Father's grip

Sunday Sermon, Judges 13:6-24, Gain spiritual sight!

When I spoke on Judges 13:1-5, I pointed out to you that the Israelites did not cry out to the Lord for his help in spite of 40 years of oppressions by Philistines. Apathy and rebellion were the ways of life. They were miserable under the oppression, yet none of them sought after God’s help.

It was during this time when God initiated his move to save them from the oppression so that they might know him as their God.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills-- Where does my hope come?” asked a psalmist in Psalm 121. “My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,” the psalmist answered. God wanted the Israelites to know that he is their Maker, their Great helper.

God’s plan of saving action involved Manoah and his wife. God moved by sending his angel to Manoah’s wife to let her and her husband know that God was on the move. God was going to deliver Israel out of the oppression. God was going to do this by giving Manoah and his wife a child miraculously; they were to raise this special child according to the Nazirite vow to set him apart for God’s saving purpose. The angel announced in verse 5, “the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Today, we are going to continue our journey from 13:6 to the end of chapter 13. Our focus will be on how Manoah and his wife responded to God, especially on Manoah’s response. God was on the move to save the Israelites; God chose Manoah and Manoah’s wife for this purpose. The question is how did they respond? And, what can we learn from their responses?

1. Manoah’s wife told Manoah what God said to her through the angel (13:6-7).

As soon as the angel appeared to Manoah’s wife, she went to her husband and told him what happened. She said in verse 6, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.” She had an extraordinary encounter with the angel; but she didn’t know at first it was the angel of the LORD who visited her. She thought the angel was a man of God, someone very special and important. But, he left such an impression in her mind; she thought he looked like an angle of God. The encounter also evoked fear in her that she couldn’t ask where he was from or the angel’s name. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but intuitively she knew that the person whom she met was no ordinary person. She went to her husband and informed him about her encounter with the angel and the message from the LORD.

2. Manoah tried to compensate his unbelief and spiritual dullness with further revelation from God (13:8-14).

When Manoah heard from his wife about her encounter with the angel, he prayed to the LORD, “O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

God already told his wife to bring up the boy according to Numbers 6, by the Nazirite rules. His prayer had the appearance of godliness, but it was not driven by sincere faith; he was jealous that his wife got to meet the angel, not him. He was also skeptical and distrusting of his wife.[1]

God answered Manoah’s prayer, but not in the way he expected. He probably thought the angel would come to him directly this time. But, verse 9 says, “God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.” God is gracious to hear our prayer, but he often doesn’t answer our prayer in the way we expect him to answer us. By not sending his angel to Manoah directly, God was making a statement that Manoah’s prayer was not sincere.

Just like the first time, his wife again told Manoah that the angel visited her. This time, Manoah followed his wife and was able to encounter the angel. When he saw the angel, he asked in verse 11, “Are you the one who talked to my wife?” His question reveals the depth of Manoah’s spiritual dullness and doubts. His spiritual eyes were so poor that he couldn’t discern that he was talking to the angel.

Verse 12, he asked the angel, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy’s life and work?” To his question, the angel answered in verse 13-14 that his wife must do all that she was told to do earlier. The angel told Manoah nothing new. God already revealed his will to Manoah’s wife earlier when the angel visited her first time.

Manoah was fishing for more information from God to compensate his doubt, lack of trust. God knew this unbelief was Manoah’s problem, not the lack of information.

We do this too. We think that more information, more revelation than what’s given in God’s word, more of some special insights would help us get over doubts and disbelief. But, the reality is not that we need more information, but we need to learn to trust God for what has already revealed to us.

3. Manoah tried to compensate his unbelief and spiritual dullness by his attempt to manipulate God (13:15-23).

Now, having tried and failed to extract more information from God to compensate his unbelief, from verse 15-23, we see him trying to compensate his unbelief with manipulation.

He told the angel in verse 15, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.” This can be literally translated as in NASU, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” Manoah was trying to slow the angel down. By delaying the angel from leaving, Manoah was hoping to get a meal ready for the angel. It sounds like a nice gesture. In Genesis 18:5, Abraham also asked the angels to stay around so he could prepare a meal for them. The difference is that the angel agreed to Abraham’s invitation.

In Manoah’s case, the angel responded in verse 16, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.”

K. Lawson Younger notes that “in ancient Near Eastern religions, feeding a deity or his envoy provided the basis for the supplicant’s expectation of divine action on his behalf.[2] Another word, Manoah was thinking that he could obligate God’s messenger to act on behalf of him by feeding him some nice meaty meal.

But, this didn’t fly. Proverbs 17:3 says, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.” He tested Manoah’s heart and found Manoah was trying to compensate his unbelief with manipulation. When the angel told him to prepare a burn offering and offer it to the LORD, he was telling Manoah that he needed to stop trying to manipulate God; Manoah didn’t need to manipulate God for favor. God was already working in his life; all he had to was to acknowledge that God was moving in his life; in thankfulness he was to worship God. This is what he needed to do; not trying to earn more of God’s favor through manipulation.

Verse 16 says, “Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the LORD.” This sums up his spiritual state. He was spiritually dull and blind; he was spiritually not in tune.

Manoah also tried to find out the angel’s name in verse 17. He reasoned that he wanted to know the angel’s name in order to honor the angel when the promise came true.

At surface, asking for name doesn’t sound too bad. But, it was wrong because Manoah was going to honor the angel instead of God. Well, he wasn’t even going to honor the angel then. He was going to wait to make sure what was said would come true, and then he was going to honor the angel whom he thought of as a human being. Well, not too much of thankfulness or faith there, right?

The angel questioned Manoah’s real motive behind asking for his name. Verse 18, the angel asked, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.”

4. Gain spiritual sight by worshiping God (13:19-24).

Up to this point, Manoah tried very hard to compensate his unbelief with more information from God and attempts to manipulate him. He was spiritually blunted that he didn’t know that he was talking to God’s spiritual messenger, an angel.

Earlier when he tried to detain the angel with a meal, he was told to offer sacrifice to God instead in verse 16.

Now, in verse 19, we see him doing what he was told to do by the angel. Instead of getting ready for a meal, he offered a young goat and grain on a rock to the LORD. The flame blazed up towards heaven and the angel ascended in the flame.

This is the first time when Manoah’s spiritual eyes opened to realize that God had visited him through the angel. This happened when he did what he was told to do; it happened when he worshipped God.

We are subject to spiritual dullness just like Manoah was. God is always on the move in our lives, but we don’t perceive it, we don’t know it because we are dull.

The key to the spiritual awakening is to know that God is God and we are not. This simple realization evokes host of emotion in us; it can cause to feel fearful of God, it can cause us to feel calm and peaceful knowing that he is in control, it can cause us to feel amazed by who he is.

When we are awakened to the greatness of our God, then we also gain spiritual perception to know what God is doing in us, around us, and through us.

5. Gain spiritual sight by remembering God through his word.

John Piper wrote in his book When I Don’t Desire God, a helpful chapter on the issue of seeing God. In this chapter, he wrote, “The Fight for joy is a fight to see God.” Another word, seeing God is essential to experiencing joyous walk with God. When we are most joyous and happy because of who God is, how he relates to us, how he works through us, this is what life of worship looks like.

And, this seeing God is directly related to hearing, reading, and meditating in God’s word.

Why did the Israelites do so much evil? Judges 8:34 says that the Israelites did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They did so much evil, turned away from their God, their helper, their creator, and turned to the idols because they did not remember their God.

Why did they not remember God? It is because they didn’t hear God’s word, read God’s word, meditate in God’s word.

Apostle Paul said, “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” Romans 10:17.

When we deprive ourselves this meals, God’s revelation about himself through his word, we become just like Manoah, spiritually dull, skeptical, and unaware of God’s activity in our lives.

In order to gain spiritual sight, we need to be all the more diligent in remembering God through his word.

I am so convinced about this each evening I read two to three chapters from the Bible to my children. In this rate, they would be able to hear the whole Bible read to them in a year. By the time they are in their teens, they would have heard and read through the Bible at least 10 times. I know that they don’t understand everything that I read to them now. But, their comprehension will only grow and things will click in their brain that God is really awesome! I want that!

6. Gain spiritual sight by being thankful.

We are all celebrating the Thanksgiving weekend. What have you done besides getting together with people and eating tons of turnkey and other food? Have you slow down and try to remember what you are thankful for? Being thankful happens when you actively remember the things that have happened to you. If you have done this act of remembering, most likely you’ve spent this past week also being thankful as well.

Being thankful, remembering, God’s word, they are all connected. You cannot be genuinely thankful to God without the act of actively remembering who he is, what he has done, is doing and will do. And, you cannot remember God without actively engaging your mind in God’s word. And, you cannot worship God without being thankful!

Can you imagine how Manoah would have acted differently if he was actively recalling God’s activity in his life and in Israel by carefully spending time in God’s word? He would have remembered that God is always at work and graciously initiates his salvation plan and act. And, the very moment he heard from his wife about the angel’s visitation on her to announce God’s plan of salvation, he would have seen this as God at work. His response would have been thanking God from his heart!

You know when you see genuinely happy people! Genuinely happy people are the people who are overflowing with thankfulness.

Do you want to be genuinely happy person? Then, you need to take time to remember your God. You remember God by revisiting again and again the beautiful stories after stories from the Bible how God has always been on the move for his people.

You need to zero on the greatest love story ever told, the life of Jesus Christ. He didn’t shy away from going to Jerusalem. Luke 9:51 says, “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Do you feel weary and lose heart? Do you feel grumbly, apathetic, and angry? Do you feel downcast and moody and depressed? Do you feel aimless?

Or, more importantly, what do you do when you feel this way? How you try to pacify your sad, void, out of sync heart? Where do you turn? My prayer is that you turn to your Helper, your Creator, your Lord, your Savior, the One who loves you the most in this whole world! Turn to his word. Open the door of your heart by engaging your eyes of your heart on who God is, what he has been doing, and what he is going to do.

Then, unlike Manoah who were too dull spiritually to see God at work in his life, you will be able to see how he is inviting you to be part of his salvation plan. You can consider how God is calling you out of your little world of worries, anxiety, mad-rushes, emptiness, and rages into his world of peace, calm, purpose, fullness, love, and empowerment. You will be genuinely happy and thankful person.

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[1] K. Lawson Younger, NIV Application Commentary, p. 289.
[2] Ibid., p. 290.

Sunday sermon, Galatians 2:20, Know and determine the price for freedom

Yesterday was Veterans Day. Each year, the Department of Veterans Affairs puts out a poster for Veterans Day. Let me show you this year’s poster. The title of the poster reads, “HONORING ALL WHO SERVED,” and towards the bottom reads, “To be a veteran one must know and determine one’s price for freedom.”

USA Today featured an article titled, “Medals carry great weight, as do men who wear them” November 10th, just this past Friday. (Link to the USA Today article)

And, the sub title reads, “27 servicemen have received top decorations for valor in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their stories testify to the brutality of war and the humanity behind heroism.”

These are our new generation’s combat heroes in their 20’s to 40’s. The article captures the split second moments before they acted bravely. The article reads, “This new generation of decorated troops talks of acting without thinking, except for moments of clarity when death seemed inevitable.” Bill Carr, a deputy undersecretary of Defense said, “We’re a nation that loves the struggle of men and women being better, being bigger tham themsevels, being selfless and talking risks on behalf of one another.”

Sgt. Maj. Bradley Kasal, 40 years old, he was shot seven times during close-quarter combat in Fallujah, Irag, in 2004. While wounded himself, he was trying to strip the gear off the fallen Marine next to him, Alex Nicoll, to locate a wound. That’s when a grenade landed close by. He said, “I looked, and there was a grenade sitting right there… I pushed Nicoll over and rolled on top of him and covered him up. The grenade went off. It rang my doorbell. The blast hit me in the leg, back of the arms, buttocks. The flack jacket took a lot of the blast.” He recalled, “I thought I’d bleed to death… That’s way I rolled over (the wounded Marine) to save him.”

Fonseca got his Navy Cross for his action on March 23, 2003. In the opening days of the war, a convoy of vehicles came under attack by the enemies’ fire as well as strafed (machine gunfire) by a U.S. jet accidentally. He recalled, “All this chaos around you, and I told myself real quick, ‘I’m not going to make it out of here.” Waiting to be next, he was thinking, “Is it going to be quick? Is it going to be painful? Am I going to feel anything?” What was he doing in the mean time? He was running from one vehicle to the next to treat wounded Marines.

Their moments of clarity when they thought they were going to die caught my attention. Thinking they were going to die, many of these brave soldiers were wired, trained to act to protect their comrades, fellow soldiers. But, the acts to throw their bodies to protect their comrades didn’t just happen. As the slogan states, they were trained to know and determine the price for freedom beforehand.

As Christians, our ultimate hero who is to receive the highest Medal of Honor in the universe is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrew writer calls us to think of him, to fix our eyes on him for he is “the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” To
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart.” says Hebrews 12:2-3.

Did Jesus think of dying on the cross for the first time when the moment came to be crucified? The truth is that he had known and determined the price of freedom for us; the price would be his death on the cross. Philippians 2:8 says, “before found in appearance of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross!”

He said in Luke 9:23-26: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

The reward is the freedom in Jesus Christ to experience God’s amazing love for us and to love him and love people. The reward is the freedom from the bondages of self-cravings and absorption, self-exaltation, self-worship.

You need to know and determine that the cost to this freedom is to renounce your agenda, your expectation, your rights… another word, you need to die to your self pride, your perceived rights, your will to win arguments at all cost… you need to die to the worldly desires that wages war against you.

To know and determine speaks to the fundamental shift in orientation. It is the shift from living your life as you fit and want, to living your life through the life of Jesus Christ.

Christian spiritual maturity is about Christ’s life becoming more dominant reality in us. Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

May God help you to know and determine the price for freedom in Christ!

Sunday Sermon, Judges 13:1-5, God is always on the move!

Again the story of Samson begins in typical manner as we’ve seen in the book of Judges. 13:1 comments, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.” When we covered the story of Jephthah in chapter 10, we learned that the nation of Philistines was used by God as a disciplining measure when the Israelites were delving further into the idolatry. 10:7 says, “he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of Philistines and the Ammonites.”

K. Lawson Younger in his commentary observes a marked difference in the story involving Samson’s life compared to the stories before him.^[1] Until now, when the disciplining hand of the LORD was upon them when he allowed Israel to be oppressed by the foreign nations, the Israelites cried out and turned to the LORD. Grant it they weren’t always sincere about it, nevertheless they sought God’s help. What we find in chapter 13 is the absence of any account of the Israelites crying out or turning to the LORD for his help, for forty years.

The time of Judges was a dark period. As the story of Judges progresses, what we find is that the Israelites further degenerated. It got so bad that the people of Israel were not even turning to God or crying out to God even insincerely under the oppression of Philistines. Two words describe their state. Apathy, rebellion.

We need to remember that the story surrounding Samson involves this very context. People had forsaken God so completely that they would rather live in the misery than turn to God. They were so utterly apathetic about their lives. And, it is during this period of dark apathetic and rebellious time that God was on the move. When the people were paralyzed by apathy and rebellion unable to draw closer to God, it was God who was on the move to help.

1. God is always on the move.

With the typical opening in 13:1 and the notable absence of the Israelites calling out or turning to the LORD, the story narrows on to what happened before Samson was born.

From verse 2, we see how God was on the move. Manoah was Samson’s father. He was from a tribe of Dan, specifically from a city called Zorah about fifteen miles west of Jerusalem. We are not given his wife’s name in this story. But we are told that she was sterile and remained childless.

Now in verse 3, we see how God was on the move. His angel appeared to her and told her this; “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

What happens when God’s people are so apathetic that they just aren’t interested in turning to God even under the great oppression? What happens when God’s people are so set on rebellion that they simply don’t turn to God? Left to their own apathy and rebellion the Israelites would have been absorbed into the surrounding nations’ idolatrous cultures and disappear.

What we see today is God was on the move to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines. God wasn’t going to let his people perish and be no more. He was on the move to deliver them, to awaken them from their apathy, their entrenched rebellion. He was on the move to deliver them.

God was on the move and his plan involved Manoah and his wife who was sterile, childless. His plan was to miraculously open up Manoah’s wife’s womb to grant them a son. And, through this son, God was going to move in Israel to deliver them from the hands of Philistines.

This is really the essence of our God. Left to us alone, we will all perish in our apathy and rebellion. Left to us alone, none of us will ever seek God. Left to us alone, we would be in the predicament described in Romans 3:9-18.

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and they way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

All of us left to us alone… in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, we would all degenerate so completely. This is what apathy and rebellion would do to us.

Apathy sets in, rebellion sets in, heart gets cold, and we don’t want to come to God. Is there any hope? Left to us alone, we will have no hope but to shrivel away, to ebb away till there is no life; only left with the crusty, fragile, lifeless shell.

Is there any hope? Yes, there is! God is on the move! He has always been on the move. Romans 5:6-8 says, “You see, at the just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

No matter where you are, be encouraged this morning for God has always been and is now moving in your life. Are you set in apathy, rebellion, and do you feel hopeless, beaten down, dry, callous, empty, and lifeless? Is there any hope? Yes, there is always hope not because you can do something about it, but, because our God is on the move. He is compassionate, gracious, ready to rescue us, to bring us to the green pasture.

2. God is on the move to deliver and he wants to set you apart for his purpose.

Another side of our God moving to deliver his people is that he involves his people to accomplish his will.

In our story, God involved Manoah, his wife and their son to advance his move to deliver his people from the oppression. It specifically involved setting apart Samson as a Nazirite. The word Nazirite comes from the Hebrew verb that means to consecrate, to set apart.

Today, we are going to have a communion. The bread and the wine themselves are nothing special; they are ordinary bread and ordinary juice. But, what make the communion bread and the drink very special is that they are set apart, consecrated to represent Christ’s body and his blood.

In the similar way, Samson was to be set apart, to be consecrated for God’s purpose. God was on the move to deliver the apathetic and rebellious Israelites from the oppression. And, he was going to use Samson by setting him apart for this very purpose.

This setting apart, consecration was to be done through the Nazirite vow described in the book of Numbers 6. Jackie A. Naude says in a theological dictionary, “The consecration was not an ascetic separation but an expression of loyalty to God, in which forms of abstinence were illustrative rather than constitutive.”^[2] Another word, the three highlighted practices of abstinences in the Nazirite vow were to demonstrate what was going on in a person’s heart. The Nazirite vow was the outward expression of the inward spiritual dedication to God.

Numbers 6 tells us that the Nazirite vow involved abstaining from wine and other fermented drink, grape juice, grapes, or raisins. Nothing that comes from the grapevine was to be eaten; the vow involved not cutting one’s hair during the period of vow; and thirdly, the vow involved abstaining from any contact with dead bodies. It gives very specific direction on what to do when suddenly someone dies in the presence of a person under the Nazirite vow.

This vow was voluntary in nature. For, Samson’s case, the vow was God’s calling upon his life. He was born with God’s purpose to deliver Israel from the hands of Philistines. And, this purpose was to be expressed through the Nazirite vow.

Today, we the followers of Jesus Christ, by the virtue of being born again, we too are given God’s specific calling to be set apart for his purpose even before our spiritual rebirth. One of God’s purposes is reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

A phrase that describes what our church is all about is “Loving God and Loving people.” Without God’s gracious initiation, without him always on the move to deliver us, we would not be able to dream up of loving God and loving people.

God reconciling us to him is all about enabling us to be people who would love him. And, out of that love relationship with him, we are also enabled to love people in God’s way.

God moved definitively by sending his Son Jesus Christ to die in our place for our sins. God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us. Jesus sacrificed his life to pay for the penalties of our sins that is death. By his son’s death, God removes the sin barrier. By graciously and sacrificially loving us through his Son Jesus, God deal with our apathy and rebellion against him.

Once he deals with our apathy and rebellion, he creates in us new life, new inclination, new love for him. And, he can use us to be his ambassadors to point people to him, to experience his love.

Conclusions

When you come to the communion table shortly to take the bread and the wine that illustrates Christ’s body and blood, remember God is moving towards you and he enables you to move towards him by forgiving your sins. May God increase your love for him as you receive his love in Jesus Christ!

You also need to remember that God is moving towards you and enables you to move towards him so that you help others to experience what you are experiencing, moving towards God.

Would you join me now to commit ourselves to God who is always on the move?

Oh, Jesus, we thank you for removing the barrier, the sins that stand against us, by dying on the cross, taking our place to be killed for our sins.

Oh, remind us this morning how you are actively moving in our lives. We confess our apathy, our rebellion before you. Who can rescue us from our apathy, our rebellion?

As the psalmist prayed in Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

And, we receive your affirmation as we recognize that you’ve set us apart, consecrated us for your purpose. And, so we remember as the palmist did.

He will not let your foot slip- he who watches over you will not slumber; in deed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm- he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

In Jesus name, Amen.

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^[1]K. Lawson Younger, The NIV Application Commentary, p. 286.
^[2]Jackie A. Naude, New International Dictioanry of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, (H5692) rz"n: