A Preview of Christ
Judges 1:1-25
In John 5:39 Jesus commands His hearers to search the Scriptures for Him, as He is the way to eternal life. We also read in Luke 24:44-46 That Jesus opened the eyes of the Apostles that they might understand what the Scriptures said about Christ. The birth, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus are taught throughout what we call the “Old Testament.” The beginning of the Gospel does not begin with the birth narratives in the New Testament. If you will look at the early preaching in the Book of Acts, you will notice that the sermons begin in the Old Testament. Even when Paul is preaching to Gentiles such as in Acts 17:22-31, he begins with the doctrine of creation, even though he does not directly quote the Scripture. If this is the way Jesus and understood the Old Testament, we should interpret it the same way.
Early in the Book of Genesis, (Genesis 3:15), we have the first statement of the Gospel. After the fall of Adam and Eve, God curses the serpent and tells him that the seed of a woman would have his heel bruised by the serpent, but in turn, this child would bruise the serpent’s head. It is interesting that it says the seed of a woman and does not refer to the man’s seed as was so often thought in Old Testament times. Women in the ancient world were often seen as no more than incubators of the man’s seed. We know that this seed would be born of the Virgin Mary and had no earthly father to beget Him.
So how is this passage about the announcement of the birth of Samson point to Jesus Christ? Before I go further here, I want to make it clear that like the other Old Testament characters, we are dealing with real people who lived on this earth and not some myth. Peter reminds us of this in 2 Peter 1:16. This story is not an allegory. An allegory requires every point to mean something other than what it states. When we look at the text, we can make some comparisons between Samson and Jesus. For example, they are similar in the miraculous nature of their birth. They were separated from birth to deliver Israel. They both were handed over to Gentiles, suffered, and died to bring deliverance to Israel. But we must also note some extreme differences. Samson would not be faithful in obeying the Nazarite vow whereas Jesus was faithful to death. Samson was betrayed by his own passions and not by the treachery of a friend. Samson’s death only brought a temporary deliverance to Israel. Jesus brings eternal deliverance from a greater enemy than the Philistines to a much broader idea of Israel. We need to look at verse 5 which says that Samson would begin the deliverance, not finish it.
Nevertheless, this passage points to Christ in many ways. First of all, the text begins with the sad note that Israel was wicked yet again. As a consequence, the Lord put them in bondage to the Philistines. This pattern repeats itself throughout the Book of Judges. Judges, starts well with the Israelites remaining faithful to the covenant all the days of Joshua as well as the days of the elders who outlived Joshua (Joshua 24:31). They went out and continued the conquest after Joshua’s death. Then we read in Judges 1:21 that the Benjaminites failed to drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem. Things go quickly downhill from there with backsliding Israel being delivered into the hands of foreign captives and groaning in their bondage. God would send a deliverer, and they would do right for a while. But inevitably they would backslide again. Judges is a very depressing book which ends in Judges 21:25 with the words that “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
In this passage, the part of Israel which Manoah, the father of Samson came from had been oppressed for the long period of forty years. God in His mercy acted in behalf of Israel as it does not mention here and repentance on the part of Israel. He comes to Manoah’s wife, whose name is known only to God. This woman was beyond childbearing years, so this announcement by the Angel of Yahweh was a promise of a miracle birth. The miracle birth theme shows up again and again throughout the Old Testament. We think of Sarah giving birth to Isaac, or Rebekkah giving birth to Jacob and Esau. We read of God causing Hannah to conceive. We read of it here. In the New Testament. The birth of John the Baptist is a miracle. These all point to the miracle birth of Jesus from a virgin womb.
Like the Annunciation to Mary, the announcement is given to the woman first. Joseph and Manoah would find out later. The good news is given to the woman to tell to her husband. She was a woman preacher! We think that an even more important message would be entrusted to Mary Magdalene and the woman at the tomb to proclaim that Christ was alive. It shows that God shows favor to what was considered lowly in society. God uses women as well as men to bear the good news.
Manoah was a bit skeptical about this report just like the disciples were about the message of Mary. He wanted to see for himself. Perhaps this part of Israel is in Missouri. But at least he prayed about it. And it says that God hearkened to Manoah. But instead of appearing directly, he appears again to his wife who has to come and get him. The Angel of Yahweh then told them what He had told her earlier that this child was to be a Nazarite. She was not to drink wine or beer or eat any unclean food. The Nazarite was to live a holy life dedicated to God and this started in utero.
Manoah then desires to offer up a young goat and a cereal offering in response. But the Angel of the Lord said He would not eat of it, but that he could go ahead and make the sacrifice to Yahweh. When Manoah did so, the person he thought was a man disappeared and went up with the smoke of the offering. It was then he came to the dreadful conclusion that this was no mere man, but God Himself. He was certain like other people in the Old Testament that saw God, that he was undone. Fortunately, his wife brought him to his senses. And what the Lord had promised them came to pass. Good news indeed!
So when we look at this mysterious Angel of the LORD, who was He? This angel of the LORD appears several times throughout the Old Testament. Well, for one, the Angel of the LORD is no mere angel. He appeared as a man and not as some ghostly apparition with wings. Secondly, as the Angel of the LORD receives worship, He cannot be either man or angel. When John in Revelation tries to worship an angel, he is rebuked and told that God alone is worthy of worship. So this angel could be none other than God Himself. He is a man, but He is God. Who else can this be but a preview of Jesus? We tend to think that Jesus did not become human until the Incarnation where He was born of the Virgin Mary. Sow how could one say anything about an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. This indeed id a valid point.
In answer to this, we must remember that the early Christians equated Jesus to Yahweh. Many of the prophesies from the Old Testament attributed to Yahweh in the Old Testament are said to refer to Jesus in the new. It would take more time to bring this all out this morning than I have time, but I will bring this out in some of my later sermons to you all. Jesus is given in Philippians a name that is above every name, and that to this name every knee shall boy and every tongue confess. There is no higher name than Yahweh.
As far as appearing as man before the Incarnation, let me suggest a difference here. This man who appears to Manoah and his wife also appears to be able to dissolve it at once and disappear in the smoke. He does not eat of the offering here, but He did eat what Abraham set out before him. So at least in appearance and form. The body was human in the same way as Jesus’ body was after the resurrection where He could eat and drink with the disciples and yet appear in the midst of a locked room. This is a glorified body.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it was not with a glorified body, but a mortal one like ours. It was a body that could be tempted, although He did not succumb to sin like we all do. There is then a significant difference to the person of the Angel of the LORD in the Old Testamnt and the Lord Jesus who lived amongst us. If we preserve this distinction, I don’t think we should have any trouble with the Old Testament appearances of the Son of God. So this then is a preview of Christ in a most remarkable way.
What I think we can learn from this is that God wants us to know He cares for us, even if we don’t care for Him as we ought. God was faithful to His promise to Israel and raised up Samson as a deliverer. And when Samson showed himself to be quite a sinner, God used Samson to begin to end the Philistine oppression even though Samson was unfaithful. This points to the fact that the Father sent Jesus even though we had not repented. It was an act of sheer grace by a faithful God. And even though we live 2000 years on the other side of the cross, God is still faithful today. God even uses us in the church to bring the good news of God’s ultimate deliverance to the world to rescue sinners, even though we are too often miserably disobedient to our vows. This does not mean that God does not bring judgment to us for our disobedience. But our faithlessness cannot annul the faithfulness of God. It seems that the church today like Samson has had its eyes gouged out because of disobedience and we are the spectacle of the modern Philistines. We have done this to ourselves. But if we will submit and repent before the Lord, we might again feel the surge of the power of the Holy Spirit in the church again. In a blind world, we do not need a blind church. Let us get back to what the early church in the Book of Acts did. We need to wait in prayer and study the Scripture the way Jesus taught it, always petitioning the Lord how we should order the church. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to the Word and embolden us in our task. Amen.
