Judges 14:1-4
Samson was the prophesied one. He was chosen to rescue the Israelites from the oppression of the Philistines. Imagine the shock of his parents when he comes to them asking to take one of their women for his wife. Because God so uniquely worked in this situation It would have been hard to see His hand. God used Samson’s lustful eye to pick a fight with the philistines. It was amazing that the children of Israel were so comfortable in their oppression that it was no big deal for them to marry them and except it as “just how it is”. I think America is in a place where our comfort has to be shaken. God has to pick a fight with the enemy in order to stir his people. In many was we are not angry at the one who is oppressing us. Not only are we not angry, but we view it as just the way it is. God used the desire of Samson to unite with the oppressor to make him see the enemy’s deceitfulness. Are we so deceived that we don’t even recognize our oppressors anymore? Use our bondage to sin as a nation to make us angry at our enemy again. A righteous anger must rise. Our expectance of sin must be broken or change will never take place.
Judges 13:15-25
The idea of being able to be a messenger for the king and not take any honor for delivering it has been everywhere I look lately. Taking credit for a miracle or message that God uses you to deliver would be the same as a kings servant delivering treasures of gold saying this is from the king and then when the recipient says, “thank you, how can I ever repay you”, taking the credit for himself. Another example that comes to mind would be paying for someone’s meal with my dads debit card but leading the recipient to believe that the meal was from me. The angels response was twice to give the glory back to God. First he is asked to stay and receive a meal. The angel replies by telling him to sacrifice the goat to the Lord. Again Manoah is enamored with who he thinks is a man and he asks for his name so he can honor him when his prophecy comes true. The Angel responds by telling him he would not understand even if he told him his name. What happens next is awesome. As Manoah and his wife are offering the sacrifice the angle gets whisked up to heaven in the fire. It was not until the man did not come back that Manoah realizes it was an angel of the Lord. Manoah was real slow. It had been a long time under oppression. It was then that he finally stops giving credit to the “messenger”, and says “We will die, for we have seen God.” He finally acknowledges God. His response is hilarious, “OH GREAT… We just saw GOD… we are SO dead!” His wife then brings a little bit of sense to the situation. She sounds like she is saying, stop over exaggerating, God would not have excepted our sacrifice, He would not have appeared to us, and he wouldn’t have done all of these miracles. Calm down babe. I get that way sometimes and my wife has to tell me to just calm down.
Judges 13:8-14
The angle of God appears to Manoah’s wife revealing that he will have a child and gave her specific instructions on how to conduct herself through the pregnancy. Manoah prays and asks God to send “the man of God” again so he can see him and get more specific instruction. All of this seems so out of the order of God. First, he goes to the wife and tells her that they were to have a son. He then tells the wife not only what she is to do through the pregnancy but about Samsons life as well. When Manoah meets the man he asks to know more about the rules that were to govern his son’s life and work. The angle tells him to just to make sure and help your wife do what I told her to do.
It is funny that we are always asking for more of the story even when God gives us specific instructions. When Manoah prayed and asked God to send the “man of God” back he said “…give us more instructions about this son who is to be born”. We get instruction from God from someone else and then we want to here it from a more reputable source with even more instruction and we haven’t even been fruitful yet. We go to church, have our own quiet times, and go to conferences and god is giving us the same first instruction… Live set apart and be fruitful. For some reason we haven’t been fruitful and we haven’t been living right and we want to know further instructions about the child. The angel says just help your bride do what I already said to do. The Bride is the church. the husband is leadership. and the angle is the voice of God. The people are getting a word – live right and be fruitful. The leadership is asking give us more instruction on what to do when the child comes and the spirit of God is saying just help them to accomplish what I have already told them to do.
Judges 12:1-5
Pregnancy changes the way that a good mother eats and the vitamins you take. It will cause you to give up some of what you drink and eat. It will cause you to nourish your body differently know that a new life is being birthed. I think it is crazy that God came to Samson’s mother and asked her to give up things that he was calling samson to even before his birth because she was the one nourishing him in the womb. He had no alcohol, grapes, or forbidden foods even in his mothers womb.
What a responsibility. This puts a much heavier weight on discipleship. Even from the womb what I am eating is important to the children I am bearing. It takes a lot out of the idea that I can do whatever I want and it will have no effect on my spiritual children. God has entrusted those to us.
Judges 11:1-8
Because we need you. Jephthah’s mother was a prostitute and his half brothers were not down with that. His brothers ran him off of their fathers land making sure he would not receive any of his inheritance. He was a natural leader and a great warrior and quickly developed a band of rebels that followed him. The people were being oppressed and the Ammonites began an attack on Israel so they called for help from Jephthah. His response is classic, “Aren’t you the ones who hated me and drove me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now when you’re in trouble?” They answered “Because we need you.” Am I willing to fight for those who push me away when they ask for help because they need me? The easiest response would probably be “you are about to get what you deserve… EXPERIENCE THE WRATH OF GOD!” I would have a hard time believing that they would carry out their end of the bargain when they had run me off in the past. What is the spiritual application. The product of a prostitute – prostitution was a symbol of the people of God selling themselves to other god’s for out of covenant self satisfying pleasure. This was the state of the nation at that time. They had sold out to other gods (look at the closing half of chapter 10). The fruit of the prostitution (war and bondage) were the very thing that caused them to recognize their need of help. It is interesting that the prostitute brought forth a warrior. The prostitution of our nation needs to bring forth a warrior spirit. That is a good thought. That warriors response was will you really make me king. He asked twice. This warrior is skeptical of weather you will allow it to lead or are you just using it for temporary freedom.
Judges 10:6-18
When the people turn back to God this time His response is “I will not rescue you anymore. God and cry out to the gods you have chosen.” I feel like this statement is both how He was really feeling and a test. God is interested in seeing your heart of repentance. The Israelites were quick to accept punishment along side of rescue. It says a lot about people when they are not looking to forgo punishment. This reminds me of David and his repentance. He was quick to accept the consequences of his sin. I think this is a big tell in motive… am I only sorry because I got caught. Is repentance a means of trying to skip out on punishment.
