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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
A number of years ago now, my mother and I saw the story of Samson brought to life on the stage of the Sight & Sound Theater in Branson, Missouri. In some ways, Samson was portrayed there as a “superhuman” with “superpower” (Sight & Sound). However, at least one Bible commentator notes that such a depiction is at odds with Holy Scripture, saying, “Nowhere is Samson depicted as a superman, endowed by nature with bulging muscles and a huge frame” (Roehrs‑Franzmann, ad loc Judges 13:1, p.172). Somewhat similarly, another Bible commentator characterizes Judges’ three chapters that treat of Samson as “quite out of proportion to the help and deliverance” that Samson “brought to his people” (Keil-Delitzsch, ad loc Judges 13-16, p.399). As we consider tonight’s Reading of Judges chapter 13, Samson’s “Old Testament Divine ‘birth announcement’”, the third in our Midweek series with that theme this Advent, helps us, especially as it points forward to the birth of the Savior and serves our focus both on our repenting of our sins and on our receiving God’s forgiveness by grace through faith in that Savior, Jesus Christ.
As we heard in the Reading, the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, usually worshiping the false gods of the people around them in the land (Judges 10:6‑7), so the Lord gave them into the hand of their enemies, the Philistines. What the Divinely‑inspired author of Judges does not tell us in this case, but what usually happened next as narrated elsewhere in the book of Judges, is probably that then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord confessing their sins and seeking deliverance, and so then the Lord provided a “judge”, or “deliverer”, or “savior” (confer TLSB, p.381; Judges 10:10). In this case, at least some deliverance would come at the hands of Samson, who was born to a man named Manoah and his previously barren wife, whose name the Divinely‑inspired author does not even mention. Like Samuel, whose Old Testament Divine “birth announcement” we will consider next week (1 Samuel 1:11), and like John the Baptizer, whose Divine “birth announcement” is recorded in the New Testament (Luke 1:14-15), Samson was to be a Nazirite from the moment of conception in the womb, when and where life begins. Samson was Divinely placed permanently under a vow of dedicated service to God, a vow of a higher-level of holiness that usually was in place for only a limited period of time (Numbers 6:1-21).
In tonight’s Reading, Manoah and his wife are certainly aware of their un‑holiness before even the Angel of the Lord, the Pre-Incarnate Christ; they were aware that they deserved to die (Exodus 33:20; confer Judges 6:22-23; Isaiah 6:5), a thought echoed in tonight’s Office Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 507:3). And, if you know anything about Samson, especially his involvement with Delilah, you know that he, as one Bible commentator puts it, “flagrantly and repeatedly succumbed to the impulses of the flesh” (Roehrs‑Franzmann, ad loc Judges 13:1, p.172), you know that Samson acted like, as another Bible commentator puts it, “an uncontrollable juvenile delinquent” (Cundall, ad loc Judges 13:1‑16:31, p.155). Of course, by nature you and I are no better than Samson, his parents, or the people of Israel. We also repeatedly succumb to the same temptations. On our own, we also cannot stand in the presence of our Holy God but deserve temporal and eternal death. We also do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, even sometimes worshiping falsely as do the people around us in the land. Yet, for also us God, out of His love and mercy, uses afflictions and His Word to call and enable us to turn in sorrow from our sins and be forgiven of our sinful nature and those sins, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
In tonight’s Reading, the Divinely-inspired author of Judges both himself tells us that Manoah’s wife was barren and had no children and reports the Angel of the Lord’s statement to that effect—repetitions or clarifications that, as it were, are undone by the Angel of the Lord’s three-times telling Manoah’s wife, and her reporting the statements to Manoah, that she would conceive and bear a son. That Old Testament Divine “birth announcement” to Manoah’s wife is echoed by the angel Gabriel’s New Testament Divine “birth announcement” to the Virgin Mary that she miraculously would conceive in her womb and bear a son, her Son and the Son of God (Luke 1:31-32, 35). In tonight’s Reading, the Angel of the Lord told Manoah that the Angel’s name was “wonderful”, perhaps meaning beyond what Manoah could grasp (so TLSB, ad loc Judges 13:18, p.407), or as something belonging to God alone (so Keil‑Delitzsch, ad loc Judges 13:18, p.407), and notably that same Messenger in the flesh of the Virgin Mary’s Son is elsewhere named “Wonderful Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6). Tonight’s Reading says that Samson “began” to save Israel from the Philistines, and he later gave himself to death to save Israel from the Philistines (Judges 16:30), a process that arguably was both continued by Samuel and Saul and completed by David but also a process that for us perhaps most‑importantly points forward to Jesus’s saving all people from sin and death. Jesus took your sin and my sin to the cross and there He died for us, in our place, and He rose from the grave showing Himself to be the Victor over death. In tonight’s Reading, Manoah and his wife believed the Word of the Lord and His intention not to harm but deliver them, and ultimately also Samson is thought to have repented and believed in the Lord (Judges 16:28; confer Roehrs‑Franzmann, ad loc Judges13:1, p.172; TLSB, ad loc Judges 16:28-29, p.412). Likewise, when we repent and believe, then God forgives us. As tonight’s Additional Psalm put it (Psalm 146:1-10; antiphon: v.5), the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. God forgives us as we receive His forgiveness through His Word in all of its forms.
In tonight’s Reading, the Angel of the Lord not once but twice spoke God’s Word to Manoah’s wife and the second time also to Manoah, as God’s called and ordained messengers read and preach God’s Word to groups such as this one. Tonight’s Reading also said that the Spirit of the Lord stirred in Samson, and we might think of the Holy Spirit’s descending on Jesus at His Baptism (for example, Matthew 3:16), as the Holy Spirit comes upon us with the water of our Baptisms (John 3:5; Titus 3:5-6; Ephesians 5:26). And, as Abraham in last week’s Reading showed hospitality to the Angel of the Lord (Genesis 18:1‑15), so in this week’s Reading Manoah tried to show hospitality to the Angel of the Lord, though for whatever reason in this week’s Reading the Angel of the Lord turned the meal into an offering that was consumed by fire, leaving us pondering all the more what one Bible commentator described as the “physiologically incomprehensible” miracle of the angels’ consuming the meal in last week’s Reading (Keil‑Delitzsch, ad loc Genesis 18:1-15, p.228; also see Judges 6:11-24 and Luke 24:41-43). We also ponder what in many ways is the incomprehensible miracle of our Lord Jesus’s giving us, with the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar, His Body and Blood, and so also the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
In tonight’s Reading, Manoah and his wife were concerned about being taught what to do with Samson. As we with repentance and faith are forgiven through God’s Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit at work in us leads us to live our lives in keeping with our respective callings as God’s Holy people, including in many cases, raising children with whom God blesses us, bring up the children in the way that they should go, and praying that when they are old they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). Ultimately, that was the case for Samson. The Divinely‑inspired author of Hebrews says that through faith Samson was made strong out of weakness (Hebrews 11:32-34; confer Roehrs‑Franzmann, ad loc Judges 13:1, p.172). As for Samson and also St. Paul, so even also for us: God’s power—or, “strength”—is made perfect in our weakness: when we are weak in ourselves, then we are strong in Him (2 Corinthians 12:9-10; confer 11:30; 13:4).
Whatever the exact timing of the Old Testament Divine announcement of Samson’s birth in relation to the other events in the book of Judges, there was probably at least about a 20‑year wait before Samson—“superhero” or not—“began” to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines. How long, we do not know, but we are waiting, too, for the final and complete deliverance of our Lord Jesus Christ. Consideration of this third Old Testament Divine “birth announcement” has pointed us forward to the birth of our Savior and helped us focus both on our repenting of our sins and on our receiving God’s forgiveness by grace through faith in that Savior, Jesus Christ. May God preserve us in that repentance and faith in Him until the end.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +