Let's open up our Bibles in Judges chapter 13, the book of Judges chapter 13. I'm going to start a new series, a short series in the book of Judges in the narrative of Samson, a very well-known character of the Bible. Many of you children know about him, about his strength, about his long hair. and all the stories that you might have written already. The puzzling thing about Samson sometimes, if we look at the New Testament, which gives us a solid and inspired interpretation of the story of Samson, says that in Hebrews 11, 32, that Samson was a model of faith. He was a man of faith. we can find him in Hebrews 11 as one of the heroes, we call in Brazil the heroes of faith. Right here you say the hall of fame, right? But he is there as a man of faith, a faith in the Savior to come. But when we read the narrative, It's weird to, sometimes we wonder, where is it? Where is this faith of Samson in this text? Especially if you know the story of Samson. But the first thing I wanted to say is that the focus of this story, the focus of the narrative of Samson, is not Samson. This is God. Sometimes if you look to the whole scripture, the whole scripture talks about Jesus Christ. And this is the thing, this is the focus of the narrative of Samson. Not Samson himself, but the God of Samson, the God of the Israelites. He is the focus. But Samson is also a type of Christ. What is a type of Christ? It's kind of a picture. When you look at Samson in certain aspects of his life, you can see some parallels with the life and work of Jesus Christ. This is what a type means. And Samson is this type of Jesus Christ. So pay attention not only in this chapter, in the narrative of this chapter, but in the whole narrative of Samson. And we will try to find those instances in which he can be seen as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his work. And of course, we will learn some moral lessons for us in our day. So I'm going to read Judges chapter 13. Follow along with me, the word of the Lord. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty 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 razor 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 Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, a man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the 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, And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of the Lord came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah 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 you 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 might 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 goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rocks of 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 of 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 steer him in Mahanaden between Zorah and Istol." Let us go to our Lord and pray one more time. Dear Holy Spirit, Enlighten our minds and our hearts to see wonderful things in this passage, to see You, O Lord, who works wonders in the midst of Your people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We are here in the book of Judges, a very obscure book. Morally speaking, it's a very obscure book. Many terrible things happen in here, in the book of Judges, in the time of the judges. We see a lot of slaughtering, a lot of idolatry, a lot of sexual immorality. All those things going on with the people of God in the promised land. And why is that? The book of Judges gives us a very well-known refrain for this reason, for why this is an obscure time. And it says that everyone did what was right to his own eyes. They didn't have the standard of the law anymore. They didn't have God as a rule for their lives anymore. Each one was doing what was right, what was pleasant, what was desirable to their own eyes. And this is what happened. This is a picture. The Book of the Judges is a picture of what happens to a nation, to a family, to a people who abandon God's standards, who abandon God's God's law and the way that He told us for us to live. They were doing what was right in their own eyes. It's not much different as our days today. If you look to this nation, to America, and many other nations in the world, what is the standard? Each one is doing what is right in his own eyes. And how did they end up doing what was right to their own eyes? How did this happen? If you go to chapter 2 of Judges, Judges chapter 2, verses 8 to 10, we will see the reason why everyone was doing what was right to their own eyes. Judges chapter 2, verses 8 to 10, we have a little bit of context as well here. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. and they bury him with the boundaries of inheritance, et cetera. Verse 10, all the generation also were gathered to their fathers. Not only Joshua died, but all that generation died as well. They were gathered to their fathers, they died. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the word that he had done for Israel. The next generation, just like that, they didn't know the Lord anymore and the work of the Lord that He had done for these people. This is why they're doing what was right to their own eyes. They fail, practically speaking, let me say in another words, they fail in their parenting. That's what happened. They fail to pass on to the next generation the wonders of God, who God is, what He has done to His people. As soon as Joshua and this whole generation died, right the next generation, they did not know the Lord anymore. It was a failing in parenting. They fail to do what Psalm, don't need to open there, Psalm 78 speaks about. In verse three it says, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. It's the duty of the parents to pass on the next generation to our children the wondrous deeds of the Lord, who He is, the gospel of Jesus Christ. This should be our concern as parents, to preach the gospel to our children intentionally. It's not just reading the Bible before the meal and after the meal and say a prayer. This is not enough. What does Deuteronomy chapter 6 says about it? About parenting, a very well-known chapter of the Bible. Verse 4, Deuteronomy 6, 4, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Verse 6, And these words that I commanded you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. There's diligence. And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you arise. You shall bind them as a sign in your hand and shall be as a frontos between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. This is how parents should raise their children, teaching them diligently every single day the things of God, intentionally. Praying for your children, praying to them, praying for their conversion in front of them. And teaching them their need of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They need to repent, they need to believe in Jesus. And they need to hear this from us, from us parents, every single day. Otherwise, what happens? The next generation will know a little bit about God. What about the next one? And what about the other? Then the gospel will be lost in this family. There was a feeling of failure in parenting at that time, but also syncretism. Not going to open here, but we see over and over again in the book of Judges that when the people of God came and they settled in the promised land with Joshua, they start to mix and get married with idolaters, with the people from the land. And this caused them to worship other gods, false gods, idols. So those two things going together, the syncretism and the failure in parenting, were doing this, were the reason why everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. And this causes a pattern to occur in this time, in the book of Judges. If you go to chapter three with me, you will see this pattern over and over again. There are four steps that the narrator, the author of the book of Judges, talks about in the life of his people here at that time. Chapter three, verse seven. Let's see what are this pattern. Caused by everyone doing what was right to their own eyes. Verse seven, three, verse seven. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. First step. Verse eight, the second part of verse eight. And he, God, sold them into the hands of the king of Mesopotamia. Step two. And then step three, Israel, verse nine, cry out to the Lord. And step four, the Lord raised up the liver. Four steps that occur over and over and over again. Look at chapter four now. Chapter 4, verse 1, and the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Step 1. Verse 2, and the Lord sold them into the hand of the Jabin king of Canaan. Step 2. Step 3, the crying out of the Lord. Verse 3, then the people of Israel cry out to the Lord. And then verse 4, now Deborah, now deliver her, come. The same in chapter 6 with Gideon in verses 1, 2, 7, and 11, the same pattern. Also, again, in chapter 10, the same pattern. Chapter 10, verse 6, the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Chapter 10, verse 2, verse 7, and He, God, sold them into the hands of the Philistines. Verse 10, and the people of Israel cry out to the Lord. And then in chapter 11, we have Jephthah, the judge who will deliver Israel. And when we come to The chapter 13, let's read verses 1 and 2 and try to see this pattern here. And the people of Israel, again, chapter 13, verse 1, 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. So step one, sin. Step two, God giving them over to their enemies. What is step three now? Verse 2, there was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and had no children. Do you notice that there's something missing here? We had the people of Israel doing what was evil before the eyes of the Lord. We have, in verse one, yeah, the Lord gave them over to the Philistines, to their oppressors, to their enemies, and then we skip right to verse two when we find the narrative of the Savior, the deliverer. Step three is missing. The people did not cry out to the Lord. They were in peace with their sin. That was what was happening here. They were in peace with their oppressors, with their enemies. So much so that they didn't even sense their need for a savior, for a deliverer. They were okay with the life they were going through. That was okay to live by this oppression, by their influence, by their negative influence. That was okay for them. There was no need for a savior in their minds. They do not cry out to the Lord. And this is when the grace of God comes. Even though the people of God would not cry out for help, He will come to save them. This is the grace of our God. And this is probably what happened in everyone's life here before we came to Christ. We were not seeking God. We were not looking for Him to rule in our lives. We were seeking our own desires and our own fleshly desires. But then God, with His mercy, with His grace, abounding grace, He comes and He loved us before we could love Him. Before we could have the sense of our needs, He came and sent His only Son to die for sinners, to die for us. This is the abounding grace of the Lord. He comes even when we don't call for His help. And this is what is happening here in this narrative. They didn't even sense that they need a Savior, but God gave them a Savior. And how does God deliver His people? We will find here in this