I think the last are you awfully quiet in here? Like I'm supposed to start a few minutes ago. Sorry about that. Am. Nathan today, in addition to Randy, so I had to go back and push the right buttons to make all that work. But here we are. I'll do the Randy part now. And Nathan and Whitney are on a little weekend vacation, so we're glad to see everybody. Those of you online, I think I pushed all the right buttons and if not, say something and Nathan will text Trent and Trent will follow the instructions and try to figure it out. That's the plan today. So let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we're most grateful for your watch care over us and bringing us back here again safely and bringing us back to study this life of Samson. Praying again. This discussion of Judges chapter 13 would add some insight into what we know about the way God works in the world today. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. And we do come to Samson. Last week this is session number three. Last week we had the birth announcement, which is verses two, three, four and five of Judges chapter 13. And today we will come here, let me find Biblify. There we go. We'll come into Judges chapter 13 and for some reason our screen is not working exactly right. So rather than scroll, I got to type in the passages. There we go. We're going to come to verse six today and maybe go all the way to verse 23. I know the outline looks a bit daunting because it's what, four pages there and we don't normally do four pages and we never finish four pages, but we'll see whether or not we get I tell you what we'll do. Wherever we stop, we'll draw a line and pick up there next week. How's that sound? You all may have to stay another week. Are you going to be here next week? No, just this week. Okay. Well, anyway, we'll see what we got. So the angel of the Lord came in verse three, I believe it is, and announced to Manoah's wife, manoah himself was not there. And so in this episode of Samson's life, before we even have the birth of Samson, if we get that far, we'll get Samson born today. But in this episode, Manoah's wife goes to tell manoah what went on and says in verse six, judges 13, verse six, the woman came and told her husband, saying a man of God came to me and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Very terrible. But I asked him not whence he was neither told me his name. Here is the report. It's kind of an interesting report, isn't it? That I still think it's interesting that we never know her name. She's just the woman. She's the wife. She's Manoah's wife, but we don't know her name. That's not completely unusual, even there's a number of times. Remember when we were studying Jeroboam, there was a man of God whom we only knew as the man of God. We didn't know anything about which man of God he is. So she comes, she tells her husband, saying, a man of God came to me. Now, she knows there's something different about this man. You can tell that, obviously, from what she is saying about him. In verse three, he is introduced as the angel of the Lord. She does not introduce him as the angel of the Lord. How much does she know of his identity? I don't really know. It looks like either she's not telling manoah everything or she doesn't know everything. And I'm going to assume she probably doesn't know everything. And so in the excitement here, now she's saying this is a man of God. His countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Now, let's talk about the word countenance here for just a moment. Normally when you and I talk about countenance, we would only be talking about the face, the facial expression, that kind of thing. The Hebrew word. And I did look up the English word to find out what it meant in 1611 is much more broad than just his facial expressions. Let's say it is his presence, his fullness, his complete appearance, so broaden that word out from beyond the faith. And she says his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. We'll stop right there. I don't know exactly how you know what the countenance of an angel of God is, but she is aware enough that he is a man. He is a man of God. He's very different than anybody else I've ever met. Maybe she doesn't even know how to describe this as you look kind of through. She's a little, I don't know, befuddled. We'll use that word. She's a little befuddled at the whole thing. But here's his countenance, and it was very terrible. Now, of course, don't read terrible as you would read terrible in 2023, which always has a negative connotation like countenance. The word has changed a little bit over the years, and terrible really, probably if we were going to choose a word today, we might say awesome. I don't even think you would be appropriate to say full of terror, because terror is something that brings about fear. And the Hebrew word, nor do I think the original English word doesn't have that idea of fear, but it does have that idea of tremendous. That's probably the best word we can give. His countenance was tremendous. And by the way, this is fully trivia for you, but there is a Jewish rabbinical tradition that the angel of the Lord was so stunningly handsome that she was