Trampled Champ (Part 1: God's Will Vs. Man's Will) Series

Bumble:

Good morning! It’s great to study the Word of God again with you today. Paul (aka Cau) is up here with me. For those who don’t know him, Paul is one of our favorite former gangsta-boys. He started coming to our college group at the end of 2000, and God worked through his life tremendously. Now, he‘s a 2nd year seminary student at Moody Bible Institute to prepare himself to be a pastor. This summer he’s back doing some internship at our church with the high schoolers and he will be here until mid- August.

I thought we will study the Word a little different this time with Paul. Instead of following the monologue format, which I would share with you what I learned from the Word; this time we will follow a dialogue format, where you will hear from both Paul and I. If you have your Bible, please turn to Judges 13. Paul, can you open our study with a prayer?

Paul: {Prayer}

Bumble:

We are at the high-point of summer with the Sport Festival (which has 18 Vietnamese churches in this region to compete in a variety of sport). So for these next two weekends we will be study the life of the greatest athlete in the Bible: the story of Samson. Most of the time, we only know about Samson and his story involved Delilah; but this time we will start even from his miraculous birth. Here’s the account of his birth…

{Paraphrasing Judges 13:2-14, 24}

Paul, wouldn’t you say that his birth was miraculous?

Paul:

The birth of Samson was a unique one. In the Bible when a person was born by a barren woman indicates the supernatural provision of God for a unique purpose. Sarah who was barren gave birth to Isaac, Samuel was conceived by Hannah who was barren, Elizabeth was barren and God gave her John the Baptist. They were all very extraordinary.

Samson not only was born by a barren woman, but the Angel of the Lord appears to announce his birth. The appearance of the Angel of the Lord always marks a very significant event in Israel’s history. The only other birth He announces was Isaac in the Old Testament; and in the New Testament, we only see the same thing happened to John the Baptist, and especially Jesus. This made Samson’s birth extremely special; he was ranked right up there with the other Men of Destiny. The coming of Samson was highly anticipated.

Bumble:

Talking about Men of Destiny, I think Samson was one of the few who knew for certain what he was destined to be since childhood. Verse 1 underscored the historical background that the Philistines were dominating Israel at the time. And verse 5b identified Samson “will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines”.

That’s an amazing privilege. Most of the time, we just want to know what our destiny would be. We often ask, “What’s God will for me?” As if it will solve all your problems. High School grads wondered if God’s will for them are in a certain majors, schools, or profession ("I wondered if God’s will is for me to finish Med school...") Lonely singles wondered if God’s will for them involved a certain persons as their future mates ("I wondered if God’s will that we would be married...")

Jesus knew God’s will explicitly from His birth ("you shall call Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins"). Jeremiah knew his prophetic destiny from his childhood; David was anointed King even a few decades before his actual coronation... Wouldn’t it be great if God let us know the blue print of our lives so that we wouldn’t be so restless about our future?

Here this guy knew it even before he was born. God told his parents explicitly what he would turn out to be. Paul, what do you make of his parents?

Paul:

His parents were godly parents. They seek the Lord’s will diligently for instruction in caring for him. They restrain from wine, strong drinks and food that are unclean. They were slavishly obedient in not cutting his hair. Samson was raised up by godly parents and he knew about his special calling for the Spirit of the Lord was with him.

Bumble:

Let me add a little bit about what it meant to be a Nazirite (v.5 “the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth”). The word itself means “consecrated” or “separated” and refers to anyone who set themselves apart for God for a period of time. In the case of Samson, or Samuel, and John the Baptist, this period of time is until their death. From the Nazirite code in Numbers 6:1-8, we know that the Nazirite observe 3 special things beyond the worship life of a normal Jewish person: 1) He would not drink alcohol, 2) he would not cut his hair; 3) He would not defile himself by touching dead corpses.