FRUITLESS VENGEANCE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in.

"I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead."

Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his friend."

So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.

The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?"

"We have come to take Samson prisoner," they answered, "to do to him as he did to us."

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?"

He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me."

They said to him, "We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines."

Samson said, "Swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves."

"Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you."

So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Then Samson said:

"With a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men."

When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.

Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.

Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Judges 15

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As Judges, chapter 15 opens, we find Samson on his way to make amends with his Philistine wife who he angrily left at the end of the last chapter. You’ll recall that this was after he discovered she had tricked him into giving her the answer to a riddle which she passed onto the thirty Philistine companions he had made a wager with. As a result, Samson lost his bet and ended up striking down thirty Philistines in Askelon, taking their garments so to pay off his obligation. Through his selfish, self-centered behavior, we saw Samson clearly reveal that he was vindictive and treacherous, traits that we find continuing in today’s scripture passage.

For when Samson arrives at his wife’s home, telling her father that he going to her room, the father stopped him and informed that he had given his daughter to another man, a friend because he was afraid that Samson was never coming back for her. The father, realizing that Samson had legally made proper payment for his bride which put him in the wrong, tried to make amends by offering Samson his wife’s sister instead. The father promoted the other woman by praising her attractiveness but Samson would have none of it. As before, he wanted everything to go his way and so he vowed revenge on the Philistines.

We read that he carried out this vengeance in a pretty unique way, catching “three hundred foxes” and tying “them tail to tail in pairs” before fastening “a torch to every pair of tails, lighting the torches, and letting the foxes “loose in the standing grain of the Philistines”. As the foxes ran, the flames on their tails “burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves”. The harvest was destroyed.

Well, Samson’s quest for retribution didn’t end things but rather led to the Philistines doing likewise. For we read that when they investigated how their fields had been burned down, learning that it was carried out by Samson, they killed his prior wife and her father, burning them both to death. It was a classic eye-foe-an-eye scenario.

This series of actions only shows us the fruitless nature of revenge. For typically, it only leads to tragedy that never needed to happen and doesn’t accomplish anything good in the end.

For when we get right down to it, a vengeful spirit conjured up by any person is not of God but only of Satan and sin. This was underscored in God’s Word from Leviticus when He stated this:

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” 19:18

Later, Jesus would go on to use these very words when defining God’s second greatest commandment after rendering the first, the call to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Matthew 22:36-40).

The Apostle Paul would go on to add these words in his letter to the Romans, echoing God’s word from Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse 35:

“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” 12:19

The bottom line here us that only God and He alone could consider and render vengeance for He was and is the only true Judge of all mankind. None of us have the authority but Him but unfortunately, Samson…and too often us as well…disregarded God’s authority.

Going back to the scriptures, we read where Samson, after learning about the killing of his wife and father-in-law, decides to once again get even. In fact, he tells the Philistines that he wouldn’t stop until he gained payback before going on to attack them viciously, slaughtering many before taking up refuge in a “cave in the rock of Etam”.

The question is…What exactly did Samson gain from all this?

We don’t read that he received God’s favor for his actions. In fact, we never see an instance when Samson even asks God for His counsel for if he had, you can bet God would not have told him to go on a murderous rampage unless He planned on using Samson as an instrument of His own vengeance. There’s zero indication that this was happening here. Samson was clearly on his own program.

Well, while Samson was holed up in his cave, the Philistines didn’t stop seeking him. They hoped to do away with him once and for all, eliminating the vengeance he was bringing them. And so they camped near Judah and this made the Judeans very nervous. We get the indication that they were happy and at peace just living under the oppressive rule of the Philistines, something that wasn’t heard of before in this book as the nation of Israel never hesitated entering battle with the Canaanites as they followed God’s command to conquer their cities and drive all their people.

And so when the Judean men found out that it was Samson who had drawn the Philistines into their land, they took “three thousand men” and “went down to the cave in the rock of Etam” where Samson was. They then confronted him saying:

“Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?"

In other words, they were letting him know that his actions had placed them all in danger and basically wanted to know what he had been thinking. His actions carried consequences impacting far more people than himself. Of interest, we should note that the Judeans were showing no concern for Samson himself either. They never asked if the Philistines had wronged him in some way. Rather, they assumed he was guilty and, in doing so displayed the same selfish attitude that Samson had shown for the better part of his life up to now. The Judean men were showing clearly that they were only concerned with themselves, not Samson.

Their very actions prove this as they took Samson and tied him up so to hand him over to the Philistines, all this after taking a vow that they wouldn’t kill him themselves. The Judeans were so self-centered that they would rather hand over a fellow brother Israelite to be killed than risk any harm coming to them. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few or the one.

And so we find the Judeans binding up Samson and taking him to the Philistines who began shouting as they advanced toward him. In the moment, things weren’t looking good for Samson as he tied up and unable to defend himself. Death seemed to be his destiny but as we see, it wasn’t God’s will for that to happen. For a “Spirit of the Lord” came upon Samson “in power”, resulting in the ropes on his arms becoming “like charred flax”. And as the bindings dropped from his hands, Samson grabbed a “fresh jawbone of a donkey” and “struck down a thousand (Philistine) men”. Once staring down death, Samson had experienced God’s grace and mercy first hand.

Friends, this same thing frequently happens to us as believers today. For like Samson, we turn from God and adopt our own sinful attitudes within our circumstances. Then, after we have managed to get ourselves into a difficult situation…a situation where we faced hardship, difficulty, or even danger as a result of our actions…God intervenes and rescues us from our potentially difficult circumstances…and He does so because it was His will for us. He didn’t wish for us to suffer the consequences for our behavior in that instance, even though we deserved it.

Well, in Samson’s case, we finally see him turning to the Lord…later than he should of for sure but he turns to Him nonetheless. This is something else I think we can all relate to.

So what led to Samson going to God?

The scriptures tell is that he became so thirsty that he cried out to the Lord saying:

“You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

Note here that for the first time, Samson gave God the glory for the success he had gained. The victory over the Philistines wasn’t of his doing but of the Lord’s and we sense here that God rewards Samson for his faithful words, opening up “the hollow place in Lehi” and making water come out of it”…water that restored Samson’s strength. Instead of perishing from thirst, he would go on to rule the Israelites for another 20 years.

Friends, my prayer today is that we see the destructive nature of revenge in the story of Samson and never seek to carry it out ourselves. May we ever turn to the Lord in all instances and all occasions, seeking His guidance and then doing what He desires because He will NEVER lead us wrong.

We can always trust in that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

MAKE IT ALL ABOUT GOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."

His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"

But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me." (His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

Sometime later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass.

Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. When he appeared, he was given thirty companions.

"Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes."

"Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it."

He replied:

"Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet."

For three days they could not give the answer.

On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"

Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer."

"I haven't even explained it to my father or mother," he replied, "so why should I explain it to you?" She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him:

"What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?"

Samson said to them:

"If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle."

Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle.

Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. And Samson's wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding.

Judges 14

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Despite a parent’s best efforts to raise their children properly and set the right example for them, there are times when the child chooses to reject everything they were taught and go their own way. In doing so, they often turn away from God and His expectations as well. Such is the case with Samson as we look at his life in Judges, chapter 14.

You’ll remember that in chapter 13, we saw how Samson’s parents, Manoah and his wife, were people who trusted and believed in God, obedient and faithful to His word and will. In return, God miraculously blessed them with a son who would deliver Israel from the oppression of the Philistines. Unfortunately, we see where Samson is nowhere near as faithful to God as his parents.

We see this right away as Samson becomes interested in a Philistine woman and commands his parents to “get her for me as my wife." His words were very disrespectful and dishonorable to his parents since custom dictated that they would be the ones who would select a wife for their son, making arrangements with the girl’s parents in advance of the wedding. Further, Samson was eyeballing a woman from the very people oppressing His people and worse yet, his demand to marry her was in direct violation of God’s command to not intermarry with any Canaanite. For all these reasons, we find Manoah questioning their son, asking:

“Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"

As any good, loving parents would do, they were trying to persuade their son to think about his actions and realize his serious error in judgment but unfortunately, we find him persisting in wanting the Philistine girl, refusing to heed their sound and godly guidance. It was obvious that he was dead set on having his own way in the matter.

And so we read that Samson and his parents “went down to Timnah together” and, along the way, Samson was attacked by a young lion. The scriptures tell us that the “Spirit of the Lord came upon (Samson) in power” so that he could tear “the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat”. All this happened away from his parents who never knew what took place because Samson didn’t tell them as they carried on to Timnah where he “talked with the woman and…liked her”.

After this first meeting, Samson and his parents returned home for awhile only to eventually return to Timnah. As they traveled back, Samson passed by the carcass of the lion he had killed earlier, noticing there was a “swarm of bees and some honey” in the carcass. And so Samson “scooped out (some honey) with his hands and ate as he went along”. He would also give his parents some as well after rejoining them, never telling them where he had gotten it.

While this initially might not look like a big deal, it was. For in eating the honey from the dead carcass, Samson had once again shown his unwillingness to be obedient to God’s requirements since a Nazarite was to have no contact with anything dead. Further, he doubled down on the sin by sharing the honey with them both.

Again, we find Samson bent on doing whatever he wanted to do, regardless of whether it was against the will of God or not.

Once in Timnah for the second time, we see where Manoah, Samson’s father, “went down to see the woman” his son wanted to marry while “Samson made a feast” where “he was given thirty companions”, all Philistines. This feast was actually more like a party where drinking was prevalent and it’s believed Samson did partake in consuming alcohol at the festivities, yet another violation of the Nazarite vow. Over and over and over again, we find him rejecting the Lord and His desires to chase after his own.

Well…in the midst of the feast, we find Samson telling his companions a riddle but there were some strings attached. For if his Philistine companions could answer the riddle “within the seven days of the feast” then Samson would give them “thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes” (garments and clothes were highly valued in this day). However, if the Philistine companions could not answer the riddle, then they would have to give Samson “thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." The companions agreed to the challenge and so Samson shares the riddle.

We see where his quiz is centered on two things: Samson’s victory over the attacking lion and the honey he would later find in the carcass. This made it so no one could possibly know the answer except for him as he was the only one present on both occasions. And so in essence, there was no way Samson could lose the wager without telling someone the answer. He had set everything up to have his own way and win the prize.

Well, the Philistine companions pondered the riddle for “three days” and “could not give the answer” and so on the fourth day, they began to worry that they would lose the bet and have to pay Samson. And so they went to Samson’s wife and pressured her to get Samson to tell her the answer, issuing the following threat:

“…we will burn you and your father's household to death”.

Further, they also accused her of inviting them there on purpose so Samson could rob them, thinking she might have been in on the riddle with him.

After receiving the death warning, we see where Samson's wife went to him and cried out saying:

“You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer."

We should note how deceiving the wife was because she didn’t tell Samson the real motive for her wanting to know the riddle’s answer.

Well, Samson resisted this plea, telling his wife that he hadn’t “even explained it (the riddle) to (his) father or mother” and so he wondered why she would think he would tell her. And so he refused her request and this led to her crying “the whole seven days of the feast” after which Samson could take it no more. The scriptures tell us that he “finally told her” on the seventh day and immediately, she then ran and told the answer to the Philistine companions who had threatened her.

And so armed with the answer, the Philistine companions went to Samson “before sunset on the seventh day” and told him what they knew. This led Samson to immediately knowing that he had been betrayed for how else would they have known the answer except by his wife…the only one he had told. We see where Samson chastised the men before going to the Philistine town of Ashkelon and striking “down thirty of their men”. He “stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle”. Ultimately, the Philistine men’s win came at the expense of thirty of their own who lost their lives.

Well, after paying off the bet, we read where Samson was “burning with anger” and “went up to his father's house”, abandoning his wife who had deceived him. And while this anger raged against her, it was more grounded in the fact that he hadn’t gotten his own way for once. Think of it as an adult temper tantrum.

We see the chapter ending with Samson’s wife being “given to (a) friend who had attended him at his wedding” since he had left her with no indication that he would ever return. We’ll see where this leads to more problems when we move into Chapter 15.

You know, I think we see a flaw in Samson that many of us have shown ourselves at one time or another. For too often want to have everything our way and this comes at the expense of submitting to the Lord’s will and way for our lives. We selfishly place our own wants and desires ahead of His and this has contributed to the prevalence of an “I and Me” mindset over the “we and us”.

So how can we combat the urge to make it “all about me” in our lives?

It’s pretty simple. We need to make our lives all about the Lord instead.

For if we center all that we do in thought, word, and deed on what God expects then we will always be led to the right and just ways…the ways that will always be centered on the needs of others over our own…just like Jesus did. For isn’t being Christ-like at the core of being a Christian?

Friends, if we would only selflessly change our daily focus on God over ourselves, we would find a life that is abundant in peace, joy, and contentment. And we can be left to wonder how very differently Samson’s story would have turned out had he not been so set on having his own way in everything. Today and every day, let us vow to learn from his mistakes and commit ourselves to do what the Lord wills, ever seeking to honor and glorify Him with everything we do. If we make our life all about Him and not about us, we can and will do just that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

GOD'S WORD FOR PARENTS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

Then the woman went to her husband and told him, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. But he said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.' "

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord : "O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born."