announcement in verses 2 to 7, the manner of Yahweh's deliverance. This is our second point. I didn't talk about the first one, the grace of Yahweh. The second one, the manner of Yahweh's deliverance in verses 2 to 7. Now, God sends His only Son. to a barren woman. He sends Jesus Christ. This is in a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ right here in the book of Judges. God Himself coming down to the earth to announce a Savior. We will see this later in the narrative. Right now they don't know that this is God Himself. Of course, He will give some hints that He is God, but they will not realize until the last part of the chapter. But this is how God will work here in this chapter. He will send His only Son to bring forth salvation, to bring forth the announcement of deliverance. We read here that this barren woman will have a child, and this child will be a Nazarite. We can read after later in Numbers chapter 6 about the Nazirite vowel. What does that mean to be a Nazirite? But simply and mainly is to be consecrated to the Lord, to do a specific task. So when a person take the Nazarite vow, he's saying, I'm consecrated to God, I'm separated to God, I'm sanctified by God to do this task, to do this work. And this is what God is doing with Samson. He's assigning him a work. Actually, assigning her mother a work as well. But the interesting thing is that what we have here is kind of like a pattern that we find in the whole scriptures, right? A barren woman, not able to have children, A messenger or an angel of the Lord, or an angel coming to announce the birth of a child. We see this with Sarah, the Old Testament. We see this even with those who, Rebecca and Rachel as well. After Samson, we see this with Hannah, mother of Samuel. And also with, in the New Testament, with Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ with Mary. So when we see this happening here, a barren woman, a messenger coming and announcing a savior or a promise to be fulfilled later, we need to know that God is up to do something. God is coming with his own hand to intervene in the history of humanity. And he uses this kind of people, barren woman. One that cannot offer anything to God to save a people. This is how God uses us in His work and raises us up to be Christians. People who cannot offer anything to God. No one here, no one here can say that I was attracted, I had something that attracted God to me. That's why God chose me. That's why I'm a Christian. No, no one can do it. And this is how God works. God works in man's weakness. And He uses her weakness to bring forth salvation to this people. He uses, He saved us despite Of us despite of who we are despite of what we have done and out of nothing He brings forth salvation. He brings forth fruit the fruits that you You bear now as a christian Did not came from you it came from the work of god and you out of nothing But then in verses 8 to 14 We have the result of yaweh's visitation the result of yaweh's visitation And although they didn't know that this angel of the Lord, this message of the Lord was God himself, it still produces some fruits in their lives. Verse 8 says, then Manoah prayed to the Lord. He didn't see the angel of the Lord, so he wants, as a head of the household, he wanted to have this good news too. He wants to receive this news by himself. And he prayed to God to have this man coming again. But what is interesting here is the result that we see right away in verse 8, that Manoah prayed. After this visitation, after God encountering them, Manoah prayed. And this is not a simple word, the Hebrew word, the original word here is not a simple word for praying. It's a word that it means to entreat, to supplicate, to plead before the Lord. He was earnest now in his prayer life. This is what the encounter with God, this is what conversion causes in us, results in us in our lives, a life of prayer, a life in dependence of the Holy Spirit. And this is the bottom line for a Christian, a life of prayer. I'm not an example here to teach you about a prayer life. And I think many of us here have failed time and time again in this pursuing in a good prayer life. But this is a result, an undeniable result that comes after our conversion, after our encounter with God. And we come to our senses that we need God and we pray to Him. And we have a new life of prayer, a life of prayer. But this was not only the only result of Manoah's encounter with God, but also his concern to live for God. We see this later in verse 8, at the end of verse 8, and his prayer, he prays to God, teaches us what we are to do with the child who will be born. And again in verse 12. Now when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life? And what is his mission? Now he's concerned about parenting. The very problem that we see in chapter two of Judges, that they are failing in passing on their faith to their children, now is the very concern of Manoah. After this encounter, now he's concerned. How should I raise up this child? He knows that he has a responsibility upon Samson as a father. And he wants to know, he is concerned about it. Is this your concern, dear brother, dear sister, with your children? I know many of you here are not in this period of life anymore, this phase of life. But look back to your own life. Was this your concern to raise your children to be godly men and godly women? Sometimes we are just concerned about rearing children to be great doctors, great physicians, great professors, great whatever, but we do not care about they being great Christians. People who pray, people who love the Lord with all their hearts. This was Manoah's concern, to raise their children according to God's will after this encounter. And then in verses 15 to 23, we have the revelation of Yahweh's character. We see God revealing himself to the parents. So after Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, he asked God to send the angel of the Lord again, he comes again, He talks to the woman directly and the woman goes right after to his husband to call him and they have this conversation again. And then the Manoah wants to detain him and prepare a meal. He wants to do something for him to honor him. And this is very true in our lives as well. Every time I get, as a seminary student, sometimes I get someone giving me an offering or something, a present, a gift, and I'm so frustrated when the person does not identify himself. It's just anonymous because we feel the sense that this gift is good for us and we want to praise this person in a good sense. We want to say thank you. We want to know his name, her name, to honor this person, right? And this is Manoah's feeling now. He wants to give something in response to this good news. And he asked in 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. And what happens here is very similar to what happens in Genesis 32 with Jacob, when he encounters a man, a mysterious man, and they wrestle during the whole night. And after this, he asked the same question as Manoah did here. He asks, what is your name? what is your name?" And at that time, in Genesis 32, he answers, He answers the very same thing that he answers here. Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful? And then, back then in Genesis 32, after he says his words to Jacob, he blessed him. And this is what we find also here and how God blesses them. So it is a parallel passage that we should take a look later and see all the connections. But that's the same question. What is your name? So we might honor you. And his answer is very interesting, very curious. Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful? And this word here is the same as in Psalm 139, when David says that this knowledge, the knowledge of God, the knowledge of His providence, of His sovereignty, is too high for him. This is what he's talking about here. My name is wonderful. It's too high for you. It's incomprehensible. You cannot attain this knowledge. It's too much for you, for your little brain. This is another hint of who He is, a God Himself. A wonderful God, a God that we cannot understand fully, we cannot fully comprehend. Even His attributes, His simple attributes, just like love and mercy and grace, We can show those attributes to other people as well. Even those attributes, so simple to understand. In fact, we cannot comprehend how God, a great God, an immense God, could make Himself a human being, incarnate human being, to save sinners like us. He's incomprehensible. He's too wonderful. And then in verse 19, so Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it in the rock to the Lord, to one who works wonders. Other translations bring that they watched the Lord and He was doing something wonderful. 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. What a wonderful thing just happening here. This man, this mysterious man, at this time they were just knowing that he was a man. She said that with a frightening appearance, with an awesome appearance. There was something different about this man, of course. But now all of a sudden this man, he went up in the flame of fire of the sacrifice. Started to just flying to the heavens. without being consumed. In the flames of fire, without being consumed. Is that familiar language to you? Just like in the burning bush. When Moses saw God, we had an appearance of God as well. And the bush was burning, but it was burning, but without being consumed by the fire. Just like this man, this angel of the Lord, this message of the Lord was Flying through this flames of fires without being consumed This is also an image of of the incense of being something when it went going up to the Lord God was accepting their sacrifice and he was now giving them his identity And we see this assurance now at the end of verse 20, and they say, now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. This is what happened with every single believer who has an encounter with God. When we sense who God is, his holiness, his purity, and when we look at ourselves and our sins, This should be our reaction, to fall on our faces on the ground. Just saying, just like Isaiah, I'm undone. I'm impure. This is the same reaction that they have, and now they have a certainty. This man is not a mere man. He is God Himself. He is God Himself. And even though at a first stop the the reaction is the same afterwards we have two different reactions after this episode from manoa and from uh his wife look at verse 22 and manoa said to his wife we shall surely die for we have seen god But his wife, on the other hand, he said, if the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as this. The same action from God. At the first place, the same reaction from both. And then, two different reactions. What is going on here? I think this talks a lot about our experience as Christians as well. There are many Christians that when they start to understand a little bit about the gospel, when they start to understand a little bit about their condition before a holy God, they just get depressed and terrified about Jesus Christ, about God, about His wrath upon their sins. They just fell on their knees onto the ground and say, I will surely be killed by Him. I'm not saying that this is bad in and of itself. I think in certain sense every Christian had this experience in some way. See, when we understand our sins, it's part of repentance, it's part of the regeneration process to understand our sins and to be desperate about it. But Manoah's life shows us the other side of the coin. Shows us not only desperation about seeing God and who He is, but also assurance. And where is her assurance grounded? It's grounded in two things. First, revelation, and second, sacrifice. Revelation and sacrifice. How is that? I'm gonna start first with revelation. In the end of verse 23, she said, if the Lord had meant to kill us, He would not show all these things to us. or tell or announce all these things to us. His assurance that God would not kill them is grounded in the revelation of God. What does that mean? We can apply this to our own lives and to the preaching of the gospel. Many people are not sure if God wants them to be saved. In a certain sense, we do know about election. We trust and we agree with the doctrine of election, that when we preach the gospel, either two things can happen. Either you will be saved or you will be hardened. There's two purposes in the preaching of the gospel. That's true. But in this particular passage, I want to highlight just one side of this coin, of this revelation. If God meant to kill you, he would not reveal to you the gospel of Jesus. The proclamation of the word of God, the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is for us to be saved. It's for us to believe and to trust in God alone for salvation. That's why he revealed Jesus Christ to the world. He wanted to kill everyone. He was just, we never sent Jesus Christ to this world. That simple. And that's Manoah's wife's assurance. He revealed those things to us. He revealed those things to us. He will not kill us. Ezekiel chapter 32 verse 18 says that God does not, He's not pleased with the death of the wicked. Just let me open very quickly Ezekiel chapter 32. Actually, Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 32, it says, for I have no pleasure in the death of anyone. Declares the Lord God, so turn and live. This is what I want to highlight in this text without denying the other side of the coin, that he reveals as well his gospel for people to be hardened, just like he did with Pharaoh, yes. But he also reveals his gospel to bring forth salvation. If He meant to kill us, He would not bring His Son to this world. But she also, Manoah's wife, has this assurance that she would not be killed by God because of the sacrifice. That's the second thing. And this should be our assurance as well. We should rely upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ being accepted by God. This is the only sacrifice that will be accepted. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, His life, His resurrection. If we are safe, if we want to be in a safe place, we need to be under Jesus Christ's sacrifice. This is what happened here in the text. She got this assurance that they would not be killed because this God, He accepted the sacrifice and He went up into the flame. A picture of Him accepting the sacrifice. That's the same with us. God does not only reveal the gospel so that people might not be killed or condemned eternally in heaven, in hell. but he also gives freely his son, Jesus Christ, the only way to God. This is very important. That's the only sacrifice that God will accept. He will not accept your sacrifices as a person here in this world who did everything to do the law right, as we are hearing in Romans in the mornings. He will not accept those kind of sacrifices. The only sacrifice that he will accept It's a sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is how this marvelous story about Samson starts. It's not talking about Samson. He's mentioned, yes, in the end of the chapter, just once. But the focus here is on God. God is up to do something with His people here in this narrative. Even though they are in dark times, even though they are very good, okay with their sins, God is up to do something and He will raise up a deliverer to save His people from their oppressors. This is a picture of the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. People who were dead and trespasses and sins who could not do anything towards God to please Him. And they have this marvelous gift of God sending them himself to save them from their oppressors. From now on, I want us to look at this narrative with God in focus. Looking at God, what is God doing here through Samson, through all the things that are happening here? We will see many things about Samson that are not in Christ's likeness, in Christ's likeness, of course. He's just a shadow. He's just a type. But in Him, we will see also the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in delivering His people from death. I hope to go through all those chapters, chapter 14, 15, and 16 later. And may the Lord bless us and bless the preaching of the Word. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You that You send Your only Son. Even when we were in our trespasses and sins, delighting in our sins, delighting in our wicked life, you send your only Son, your only begotten Son to die for us. Thank you because you bring salvation in our lives out of nothing. You bear fruit in our lives out of nothing. You put your only, your own Holy Spirit in our hearts to bear fruits in the gospel. Thank you, O Lord, because you revealed your face through the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of his sacrifice, we will have deliverance from our oppressors. Help us, O Lord, to see this marvelous truth, not only in the narrative of Samson, but throughout the Bible. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.