God Moved Before Israel Even Asked - Judges 13:1-25 (Session 13)

Judges 13 begins the story of Samson, one of the most recognizable yet deeply flawed judges in Scripture. Israel again does evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Philistines oppress the nation for forty years. Unlike previous cycles in Judges, however, the passage gives no indication that Israel cries out for deliverance.

God acts first.

In His grace, He appears to the wife of Manoah, a woman who had been unable to have children, and announces that she will give birth to a son. The child will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the womb and will begin delivering Israel from the Philistines.

In this session, Glenn and Steve examine the historical background of the Philistines, their movement into Israel’s coastal territory, and how biblical history aligns with known historical and archaeological information.

The study also introduces the Nazirite vow described in Numbers 6. Samson was not to consume anything from the grapevine, cut his hair, or come into contact with a dead body. Unlike most Nazirite vows, which were temporary, Samson’s dedication was intended to last for his entire life.

The passage also provides significant evidence about the Angel of the Lord. He appears physically as a man, speaks directly with Manoah and his wife, accepts an offering, performs wonders, and is identified by Manoah as God. These details support the traditional Christian understanding that the Angel of the Lord was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

Judges 13 introduces a man with remarkable opportunity and supernatural gifting. Samson was chosen before birth, blessed by God, and stirred by the Spirit—but the chapters ahead will show how poorly he often used what he had been given.

Scripture: Judges 13
Series: The Book of Judges — An RTTB Study

 Questions discussed in this session:

• Does God notice the needs of His people even when they do not cry out? 
• What is the purpose of taking a vow?
• Who is the Angel of the Lord? 
• Can we ever see both God’s sovereignty and the free will of man? 
• What is a Nazarite vow?  

Transcript

The Book of Judges

Speaker 1 0:09

Music . Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible . We're working our way through the Book of Judges and if you have your Bibles turned there . But as a point for today , what we've been learning is that there's a repeated cycle in the Book of Judges where God blesses the people , he drives out the enemies , and then there's a period of peace during which time Israel forgets God and starts following after the pagan idols , following after the other gods , and then God removes his blessing because of that , because of the evil nature of what these other gods did and the nature of the worship . And when God removes his blessing and removes his protection , then the evil people come in and oppress Israel for a period of years until the pain of the oppression causes them to cry out to God , and then the cycle repeats . We're on about the seventh cycle now , as we get to Judges , chapter 13 .

Speaker 1 1:19

And here we meet a man who I'm sure you've heard of . His name is Samson and he was gifted with supernatural strength , but he did a lot of very foolish things with his gift . Vernon McGee said Never was a man born with more glorious opportunity than this man . So it's true , he had a great gift , great potential , but he mostly wasted it , as we will see . And the people he was fighting against were the Philistines and we're going to see in the next four chapters here about Samson . Some of the judges in the book of Judges only had one verse . Samson gets four chapters . We can learn a lot from him , but what do we know about the Philistines ? Steve ?

Speaker 2 1:56

So this isn't the first time that they're mentioned . To your point , one of those judges that only had one verse , back in chapter 3 , verse 31 , says After him came Shamgar , the son of Anoth , who struck down 600 Philistines with an ox code and he also saved Israel . All these stories that we have here from the book of Judges , they're not necessarily chronological . There's some of these things that are episodes and sessions that are happening at the same time , congruent to each other , because this is taking place all the way from the north of Israel , the land , to the south of the land , east and west . It's taking place all over . It's not just one area , it's affecting all the different tribes .

Speaker 2 2:36

Another thing to point out is that the Philistines are not native Canaanites , so to speak , from the standpoint that they're not from the northern part of Syria , or Hittites or those areas that are up there in the north or the area there . They're actually Sea Peoples and they know this from archeological . They're actually from over on the Grecian Islands and they have come across roughly around 1177 BC and they've established the beachhead there , on the western coast in the Mediterranean , the western coast of Israel , and they've taken up and they've pushed themselves into the lands when we come here into the time of Samson . They've pushed inland roughly , taking up all of the area of the inheritance of the tribe of Dan , the western part of the tribe of Judah and Ephraim , and then also encroached , actually encroached , into the tribe of Judah and then also on the little left area of Simeon .

Speaker 2 3:36

We'll have some of these on our resource page that you can see . So they're occupying this coastal land area and on other areas . We'll see later that , danites , they can't push them out , they're in the hill country . So they're going to actually go up north and reestablish themselves up north .

Samson and the Angel

Speaker 2 3:55

But these are the Philistines and the history of them . We see them earlier in the Book of Judges and now we're going to see more fully in these next four chapters .

Speaker 1 4:04

This is a secular history that you just gave , steve . It lines up very well with the history presented in the Bible , in the Book of Joshua and Judges . That's one of the reasons we would hold the Bible to be true and accurate , because it lines up with the known history . So this man , samson just to give a real quick summary of what we're about to get into . Samson , of course , was given great strength and in the end he loses his eyesight and his strength . But he gets his strength back , but he never gets his eyesight back . And the lesson there is that , no matter how much we've blown it , we can always appeal to God and get God's blessings . But there's consequences to sin and there's some things that , once we've committed some sins , that suffering is just going to be there . So we can get spiritual forgiveness from God , but the consequences of our sin and our daily life is going to be there because of the sin . The good news we can learn from Samson is that even us that have maybe blown it royally , maybe we've lived a long life of really messing up , but we can still be used by God . Samson spent a long life of doing things wrong and messing up , but he was still used by God in the end , and that gives all of us hope . And I know when I was a kid they'd tell you about Samson and tell you about the great strength , and that's always appealing to you when you're a little kid and when I grew up and I learned how big of a failure he was , it was disappointing . Nevertheless , we can learn from Samson .

Speaker 1 5:34

Here we are in Judges , chapter 13 , and I'm going to read the first five verses Now . The sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord , so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines 40 years . There was a certain man of Zorah , of the family of the Danites , whose name was Manoa , and his wife was barren and had born no children . Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her Behold , now you are barren and have born no children , but you shall conceive and give birth to a son . Now , therefore , be careful not to drink wine or strong drink , nor eat any unclean thing . For , behold , you shall conceive and give birth to a son , and no razor shall come upon his head , for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines . So here we see the seventh time in verse 1 that Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord . God protects Israel until they do evil things with the idols , including child sacrifice and sex worship , in which case he then removes his protection . And God will do that to us . If we sin , god will remove his blessings and remove his protection from us and evil forces can attack us in our lives today .

Speaker 1 6:51

So in verse 1 , how long does it say the Philistines oppressed Israel ? 40 years , 40 years . Does this passage give any indication that during that 40 years they cried out to the Lord for deliverance at all ? No , no . So 40 year period of oppression . Nothing from Israel about God . Please save us . So therefore , god is raising up this deliverer of his own goodness and his own grace . Previous to that it's been the case . God waits until Israel cries out God save us , and then he would raise up a deliverer here . 40 year span , israel's doing nothing but disobeying and God , through his own good graces and mercy , initiates the deliverer himself . Israel could have cried out to the Lord at any time during those 40 years , but they didn't . Here God is reaching out to Israel raising up deliverer , even though they didn't ask for it .

Speaker 1 7:53

The other thing I always think of remember all the way back in Joshua , when they first came into the land . They defeated Jericho and then they came to little AI and they got defeated because there was a small amount of sin . One guy had sinned Sin in the camp . What did Joshua do that day ? He fell on his face before God and put ashes on his head , if I remember correctly , and spent the rest of the day on his face crying out to God . He didn't wait till the next day . He didn't wait till the next week . He certainly didn't wait 40 years . He cried out that day . So when we end up with a problem that's caused by something , how long should we wait before we cry out to the ?

Speaker 2 8:41

Lord , we shouldn't , we should cry out to Him immediately .

Speaker 1 8:45

So Joshua was a good example of how to handle this . These people here , bad example again . 40 years of suffering , no crying out to God . God is so good and gracious , he reaches out to Israel . So verse 2 , god took notice that this man and his wife had no children . God knows about our situations , he notices our problems . These people wanted to have a child and couldn't . And God knew it and he's going to reach out and bless them . These people were of the tribe of Dan . Now , the territory of the tribe of Dan was next to the land where the Philistines were . So it kind of made sense for God to choose a Danite to deliver from the Philistines . They were in that northern region , next to where the Philistines were .

Speaker 2 9:31

The Danites were living up in the hill country . They couldn't come down into the area where the Philistines were because the Philistines wouldn't let them . They were stronger than they were . So Danites were not fully settled on where they were supposed to be . They couldn't occupy that lower land with the fertile farming land .

Speaker 1 9:50

Now , if you look at verse 3 , it says the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman Now in the Bible and I think we've mentioned this at other times . But whenever it says the angel of the Lord and not an angel of the Lord , the Hebrew here is very specific . It's speaking of a particular instance . The angel of the Lord appears and I think we can learn something from this , just from this passage . Now , Steve , you and I are going to have a longer full session on the angel of the Lord coming up , but give you a little taste of what this means , because it's right here in front of us .

Speaker 1 10:23

In this passage , the angel of the Lord is repeatedly called a man . In this passage , this chapter , judges 13 , calls him a man five times . Look down at verse 11 . The man asked are you the man ? And the angel of the Lord says yes , there's a conversation that's going on . There's a conversation going on between this husband and the angel of the Lord and the husband says are you the man that came and spoke to my wife ? And the angel says yes . So the angel of the Lord says yes , he is a man . Verse 15 , the husband offers to prepare a meal for the angel of the Lord . At the end of verse 16 , it says the husband did not know he was the angel of the Lord .

Speaker 2 11:12

The angel of the Lord answers him on that . He says I will not eat your food , but if you prepare a burnt offering , then offer it to the Lord the Almighty . So he's again in this conversation . He's acknowledging that he's there in the room .

Speaker 1 11:28

This husband and the angel of the Lord are having this little conversation , offers him the meal he won't eat it , but prepare an offering . And when he leaves the end of verse 16 , the husband did not know he was the angel of the Lord . And what does that tell you ? It was a man that looked like a man . This wasn't some glowing being with wings . It's hovering three feet off the ground , couldn't see through him like a ghost or something , didn't have some sort of heavenly appendages . It wasn't an apparition . It wasn't an apparition . This was a man . Again , five times in this chapter calls him a man . Nevertheless , look at verse 22, .

Speaker 2 12:10

The husband says we have seen God and their actions are to fall on the floor . They're scared that they're going to be killed .

Speaker 1 12:18

They're scared they're going to be killed . We have seen God . So this person here in this passage we can build a pretty strong case that this man was God . He accepts the worship .

Speaker 2 12:31

And again .

Speaker 1 12:32

We're gonna have a separate case , but just one other place the burning bush . In Exodus , chapter three . I don't know anybody that won't hold that the burning bush was God and it says at the very beginning of that chapter the angel of the Lord appeared in a burning bush . So that passage alone ought to be enough . But there's a bunch of those . But we're not just pulling this out of the air . We can build a very strong case that whenever it says the angel of the Lord , it's talking about a man that is God . It's why the theologians say this is the pre-incarnate Christ .

Speaker 2 13:08

In our separate session we'll have all of those places cited and we'll go into specific details . You pointed out here some of it . There's certain characteristics and pattern . He accepts the worship , things like that . So there's other things that we'll go into in our individual session on that .

Speaker 1 13:23

So , judges 13 , verse five what is the prophecy that the angel of the Lord told her ? She's gonna say you're gonna conceive birth to a son , even bear a son .

Speaker 2 13:32

No razor should come to his head , for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God .

Speaker 1 13:38

Right and look . Look in verse five , though , it says he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines .

Speaker 2 13:46

So as we go through the story we see that Samson is a judge for 20 years , but in verse one the Philistines were over them for 40 years . So Samson again , as we go through this we'll see that he doesn't actually defeat the Philistines . That actually takes place over in first Samuel , whenever David comes along Correct .

Speaker 1 14:09

But it is true that he began Correct , so was this prophecy fulfilled ?

Speaker 1 14:14

Yes , it was yes , it was yes . So this section shows that God chose this man from before he was born and marked him out for special purposes . The people in the churches that focus on the sovereignty of God will like passages like this , simply because they're claiming that God reaches out to a people that is not reaching out to God . God reaches out to them , raises up a deliverer , infuses in this person a special gift that is going to go and do his purposes , and he does it only because of God's good grace . So we can learn from that .

Speaker 1 14:51

However , while it's true that , yes , god initiated the raising up of Samson , even though Israel didn't call for it , it's also true that Samson , of his own free will , then decided to sin a whole bunch of times and , of his own free will , in the end , called out to God God help me . So we have here both the sovereignty of God and God reaching out to a people that's not reaching out to him . But we also have the free will of Samson , who freely decided to disobey God and freely decided to call out to God for help . But we have both the sovereignty of God and the free will of man in the story of Samson , and I think if we look we can find both of those . So next question what is a Nazarite vow ?

Speaker 2 15:44

I don't know all the specifics , but it was a vow that part of it is mentioned here . One is that you weren't to have any haircut Right , you weren't let wine drink any strong drink or wine or anything else like that so you were to be dedicated to the Lord and specifically set apart for the .

Speaker 1 16:05

Lord Correct . It explains the rules in Numbers , chapter six , which is part of the Mosaic law . Numbers chapter six spells out a Nazarite vow Eat or drink nothing that comes from a grape vine . And back in Numbers it even says you can't eat the seeds or the skins of a grape . So you can't eat raisins , no grape juice , no wine , nothing from a vine . And it says don't cut the hair on your head and you can't go near a dead body , even if it's at a funeral of a close family member . So if your father and mother dies , you can't go to the funeral because you're not supposed to be near a dead body . And that's .

Speaker 2 16:44

That's not just the , that's all dead bodies , that's all dead animals , not just humans , it's animals .

Speaker 1 16:50

Number six . It even had a rule in there for what happens if you're standing there and the guy next to you has a heart attack and dies . So it was very serious

Understanding the Nazarite Vow

Speaker 1 16:58

. Now for the context in number six . This was intended to be a temporary thing . The explanation assumes that it was going to be for a period . I would be a Nazarite for a period of time and then it had rules for how to end it . We see this , I think , over in the New Testament , in Acts 18 , it just mentions in passing that Paul went to somewhere and cut his hair because he had a vow , and that's all it says over in Acts 18 .

Speaker 2 17:31

And it doesn't it also say , though , he was taking it back to Jerusalem . I mean , that was well he .

Speaker 1 17:37

I honestly forget the city , but he went to a place and cut his hair because he had a vow . Now , in the number six , the Nazarite vow that was part of the ritual is you had to go in front of the priests at the end of this period of time and shave your head . Paul was probably keeping this Nazarite vow for a period of time and that one little blurb in Acts 18 was probably when he was ending it here in Judges 13 with Samson , god specifically says he's going to be a Nazarite from the womb . His whole life is supposed to be . So what again ? What is he not supposed to do ? Got his hair Not supposed to cut his hair Not supposed to be ? Drink wine ? Nothing from a ? No wine , no grape juice , no raisins .

Speaker 2 18:25

Not supposed to come in contact with dead bodies .

Speaker 1 18:28

So that's what we've got here . What was the would be , just in a general sense , the purpose of a vow . What's the purpose of having a vow ?

Speaker 2 18:37

Well , like I said , to set yourself apart , not in a hotty way , but in a devotional way to God , to set aside and devote yourself wholly to God , wholly W H , wholly to God , so that you can serve him and you can let him do with you what he wants you to do .

Speaker 1 19:00

The modern equivalent that comes to my mind all the time is , a lot of people will observe Lent and they'll say , okay , here's a period of days where I'm going to not do something and I'm going to sacrifice something , Right ? So the idea is not trying to earn brownie points with God . The idea is that I'm going to focus on God and leaving this thing out is going to remind me to be again wholly set aside to God . W H O L E , wholly . In verse four , obviously . What was the woman supposed to avoid , says there .

Speaker 2 19:35

She's supposed to avoid strong drink as well , wine as well .

Speaker 1 19:38

At least while she's pregnant , but most probably she was supposed to do it as well or eat anything unclean or eat and that was everybody all the time that all those dietary laws back in Leviticus are going to be important and that's going to come up here for the story of Samhain's . Over Verses six to eight , the woman tells her husband about meeting the man of God and the husband prays that he will come back . And in verse nine God answers the prayer . We can be confident that an honest prayer will be heard , because here this man prays to God that this man , the angel of God , will come back and he does .

Speaker 2 20:15

And it shows that he believes her . So is that he believes that he's not praying it out of doubt , he's praying out of I want to see .

Speaker 1 20:22

So here we have an answered prayer . God does not always answer our demands , but he will always hear us and he cares about our needs . So God is not a divine errand boy . He's not going to punch the button . He's not a vending machine . You know he punched the button and then outcomes what I want . That's not God . But we can be confident that in our point of need he can hear our prayer and we can be confident that he cares about our needs . He does not promise to always do what we demand . He does promise to take care of our needs . Trouble is , most of us want him to settle all of our demands and not just our needs .

Speaker 1 21:02

In verses nine and following , the angel of the Lord returns and speaks to both the husband and the wife . He repeats the instructions that they'll have a male child and he must keep the rights of a Nazareth . So it gets repeated twice . If God repeats a command twice , what can we be confident of ? He's serious about it . He's serious about it . So , Steve , if you could pick up in Judges 13 and start at verse 15 and read through 22 .

Speaker 2 21:27

Then Manoa said to the angel of the Lord Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you . The angel of the Lord said to Manoa Though you detain me , I will not eat your food , but if you prepare a burnt offering , then offer it to the Lord , For Manoa did not know that he was the angel of the Lord . Manoa said to the angel of the Lord what is your name , so that when your words come to pass , we may honor you ? But the angel of the Lord said to him why do you ask me my name , seeing it is wonderful , or another word would be incomprehensible .

Speaker 2 22:06

So Manoa took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord and he performed wonders while Manoa and his wife looked on the he being the angel of the Lord referenced there . For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar . When Manoa and his wife saw this , they fell on their faces to the ground . Now the angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoa or his wife again . Then Manoa knew that he was the angel of the Lord . So Manoa said to his wife we will surely die , for we have seen .

Speaker 1 22:48

God In this story . I find this fascinating . The husband offers to prepare a meal for the man and he says , no , but I'll take an offering and he comes and prepares that . But in verse 17 , the husband asked him what his name is and what's his reply .

Speaker 2 23:05

Why do you ask it that the name is wonderful ? What do ?

Speaker 1 23:09

you think of when you hear that . I know what I think of all these old Christian hymns that talk about wonderful Jesus . There's three or four of them that I can remember . I'll spare you trying to sing them , but his name is wonderful . Is Jesus name wonderful ?

Speaker 2 23:24

And in fact , when it's announced in Isaiah , his name is going to be wonderful counselor .

Speaker 1 23:29

He just simply doesn't answer . He says why are you asking me ? My name is wonderful , doesn't that catch your attention ? Let me just make you want to . Ok , why didn't you answer me ? Kind of a thing , right .

Speaker 2 23:42

I just find that fascinating and there's also a little bit of an inference there that there's knowledge among the Israelites that this angel of the Lord has visited before . That we've talked about and again we'll go into this more in our sessions , but it talks about there in verse 16 . And when he's talking about the offering it says for Manoa did not know that he was the angel of the Lord . So there's a little bit of an inference there that there's knowledge of them knowing that this angel of the Lord is somebody that has come in the history of Israel before .

Speaker 1 24:15

So why would you think he wouldn't give his name ?

Speaker 2 24:18

Well , it says there that the other interpretation of wonderful is incomprehensible .

Speaker 1 24:24

It's incomprehensible , Too wonderful for us . Perhaps God determined that we didn't need to know . He will give us our needs . He doesn't give us our demands . God answers us when we need the information , but he doesn't answer us to satisfy our curiosity .

Speaker 2 24:42

When Moses asked the same question , Moses said when I go to Pharaoh , who do I tell them sent me ? And God's answer is you tell him , I am sent you sent and , by the way , in Hebrew the I am .

Speaker 1 24:57

the name Yahweh is a very close variation of construct .

Speaker 1 25:02

Construct of I . Am it really same kind of root there ? When he says I am , he's really giving his the name Yahweh . A couple of verses that come to my mind Ephesians , chapter 2 , verse 9, . As a result , god exalted him talking about Jesus and gave him the name that is above every name . And then in Isaiah , the one we always remember at Christmas , for unto us a child is born , unto us a son is given , and the government shall be on his shoulder , and his name shall be called the wonderful counselor , mighty God , everlasting father , prince of peace . I don't know about you , but I think Jesus is wonderful .

Speaker 2 25:40

Yes , absolutely .

Speaker 1 25:42

And then in verse 19 and 20 , the husband makes a burn offering and the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame and the husband then realizes he was speaking directly with God and is overwhelmed and thinks he will die . Is God overwhelming

Encountering God's Overwhelming Presence

Speaker 1 25:57

? I think of in the New Testament there were people speaking with Jesus that didn't know who he was .

Speaker 2 26:03

The .

Speaker 1 26:03

Pharisees thought he was just some nobody . But you remember what happened with Peter when they were in the boat and Peter ? At that point in the story Peter had been around Jesus for a while . But when Jesus did a miracle in the boat and Peter said , depart from me , for I'm a sinner , peter was overwhelmed when he fully realized who God was . People today , I've seen them be around and with the concept of God and they know about God as a concept . But when they come face to face with the living God , it's overwhelming . It will drive you to your knees , it will cause you to cry in joy . It will overwhelm you . In the New Testament when it talks about Jesus coming back , he talks about people crying out for the mountains to fall on them because the sight of the living God is so overwhelming . God is truly overwhelming and if we really understand who God is , we will be overwhelmed .

Speaker 2 27:13

And this is the pattern over and over in regards to the various characters of the Bible . When they're in God's presence , they almost always and exclusively fall down in worship in front of Him .

Speaker 1 27:28

Verse 23, . The angel of the Lord accepted the burn offering , which only God can do . Verse 24, . The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson . So fulfillment of prophecy . And the child grew up in the Lord's blessing and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him . That's where we're going to leave it , for today . We have this man , samson , that's born . He was set aside for God from birth and he was given this great gift . We're going to see in the next chapter , but we're also going to see how Samson uses his great gift , and it's very disappointing . So that's what we're going to see next time . On Reasoning Through the Bible .