Did your school yearbook have this category: “Most Likely to Succeed”? If so, would we find your picture there? Perhaps you were too much of a goof in high school to lead any of your classmates to believe that you would ever amount to much. If you were the chosen one, have you measured up to the expectation? Have you become a champ, or have you ended up a chump? Over the next four weeks that’s the question we want to ask about Samson - the long-haired strongman who lived in Israel over 3,000 years ago. It may surprise you to learn that of all the people in the Bible, Samson was probably the most likely to succeed. Let’s find out why, and as we do we’ll see what we can learn about ourselves and about our Savior-God.
Even before Samson was born, God made it known that he was destined for great things. One day the Angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s mother and said: “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 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” (Judges 13:3-5).
The astonished mother-to-be ran to her husband, Manoah, and reported what had been said. You have to admire Manoah’s response. He didn’t grunt an acknowledgment and go back to the Sports page. He prayed. He prayed that God would send the messenger again to, as he put it, “teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born” (Judges 13:8). Dads, Manoah sets a great example for us. He’s not content to leave the childrearing to his wife. He wants in on the action but is humble enough to admit that he’s not sure how to do that. And so he turns to the Lord in prayer. Do we, like Manoah, eagerly seek the Lord’s guidance in raising our children? Or are we content to fake our way through this thing called “parenting” because we’re too busy researching our fantasy football picks? That wasn’t Manoah’s attitude. How blessed Samson was to have a father like that!
God answered Manoah’s prayer and the Angel of the Lord appeared again but he just repeated what he had already told the Mrs.: neither she nor the son to be born should drink alcohol or eat anything unclean like pork. And they shouldn’t cut the boy’s hair, ever, as his long hair would proclaim the he had been dedicated to God’s service (like a nun’s habit would proclaim). No new information, however, was forthcoming.
Manoah doesn’t seem willing to settle for that and so he offers to prepare the messenger a meal, perhaps hoping that a taste of goat BBQ would loosen the stranger’s tongue. But the Angel of the Lord said: “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” (Judges 13:15). Manoah still didn’t know that this visitor was from heaven and so he prodded: “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?” (Judges 13:17) But Manoah’s inquiries had gone far enough. The Angel of the Lord replied: “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding; it’s too wonderful” (Judges 13:18 - paraphrase).
What did the Angel of the Lord mean that his name was “beyond understanding” and “too wonderful”? It was a gentle rebuke to remind Manoah and us that God doesn’t always tell us what we want to know about him or our future but he always tells us what we need to know and we should be content with that. Manoah was desperate for more details on how to raise his son but the heavenly messenger assured him he had all the details he needed. Likewise we often wish that God would just tell us which house to buy or what kind of career to pursue. “I want to do your will,” we cry. But God replies, “You already know my will. Love me and love your neighbor. Keep that in mind as you choose a house and a career.”
Even if God were to tell us everything we would like to know about him, our puny human minds wouldn’t be able to process it. For example, God has told us that he is “triune” that is, he is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit yet one God, not three Gods. Do you understand how that can be? No, even when we stand on our spiritual tippy-toes we still can’t reach the bottom step of the throne of the Eternal that we may fully grasp him (adapted from C. Spurgeon). But it’s not important that we understand God fully; it’s crucial that we trust him completely. That’s what the Angel of the Lord was telling Manoah.
But is the God of the Bible worthy of our full trust – especially if we can’t always understand his ways? I mean you wouldn’t invest in a business venture just because some stranger said: “It will be great. Trust me!” The God of the Bible of course is not a crook who is eager to rip us off. That truth was illustrated for Manoah and his wife. As the Angel of the Lord had requested, Manoah prepared the goat as a sacrifice to God. Then two miracles happened. First, fire shot up out of the rock to consume the offering. Then the Angel of the Lord jumped into the fire and blazed up to heaven with the flames! It was only at this moment that Manoah and his wife realized that they had been speaking to God himself! Manoah was terrified. He was certain they would die, for sinners can’t normally come into contact with a holy God and survive any more than a bundle of newspapers can withstand being tossed into a roaring campfire.
But Manoah’s wife was spiritually quicker than her husband on this occasion. She said: “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering… from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this” (Judges 13:23). Let’s start with her last point. If God had meant to kill them, he wouldn’t have promised that they were going to have a son. No parents. No son. Besides, God had accepted their sacrifice. He had burned up the goat when he could have just as easily turned the fire on them! What a blessing a believing spouse is. Someone who knows well our fears and can allay them, not with earthly platitudes, but with heavenly promises firmly rooted in God’s Word!
But what I think is really interesting is how the Angel of the Lord went up in the flame – as if he himself was the sacrifice… Do you see where I am going with this? You might if you remember who the Angel of the Lord is. He was sent by God but he also was God, as Manoah confessed. The Angel of the Lord is often an Old Testament name for the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God who, of course, is now known as…Jesus. This Jesus did actually leap into the flame of God’s wrath over our sin. That happened on Good Friday when he was jammed onto that piece of kindling we call the cross.
What does that mean for you? Well, we started this section by asking how can you trust a God you can’t fully understand. I trust him because he has proven his love for me at the cross. And so even though I don’t fully understand his ways, I know that he always has my best interest in mind. It’s like having a friend who is a mechanic. You might not always understand what he’s talking about when he’s discussing what work needs to be done on your car but you’ll entrust him with that work because as your friend, he’s already shown that he cares about you and wouldn’t do anything to intentionally harm you or rip you off. You won’t even freak out when he’s taken your car apart and has pieces of it lying all over your driveway. Likewise when it feels as if God has taken your life apart and the pieces are lying all over the driveway, you can trust that he’s going to put them back together again so that you’ll be spiritually better off than you were before. I mean if God was willing to die for you, is he going to withhold from you now anything that you really need? No, not even when he chastises us as he did the Israelites of Samson’s day by allowing them to suffer under the heavy hand of the Philistines. That oppression lasted 40 years – a lifetime for many! Yet since it came from a loving God, it’s exactly what the Israelites needed so they would repent of their sins and enjoy God’s love forever in heaven.
But what does this all have to do with Samson? He had so much going for him, didn’t he? His birth was announced by God. He was born to God-fearing people who took their parenting roles seriously. And yet, as we’ll learn in the coming weeks, Samson was often more of chump than he was a champ. That serves as a warning especially for you children. You’re here this morning because you too have parents who love you very much and who are concerned for your spiritual welfare. You belong to a church that takes your spiritual education seriously and so we provide Sunday School and confirmation classes. I don’t think it would be far-fetched to say that of all your school classmates, you are among the most likely to succeed and make it heaven. But it’s not how you start that’s important; it’s how you end . You may have faith now but will your faith remain after you move out of your parents’ house some day? Your parents can’t save you. Their faith in Jesus doesn’t cover you like a family-insurance policy. Don’t throw away this dear gift God has given you.
Samson’s disappointing example can also serve as comfort, as strange as that may sound. Sometimes the children of believers do disappointing things. Parents, it’s not your fault. Sure, we can always do better as parents but everyone has to answer for their own actions. If your children have drifted from the faith, entrust them to the Lord and pray fervently that the Holy Spirit will bring them back to acknowledge the truths you taught them. We’ll see how that played out in Samson’s life in a subsequent sermon.
But parents, if your children are still at home, you have the opportunity to do better. Send them to Sunday School which starts today. And then when you get home, use the sheet that’s in your mailbox to review the lesson that was taught. Use the questions in the bulletin to review the main points of the Sunday sermon. Make this your regular habit around the Sunday supper table. God will bless this study of his Word, for those who cling to God’s Word have this assurance: they’re not just most likely to succeed and make it to heaven; they will mostly certainly succeed. That’s God’s promise to you in Christ Jesus. Amen.
