Samson - Saint and Sinner
(Part 1 - The Making of a Judge in Israel)
Chapter 1

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THE life of Samson commences with the announcement of his birth in Judges chapter thirteen. The announcement of his birth is given by the Angel of the Lord who comes to this family living at Zorah, and tells them that God is going to give them a son. The Angel of the Lord comes first to the wife. We are not even told her name. She is simply the wife of Manoah, and we are told the other interesting fact that she was childless, which was a great grief and shame to any family in Israel.

The text at the head of this chapter gives us the content of this announcement, and in it and in the context of the state of Israel at the time, we come face to face with God's wonderful grace and initiative in Salvation.

Israel needed saving. They were ground down under the cruel oppression of the Philistines, but it is not just the immediate salvation of Israel that is bound up in the announcement of the birth of Samson, but also the wider purposes of God in Salvation of the world through Christ.

What impresses itself on me in this announcement of the birth of a deliverer is a glimpse into the heart of God, and his attitude of grace and love to this fallen and rebellious world.

God's grace and initiative in salvation is first highlighted in the statement in verse one concerning the state of God's people Israel at this time.

We are told that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord. When Scripture speaks like this, it is not first and foremost that there was adultery and theft and such like moral failure, but rather that Israel had left their allegiance and obedience to God, and given that obedience and allegiance to idols. It is described as spiritual prostitution. After Gideon's death in Judges 8:33, we are told that Israel again prostituted themselves to the Baals.

This is the abomination and offence which God hates. God chose his people to be his bride. The church is called the bride of Christ in the New Testament. When God's people go after other Gods, loving and worshipping them, they are committing spiritual adultery. This is the great offence. Samson with all his moral failure, never did this. He was always faithful to God. This is a very important distinction as we look at God's view of man in sin, and his judgements upon them. The great offence is turning from faith and obedience to God to idols.

We are also told in verse 1 of chapter 13 that the Lord had delivered Israel into the hands of the Philistines, and that it was to seek to bring them to repent of their sin of doing evil in God's eyes, but there is no indication that Israel had in anyway heeded God, or repented, or turned from their spiritual apostasy. There were just a few, like Manoah, who still worshipped Jehovah, but the nation as a whole seemed to take no heed of God whatsoever, and still went on in their evil ways.

Israel also seemed to be totally hardened in their sin. The afflictions they were in did not turn them to God in anyway. When God provided Gideon earlier as a deliverer it was in answer to prayer, even though there was little repentance in the praying. Here Israel does not seem to have prayed at all.

So we have a people hardened in their following after idols, and heedless of God's correcting action, yet God takes the initiative and graciously provides a deliverer. Such is the heart of God. We may look at the forty years of affliction which God brought upon Israel, and feel God is harsh and hard, but we forget how painful it is to the Lord when his people, his bride, forsakes love for him, and gives their love to idols - to idols which lead his people to all manner of abominations.

Further we need to see that the forty years of affliction under the Philistines was not an act of a vindictive God who takes pleasure in giving pain, but the action of a yearning loving husband, who is seeking to bring his bride back to himself.

Then when we notice how God, after Israel have ceased to heed him or his afflictions in anyway, does not throw them over, or forget his promises of redemption for them and the world, but sovereignly and graciously steps in to bring them deliverance, we see the real heart of God, which is unremitting love.

Let us notice the nature of this grace and initiative in providing a deliverer.

God comes to a woman who is sterile. Not just childless, but sterile and childless. She was without children because she was unable to have children. By choosing such a woman to be the mother of the deliverer, God shows his divine grace. He makes it plain that he is stepping into history in a supernatural way. It is his doing alone.

The child is given his destiny at birth. He is to be a Nazarite from birth, and for all his life. That is he is to be set apart for God. Further God commits himself to bringing deliverance. God distinctly says Samson would begin the deliverance of Israel, and by this God plainly makes a promise that he will not fail to keep. This was in fact true, because, in spite of all the failure in Samson's nature, God kept his promise and made him the deliverer of Israel in an effective way.

Lastly we must notice the agent God used to bring this announcement of Samson's birth. It was the Angel of the Lord. At first Manoah's wife calls him simply a man of God, though in verse 6 she speaks of him as like an angel of God, very awesome. Later, however, they are left in no doubt of the nature of their visitor. After Manoah and his wife had seen the Angel of the Lord ascend in the flames of the sacrifice (verse 20) they know they have seen God. (verse 22).

The Angel of the Lord is none other than Christ himself. It is generally recognised and accepted that the Angel of the Lord, when he appears in the Old Testament, is pre-incarnation appearances of Christ.

In this we see the deliverance of Israel by Samson in the context of a much greater whole. The Jews were chosen by God so that through them the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, should be born. So in the continued deliverance and preservation of Israel, is bound up God's divine grace and initiative in saving the world. However apostate Israel became, God would not fail in his promise to send the redeemer of the world. That redeemer's coming and birth was through the Jewish people. He was to be of the seed of Abraham, therefore God, however evil Israel may become, kept them and delivered them, so that his promise of grace in Jesus may be fulfilled.

The provision of Samson as the deliverer was not simply for the comfort and well being of the Israelites at the that time, but so Israel may be preserved, in order that the promised seed may not fail to be born in the fulness of God's time. In his grace and initiative to save a fallen and sinful world, God provided Samson, so that Israel may be preserved and his promise of a Saviour of the world kept.

So the giving of Samson as the deliverer is simply another glimpse into the heart of God, into his heart of grace and love, where he takes the initiative to save sinners, because we sinners are totally unable to do anything to save ourselves. It is an example of his faithfulness to his word of promise, and thus faithfulness to his character of grace and love.

This is the true heart of God which shines through the Scriptures. Whatever impression the judgements and the wrath of God makes upon us, as we come across the testimony to it in word and example as we read the Bible, this testimony in no way diminishes the testimony which is in the Bible from beginning to end, that God has an amazing infinite love for sinners, and that in grace he takes the entire initiative to provide salvation for us, because we can do nothing to save ourselves.

Israel could hardly have been worse than they were when God with sovereign initiative stepped in and provided Samson. What more vivid picture can we have of God's compassion and love for us. We have this divine initiative expressed in 1 John 4:10 This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins."