If you'd open your Bibles to Judges 13 tonight, we come now to the most interesting judge in the whole book of Judges. It's Samson. We'll be looking at the entire 13th chapter tonight. We'll examine it and read it as we work our way through it. Before we begin our study, let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for the precious Word of God, and we thank you for the amazing grace that we've seen in this book of Judges. It has been incredible. what you do in people's lives and how that you use them even though some of those lives are bizarre. We pray that we would learn lessons as we go through this book as to what to believe and how to behave so we may be used at the optimum level. We pray that you would use tonight's service to help accomplish that. In Jesus' name, amen. There is a statement that is made by the Apostle Paul about the grace of God that's where sin abounds, grace abounds more. The grace of God delights in saving and using depraved, vile, perverted, flesh-controlled sinners. The grace of God loves to take someone that causes the religious world to scratch their heads and transform them into becoming a marvelous token of His grace, raising them up to become a leader and hero. He did that with John Newton. He did that with John Bunyan. He did that with C.I. Schofield. He did that with Hal Lindsey. I read a story of a guy who was actually in a city who knew Hal Lindsey before he came to faith in Christ. He had been a pretty worldly, rugged man, and he read that Hal Lindsey was speaking. He said, this cannot possibly be the same Hal Lindsey that I knew in the world. Turns out it was. That's what God's grace does, and he did the same kind of thing with Sam. We come now to the most controversial judge in the entire book of Judges, even though, as one writer said, he looks like an oversexed buffoon, he is a man who will end up being remarkably used by the Lord to do some amazing things that will actually put him in the faith hero chapter of Hebrews 11. There's no question he has some flaws, but God's going to use him anyway. And he will become a faith hero in time when faith heroes were very, very rare. What makes Samson's such an enigma is that his life is so bizarre. This man is so controversial that Cecil B. DeMille made a Hollywood film about his life. It's a life that contains violence and romance and sex and murder. You're going to see it all in living color in the next weeks as we go through the data. He was a man who was beset with fleshly sins and fleshly weaknesses, and yet he's God's choice of a man. And God is going to empower him, he can't deny that, to do some incredible things. He was a man of faith. He was a man used by God in a very dark hour in Israel's history. Samson would be raised up by God to single-handedly deliver Israel and take on the Philistines in a Rambo loner type of fashion. He doesn't lead a military or a militia. He operates alone. All the other judges, they led some type of army. Samson operates alone. He's like a special ops guy. He works behind the scenes almost like a secret ninja. And the reason why God would use Samson is because he would illustrate more and more his amazing grace in all of this. Samson does not seem to fit the mold. He doesn't seem to have the character you'd look for in a great leader. And God said, I delight in taking people like that and using them for my glory. So when we go through this story, what we see is out of pure grace, God begins the process of delivering his people by sovereignly ordaining the conception and birth and the life and death of his unusual grace choice deliverer. Now when you come to the life of Samson, you come to a story about a man who's connected to four women. And really, he could break his whole life down this way. You have his mother. You're going to meet her tonight. His mother is the most godly, faithful person I'm convinced in the entire Samson narrative. If there's one lady who really is that who exalts God, it is his mom. Then you're going to meet his wife, who's a Philistine from Timna. You'll meet her next week. Then you'll meet a prostitute who is from Gaza. You'll meet her in a couple of weeks. And then you'll meet Delilah, a Philistine woman from Sorak. These are the women that kind of surround this guy's bizarre life. And as we look at the text tonight, there are 10 historical facts revealed to us by God. Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. Notice how verse one begins of chapter 13. Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for eight years. Now the background for setting the stage for the life of Samson is the background that we've been seeing over and over again in the book of Judges. Judges 13.1 says, the sons of Israel were again doing evil and God gave them over to the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. I like what Dwayne Lindsay said, this is a monotonous downward spiral. Now I want you to back up to chapter 10 in Judges for a moment. I want you to look at verses 6 and 7. Chapter 10 verses 6 and 7 in the book of Judges. You'll notice what we read in Judges 10 verse 6. Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreth, the gods of Amram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, the gods of the Philistines. Thus they forsook the Lord and did not serve the Lord. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel. And he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, into the hands of the sons of Ammon. The Lord sold them into two enemies' hands. One of them was the Ammonites, which had been pretty much demolished by Jephthah. That we've seen in our previous chapters. They, for the most part, lived on the east side of the Jordan. That's where they operated. And the other group that he sold them into were the Philistines, who lived on the west side of the Jordan. They were still operating when Samson is raised up. And Samson's going to be raised up by God to begin the process of delivering the people of the nation Israel. He would begin the process. That's what verse 5 tells us. He will begin a process of delivering the people. It'll be actually King David who will end the process. Now, we may recall that earlier in the book of Judges, the Philistines were a powerful group that controlled some major cities on the Mediterranean Sea, known today as the Gaza Strip. They controlled five key cities. They controlled a pentapolis of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. So we come to Judges 1, and we see that God is allowing these Philistines to dominate Israel because they, again, have done evil in His sight. Now here's what's so odd about verse 1 of Judges 13. There is no mention that Israel cried out to the Lord for help. That's the formula we've been seeing all through Judges. The judges, they do evil in the sight of the Lord. Israel gets in trouble again. Then they cry out to the Lord. The Lord raises up a deliverer. The formula typically that we see is they get in trouble, they cry to the Lord. Here's what you have happening now. The Philistines are dominating Israel and Israel seems to have a total lack of interest in the things of God. Israel is not interested in even crying out to God for help. She's not repenting. She's not confessing. She's not doing any business with God. She's just accepting the fact that they are being dominated by the Philistines. In fact, if you look at chapter 15 and verse 11, and we'll come to this in a couple of weeks, But you'll notice they complain. In chapter 15, verse 11, the 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us? They were actually upset about the fact that Samson was delivering them from the Philistines. This is the pathetic condition of this nation. They are so worldly, they don't even care that they aren't right with God. They're so worldly they don't even care if they deal with sin. They don't even care they're missing the blessings of God. Boy, I hope that never happens to us. I hope when we are out of fellowship with God we are so miserable we can't stand it. I hope when we do something that we know grieves the Holy Spirit, We are such under conviction that we must resolve it, because it's tragic when you reach this state where you don't even care anymore. And in this case, God is the one who's going to decide. I'm going to raise up a deliverer anyway, even though she's not crying out to me. I'm going to raise up a deliverer in my pure grace. It is God's grace that's going to do this all. Israel doesn't deserve this. Israel doesn't merit this. Israel certainly hasn't earned this. This is the pure grace of God. Which brings us to the second historical fact. There was a man married to a woman who had no children. You'll notice verse two, there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and had born no children. Now the man's name is given to us, it's Manoah. For some reason he's named after Noah. But in many ways, when you look at him in this text, he doesn't act like Noah. He came from a city called Zorah, which is located about 15 miles west of Jerusalem. It was near the Philistine border, so we'll give him this. At least he didn't run away and move somewhere because he was scared of the Philistines. He did stay in the region. He was from the tribe of Dan, and that tribe was supposed to have Philistine cities on the Mediterranean coast. They were, according to Joshua, supposed to have those cities. They didn't have the cities, but at least he still lived in the area. The text says, and emphatically states in Hebrew, that his wife was barren and had borne no children. When the Hebrew text says that she was barren and had borne no children, the emphasis is there was no capability at all of these two people producing a child. In other words, the emphasis here is they are sterile, so if they're going to have a baby, it is all going to be by God's grace. which brings us to the third fact, the angel of the Lord appears to the woman. Notice verse three, then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, behold, now you are barren and have born no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines." Now the angel of the Lord is an uncreated angel and member of the Godhead who turns out to be Jesus Christ. And this angel of the Lord shows up and appears to this woman, this wife of Manoah, and the real emphasis of this chapter is on Manoah's wife, who is Samson's mother. Michael Wilcock in his commentary made a good observation when he said she's referred to some 19 times in chapters 13 and 14. The fact is we don't even know her name. But I can tell you this about her. She was a woman who reverenced the Lord. She undoubtedly is the godliest person in the entire life of Samson. But this appearance of this angel shows us how special Samson is going to be. The angel of the Lord will specifically show up twice. Samson will be so special that he's going to be given a very unique Nazarite vow. As soon as he starts growing, God is going to bless him. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, the emphasis of this whole narrative is this is a pure grace story. So the angel appears to the woman who has no hope in and of herself of having a baby. She's barren. That is emphasized. And what God is trying to teach us here is that there is no way that there was any human ability. In fact, what you have here is human inability. And God is choosing to use this powerless, helpless, hopeless woman because God wants his people to realize if you're going to have deliverance, if you're going to have any deliverance, if you're going to have salvation here, it is going to be all by my grace. So this angel of the Lord singles out this woman, he tells her that she's going to have a son, and he places on her a really unusual Nazirite vow. And she took in every word. Now a Nazirite vow was a vow that somebody took for a period of time. The actual word Nazir in Hebrew, from which you get Nazirite, is a word that means separated or to set apart. So this Nazir vow or this Nazirite vow was something that someone did to set themselves apart, consecrated to God, usually for some temporal period of time, for some sort of sacred purpose. Now, the original Nazirite vow is found in the book of Numbers chapter 6, and I'd like you to go back there because I want to kind of show you the original vow because this is a modified vow that's actually given by the angel of the Lord to Samson's mother. In Numbers chapter 6 and verse 2, here's the Nazirite vow that is given. speak to the sons of israel and say to them when a man or woman makes a special vow the vow of a nazirite to dedicate himself to the lord he shall abstain from wine and strong drink he shall drink no vinegar whether made from wine or strong drink Nor shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh or dried grapes. All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine from the seeds even to the skin. All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He shall let his locks of hair on his head grow long. All the days of his separation to the Lord, he shall not go near to a dead person. Now, you have about nine qualifications mentioned there at a typical Natzir or Nazarite vow. The nine qualifications are you don't drink wine during the time of your vow. You don't drink any strong drink. You don't drink vinegar. You don't drink any grape juice. You don't eat any grapes. You don't eat any raisins. You don't eat anything that is produced by a grape vine. You don't even eat the seeds from the skins. And this vow that you have is only for a few days. And during that time, you don't cut your hair at all, you let your hair grow, and you don't go near a dead person, even if it is your family member. You don't go anywhere near them, and you stay away from them. So this particular Nazirite vow was a vow that basically said, you say no to just about everything. You say no to certain drinks, you say no to certain foods, you say no to a haircut, you say no to going to a funeral, you say no to touching the dead carcass of anything. In other words, it meant you deny yourself for a period of time in order to dedicate yourself to the Lord. Now there are some Christians who have somehow fallen into a twisted sense of spirituality that says You can really become spiritual in your relationship with God if you come up with a negative strict code list of don'ts. If you don't do that, if you don't do this, and if you don't do that, then automatically you're going to have a great relationship with the Lord. But I would remind you of a couple of things. First of all, Jesus Christ was not a Nazarite. I'd like you to go over to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, and I want you to notice verse 18. In Matthew 11, 18, here's what Jesus himself said. In Matthew 11, 18, John came, neither eating nor drinking. And they say, he as a demon, the son of man, came eating and drinking. And they say, behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, yet wisdom is vindicated by her. So first of all, Jesus Christ never participated in the Nazarite vow. And secondly, Paul blasted this kind of no negative thinking. If you go over to Colossians chapter 2, let me show you where he rips this whole idea apart in Colossians chapter 2. In Colossians chapter 2, you'll notice carefully verse 20. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse 20, here's what Paul says. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why as if you were living in the world do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch? which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men. These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." Listen, Christianity is not a bunch of legal no-codes. Christianity is much more than that. It's a living, vital relationship with the Lord. We're not called to a life of joyless asceticism or legalism. We're called to rejoice in the Lord. We're called to enjoy life. God has given us many good things to enjoy, and that's exactly what the New Testament suggests. So this was a very odd type of code that was given to Samson in view of this very unique calling. Now, the Nazirite vow given to Samson's mother is somewhat modified from numbers. First of all, she was not to drink wine. That was typical. Secondly, she was not to drink strong drink. That's an interesting word, shekar in Hebrew, which means drinks that were made from barley. She wasn't to drink that. She wasn't to eat any unclean thing, according to verse four of chapter 13 of Judges, and she wasn't to cut Samson's hair. Now, there are those who draw prenatal medical conclusions from this text. and they say that a pregnant woman should refrain from these things but frankly this Nazirite vow was not given to be some formula for prenatal care of a baby and I'm not sure exactly how much you can put stock in what a parent previously does anyway because it seems to me we are fostering a society in which a child is learning I can blame the parents because my mom drank beer And I don't believe that. I believe you're responsible for your own choices. And therefore, if you grow up and decide you're going to do this, then you take the responsibility for your actions. You're the one who made the choice. You can't blame mom or dad. And I don't know how much you can put on this, because if you're going to do that, you have to be completely honest with the scriptures. So let's go back to Leviticus chapter 11 just for a moment. And let's just point out a couple of things if you're going to put these restrictions on somebody, because part of the restriction given to this woman is you're not to eat any unclean things. Any unclean thing. So go back to Leviticus chapter 11. And you'll notice in verse 7, it is said that you shouldn't eat pig. So if you're going to be completely honest with this and you're not to eat any unclean thing, then you've got to tell a woman who's going to have a baby, by the way, don't you ever enjoy ham? And then if that's not enough, look down there to verse 23. But all other winged insects which are four footed are detestable to you. By these, moreover, you will be made unclean. Whoever touches their carcasses becomes unclean. You couldn't eat four-footed insects. And I know when Mary was pregnant, she used to love to eat ice cream and cockroaches. So I did not try to in any way apply this principle to her life or world at all. But perhaps, ladies and gentlemen, there has been another restriction that should have been on this that was given to Samson's mother. And perhaps what they should have said is, by the way, we ought to have another restriction. Tell him to watch his association with women. There's a restriction this boy's going to need because he's going to get in a lot of trouble. But that doesn't show up here. Now, what's peculiar about this vow are really four things. First of all, it was given to the mother. And normally, the vow was given to the person who was going to take the vow. He was the one responsible to make his own vow. But this vow is given to the mother. She would be under this vow until the baby was born. And by virtue of the fact that the angel demands that this mother follow this vow during her pregnancy, Proves that a conceived baby is considered to be a real person by God. A baby that is conceived is considered to be a real human being. So if somebody goes out there and aborts a baby, they are committing murder against a real person. That you see from this text. Secondly, it was a vow apparently given to Samson for life and not for a few days. Notice what she said in verse 7. But he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. For the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb until the day of his death." Normally, a Nazarite vow was temporal. It was only for a short period of time. But this is odd, because this was going to be a Nazarite vow that would be on Samson for his entire life. Thirdly, the other thing that's odd about this is that in a normal vow you're not supposed to touch dead bodies or corpses. And the whole point of Samson will be to make dead bodies. The whole point of his calling will be to produce dead corpses. His job is going to be to go out there, attack the Philistines in a clandestine way. He'll be touching a whole lot of dead bodies because he's going to be the one who's slaying the Philistines. And the normal Nazirite vow said you stay away from that. And finally, the Nazarite vow that's put on Samson was not voluntary, it was forced on him by his mother. And most vows that were given were done by the individual. Now two times in these verses, The angel of the Lord tells this woman that she's going to have a son. He informs her that she is going to produce a son who will deliver Israel from the Philistines. And that's interesting what is said in verse 5. He will begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines. He's not going to finish the job. He'll start the job. Which brings us to the fourth fact, the woman reports what happened to her husband. Notice verse 6, then the woman came and told her husband saying, a man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. But he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. And now you shall not drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. For the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Now Manoah's wife runs right to her husband and she reports what happened. And she brings out three unusual things in her report. She says, first of all, the angel of God appeared to me as a man. She doesn't hide that. She said, there was an angel, a man of God came to me appearing like an angel of God. Secondly, she said, I didn't ask him where he came from. I didn't ask him his name. And that's important because here's what that tells us. This woman didn't have to question this guy. This woman knew he was a man of God. This woman knew she was in the presence of something divine. She did not need to see proof. When he showed up and told her this, he was the proof. As George Bush said in his commentary in the 1800s, she had a strong suspicion that this man was more than a human. This is Jesus Christ here, who's appearing to her in human form. Thirdly, She says this boy is gonna be under a Nazirite vow from the day of his birth until the day of his death. Now, as I've analyzed what she tells her husband in verse seven, she tells her husband, you will conceive and give birth to a son and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death. She leaves out a couple of things. First of all, if you go back to verse five, the text says for behold you shall conceive and give birth to a son and i want you to notice carefully that the emphasis is on the fact that this woman notice verse three behold now you are barren and have born no children the emphasis of verse three is on the fact that it is the woman who is the reason why they haven't had a baby she doesn't tell her husband that that's number one number two she leaves out the part about we're not supposed to cut his hair She doesn't really tell him anything about that here. And number three, she adds a little bit to this. She adds that we're supposed to do this until the end of his life. Now, she may be assuming this is true, but we don't have a record that the angel actually said that to her. He just said he's under a Nazarite vow, and she says he's going to be this way until the day of his death, what the angel didn't say. But anyway, she reports this to her husband, which brings us to the fifth fact. Manoah asked God to have this man return again. Notice verse 8, Now Manoah does the right thing. He seems to be a little... Perhaps skeptical about what his wife has told him, although I think he believes every word she said. But he does the right thing when he has these questions. He doesn't yell at his wife. He goes right to the Lord in praise. He asked the Lord to allow that man to show up again, which brings us to the sixth fact. The angel of the Lord returns to the woman, and she goes and gets her husband. Verse 9, God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, behold the man who came the other day has appeared to me. Now the angel appears to the woman again and this does tell us something. God is very much interested that we know the will of God. He appears to this woman again and this woman, this mother of Samson is actually the theologian of the family. She is a lady of real spiritual depth and whip and she ran to her husband and she said he's here again. Which brings us to the seventh fact, Manoah follows his wife to meet and talk with the angel. Verse 11 says, Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man, he said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman? And he said, I am. Manoah said, Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy's mode of life and his vocation? So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, let the woman pay attention to all that I said. She should not eat anything that comes from the vine or drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing. Let her observe all that I commanded. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you. The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, though you detain me, I will not eat 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. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? So that when your words come to pass, we may honor you. But the angel of the Lord said to him, why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful? Now, Manoah shows that he's not the sharpest pencil in the drawer when he first says, well, are you the same guy that spoke to my wife? And the wife just said, that is the guy. But he is questioning the guy himself and it's interesting because the answer is I am. I am. And that's the I am formula. This is deity here. Now, Manoa is trying to sound like he's a smart dad, and so he kind of comes up with this little question, listen, when this is all over, what's he going to do for a living? What's his vocation going to be, and what should we do in this? Should we get him some weight training to build his muscles? Just exactly what is it that you would like us to do when he's done with this assignment? I think every dad would like to know what his son's going to do or daughter's going to do when they grow up. Years ago, there was a true story about a young guy whose name was Rudy, went to Notre Dame University. He decided that he wanted to play football. His father thought he should work in the steel mills of Indiana like the rest of his family, but he had no idea about Rudy's future and ultimately Rudy went down there and He did succeed as a football player at Notre Dame University. His dad couldn't figure it out, scratching his head. That's kind of like Manoah. He has no idea what God's going to do. And so the angel of the Lord basically says to Manoah at this point, look, your job is to just see to it that you obey what we've already told you to do. That's your job. We've given you the vow. You make sure you protect that son in carrying out those commandments. You see to it that your wife and you see to it that your son grows up with that Nazarite vow. You raise him in the right way and we'll take care of the rest. Now here is God who could have told Manoah everything Samson was going to do when he grows up, but He doesn't tell him. You know, sometimes you'll run across someone and they'll say they know exactly what they're going to do in life and sometimes they really don't know what they're talking about. I mean, they're at a young stage in life and how can you know? Your job and my job is to obey the scriptures. Let God take care of what we're going to do in life. Our responsibility is just to obey the Word. In verse 50, Manoah wants to detain his guest. He wants to prepare a meal. Probably he wanted to talk with him. He wanted to get some more information. But the angel of the Lord said, I'm not going to eat your food. You're not going to manipulate me. And this should have tipped off Manoah. Because when you're in the presence of God, you don't need a meal. You need a sacrifice. If you're in the presence of God, you need to make an offering. Because you are in the presence of Almighty God. So this angel of the Lord says, I don't want to eat your meal. But what you ought to do is prepare a burnt offering. And had Manoah been thinking spiritually, he would have said, well now, who's the one who can tell us to produce a burnt offering? We're not at the tabernacle. Who is authorized to have us build an altar here and have a burnt offering? Manoah has no idea that he's talking to God. He's talking to the God-man. He's talking to Jesus Christ. And Manoah says in verse 17, look, I'd like to know your name so that when this is all over, we can figure out who we need to honor. And it's interesting because Manoah said, let us know your name. And when this all comes to pass, that we may honor you. But the angel of the Lord said, my name is wonderful. If you're reading an old King James, it misses the Hebrew word here. Because if you're reading an old King James, and I don't know how they got it actually, because I've examined the Hebrew text, so I'm not sure how they did that. But they use the word, it's secret. You can't know the name because it's secret. That's not the Hebrew word at all. It's the name wonderful. It's the same word that's used in Isaiah 9, 6, when God would be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God. Jesus is telling Manoah, you're talking to one who is the wonderful God in your presence. In other words, Manoah is talking to Jesus Christ, the God-man. Which brings us to the eighth fact, Manoah offers the burnt offering to the Lord and he all of a sudden realizes this is God. Notice verse 19, so Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord and he performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on four. Now that little four that begins verse 20 tells us what the wonders were. It came about When the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. When the offering was offered up, this angel of the Lord did something amazing. He ascended up to heaven right in the offering. As the flame rose up toward heaven, this divine person went right up in the flame. And it was at that moment that the lights went on in Manoah's mind and heart, he realized, I have been talking to God. And when they realized that, they fell on their faces on the ground. And by the way, this is the last time they'll see him. He'll never appear to them again. But in this wonderful moment of their lives, he appeared in glorious form. And Manoah said, we've seen the Lord. Verse 22, we are going to surely die. Why? Why would he say that? Because ladies and gentlemen, when any human being gets in the presence of God and realizes he or she is in the presence of God, He becomes instantly aware of the sin, of the guilt, of the unworthiness, because you realize that according to the Old Testament law, we all deserve to be dead. When you are actually in the presence of God, you realize, I don't even come close to the righteousness of God. I have fallen far short of His glory. I don't even deserve to be alive. And Manoah said, we're going to die. Which brings us to the ninth fact, the woman theologically calms her husband down. Verse 23 says, But his wife said to him, If the Lord had desired to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would he have shown us all these things, nor would he have let us hear things like this at this time. Manoah's wife is a woman who has spiritual and mental wits to her. This is a woman who understands grace. She's a woman who's very logical and in this case she appears to be less emotional than Manoah is. And she says to Manoah, why would God reveal all of this to us if he wanted to kill us? It's true, the husband is the head of the home, but his wife has more brains than her head here. And the truth of the matter is, why would God reveal his grace to us if he wanted to condemn us? Just think about that. Why would God put Jesus Christ on the cross to shed his precious blood if he wanted to send us all to hell? If that's his plan, he certainly could do it, but why would he go to all the trouble to give us grace? Women of God need to be proactive in understanding the Word of God. Women of God need to be proactive in understanding the grace of God. Women of God need to be proactive in communicating truth from the Scriptures. Which brings us to the 10th fact, the woman gave birth to Samson and he grew and he was blessed by God. Verse 24 says, then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. And the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. There was clear evidence in the early days of his life that the hand of God was on him. And he kept growing up being blessed by God. But what you're going to see as we move through this incredible story is from the moment of his birth until the moment of his death, you have God's sovereign grace involved in this unbelievable narrative. God's sovereign grace was working in the life of Samson. His life, his death were in the hands of God. I leave us tonight with three parting questions. When we find ourselves surrounded by worldly enemies, have we become so dull like Israel that we don't even cry out to God for help anymore? Is it possible that you're here tonight and you grieve the Holy Spirit, you don't even get convicted about it anymore? Is that possible? It was with Israel. She was so worldly at this point, she didn't even recognize her need to be right with the Lord. Secondly, do we have a desire to obey God's word as we see it, as we understand it, or are we trying to get some additional verification? God says, look, here's your job. I've given you my word. You just obey that. Leave the other stuff to me. I'll take care of circumstances. I'll take care of all the other stuff. You just go to work on obeying my word. And thirdly, do we realize that anything we have, anything we've accomplished, anything God has done, has been all due to His grace? You'll sure see that in the life of Samson. And if God's grace can do things with Samson, it can do things with people like us. May we pray. If you're here tonight, and you've never trusted Jesus Christ the Savior, right now in this moment, you may believe on Him and be saved. God's grace is offered to you tonight. Just reach out by faith and take it. Say something to this effect, God, I'm a sinner, I admit it. And right now I place all of my faith in Christ to save me. Our Father, these books of the Bible are so practical to our day and age. They're so pertinent to our own lives because when we go through a book like Judges, in many ways we go through a book that mirrors our own life at times. And I pray that we would be people who would be swift to be in a right relationship with you so that we can experience the full blessings of God. Lord, I pray that we would be so sensitive to the Spirit of God that when we would be out of fellowship with you for one second, that we would just be under such awful conviction that we couldn't let it go, we'd have to make it right. I pray that you would do that kind of purifying work in each of us as individuals and collectively as a church, and we will thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen.