Judges chapter 13 and verse 1. Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. The longest period of Israel's subjugation, as we study through the book of Judges, is this period with the Philistines. Now the Philistines, we've been in the central and the north. When we're talking about Manasseh, we're talking about Gideon, we're talking about the minor judges. They're central Israel and north. Now we're going to shift the focus to the south. We're going to go all the way down to, if you know modern Jewish topography, down to Gaza. We hear a lot of rockets being lobbed and bombings being done in Gaza. So this is just literally a few miles north of Gaza. When we go on our trip in May and June, we're going to go down to the valley of Elah, where David kills Goliath. And you're going to be able to see Ashkelon just in the distance. And that's one of the five cities of the Philistines. So we start this study, we're about 1200 BC. We're about 1200 BC, 1150 BC. So we're still 100 plus years away from Saul and David and Solomon, we're still a ways away from them, but we're getting to the end of this 350-400 year period of the judges. Samson stands at almost the end of that period with Samuel being the last judge. We don't think of Samuel as the last judge. But he actually is. His great victory at Aphek that we read about in 1 Samuel is the beginning of the end for the Philistines. But for 40 years, they harass and they terrorize. Archaeology says that the Sea Peoples came in at about this time and greatly grew the numbers of the Philistines, and so the Philistines are pushing against Israel, coming up from the coast, the plains, around the Mediterranean Sea, and coming into the hill country of Judah, and of Benjamin, and Dan. In fact, the Danites moved north because of this pressure and other pressures. They don't even take their land, which is interesting because Samson's family is of the tribe of Dan, But they're like one of the few families that stay behind. Almost all the other families have already moved north years and years and years before because the pressure of the Philistines and other tribes was so strong against them. Well, let's start this evening as we continue our study on why don't we learn from history, which is really the theme of the book of Judges, at least as I look at it, is the theme. Why can't we learn anything from history? But you know what? We do learn from history, right? I've given you over and over two things we learn from history. What are the two things we learn from history? History repeats itself and we don't ever learn from history. Those are the things we learn from history. History always repeats itself and we don't learn anything from history. Generally, a wise man will learn something from history. I'm always staggered in counseling or working with people how we learn the wrong thing from history. In other words, we learn that I did this and so it's not my fault that this bad outcome happened. It's everybody else's fault, right? And we learn the wrong lesson. And what is the definition of insanity? doing the same thing over and over again and thinking you're going to get a different result, right? If you take a hammer and hit yourself on the head and you go, ow, that really hurt. Hey, I wonder, ow, that, doing the same thing over and over, you're not going to get a different result. And so many times people do not want to trace the bad outcome of their life to their own selfishness, their own sinfulness, their own depravity, their own narcissism. It's everybody else's fault. It's the system's fault. It's the rule's fault. It's the pastor's fault. It's my spouse's fault. It's the kid's fault. It's the parent's fault. And just like our great-great-grandma and grandpa Adam and Eve, we blame everybody else and take very little responsibility. Well, one of the things we learned in Judges chapter 17 and verse 6, and again in verse 21 and 25, we see this theme repeated. There was no king in the land, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That's the theme. They don't learn from history because everybody's doing the same thing over and over again. Everybody does that which is right in his own eyes. So let's start our study tonight of Samson, one of the most enigmatic characters in the book of Judges. And the book of Judges is full of a lot of sketchy and shady characters. I mean, when you stop and think about Gideon and Jephthah, who we've been through, and you think of some of these, I mean, The 350-year period, man, God is using some really crooked sticks to be helpful to his people. I mean, really not great, great spirit-filled, spirit-led guys that sometimes they're doing right and sometimes they're doing really wrong. Well, Samson certainly stands head and shoulders above all the crooked sticks that God uses in the book of Judges. He's like the king crooked stick. It says that the children of Israel did evil and God sent the Philistines after them for 40 years. Now there was a certain man from Zorah of the family of the Danites. The family of the Danites. I've already mentioned the Danites largely are not in the south anymore. They have moved 150-200 miles to the north because they've been pressured out. In fact, When you stop and think about later in the Bible, how many have ever heard the phrase, from Dan to Beersheba? How many have ever heard that phrase? Right? It's all over the Bible, isn't it? Beersheba, our group will go there in May, and June is down in the Negev Desert. It gets 125 degrees in Beersheba in the summertime. Dan will go to Dan. we'll go to where Dan was and there's the ruins of a city that is from 1850 BC and it's right on the road that Jacob would have used to flee from Esau and when he went to his Rebecca's relatives up near the northern Euphrates modern-day northern Iraq And this city probably, we'll see the gates that Jacob probably walked through on his trek fleeing to the north. And this city is in the territory of Dan. What much, much, much hundreds of years later became Dan. And it's the very farther north. So when it says they went from Dan to Beersheba, it means they, it would be like saying they went from Maine to San Diego. They went from Seattle to Miami. That's the length and breadth of the land. Well, you've heard Dan. That's all the way in the north. Here, this is a tribe. Samson comes from a small clan that's left behind in the south. I don't know the significance of that. But I've thought about this before, and I've thought, you know, all the rest of the families of Dan wanted to leave the land that God gave them. Except this couple and maybe a few other couples, they stayed. Because the Danites shouldn't have left. This was the land God gave them. They should have stayed there and should have taken this ground and they should have fought for it and they should have called down the power of God and without going into it and not trying to spiritualize or allegorize too much. It's very fascinating that God picks, not somebody from the tribe of Benjamin, not somebody from the tribe of Judah, which were the tribes that were the most greatly impacted by the Philistines in the South. He picks the Danites, who this was their land, and by this time, everybody else had left, for whatever reason, whether it was they said, we are faithful to God, and we're gonna stay in our land, and this is the land God has given us, and we're gonna be faithful. If that's it, what a great example of faithfulness. Everybody else in our clan, everybody else in our tribe abandons us, but we're going to stay here in the South because this is the land God gave to us. We're going to stay here and do what God told us to do. If that is actually the case, then what a great blessing that Jesus Christ himself is going to appear to them and give them a commission on the call of their life to be two of the most famous parents in all the Old Testament. It says there was a certain man from Zorah of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. In other words, if what I'm speculating on, and I'm going to tell you it's speculation, I try to be really clear when the Bible says this is the way it is, I tell you that. And if I'm kind of speculating on some facts a little bit, I say, hey, this is speculation. But if that speculation is right, it would have been easy for people around them to say, see, you should have gone with your clan to the north. God has cursed you with barrenness. When a woman was barren, whether it was her husband's fault or her fault, of course they wouldn't have that technology to know whose fault it was back then, but it was considered a curse from God. You were cursed. From this point, at this point, Manoah and his wife are considered cursed by God. So you can imagine with the scene that most of you know the story is about to transpire in literally a matter of minutes, a matter of a couple hours, they go from thinking themselves cursed from God to being blessed by God. What a transformation that must have been in their life. It says, and the angel Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, indeed now you are barren and have born no children. But you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb. Now normally, we read in Leviticus about Nazarite vows. Nazirite vows were normally a vow that was taken very short term. It could be a month, a year, two years. And it involved not taking any drink that was a drink from a vine, a juice or a wine, alcoholic or non-alcoholic. It was designed that you didn't cut your hair. So, Jeff Parkinson, you know, you would've fit right in. You know, I mean, that would've been a great place for you as a Nazirite, just saying. But anyway, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. The other day, I went to the barbershop, and the lady, after she'd cut those four follicles off my hair, off my head, you know, she said, you wanna see the back? And I said, what for? There's nothing back there, you know? I mean, I don't know exactly what I'm checking for, but anyway, every time I look at it, I'm like, wow, I'm glad I can't see that day in and day out. That's discouraging, you know, kind of a thing, so. I'm glad you see it and I don't, you know? I mean, it's one of those things, God didn't give me eyes in the back of my head. Praise Him, you know, kind of a thing. But... Never mind, I'll stay away from that. But anyway, I'll not go any further. A razor's not supposed to touch his head. Which tells you that the ancient Jews were not these long-haired, you know, like the Middle Ages depictions of them. But that they had shorter hair. We certainly know that while Jesus had a beard, he would have been completely out of style or completely out of custom if he had had hair over his ears. That was not the way the Caesar busts are of that day and also is not the way the priest Cut their hair in the day of Christ so that was more applicable probably in the 60s and 70s when all the kids were telling their dads the reason I have long hair is because Jesus had long hair and I heard one dad say and Jesus also walked everywhere too, so anyway Yeah, okay, so I'll leave that one alone as well. And then later we're going to find out that he's also not to touch a body of a dead animal or a dead person. So this angelic messenger tells her that she's going to conceive a son, and no razor shall come on his head, for he shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, not a period of time, but for his whole life he was going to be a Nazarite. In other words, he was going to be a very ferocious