JUDGES 13: SAMSON (1)

Samson is one of the major judges of whom we read in this book, raised by God to help Israel against the Philistine threat. The story takes up chapters 13-16, a sizeable section of the narrative.

Prelude To the Story

The background is given in 12:8-15, with the minor judgeships of Ibzan (7 years), Elon (10 years) and Abdon (8 years). God did not completely abandon his people, but nor did he give them anything like the permanent victory which they had previously enjoyed. Ralph Davis notes the absence from this narrative of the formula 'the land had rest', which we find in other places (5:31, 8:28). There was no lasting peace.

There is also a contrast here with what has gone before. We notice it, for example, in the references to many children: Ibzan with 30 sons and 30 daughters, Abdon with 40 sons and 30 grandsons. There seems to be a deliberate contrast with Jephthah, who had one daughter, rashly and foolishly sacrificed, and left without any line or name in Israel. God's Providences reflect his judgements; and he always has a reason for what he does. Some he blesses with much, others he favours with little. But always he reveals his grace and sovereignty.

But these verses function as a fitting introduction to the story of Samson; for it is into this story of continued sin, hostility and rebellion that the grace of God comes. The darkness is emphasised in 13:1. For forty years, the Philistines oppress the people of God.

The Infancy Narrative

What is striking about Samson is that he is the only judge for whom an infancy narrative is given. While other judges are recorded as having been called (eg Gideon), here we see God revealing to Samson's parents that they would have a son. Not only does that distinguish the story of Samson, it also very clearly links in to the typology of Scripture. The judges pointed forward to one greater than themselves, born in the fulness of time, made of a woman, under law, whose birth is related to us in the Gospels.

It would be fitting, therefore, to highlight the points at which Samson stands before us as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, He Is the Child of Promise -- 13:3.

Like many other mothers in Israel, not least Mary the mother of Jesus, God visits her when she is childless and barren. Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, had a wife who was barren. Mary was a virgin, and had not known a man when the angel came to her with the same promise that Manoah heard: 'you will conceive and bear a son' (13:3, Luke 2:31).

The covenant line of grace in Scripture was always a line of promise. God made commitments about the future -- promises that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, that the child of Abraham's old age would be his heir, and so on. Like Jesus, Samson is the child of promise. Into the darkness and barrenness of Israel's condition, God promises to send a Saviour.

The interesting thing about this particular passage is that the interaction between Heaven and earth is recounted as a conversation between Manoah and the angel of the Lord. This is no ordinary angel: Manoah reveals as much when he recognises the angel and says that he has seen God (13:22). This is a revelation of the glory of God in a created form. It is a pre-incarnate appearance of God, of the one who is sent by God, in the name of God, and yet who is God himself. The angel of the Lord is a christophany: a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

So here is the remarkable thing: Christ, appearing as the angel of the Lord, promises the birth of one who will serve in history as a type of the incarnate Christ who is to come hundreds of years after this.

In Christ, therefore, the promises are 'Yes' and 'Amen'; the King of Glory appears. 'Unto us a son is born, and unto us a child is given' (Isaiah 9:6).

Second, He Is the Child of Purpose -- 13:5b.

Samson will be born with a particular end in view: 'he shall begin to save Israel'. The Judge was the Saviour; Samson's life and service would be to the advantage of others who found themselves in bondage and in darkness.

That is explicit in the name which our Saviour was given. 'He shall be called Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins' (Matthew 1:18). He too is a child of destiny, a child of purpose, whose life will be the release, the redemption of others.

Yet there is a profound contrast too. Samson would begin to save Israel, but Jesus makes an end of saving his people. His work is complete. His priesthood is unchangeable. His judgeship is eternal. He is born to save, and he saves to the uttermost.

Third, He Is the Child of Purity -- 13:4-5

In Samson's case that is emphasised with the Nazirite vow. Samson is to be devoted to God from his mother's womb. Perhaps there is another implied contrast with Jephthah here. He made a rash vow to God; but Manoah's vow is originated by God himself, and is serious, and carefully considered. The effect will be a special consecrating of the child to God.

The law concerning the Nazirite is given in Numbers 6, and is in three sections. First, there were prohibitions. The Nazirite had to abstain from wine and intoxicating drinks; he was not to cut his hair during the time of his consecration (the word 'nazir' is used of an unpruned vine in Leviticus 25:5; and he was not to go near a dead body. Secondly, the law required that if there was any violation, the person had to start his term of consecration all over again. Thirdly, at the end of the period of consecration, the hair was cut and burnt on the altar; the Nazirite was then free from the vow.

The duration of the consecration seems to have been temporary, although that is sometimes not clear. One writer suggests that 'the distinctive features of the original Nazirate were a complete consecration to Yahweh, in which the body, not regarded merely as something to be restrained, was enlisted into holy service; an extension to the layman of a holiness usually associated only with the priest' (NBD, 819-20).

This, then, is what Samson was to be: committed, body and soul, to the service of the Lord. He could not be a priest, but he could be consecrated. This must be part of our sanctification, to be consecrated in every faculty of our being to the Lord's work.

We know that Jesus was fully committed to the service to which he was called. He did not take the Nazirite vow; but he fulfilled it nonetheless. From the womb he was set apart; when Messiah says 'You are he who took me from the womb' (Psalm 22:9), he is not simply saying that God gave him birth, but that his whole life was set apart. That holy thing, conceived in Mary's body was all the time in God's hands, prepared for Jesus, and prepared for death.

But although Jesus was not a Nazirite, he was a Nazarene. Matthew 2:22 says:

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: 'He shall be called a Nazarene'.

Scholars are very divided on their interpretation of this verse, simply because there is no direct OT prophecy which says that the Messiah would be a Nazarene, that is, a native of Nazareth. On the one hand, it is telling us that he would be brought up in obscurity; Nazareth was not an important place. But it is telling us something significant. Matthew is obviously playing on words here, linking the idea of Nazareth the town with what the OT does say about the Messiah, as one totally consecrated to God.

So Samson's birth, under the terms of the Nazirite vow pointed forward to the coming of the Nazarene of the tribe of Judah, who would fulfill in every respect the law of consecration in ways that no Nazirite ever could.

Fourth, He Is the Child of Piety -- 13:9-20

Samson is brought up in a home where the will of God is sought (v12), where the worship of God is observed (v15) and where the name of God is feared (v20). This is a home of covenant service and of covenant worship. No child could have had a better training.

Jesus too, was brought up in such a home. We are not to imagine that his upbringing had no influence on his human development; why else should we read of him that he 'grew and became strong, filled with wisdom' (Luke 2:40) and that he was submissive to his parents in the home of Nazareth (Luke 2:51)? When he began his public ministry, he came to the synagogue, to which he had been accustomed and in whose services he had been reared (Luke 4:16).

There is a real blessing here, on Samson as on Jesus.

Fifth, He Is the Child of Power -- 13:21-24

The portent of things to come is noted in the fact that the Spirit of the Lord was on Samson (v25). Similarly Jesus was anointed with the Spirit and with power and went about doing good (Acts 10:38).

So, we read the narrative about this deliverer, knowing that this is God's covenant provision for his people, but also realising that 'a greater than Samson is here'.