King James Bible Study – [And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. – Mark 8:34]
Date: Friday. April 04, 2025
Chapters: Judges 13-15
Message: Judges: Samson Judges Israel
Hello My Friend,
As we continue in the reading of Judges we learn that God chooses what His purpose He has for us from conception, [Psalms 139:13-16 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.]
We also learn that God often works in mysterious ways, and with the power of the Holy Spirit upon us we can do all the things He purposes us for, [1 Corinthians 2:9-11 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.]
When God chose Israel to be the people that would show the world that there is only one living God who by the way created them but also wants a lifelong relationship with them He did not do it because they were the most faithful He did so based on one faithful man, Abraham, [Genesis 22:16-18 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.]
The children of Israel has definitely had their ups and downs with their faith in God, they somehow convince themselves that because they are Abraham’s seed that they are exempt from follow God’s or at the least that they are privileged. While God is merciful to all regardless of what family we are born into He does not work that way, He is no respecter of persons, if we live a wicked life then we can expect His judgment. We have been learning about the decades of ups and downs to Israel’s faithfulness, today we learn that the Israelites did evil in God’s sight again, and that was when He sent them into the hands of the Philistines again for a whopping forty years.
[Judges 13:2-5 And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. 3 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. 4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: 5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.]
Forty years is a long time to be held in bondage in your own country, it is like owning land with an HOA attached to it, you have no freedom to do all that you want to do. A Nazarite is a person who was bound by a vow of a peculiar kind to be set apart from others for the service of God. The Nazarite vowed to abstain from drinking wine and even eating grapes. They were forbidden to cut their hair, handle a dead body, or go against the Word of God, [Numbers 6:2-8]. When Manoah’s wife told him what the angel of the LORD had told her he was not quite sure how to handle that news, so, he prayed for God to send the man back.
[Judges 13:8-9,11-12 Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. 9 And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her. 11 And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. 12 And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?]
It really is important to learn how God wants us to live and raise our children, and here is the thing, this is not a cookie cutter life. Yes we are to live by the same faith in Christ but just like there are no two people alike there are no two families alike, God knows what each of us need to serve His purpose, [1 Corinthians 12:4-7 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.]
It is for both God’s and our own profit that we submit to His will and follow what purpose He has for us, but we do not need to overthink this, God will give us everything we need to fulfill His purpose. Now, with all that news Manoah felt the need to do something for the man, he insisted that he stay until he had made him a meal. The angel agreed, but had specific instructions.
[Judges 13:15-18,20 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. 16 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD. 17 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour? 18 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? 20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.]
The people of God of old were not oblivious of the fact that Christ exited, they just simply knew Him as the LORD, but they did not always understand that angels and prophets were not to be worshiped. The Angel made sure Manoah understood that any offering would be offered to God alone and this is the first time that I realized how the Angel not eating of the bread or burnt offering relates to Christ’s offering Himself and is no wonder why He would not want to partake of anything that would foreshadow His own body, [Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.]
The name of the heavenly Visitor was actually Peli, which means Wonderful, in particular the God of wonders, and while it must have been an incredible sight to see Him jump into the fire and rise up to heaven, there was a far greater miracle awaiting them when He comes here in the flesh, [Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.]
Whenever you realize that something came from God the first thing you do is fall on your face so to speak because you know you are not worthy. Nevertheless, God, knows who we are and what purpose He chose us and He will follow through as long as we are faithful to Him. After seeing that incredible sight, Manoah, just knew that they were going to die because they saw God, but his wife eased his fear and about a year later she had a boy and named him Samson, which means of the sun.
[Judges 13:22-25 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23 But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these. 24 And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.]
I suppose Samson’s name is fitting since they literally saw a man jump into a fire pit and ascend up to heaven but did you notice how it says that God’s Spirit was with him at times? Unlike today, the Holy Spirit did not always indwell man all the time, God would place Him in their body as He saw fit. It was only after Christ’s passion that the Spirit came down and permanently indwells believers, whom Jesus calls the Comforter, [John 14:15-18 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.]
I love it how Jesus said that He will not leave us comfortless, when our bodies are worn out and we do not know which way to turn sometimes we do find comfort Jesus, I know I do. The strangest thing about God is that we can mess up a thousand times a day, but He will continue to use us until the purpose He has brought us here is fulfilled. Even though Samson was raised up as a Nazarite, he was far from fulfilling that vow, but God did have a plan, all the way down to Samson’s desire for the Philistine women. Samson, actually went to his parents to ask for a Philistine woman to become his wife.
