This sermon from the book of Judges is the first of the two part sermon. This mainly talks about Samson and his uniqueness as a Judge of Israel.
Text: Judges 13
Samson’s birth comes with a great deal of considerations. Some of these considerations does not only involve Samson himself, but especially his mother. Today, we will be learning about the birth of a hero and what makes him special.
Samson was born out of a barren woman (v.2) ”A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.” In the Old Testament, most of those women who are barren and then gave birth, their offspring became heroes, prophets, someone that God used for his ministry. Here we can see another demonstration of God’s working that out of a barren comes an offspring.
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In our life, we may be barren in some things. At times we feel so empty and we feel very insignificant in this life. But you know what, even if you feel insignificant, God can make you somebody under His will. Samson came from a barren woman, and he is from the small border town of Zorah.
Sometimes, it is harder to appreciate life when we are born with a silver spoon in our lips. When we have everything, it is hard to recognize to be aware that we do need the Lord Jesus in this life. On the other hand, when we have all these trials of life, we come to a realization that we do not own anything in this world thus, we can get nothing out of it and we cannot add anything in it.
At the end of our time, we will all need to face our Lord and be accountable to whatever we did here on earth. Extra special birth or not, we are all going to face our Lord.
Samson’s birth was foretold by an angel (v.3) “The angel of the Lord appeared to her…” What can be more special for a person when his birth was foretold by an angel? It is already special when you are born out of a barren woman because it is a miracle. How much more when an angel appears to your parents and tell them about God’s plan for you? When this happens, your parents knew that you will be somebody someday and that you are set apart for God’s purpose.
Not all people are going to have this kind of visions for their children. Even in the Bible, this happened only for a handful of people. Nonetheless, each one of us have a tasks to do when the Lord Jesus called us to follow Him.
Samson was given to Israel to become the Judge during that time. His birth gave hope for Israel from freeing itself from the grip of the Philistines. We also have to note that he is not the savior of Israel here. He is just the beginning of the liberation of Israel from the hands of Philistines.
We don’t need to have an angel foretelling our birth or the birth of children. But one thing that we should know, we are called to disciple our children. In our passage we can see that Manoah did not stop from just knowing about the birth of Samson, he continued to inquire on how he is going to up bring this child that God gave. Likewise, we have the responsibility to up bring our children in the teachings of our Lord.
Samson will be a Nazirite (v.5) “You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb.” Samson is a gift from God to the Israelites. He is to become a Nazirite. A Nazirite is someone who is an Israelite, consecrated for God’s service. He is not to cut the hair and abstain from alcohol, and should not be defiling himself from corpses.
Samson’s parents where informed of what Samson will become in the future. For most of us however (if not all), we do not have this kind of foretelling before our birth. Nonetheless, God’s word is very clear to us that God called us to righteousness, obedience, mission, and unity together with God’s people. Are we going to fulfill this call?
Our Lord has set each one of us apart from the world and started this community of believers to be the “Light of the World”. Are you?
Challenge:
We may not have the strength of Samson. But we are also called by our Lord to be a part of His work. We are soldiers of Christ. Are you ready to fulfill that call?
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