looking character. Right? And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. I want you to notice that this is, I believe, the first instance of being delivered from trepidation in the book of Judges in which the people don't call out to God. They're not even complaining about the oppression. In other words, they've been oppressed for so many years Every other case is they complain about the oppression and under Banasah, or under Jephthah, we read that they'd actually put away their false gods and there was actually a level of true repentance with Jephthah. This is the first time in the book that you don't even hear them complaining. The Philistines are oppressing them, and we don't read anywhere, it just says they're being oppressed, and it doesn't say the people cried out to God, oh God, we've sinned, or God, deliver us, or God, fix this, or God, take care of this, or, or, or, or. We don't see any of that. I'd like you to notice, first of all, I think a thought here is that God may bless his people even when they're not obedient. God may bless His people even when they're not obedient. God is going to begin to bless them even when they haven't even cried out for deliverance. Just because He's God. And just because He's promised to take care of them. And just because they're His people. He blesses them for His namesake. Not because they deserve His blessing. Not because they've repented. They haven't done any of that stuff. But here is one faithful family, and God says, I'm going to begin to deliver Israel, and I'm going to show Israel that I'm going to be strong for my name's sake. Not because they've obeyed me, not because they've repented, not because they've asked for forgiveness. I am just going to be strong for my name's sake. Wow. What a great God. I saw a meme the other day on Facebook. An angel. covering the face with the wing like this. And the meme said something like, this is my guardian angel trying to take care of me. Some of you've had children and you know exactly how overworked their guardian angel was, right? Yeah. You know, it's something great that God takes care of us sometimes when we're walking and acting foolishly and sometimes even sinfully. And God still protects us from ultimate evil like we should deserve. We see with the children of Israel that God says, I'm going to send you a unique character, a Nazirite. He is going to be different from you to show you how you should be different from the Philistines, how you should follow me, not false gods, how you should be delivered. You should be different. And the irony of Samson's life is that Samson, by his Nazirite vows, is living out holiness, living out uniqueness, living out separateness. And yet he is going to be as compromised morally as any judge, as any character in the Old Testament, yet by his hair, and not touching a dead body, and not drinking of the vine, and all the things he's supposed to do, he compromises at every single level. At every single level. God may bless his people even when they aren't obedient. But boy, God's people shouldn't be presumptuous to assume that God will bless when they aren't obedient. And I think maybe the word bless is a little bit strong. God will take care of. God will protect. God will intervene for. You remember the story of Moses when he hits the rock? The people are griping. It's a bunch of independent Baptists out in the desert. And they've had manna, sauteed manna, boiled manna, fried manna, sliced manna, diced manna. They have had manna every way imaginable. They've had northern Egyptian fried manna. They've had southern Cajun fried manna. They have had manna at every single level, every single level. And they're griping, they're thirsty. Well, I understand being thirsty. I roofed houses in Arizona when I was 17, 18, 19, and 20. And you learn about being thirsty, speaking of which, anyway. You learn about being thirsty when you're on top of a roof in the summer in Arizona. They were thirsty. They didn't have water. They had herds, and they had people, and they had babies. And they are griping about, you know, maybe we should have stayed in Egypt. We would have been better off slaves in Egypt. Wow, and Moses gets perturbed. Wow, that's easy to do. That's easy when you're, it's just gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe. Complain, complain, complain, complain, complain, complain, complain. Fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it. Well, of course, in Moses's mind, look, I spent 40 years in luxury. And then I spent 40 years in the back side of the desert. And then God called me back and we saw these great victories. And then we spent about a year and a half or two years in the desert. And I wanted to go into the land of Kadesh Barnea and you people didn't want to. The reason this is all messed up and we're hot and bothered and we're still eating manna instead of grapes under our own fig trees in the land of Israel is because you guys didn't want to go in the land and you lost faith. And I tried to get you. I begged you. I said, please don't do this. And I'm out here suffering with all of you and I'm 118 years old and it's hot. And Carrier won't invent the air conditioner for 3,500 more years. And you remember what Moses did? What'd he do? He hit the rock. What did God say? Speak to the rock. Speak to the rock. You know what's interesting is God disobeyed Moses in the middle of his frustration, in the middle of his own hurt, in the middle of his feelings of rejection, he disobeyed God's command to him, and he said, shall we, you rebels, shall we bring water out of this rock? And he hits the rock. And we're told in Hebrews that the rock was who? Christ. He hit Christ. Now the question is here, even in the middle of Moses' sin, which if there's any sin in the Old Testament that I can understand, it's Moses'. When you put that historical context on it, I understand Moses' sin. I get it. Most of you do too if you've ever had a child. I know a few of you are like, my children are perfect. They've never been sick, never ever. They have always perfect children. Okay, mine weren't, so praise God for yours. But most parents can relate to just, ah, I've told them over and over again. And you know what Moses did? He hit the rock. He didn't speak to the rock, and God said, you can't go to the promised land. Moses spent 80 years in 125 degree deserts. 40 of them with sheep, and 40 of them with rebellious Israelites. I'm not sure which was worse. He spent 80 years in the desert, and he never got to see the promised land. You look at that and you say, my goodness. God, if there's ever a time you overreached in consequence, Moses, the meekest man to ever live, the Bible says. And yet, one of the interesting side notes of that story is God still brought water out of the rock. that humbles me as a pastor. It humbles me as a pastor to realize that God said to Moses, you sinned before all the people by claiming the glory for bringing water out of the rock to be equal with me. You lost your temper. And therefore, since you sin publicly as a leader, there must be consequences to you publicly as a leader. You won't be allowed to go in the promised land, and you need to now get Joshua, start training him. But you know the great story there is God is always faithful to his people because water still came out of the rock. Even though the people were in sin, even though Moses was in sin, everybody was sinning. God still didn't let his people die. God still brought water out of the rock. How encouraging that is to me as a pastor because I know that there are, well, there have been like two days in 30 years of ministry where I wasn't walking in the spirit. Okay, three. Okay, three. I'll admit to three. What is always humbling to me is that I know that God will hold me accountable when I don't walk in the Spirit. But I know that God will always bless His people. God will always bless you as you're faithful to Him. Don't ever look at me and say, well, pastor didn't do this and that, so therefore I don't have to. No, it doesn't work that way. God still brought water out of the rock to the Israelites. They hadn't cried out to God, they hadn't repented of their sin, and God still said, I'm gonna send you a deliverer. So let's look at this character. So it says in verse six, so the woman came and told her husband saying, a man of God came to me and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Very awesome. But I did not ask him where he was from and he did not tell me his name. This is... I have never met a woman like this. She didn't talk to the angel. I mean, literally. I didn't ask him this. I mean, most women I know is like, so where are you from? How old are you? You know, I mean, they would... I'm joking a little bit. Wow, you are a tough audience tonight, aren't you? Yeah. She doesn't ask him this, and he said to me, behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And understandably, I was joking a bit, understandably, I get why she didn't ask him a lot of questions, she was thunderstruck. How would you like to be a woman who everybody laughs at, mocks at, you feel cursed of God, you can't have a child, and all of a sudden an angel appears to you and says, you're gonna have a kid. I mean, I'm sure Mary, the mother of our Lord, was shocked when it was, you're gonna have a child without Husband without normal Fertility process of a male and a female coming together, but here is another one where she's been she's probably given up Just like Samuel's mom is weeping and wailing because she's so abused by the other wife because she's not fertile She can't have a child Isn't it interesting that God understands infertility in scripture because he gives so many instances of women who are infertile crying out to God. What a comfort it is to women that have to go through that, to husbands that have to go through that. The Bible doesn't just record every great thing, it records difficult things as well. The woman says that he tells me not to drink wine or similar drink nor eat anything unclean for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. So this is not a short-term Nazarite. This is forever. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, oh my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to show us again and teach us. This is one reason why I tend to think that this was a couple that had stayed in their original inheritance because they were spiritual and godly. The husband just has a perfect response to his wife coming and saying, saying, wow, I just had this amazing vision of an angel. And immediately the husband doesn't go running around like, oh no, no. He immediately falls on his face and says, God, help me. I need help. How do you want us to rear this special child? The husband didn't lack faith. This is a spiritual man. He doesn't lack faith. He immediately takes the word of his wife, the word of the angel, and he takes it at face value. And he says, in other words, oh, I don't know that happened. Oh, you must have been dreaming. Oh, it was fake. No, he says, tell me, God. He falls on his face and says, oh, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said, Look, the man who came to me the other day has just come appeared again. So Manoah rose and followed his wife. And when they came to the man, he said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. And Manoah said, Now let your words come to pass. What will be the boy's rule of life and his work? How am I supposed to rear this child? If this is a special child for Israel, tell me my responsibility. I'm willing to do it. What a great spirit Manoah has. Then you read in verse 13, the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. He repeats it. He repeats it. She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I command her, let her observe. I'll give you a second thought here. God does expect his people to be different. God does expect his people to be different. I think it's a great application from Romans 15.4 that these stories are given a foretime for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scripture might have hope. God expects us to be different. You look at, he was going to be a Nazirite from birth for the rest of his life, symbolizing his differentness, his separateness, in a culture that was becoming very, very, can I use our terminology, very secular. That the religious and the secular were merging, so you really couldn't tell them much apart. And I don't want to get off on this because you know my thoughts, but you know, you can go to many evangelical churches today, and you don't know if you're at church or in a nightclub. You don't know if you're a church or in a bar. You don't know. I love John Leland, one of the revolutionary Baptist leaders. And he had two large churches in Virginia. He was close to where Madison lived. And actually, Madison came and visited him when they talked about the Constitution. You've heard me talk about that before. And Leland formed. And he had two congregations of about 300. which is a huge number for Western Virginia in the Revolutionary War and right after the Revolutionary War time period. Orange County, Culpeper County, very sparsely populated counties, but he had two large non-conformist churches, Baptist churches. And he would put his crops in the field because he was bivocational. He'd put his crops in the field and by June he would be out and he would travel down to modern day North Carolina. He would travel all around North Carolina down into South Carolina and he would do preaching trips for 10, 12, 14 weeks. And then he would come back and he would take the food out of the field. His wife and kids would watch over it. And he would go to these small villages in the mountains where all the moonshine was and everything like that. He writes in his journal that he went in and they hadn't seen news from the coast in a long time and he would bring news from the coast and he would make them stop drinking and stop dancing for two days before he would preach to them. He made them stop drinking and stop dancing for two days. Now these are people that had moonshine, and they were rascally rascals, and they're probably kin to my kin who are in the Appalachian, you know. And he made them stop drinking and dancing for two days before he would preach to them. And his logic was, they won't understand the Word of God if they're drunk. And if they're being lascivious, they won't be open to the Word of God. So he made them stop being lascivious and he made them stop drinking so that they could hear the Word of God. And they were so desperate to hear news from the coast that they would give up drinking and dancing for two days so that John Leland, he would preach to them and talk to them. I'm not sure that we have many John Lelands around in pulpits today. God expects his people to be different. God called the Israelites as a nation to be a holy people, as a nation to be different. And he's showing that in Samson. And he tells them twice. She is to have a special code about how she lives and how she drinks, how she eats. And he would have a lifetime code. And let's look at the last few verses and we'll be done for tonight. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, please let us detain you. And we will prepare a young goat for you. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? We've already seen this angel of the Lord earlier in Judges, haven't we? Where do we see this angel of the Lord? Who did this angel of the Lord appear to earlier in the book of Judges? Gideon. Does anybody remember in the book before Judges who the angel of the Lord appeared to another man a couple hundred years before Gideon? Does anybody remember who that guy was? Joshua. Remember he appears before they go into the promised land? Same individual. These are all pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus Christ. In other words, pre-incarnate, before his incarnation, before his birth in a manger. These are all appearances of Jesus Christ. You say, well, how do you know the difference between an angel of the Lord, being Jesus, and just a regular angel? Well, we're going to see in a second. Can anybody tell me another time to another great Old Testament pre-father to Joshua? Can anybody remember another time when Jesus Christ appeared to an Old Testament saint in the book of Genesis? Abraham, do you remember? Before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And the three men, and the two are sent away. And the man, Abraham, negotiates down from a higher number to a much lower number. And he says, yeah, if you can have that few of people, I'll spare Sodom. And if you think in Abraham, and you're thinking a negotiator, you know, which Jewish people are well known for being good negotiators, right? Here's their father. He's a negotiator. He's negotiating with God. And if you think in your mind, and you read how many sons and daughters Lot had, Abraham was basically figuring if Lot could just get his family to believe, We can save Sodom if just him and his wife and his family, in other words, if Lot is as successful as Noah was, Sodom will be spared. I almost guarantee you that's what's going through Abraham's mind as he's negotiating for Sodom. The problem was Lot had vexed his righteous soul in Sodom and his family had become corrupted in Sodom. Because he had pitched his tent towards Sodom, and then you find him in Sodom, and then you find him in the gate of Sodom, meaning he was a leader in Sodom. He went from opening his flap door of his tent and looking at Sodom, where his wives and his daughters thought, hey, Sodom looks really beautiful. Hey, can we move into the big city where it's a lot more comfortable? And they got into Sodom, and now he's in Sodom. And then a little bit while later, you find Lot standing in the gate, which means he was an official. He was a leader of the city. And he lost his family. God expects his people to be different. Well, this angel of the Lord is none other than a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. And it says in verse 17, then the Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? That when your words come to pass, 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 goat with a great offering and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on. It happened as the flame went up toward the heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. In other words, he himself was accepting the sacrifice of praise. He himself goes up in the flame. And all of a sudden, Manoah and his wife realized, this is God. We have been talking. to God because he accepts the offering. He accepts the offering. And when Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, the Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. But his wife, ever the practical one, said to him, sweetheart, that's in the Hebrew. Some of you don't read the Hebrew, but said, sweetheart, if you wanted to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted the burnt offering in the first place. I hate it when your wife is right like that. I just, you know, she says this, and you're like, oh. And then she says, no, that's not the way it is. And you're like, oh, yeah, you're right again. He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such wondrous things." He's not going to kill us. He's picking us to take care of this son for Him. I think a great thought here is that God reminds His people constantly of His personal and steadfast love. God constantly. My third thought for the night. God constantly reminds His people of His personal and steadfast love. So it says, the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Manah Dan, between Zorah and Eshtal. Interestingly enough, there's about a mile and a half between these two towns, and Samson will be buried exactly in the middle between these two towns, many years later. But I think a great truth here is that God reminds the Israelites in chapter 13 constantly of his personal and steadfast love. It's personal. He doesn't send an angel. He doesn't send one of his messengers. He himself comes twice to this poor couple on the very edge of the Israelite territory, butting up against this new invading force of the Philistines. Undoubtedly, the Philistines come to their farm and take some of their produce every year because they're in subservience to the Philistines. They're struggling and suffering under the heavy tax burden, in essence. Their property can be invaded. They're only a few miles from the Philistine cities. And God doesn't send a messenger. He comes himself. He comes himself, personal love. He comes himself personally and says, here I am. Here I am. Here is my personal steadfast love for you. Let me tell you this. Every day, God wants to come to you and exhibit his personal steadfast love to you. It's called right here. It's called right here. Every day, He wants you to open His Word, and He wants you to read until He speaks to you from His Word. And I will guarantee you, if you will read long enough, and you ask God before you open His Word, God, teach me, show me, bless me, reveal your Son to me, reveal your will to me, teach me today, I guarantee you, you won't be able to read 15 minutes if you're focused. Now, if you're thinking about 19 other things, that doesn't count. But if you're focused on his word and you read for 15 or 20 minutes, I will guarantee you, God will bend over your shoulder with a finger and he will point at a verse, as it were, with it and say, that one's for you today. Take that one. That one's for you today. Take that one. I took up that challenge when I was 14 years old. I started reading the Bible on my own, not because my parents told me to, not because my youth pastor told me to, but I wanted to pursue a relationship with God. And you know what? I would start reading, and it would be so exciting because it was just verse after verse after verse, and I realized that the Holy Spirit of God was teaching me the word that he had kept for me for thousands of years, and he wanted to talk to me through his word that day. You know, so many times we throw this great privilege away, and we just, as it were, put it away. But you know the great thing about our God is He doesn't abandon us. His love for us is still steadfast, and His love for us is still personal. And He'll cause that hole to kind of be in our soul, and it'll kind of not go right for us, and we'll kind of have this struggle and that struggle, Because He's still steadfast in His love for us and He knows that time with Him every day is the most valuable 15 or 20 minutes of our day. It is the most valuable time of our day. And when we abandon it, we're not hearing Him. God reminds His people, He reminded the Israelites of His personal steadfast love, even when they weren't crying out for Him, He came personally to them and said, I'm still gonna deliver you. What a great story of a love affair between God and his people. That even when his people weren't wild about him, he still pursued them. Father God, thank you so much for your word.