[Judges 14:1,3-4 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.]
Sometimes God does have some strange ways of doing things, we tend to think that our weaknesses in our flesh as our biggest downfalls and that we are letting God down, but God sees them as opportunity. God would use this opportunity to give Samson a glimpse of just what His Spirit is capable of through him.
[Judges 14:5-7 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him. 6 And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. 7 And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.]
Samson literally fought with and killed the lion with his bare hands by ringing its neck as he would a goat. By doing this God was showing Samson what he could do in the strength of His Spirit so that he might never be afraid to face the greatest challenges in life, [Psalms 56:3-4 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.]
God will take us where we need to be and give us the knowledge, strength, and guidance to fulfill His plan, whatever it may be. Now in preparing for his wedding it was custom to have a feast, which lasted a week, he brought his parents along with thirty men whom where Philistines that he hung around with quite often. As they were headed that way that was when he saw the carcass of the lion that he killed. He actually made a bet with them to see if they could solve riddle of where he got the honey.
[Judges 14:9-10,12 And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion. 10 So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. 12 And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments:]
Why did Samson not show his parents the lion or tell them that he got honey from the carcass? Part of the Nazarite vow was that they needed to eat food that was clean, meaning nothing defiled or forbidden. Getting the honey from a dead animal would have made it unclean and if his mother still followed the same vow than she would have been defiled as well. This was exactly why the Angel told them that they need to beware of what they were doing as we also need to beware of what we are doing once we receive Christ as our Saviour, and being justified is not cause to deliberately live in sin, [Romans 6:1-3,8 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:]
For three days they tried and failed to discover the riddle until the Philistines threatened his wife to be. Finally on the seventh day Samson gave into her and told her the answer to the riddle.
[Judges 14:17-20 And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 18 And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. 19 And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. 20 But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.]
So, what was the purpose of all this? Samson definitely had a temper on him, but notice again that God’s Spirit came upon him, he not only killed thirty of the men, he took their belongings and gave the garments that he found to the ones he made the bet with. We have all had those people in our lives who we might associate with, but are not actual friends, they are usually the first to stab you in the back and yet God has a purpose for that as well. Sometimes it may not seem like we are completely off the mark, that we are not in the will of God at all, and are making these huge mistakes in what we are doing. When Samson found out that his wife’s father gave his wife to his companion he crazy and set their crops on fire.
[Judges 15:2-5 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her. 3 And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. 4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. 5 And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.]
Now we can sort of understand where the father was getting at, I mean Samson did go back to his parents house and was there for a while. But now we will see what God’s purpose for this was, it was His purpose to get them all in one place. God, would use this opportunity to show His strength through Samson, not only to the Philistines, but Israel as well. The interesting thing is that the Philistines retaliated and ended up killing Samson’s wife’s family anyway because they stirred up Samson. Then the Philistines gathered an army together, but when the men of Judah saw them they feared for their lives.
[Judges 15:9-12 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. 12 And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.]
This is exactly why our nation is falling quickly into the hands of the wicked rulers, they will not put their faith in God, they will not stand up to them and cower in fear. The men in fear did bind Samson up with the promise that they would not kill him, and well, Samson wasted no time in freeing himself from those cords.
[Judges 15:14-15,18-19 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. 15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. 18 And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? 19 But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.]
God made water come out of the jaw and it revived his spirit. This is proof that we are saved by grace, and we can mess up a thousand times a day and still have God’s favor. Is that not was Jesus does for us, revives our spirit every morning, [2 Corinthians 4:15-17 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;]
Jesus Christ Revealed/Magnified: [Judges 13:19-20 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.]
Today’s Prayer: God, I will not dare say that I understand Your ways all the time, but I will say that Your ways are the best and will do much more for me than anything I try to do on my own. Lord, lead me and guide me, give me Your mercy, grace, strength, and guidance as you work in me to follow Your plan and purpose for my life. Work on my heart, keep me faithful, true, and from trying to handle everything on my own. I know that as long as I am faithful, true, and repentant, that You will see me through and I will see Your mighty hand bring it all together. I ask this in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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