a little embarrassed to tell her husband. Now, they probably made up that lore over the years, but nonetheless, that's what the Jewish rabbis would say about terrible right there. So then she says, I asked him not whence he was neither told me his name. I sense, and it's always a danger to sense a person's emotions just from a text. But I sense here she seems a little bit frustrated that she didn't think to ask more now after the fact. She's like, why didn't I investigate? Why didn't I say? I've got so many things now I would like to ask and I didn't do it. So all I can do is blurt out here to my husband that this is what has happened. And so he comes or the wife continues to talk. He said unto me, behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son. That's exactly I think it's verse four. And now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. This is pretty much what we had reported before, but there's a couple of well, there's one little detail. We assumed last week in verses two through five that he was going to be a Nazarite from birth for all of his life, but it didn't explicitly say so. Now, when she reports, she explicitly says so he is going to be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. This, of course, was the Lord's plan. And Samson, obviously, if you've read the rest of the story, he broke his Nazarite vow with the cutting of his hair, which she doesn't mention here, but was mentioned earlier. So this is, again, she's reporting the instruction, maybe with some added detail, or maybe we're just given the added detail here that she gives as now she reports to Manoah. Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, o my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again to us and teach us, what shall we do unto the child that shall be born? I think this displays a little bit of faith in Manoah's part. He doesn't say, Woman, you've been in the sun too long. He trusts what she says. He trusts that indeed a man of God has come, has given this report. It's interesting that he doesn't even question whether or not we're going to have a child. It is basically if I interpret that question right, what shall we do unto the child? Is how are we going to raise this child? I don't think it's the normal parental panic. Uhoh, what now do we do? We wanted a baby, now we got one. And where's the instruction book? I don't think it's that. I think it's an acknowledgment. This is not just any baby. This is a baby sent from God for a specific purpose. How can we ensure that we pull out that purpose? Yes, Dan? Good question. Is there a connection between Nazarite and Nazareth? The answer is we don't know. We do not think so. Well, if so, only in general because we think that Nazareth, the Hebrew ETH, is kind of like let's go to Espanola for a moment. Espanol, of course, is Spanish. Espanola is the what adjective? That thing is Spanish. So espanola is Spanish for Spanish. Now, just like Spanish would put the A on the end of it, hebrew puts an ETH on the end of it. So Nazareth is natser like, nazare like And Nazare is the word for righteous. And a Nazaret is a person who has taken a Nazarite vow. So in that sense, yes, they are connected but no real connection that we know of, of Nazarites in Nazareth any more than anywhere else. So perhaps honoring the Nazarite vow something to that effect. But we know nothing that connects it to Samson. We know nothing that connects it to John the Baptist. We know nothing that connects it to the Nazarite vow other than somewhere along the way they named their city the things of righteousness hope that helps. So it's a very general connection. Only the same word is as far as you go. So he wants again this instruction from the man of God teaches what we shall do unto the child that shall be born, a note of confidence, a note of faith that he carries out there. And then verse nine god hearkened to the voice of manoah. I, by the way, if we could have a special seminar on prayer, I might invite Noah because he prayed. He got it. And God hearkened to his voice. Here he comes. God hearkened to the voice of manoah. The angel of God came again. Stop right there. We last week looked at the term briefly the angel of the Lord. I propose to you, I think that the angel of the Lord is the preincarnate Messiah. And then she refers to him as the angel of God. And the writer of Judges comes and just refers to him as the angel of God also. That is going to tell us here in just a moment. I think that the term the angel of the Lord and the angel of God are interchangeable. One is using the covenant name for God, Yahweh. The other is just the designation for God, if you will, God. So the angel of the Lord, the angel of Yahweh, the angel of Elohim can be interchangeable. The angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field. But manoah was her husband was not with her. I do kind of wonder again, can I say this in a slightly humorous way, meaning no disrespect. How can God have such bad timing that both times he hits when manoah is not there and manoah is the guy that now is entreating asking. There's got to be something here of why God goes to Manoah's wife first both times when he's not there now she's about to go fetch him and take care of the problem. But it does seem an interesting little tidbit. I thought at first, well, maybe all birth announcements go to the woman. But then I read my Bible and I found out that Sarah, the angel of the Lord, came in three men, one of them being the angel of the Lord, came to Abraham and gave that announcement to him and had previously done so before. So it's not true that God just gives birth announcements to women, but for whatever reason he does choose to go just to the woman as she sat in the field. But manoah, her husband was not with her. Maybe it was just this would be pure speculation, but maybe it was a little gracious act that she felt bad that she didn't ask the right questions the first time and do the right things the first time. And so he comes back and says how about round two, want to do this again? And this time she says, ah, stay right here as we see when we get to verse ten. And it says the woman made haste and ran and showed her husband and said unto him, behold, the man hath appeared to me that came unto me the other day. Now here again, notice the man that is not a man, he's an angel. He's the angel of the Lord, he's the angel of God, but he's there in the form of a man. What is this? I think we do have to remember that you and I are created in the image of God. I take the word image literally. A lot of people don't. A lot of people only take it spiritually. But I think it's literal. If this is in the image of that, then that is going to look like this. And so if God shows up, he's going to look a lot like we do because we are created in his image and tarnished perhaps our image. But whatever it is, this man with this terrible using the King James word appearance came back, the man that came back the other day. And so verse eleven manoah arose and went after his wife, and came to the man and said to him, art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. Now I don't want you to leap to a theological conclusion. Ah, he said, I am the great. I am introducing himself as the Messiah. I would like to do that because my position is that this is the Messiah. And so if he were to come and say to manoah I am, I am that I am, then that would solidify my point. But then I wouldn't have any excuses. Actually he just says he's answering the question I am. He's not using the I am that I am designation. In fact, you notice that the word Am is italicized there. That means the translators put it in. It's not in the Hebrew. In English. We have to have it. You can't just say Are you the guy I? Unless you spell it A-Y-E then you can say that. But if you spell it I, the letter I, then you got to finish it I am. I'm not what? You got to have that what do you call it? A verb of being. And so we have to put it in there. And there are many times in the Old Testament where that response I simple I and we put in the word Am is used in the Bible and it's not any kind of designation of the Messiah. So there is. I am. That is a messianic designation and then there is I Am. That just happens to be communicative. So here he's just communicating and the answer is yes, we'll leave it at that. So are you the one that speaketh unto the woman? Yes. And so verse twelve manoah said, now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child and how shall we do unto him? Once again you've got the question, the leap of faith that is taken in verse twelve. And I understand completely that a child is going to be born. I don't have any questions about that. My question is how shall we order the child? That word order really is what plan of action shall we take in order to raise this child so that he is able to accomplish that which you want him to accomplish? So even though you've got a period in which the Israelites are under the Philistine rule and there is a lot of societal chaos going and the Israelites as a nation are not really serving the Lord, you do have these what would George Bush say? Thousand points of light that are shining there in the wilderness. And manoah and his wife seem to be one of them, the righteous few, if you will. And they want to do the right thing by the Lord for the child. How shall we order the child? How shall we do unto him? It's a good question for any parent but certainly a good question for that one, isn't it? There's the question and the angel of the Lord. Now I'll stop right there. I mentioned earlier that I thought you could interchange the angel of God, the angel of the Lord and this passage has effectively done so. The angel of the Lord came. They called him the angel of God, then it said the angel of God came and now it calls him the angel of the Lord. So take those interchangeably and you do need to watch for if you're going to hold my position that this is the pre incarnate Messiah, you do need to watch for the definite article not an angel of the Lord or an angel of God, but the angel of the Lord, the angel of God, as you have here. So the angel of the Lord said unto manoah of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware. Okay, he's going to add just a little bit more, but in effect, he doesn't say much. He says, I already told her. I've told you what I'm going to tell you. What did we preach on last week? It seems familiar to me, but I can't remember something. Oh, the age of silence. Was silence last week, the doctrine of the silence of God, I think it was. And my position on the doctrine of silence of God is that God has already given us the instruction book, so he doesn't need to whisper to us in a still, small voice about how we're supposed to do everything. He basically, in the age of silence, says, I already told you, now just go do it. You got the knowledge, you got the ability, you got the freedom. Haven't you noticed most of us are older here, parents? Haven't you noticed that? You raise your children, you order them up correctly, and there does come a time when they come to you and say, well, how do I do this? And you say, Just like I told you. And then you kind of walk away because, you know, they really just need to do it themselves, and they need me not watching over them, and I'm just going to walk away. And it's all going to you have this trust in them. And when we give that trust to our children, that's a sign of maturity. They've grown up. We've done our job. I think in a sense, this is kind of what God the Father is doing, is saying, I already told you the things you need to know the rest of it. And there's bound to be a lot more like, how do you raise a guy who's going to be the future military conqueror of the Philistines? But I think it might be that God says, well, you got history books, read those. You got Grandpa. Ask him, what's a real man like Grandpa? You tell us. I don't have to give you every single detail. I want to give you that which is specific and special and different. That is a unique revelation, so to speak. And this is what God does when he said of all that, I said unto the woman, let her beware, that is, go do the things that I have already told you. And then he does reiterate to manoah just a little bit in verse 14, she may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine nor strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. All that I command her, let her do. So actually, again, he's asking, how do I order the child? And the answer is, let her beware. Really the answer. And when you get into verse 14, it is what she cannot do, not what he can't do. It's already said that, actually. But this is a little more refined here. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine. Now, all of that, again, we know because the wording is in there. We know that this is a Nazarite vow. But a Nazarite vow was something that only men did, as we talked about last week, and it was something that was done for a short period of time. This is as far as we know, this is the first time that anyone is a Nazarite from birth, a Nazarite from the womb. And so because of that, the woman is not to take anything from the vine. By the way, and I think I mentioned this briefly in passing last week, that is not just wine, though. Wine and strong drinks certainly are included there. But that is grapes, grape juice. Anything grape ish can't be taken. Yeah, that's a good question. Watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini. I don't know. We should look that up because those certainly are vines. Is the prohibition anything that is vine grown? It's a possibility. I would have to look into the Hebrew word and make sure there is not translated as vine. But the Hebrew word is grapeish. That's the only thing. I'm not sure, but that's very worthy of consideration there. So normally we associate it with grapes, which is the only reason I don't know if that's just tradition or if that's actually embedded in the Hebrew word. So she's not supposed to do this. By the way, I think that this says a little something about the sanctity of life, that what she does affects the person of who he is going to be. Not just in a medical sense, I don't think, but she is to be holy because he is going to be holy. And we see here that his personhood, if you want to use that word, I'm not all that fond of it, but his personhood is already intact. And so she is to live in that manner that is going to affect his personhood. So she is not supposed to have any strong drink, anything of the vine, eat any unclean thing. All that I had commanded her, let her observe. And so we come now to verse 15. 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. That is, we want to cook you lunch. That's what we'd like to do, kid. I've mentioned this before. We use it as a that's what we would call a baby goat or a baby human, but a baby goat in the scripture, the Hebrew word is any small livestock. It could have been a calf, it could have been a lamb, it could have been a goat, whatever. It's a pretty broad word there. So we want to make lunch for you. Now, this again is not uncommon, I think. I put in your outline that it's typical good Middle Eastern hospitality, which was renowned then, and it's renowned today. It's hard to get away from a Middle Easterner if you go to their house because they just insist, you've got to have coffee, you've got to have tea, you got to have lunch, you got to have dessert, you got to have, you got to have, you got to have. And the whole time you're saying, I got to go, I got to go, I got to go. No, you got to stay. So is he being hospitable or is there something here that says, okay, we recognize that we can't just let you go. We've got to serve something up for you. And so the response 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. Okay, here does give us a little insight and a little testimony to what we said earlier about what exactly does Mrs. Manoah know? Well, they know something but does not know that he was an angel of the Lord. Now here it uses the less strong angel of the Lord rather than the angel of the Lord, which I think is just a testimony that Manoah doesn't know much. He knows he's got some kind of man of God that appears to be a heavenly messenger, but he's a little befuddled. Is that the second time today I use that word of what the identity is here? And yet there's this interesting then sort of suggestion. If you want to give a burnt offering, offer it unto the Lord. Now was there something about what Manoah said again in verse 15, let me back up one more time. Made ready a kid for thee. We assume this is lunch, something for you to eat. Maybe there's something in what he's saying that I want to give a sacrifice unto you. Maybe not, because the first response is, I will not eat of thy bread. So that sounds like lunch. But the second response is if you offer a burnt offering, offer it unto the Lord. Now let's play a what if scenario game here for just a moment. What if Manoah says, this is no regular man. I have no idea his identity, anything about him, but seems like he's a messenger from God. I need to give a sacrifice. So you stay right here. I'm going to get a kid ready for the sacrifice. And there really are two kinds of sacrifices. One of those you eat and the other is a burnt offering. And so the Lord sort of answers for both of them. I will not take your eating sacrifice, nor will I take your burnt sacrifice. If you're going to do that, do that unto the Lord. That looks like he's saying, I am not the know. Kind of like was it John? Yeah, John in the book of revelation when he bows down and worship the angel. And the angel says, no, get up. I'm just angel, you don't bow down to me. It almost looks like he's turning away that offering that is being given. But could that turning away be a little bit of a test? I want to see how far this guy's going to go. I want to see if he knows who I am. I want to see what's up. If he can put two and two together. But if you're going to do it, do it unto the Lord is verse 16. And so we go to verse 17. Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, what is thy name that when thy sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor. Okay. Manoah kind of backs off, no sacrifice, just says, okay, but at least tell us your name so that when all this comes to pass, we can say, bubba told me, whoever give us the name so that we can honor that when all of that is said and done. And the angel of the Lord, verse 18 said unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? If you weren't mystified to this point, now you become mystified. And I'm sure manoah was like, okay, I've got this strange visitor. He comes, he goes, he comes again, we talk. I think he's the Lord. I'm going to give him a sacrifice. He says, no, give a sacrifice to the Lord. Okay, well, can I at least know your name? That's why do you ask? It's secret. Secret. The actual word is only used, I think, three times in Hebrew, in the Hebrew scriptures. The other two times it is translated wonderful, wonderful. And the most famous time is Isaiah, chapter nine, verse six. A child shall be born to us. So see, the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful. Wonderful counselor. Mighty God everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His name shall be wonderful. Why do you ask my name? It is if I can swap with a word there again, it is wonderful. Again, it's a little bit of a revelation, a little bit of a chastisement, a little bit of a tease. What all's going on here that he's not just coming forth and answering or is he just coming forth and answering when he says, why do you ask my name? It's wonderful or secret? How does manoah take that? That's the way to interpret scripture, is see how did the original audience respond? And so that brings us to verse 19. So manoah took a kid with a meat offering and offered it on a rock unto the Lord. I'll stop right there. When the angel of God said, my name is Secret, he said, I'm getting the kid. I'm getting the sacrifice. I'm going to do it. I am bringing this out. And he begins to give the offering, which tells. Me that he definitely interpreted why do you ask my name? It is secret or it is wonderful. He interpreted that as, this is the Lord here. I've got to give a sacrifice. And so he took the kid with a meat offering, offered it upon a rock unto the Lord, and the angel did wondrously. That's that same word, by the way, secret. So the angel did wondrously. I said three times, by the way. It's actually four. It's used twice here, once in Psalms and once in Isaiah. Here is in a slightly different form, an adverbial form. So the angel did wondrously. Okay, we're going to get a little bit more definition of that here in just a moment. But he did wondrously. Manoah and his wife looked on. I think this is interesting. He offered this offering upon a rock. Well, Manoah certainly knew the Levitical Law, and the Levitical law is not, hey, anytime you want to sacrifice, just offer one upon a rock. You go to the temple, you go to the north side. Excuse me, the temple wasn't built. You go to the tabernacle. The tabernacle was movable. Wherever the tabernacle is, you go there. And that at the north entrance to the tabernacle. That is where you give this offering unto the Lord. And yet there's no indication here at all that he does that. Now, remember that we're in a time in which there is social, and I'll call it governmental chaos. They are under the control of the Philistines. My guess is there wasn't even a tabernacle at this point. Maybe, you know, the Philistines at another time captured the Ark of the Covenant. Maybe they've got the Ark of the Covenant here, too. I don't know that completely. But he offers and the Lord accepts this unusual offering that is given here. I am going to suspect, by the way, that the flame that we're about to read about came from the Lord, the offerings given unto the Lord. The Lord started the fire when it was acceptable offering. And so here the angel of the Lord did wondrously. Maybe that means he started the flame. He got this whole thing going. He took the sacrifice that was given. Incidentally, David also, when the Lord stopped the plague, that was three days of plague that came as a punishment, stopped it at the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. And David said, I need to give an offering right there. Here the Lord was, I need to give an offering. And that became the place of the temple later on as he bought that land. You may remember that story, but anyway, so he offers this. And verse 20. Then it came to pass when the flame went upward toward Heaven from the altar. It doesn't tell us that the Lord started the flame, but it kind of implies that the Lord did wondrously and the flame went upward. You could make the connection real easy. So when the flame went upward from heaven, from 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. It's the game of, I don't know, 20 questions. And 20 questions. You get to that point where you think you know what it is and finally you are ready to ask the next question and get it and blurt out the answer. And they've sort of gone through their 20 questions, some of it verbally, some of it mentally. They've gone through this. And can I tell them what your name is? My name is Wondrous. Wonderful secret. I'm doing the sacrifice. I know who this is. This is the Lord. He gives the sacrifice. And here, when the Lord, the angel of the Lord, ascended into the flames in the altar, they know exactly that. Well, the next verse tells us exactly what they know. Let's go to verse 21. As it says, the angel of the Lord did no more appear to manoah and his wife. Then manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. Now again, it's a little bit softened in English. I didn't sit with the translators to figure out why they did an angel instead of the angel here. I probably would have argued for the angel, but those were pretty good translators too, so I might have lost the argument. I don't know. But nonetheless, he at least knows he's an angel of the Lord. I think even beyond that. Let's go to verse 22. Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. This is his own testimony of who he thinks he has seen. Who they have seen. We have seen God. Verse 23. The wife said unto him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received the burnt offering and the meat offering at our hands. Neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these. I'm going to stop right there, but if I can paraphrase that, I think the woman says, well, why would he kill us? I'm supposed to have a baby. The word of the Lord has got to come out here. Oh, I'm going to get myself in trouble. This might be the one time in history in which the woman was more logical than the man. She says, no, he's not going to kill us. He's got work to do. He's going to carry this out. He is going to do this. And we'll pick up in verse 24 and 25, but Samson is going to be born and then we're going to get him grown real quick next week as we pick up on the life of Samson. And how about that? I almost made it through four pages of notes, almost two verses I missed. But it's time to quit so we can get ready for church and have a little singing and preaching here in just a moment. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we're most grateful for your watch. Care over us. Your goodness to us, your blessings to us. We ask that as we come into this place and we are honored to worship you in just a moment that the Spirit. Lowercase S, capital S all together would be encouraging to us and honoring to you. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you all. God bless you. We'll take a few minutes break. Those of you online, we'll take a few minutes break too. And the broadcast will cut off a few minutes late because I got to go to the studio and cut it off. Thank you.