And they do this by anchoring him, questioning him about who he is. And he, little by little, gives hints of his divine nature. Look with me at verse 17. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? So that when your words come true, we might honor you. Right? So it is a very, Common thing, right? If you have been given a gift, the first thing you want to do is just to say thank you, to reply to this person in an honorable way. And this is what he’s wanting to do with such great news. He wants to honor back this person. But there’s something more here because when we ask someone his or her name in our society, in our Western world today, 21st century, what we really mean is that we want to attach a name to a face. We just want to identify the person so we can remember the person. But in those days, when we ask someone’s name, we’re actually asking their character. We’re actually asking who they are, who they really are, their beings. It’s not only their names, but it’s who they are. And this is where this self-revelation of Yahweh starts. Because this small chat here between Manoah and the angel of the Lord is very similar to what we have in Genesis chapter 32. You can take a look later at home. Because in Genesis chapter 32, we find Jacob and this mysterious man wrestling during the night, through the whole night. And what happens there is a very similar conversation. Because at the end of this wrestling, he asks his name the same words. What is your name? Who are you? What a marvelous character are you? You are not someone common. You are not a normal person. I need to know who you are. The same conversation. And that we find the same answer as well. God at that point in time gave the same answer that He gave here to Manoah and his wife. Verse 18, And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful? If they were good students of the law, they would probably have some hint that this was God himself because it’s exactly what is happening there in Genesis chapter 32. And he says this, why do you ask my name seeing it is wonderful? He’s starting to give characteristics to his being, who he is, that he is wonderful. It is the same word that is used in Psalm 139, when the psalmist says that the knowledge of this God, the knowledge of your sovereignty and your omnipresence and your omniscience is too wonderful to me. It is a too high knowledge. It’s something that I cannot attain. It’s incomprehensible. So the angel of the Lord was saying to him, I am incomprehensible. One more hint, I am not what you think I am. I’m something more and you cannot comprehend. Again, disclosing himself a little bit more to this couple. And then we see in verse 19, so Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord. to the one who works wonders,” or other translations would say, they were offered to the Lord as He was doing something wonderful, which is what it follows in the text, that when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now something really weird happens here, because not only His appearance was different and really awesome, we see this in the beginning of the chapter, But now he’s doing something unimaginable. He’s in the midst of the fire, in the flames of the fire, like flying through the airs without being consumed, which is a very interesting relation with Exodus chapter three, that we see God speaking to Moses in the burning bush without the bush being consumed. And He is flying as He was accepting this offer. He was flying with the flames of the fire as He was accepting this offer. And this is when they fell on their faces to the ground, their reaction. We see this in the end of verse 20. Now they know that this is not a mere man, a mere messenger. He is God Himself. And this is their reaction. They fell on their faces to the ground. And this actually is a reaction of every sinner who have an encounter with God. There’s conviction of sin. When we look at God and we understand who He is, His character, His incomprehensible character, and who we are before Him, sinners, there’s nothing more to do other than to fall on our faces to the ground in awe, in reverence, And sometimes even in terror, right? Because it is too terrifying to contemplate God in His holiness and His perfectness. And we are just but sin. This is what an encounter with the Lord produces as well. And we fell on our faces to the ground. But there’s something more. This is not the only reaction of them, right? We see that although this was both of their reaction in the beginning, from verses 21 to 23, we see that there’s a shift here, at least in Manoah’s wife. So look at what it says in verse 21, that an angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die for we have seen God. We see this throughout the Old Testament, that every time someone has this contact with God, has this experience, they feel like they will die. But look at what his wife said. But his wife said to him, if the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as this. Now, Manoah’s wife is assured of something. She is assured that they will not die, that they will not be killed, that they will not be condemned. And her assurance is based on two things. First of all, revelation, and secondly, sacrifice. And how so? See the end of verse 23 again, that if the Lord had meant to kill us, I’ll skip to the last part of the verse. He would not shown us all these things, or now announce to us such things as this. The reason why she believes she will not be condemned, the reason why she believes she will not be killed, is because of the revelation of this God. Because this God revealed Himself to them. And that is the same that we have today. How can we be sure that Jesus Christ wants us to be saved? Because of the revelation of His Son. Because of the revelation of the God-Man. Because he was not required to do this. He was not obligated to do this, right? Since Adam died, after Adam had fallen to sin, he had no requirement at all, no obligation at all to send a Savior. But he does this anyway. He reveals to you through the preaching of God’s Word, through the Bible, through Jesus Christ himself, his gospel. And his gospel is revealed so that people can be saved. If He meant to kill the whole humanity, He would never reveal Jesus Christ. He would never send a Savior. So if you’re hearing this message today and the message next Sunday, the next Sunday’s message as well, you can be sure that God wants to do something in your life. I don’t want to deny the sovereignty of God over the preaching of the word, right? We know well that the word is a two-edged sword that at the same time that saves also condemns. But this is not the point here of the text. She is basing her assurance that she will not be killed or condemned on this revelation. That’s the point of the text here. and we can be assured of the same. That because God is revealing his word to us, that we can take hold of this word, look unto Jesus and be saved. But secondly, Manoah’s wife’s assurance is also based in the sacrifice. Again, verse 23, but his wife said to him, if the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands. Dear brothers and sisters, that’s the only way God can accept you, through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are under this sacrifice, if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, this sacrifice is applied to you, is applied to your life. And you can be 100% sure that you will not be condemned. But that’s the only way. There’s no other way. The only way you can be saved, the only way you can be sure that you will have fellowship with the Lord forever, it is if you are in Christ. Because His sacrifice is the only thing that He will accept in the last and final day. In the final judgment, when we knock God’s door, and He asks you, Why should I let you in? The only answer possible that will make people in is that I have faith in Jesus Christ. I was reached out by the grace of Jesus Christ. It is because of his sacrifice, because of what he has done, that I can come in. And we can be bold and be sure that because of the sacrifice, this sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that we can have eternal life. Dear brothers and sisters, this is how the story of Samson begins, a story of sin, a story of brokenness. It doesn’t get any better later. It gets hard, and you know well. But even so, It is a picture of how God works salvation in His people and through His people, even in their brokenness, even with a broken Savior as Samson. It is all His work. It is not your work. It is not the work of another Savior, an earthly Savior, but it is the work of Jesus Christ Himself. And this is what we read here is an anticipation of the work of the Lord, the great deliver. Because we read that Samson, he sinned against God. He was not 100% faithful in his mission. He died and he remains dead to this day. But our Savior, he is alive. And He will come back again to make all things new and to finish completely this work that was began in incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection. He will come again and will make all things new.

Let’s pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the message of the gospel that we find here in the book of Judges. We ask the Lord that you might bring this message home to our hearts, that the gospel might affect our lives, that your grace, O Lord, might bring us conviction of who you are and the beauty of the gospel. Help us, O Lord, to live out this faith without being ashamed of this message, for it is your power unto salvation of everyone who believes. We rest on your sacrifice, we rest on your revelation in and of ourselves. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.