God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman hurried to tell her husband, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!"

Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, "Are you the one who talked to my wife?"

"I am," he said.

So Manoah asked him, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?"

The angel of the Lord answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her."

Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, "We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you."

The angel of the Lord replied, "Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord." (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)

Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?"

He replied, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding." Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward Heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

"We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!"

But his wife answered, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this."

The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 13

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Most everyone in life will have the opportunity to be a parent. After all, the Lord designed a man and woman to come together as one flesh, joined together in marriage and able to consummate their love for each other through sexual activity, sexual activity that is the impetus for procreation.

Now, having children is one thing. Raising them up is the challenge of a lifetime, full of ups and downs, successes and failures. No father or mother is given an instruction manual for parenting at the hospital when the baby is born and so thankfully, God has provided directions in His holy Word. One such place is in today’s passage from the 13th chapter of the Book of Judges.

There we find that the nation of Israel has once again gotten into trouble with God, this time resulting in the judgment of oppression at the hands of the Philistines for forty years. We know this has been an ongoing trend in this book and should note that the period of punishment increases every time after God’s people returned to reject Him and return to sinful living.

And once again, the Israelites found themselves in need of a deliverer who will soon be Samson.

As we go back to this chapter, we see the origins of Israel’s future judge by being introduced to a man named Manoah and his wife who were members of the Danite clan.

Similar to prior Old Testament women we have studied, Sarah and Rachel, Manoah’s wife was childless and sterile, something considered a sign of disfavor from God. This is because the Israelites viewed childbearing as one of the greatest blessings the Lord gave a woman.

It was into this space that we find God enter in to work a miracle in her life. For we read where an “angel of the Lord appeared to her”, saying:

"You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

Here we should note that Manoah’s wife was promised the gift of pregnancy but with strict guidelines to follow which modeled the required restrictions of a Nazarite. Nonetheless, what a blessed encounter this had to be for Manoah’s wife! For it was a distinct privilege to be singled out by God in such a special way and receive the news from His divine representative. Do a survey of the Bible and see how many women had this opportunity given to them and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Well, after receiving the angel’s visit, we see Manoah’s wife unable to keep it to herself as she races to her husband and makes the following report:

"A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. But he said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.'"

How did Manoah respond?

His reaction is nothing short of fantastic for we see where he doesn’t question his wife or even start to doubt what she told him. Instead, he automatically turns to the Lord and prays, asking for Him to send His representative back in order to teach he and his wife “how to bring up the boy who is to be born."

The actions of these parents-to-be from this point forward offer all parents today a real primer for raising their own children. This is why I feel we all should feel blessed by this account and takeaway the following three points that can help us be the parents the Lord wants us to be.

First, a father and mother need to trust in God.

Manoah’s wife didn’t question the angel of the Lord when he brought her the holy guidance from God. Neither did her husband question his wife when she told him about the visit by the angel and what was to come. Rather, both believed in God so much that they never doubted that what He said would come true.

We should strive to do the same from the moment God blesses us to have a child through the many, many years that we’re blessed to raise them.

Second, we need to consistently and persistently communicate with the Lord.

In regard to the matter of communication, it’s critically important to remember that it requires a speaker and a listener to be done properly.

We first see Manoah’s wife demonstrate these skills as she first listened intently to God’s word from the angel and then shared that message with her husband. In turn, Manoah then listened to everything his wife said before bringing his petition to God in prayer.

Successful parenting requires these same communication skills, with a father and mother constantly talking and listening to one another on all matters relating to a child while allowing their conversations to be dictated by what they both receive from the Lord first. This comes by ever seeking His will for the child’s upbringing, the child He has entrusted to the parents’ care.

And this leads to the third point…

Parents need to always seek God’s guidance.

Notice that once Manoah learns that God was going to grant him and his wife a son, he immediately turns to God in prayer and asks how they should raise their son. We need to do likewise because it’s the only way that we can ensure we are parenting properly…doing the right thing every time because we will be doing what the Lord wants, no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in. We will never have that level of success if we try to rely on our own understanding and wisdom.

So again, we find three critical steps to always take as parents in the first part of this passage and they are as follows:

1. Trust in God

2. Communicate with Him and then one another

and

3. Always seek God’s guidance.

Well, after Manoah prayed to God and asked for parental guidance, we read where his prayer was heard as the Lord sends the angel back to his wife “while she was out in the field”. This prompted her to run and tell him this:

“He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!"

And with that, we read where “Manoah got up and followed his wife” and “when he came to the man”, he asked him if he was the one who had come to his wife to which the angel replied he was. We then find Manoah inquiring about what the rule should be for his son’s “life and work”.

Of interest, instead of telling Manoah what his son should do, the angel tells him what the boy’s mother should do as she carried her son saying:

“Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her."

The message from the angel let Manoah know everything that was expected of his wife, important because he would be responsible for helping her through the pregnancy in a way that adhered to God’s guidelines.

Now it was customary for an Israelite to show hospitality and so we see Manoah offering to feed the angel, unaware that he was talking with a divine, heavenly being. In response to this, we find the angel rejecting Manoah’s offer but he does propose that Manoah “prepare a burnt offering” and “offer it to the Lord." And so Manoah asked the angel for his name so they could pay tribute to him when his word came true.

Once again, we see there is a complete show of faith by Manoah as he fully accepted everything the angel said would happen with no doubting or questioning.

Going back to the scriptures, we see where the angel responds to Manoah’s question with one of his own, asking:

“Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding."

Indeed, Manoah still had no idea who he was speaking to.

So “Manoah took a young goat” and “together with the grain offering…sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord” and at that moment, the scriptures tell us that “the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched” the sacrifice burn. For “as the flame blazed up from the altar toward Heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame”.

Put yourself in the place of Manoah and his wife for a moment as they witnessed an awesome display of the Lord’s power and wonder first-hand. We see them respond immediately by falling with their faces toward the ground, realizing that they had been engaged with a real angel of the Lord. It was an awareness that struck fear into Manoah’s heart as he cried out to his wife:

“We are doomed to die! We have seen God!"

To which his wife responded:

“If the Lord had meant to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this."

In other words, the wife asserted that they were both going to be fine. They had shown themselves to be obedient servants and the Lord still had much for them to do.

And so go on they did.

Manoah’s wife “gave birth to a boy and named him Samson” who grew and was not only blessed by the Lord but stirred by His Spirit “while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol”. Over the coming messages, we’ll see how his life played out but as I close this message, I would like to add three more points to add to the three previous ones regarding parenting:

Parents should always seek to honor and pay tribute to God.

Manoah and his wife didn’t hesitate to want to show their gratitude to the angel for what he had done, even though at first they didn’t realize who he was. After the angel turned down their offer of food and instead asked for a burnt sacrifice, Manoah and his wife honored him as he had requested…such was their sense of obedience and thanksgiving for what God was about to do for them.

As we parent today, fathers and mothers shouldn’t cease to honor and respect God in everything they do as well. For He and only He is the One who can assure we parent properly and produce a family that glorifies Him in all things and at all times. We also need to show our gratitude for his He blesses our families with every good and perfect thing from above in accordance with His will, ever working things out for our good (James 1:17, Romans 8:28).

Next, parents should expect the Lord to do amazing things in the life of their family.

When Manoah and his wife offered the goat to God in the form of a burnt offering, the Lord did an amazing thing before them as the angel ascended back to Heaven through the flame. This revealed to the couple that the Lord had indeed been in their presence, finding their offerings and sacrifice acceptable.

Today, we still serve the same awesome God of ancient Israel who never ceases to do amazing things each and every day. If the truth be known, the blessings He doles out are far more than can be humanly measured.

And so as parents turn full authority of their families over to the Lord and allow Him to lead and guide them in the way they should raise their children, they will see the manifestations of God’s amazing work over and over again in their lives and the lives of their children.

Finally, parents need to always remember that God keeps His promises.

When it was all said and done with Manoah and his wife, the Lord delivered on His vow to bless them with a son. For we read where Samson was born to them, just as the Lord had promised and would soon become Israel’s deliverer.

Indeed, we serve a God who never fails to keep every promise He has made and every parent needs to remember this. They need to always be in the scriptures, fully knowing and understanding all of the Lord’s assurances so they can recognize them when they come to fruition in their lives and the lives of their children.

Further, all parents need to teach their children about God’s promises so they know of them and can place their trust in them when they grow into adulthood…one day to have children of their own.

I would like to share one last observation on this passage, one I think makes it all the more incredible for I see this chapter as a sign of what’s to come for the Israelites and the world at large.

For soon a virgin named Mary will be also be visited by an angel of the Lord and be told that she conceive, bearing a son who will be named Jesus…a Son who would be born to deliver all mankind from the sure destruction of sin to the free gift of eternal life if they would just simply believe in Him.

And Mary, like Manoah’s wife in these verses, will simply accept what God is asking her to do in a display of incredible faith and trust. She submits to the angel’s message and gave birth to the Savior of the world, the long predicted Messiah who would live, die, be resurrected, and then ascend to the heavens, one future day to return to bring salvation to all Christ believers, just as God, His Father and ours, had promised.

Thanks be to God for His unmistakable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

PRIDE COMES BEFORE DESTRUCTION

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We're going to burn down your house over your head."

Jephthah answered, "I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn't save me out of their hands. When I saw that you wouldn't help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?"

Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, "You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh." The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he replied, "No," they said, "All right, say 'Shibboleth.' " He said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

Jephthah led Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in a town in Gilead.

After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage to those outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty young women as wives from outside his clan. Ibzan led Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died, and was buried in Bethlehem.

After him, Elon the Zebulunite led Israel ten years. Then Elon died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

After him, Abdon, son of Hillel, from Pirathon, led Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel eight years. Then Abdon, son of Hillel died, and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Judges 12

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In Judges, chapter 11, we saw where God had given the judge Jephthah victory over the Ammonites but at a great cost after he made an unnecessary, foolish vow to the Lord. You’ll recall that before the battle, Jephthah made promised to commit to the Lord and sacrifice the first thing that ran out of his door to meet him upon returning home from victory. So as he returned home after gaining victory, his daughter…his only child…ran from the door to him, sealing her fate for Jephthah had to fulfill his vow, one that sinfully violated God’s command against human sacrifices.

Turning the page to chapter 12 opens, we still see Jephthah on center stage as he finds opposition from an unlikely source. For we read where the Gileadite is confronted by “the men of Ephraim” who imply that he went to fight the Ammonites without calling them to participate, an allegation that Jephthah vehemently denied saying that he had indeed summoned them but they had not responded or helped. Ephraim’s threat to burn down Jephthah’s house showed their commitment to conflict and as we see, conflict is exactly what they got.

The sad part about what was to come is that it didn’t have to be that way. The Lord had given the Ammonites into Jephthah’s hand and with that, it didn’t matter who did or didn’t fight with him because God had already guaranteed victory. Rather than being confrontational, the Ephraimites should have been in a spirit of thanksgiving, praising the Lord for His latest display of deliverance but they weren’t. Instead, they were upset over not getting the chance to glorify themselves in battle…jealous that Jephthah had been used in way that they hadn’t.

With this, I wonder how often we might be like the Ephraimites, displaying the same kind of envy when we see others succeed around us. Instead of just being happy for people, congratulating them on their accomplishment, we end up coveting what they have achieved.

The fact is that people are doing this way too often and aren’t even trying to mask it. We see them openly going out of their way to try and make others look bad so they might look good, just so they can gain recognition for themselves. It’s nothing short of personal and/or professional sabotage if you may and we need only look as far as politicians to see in on full display and at its worst. Frankly, it’s a constant display of disgusting, arrogant behavior...behavior that is far from God-honoring, that’s for sure.  

Going back to our passage for today, what happens between the Ephraimites and Gileadites, the men of Jephthah?

Well, we see where a bloody battle ensues with the Gileadites wiping out the attacking men of Ephraim (42,000 total) who would have been so much better off just giving credit where credit was due…to God. But instead, Ephraim let their pride get the best of them and ended up finding out the hard way that it can often lead to destruction (a truth that would later become a famous proverb attributed to the wise King Solomon…Proverbs 16:18).

As chapter 12 ends, we come to the end of Jephthah’s life as he died after reigning as judge over Israel for six years. He would be followed by Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon who would take the reins as judge over the next 25 years.

So what do we take away from these scripture verses?

I believe the Lord wants us to all learn a lesson from Ephraim and be on guard when we begin to feel jealous or covetous over what another person has attained. For God would want us to be satisfied and grateful for what He has given us, content like Paul was no matter his circumstances (Philippians 4:11-12). This allows us to avoid yearning for the things that others gain, whether that is work success or a special love with someone or material gain. It allows us to just be genuinely happy for people when the Lord provides blessings to them, sharing in their joy and thanksgiving to Him for His amazing goodness that is always on display.

When the enemy tries to take you down the road of pride, decline the offer and instead humbly accept what He has done for you while praising Him for the great things He is doing around you, showing Him that He and He alone is worthy of all honor and glory, now and forevermore.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.