http://countrysidechurchofchrist.sermon.net/main/main/21332009
Samson and the Philistines-chapter 13:1-23 Date 2/17/19
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
http://countrysidechurchofchrist.sermon.net/main/main/21332009
Samson and the Philistines-chapter 13:1-23 Date 2/17/19
thedailylily.com 
Sure got a different perspective on (patience) Job!
We sure did get, “ a different perspective on (patience) Job!”, Sara. And I appreciated how Pastor Reggie clarified it by saying that “While a person may know God, we cannot know God perfectly – We’ll never know all about God’s dealings.” He followed that up by exhorting us to take away this statement from his lesson, “Man must learn to be content with those things which God has revealed about Himself.”
This sure was a packed lesson. I am going back to review.
Debi, I quoted Pastor Reggie in my notes ,” Man must learn to be content with those things that God has revealed about Himself”. I believe this quote was used when verses 17-18 was being taught. Isn’t it interesting how the angel of the Lord answered Manoah when he asked his name? “It is beyond understanding.” I agree with you….”sure is a packed lesson”.
Pastor Reggie asked if there was anything omitted, at the start of chapter 13. Verse 1: “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years.” I put in my notes 📝…..” there is no reference of the crying out to the Lord for help, from the Israelites.”(as in previous chapters) “God took the initiative to raise up Samson.” Did I hear or understand correctly?
Tammy’s notes, “Pastor Reggie asked if there was anything omitted, at the start of chapter 13. …There is no reference of the crying out to the Lord for help, from the Israelites.”(as in previous chapters…” It sounded like the Israelities were just content in their lives. I must say at that moment in teaching I caught a glimpse of a question I recently asked a Christian doctor. My question, ‘why are people everywhere in our Nation with all these crises not running to Jesus,’ he responded, “because men loved darkness more than light. He was right according to John 3:19
Thanks Tammy for your notes. You are privileged to be part of this class and we benefit from your notes.
Debi got it right , “a packed lesson.” Rewind and back to my ear buds! 🎧
As I followed along with Pastor Reggie’s lesson in Judges 13, he pointed out that in vs. 1 the Israelites repeated their cycle of doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. This time the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years! This final oppression was “twice as long as the next longest”. We were told in the lesson that this was the 7th recorded apostasy (falling away from the Lord) in the book of Judges. It was so bad that “it had reached a point that the Israelites displayed little discomfort or little evidence of even wanting to be delivered.” Pastor Reggie’s next comments sent a chilling warning …”that’s the way it is with sin, you just learn to accommodate yourself and adjust to it….you are comfortable living in a sinful environment”… you just get used to it and “live with the status quo.”
Tammy, you said, “Isn’t it interesting how the angel of the Lord answered Manoah when he asked his name? “It is beyond understanding.”
I thought that interesting also.
How about Pastor Reggie’s observations regarding Manoah and his wife? “The Godly wisdom of a woman outshines that of the men surrounding her.”
He was sure they were going to die from seeing The angel of the Lord (God Himself)? But his wife was “calm, logical and confident…”
I caught that too Debi: woman wisdom outshining the men. I like how Manoah’s wife responded to him. Let me recap from the Bible. “22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”
23 But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”
In thinking on “the woman” (wife and Mother) surrounding the divine birth of Samson and her abilities to heart pocket those things that needed to be pondered and tell the things that were needful for the time surely protrays a person of wisdom as demonstrated in this life story.
I love how Jesus included all of us, male and female as He spoke Words of “inclusive” when we follow wisdom way.
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
—John 8:12, NRSV
As I unpacked some of the mysteries of Samson and his parents and miracle birth in this lesson I found my first forever recognizing the story of Samson still remains… “love of women and revenge.”
Are we reliving the human downfall of mankind? Lust for sex and hit back twice as hard? Now, I somehow in my faith of the teachings of Jesus the Christ, heard along the way, “turn the other cheek, ” and refrain from lust of sex and no sex outside of marriage.
Am I understanding Christian Leaders telling me in this new era of Bible teaching, lust, lying, and double hit back is the way leaders have been trained by God to win the wars, run Nations and train our youth?
Boggled Head dolls and my bogging is about to boggle off my shoulders and surely boggle the mind.
My answer for the moment tune in for part 2 of Samson and see how things are going for this long haired Nazirite with the lust of women, wine and fight with manly strength.
We need dialogue on the difference of Nazirite and Nazarene? The Angel of the Lotd, being God in human form appearing to a human… theophany, a manifestation or appearance of God or a god to a person. Not an angel.
Also, 5 cites? Named? I’m also working on map traveling to help my understanding. Looking forward to my classmates helping us out.
Hey, sure hope Pastor/teacher Reggie doesn’t pull one of thos pop quizzes on us or I might fail. I noticed his live ongoing classes struggled a bit…
I love this ongoing series through Judges. Feeling blessed to study with all of you!
The 5 cities I think you are referring to in the lesson, Sara, were Gath, Gaza, Ashd0d, Ekron and Askelon. We were told they were all close to the Mediterranean. These were cities that the Philistines, war-like fighters, exerted great influence over.
Sara, you said, “We need dialogue on the difference of Nazirite and Nazarene?”
My understanding from Pastor Reggie’s lesson was that Nazirite meant ‘dedicated or consecrated.’ The Nazirite vow was “usually taken voluntarily for a limited period of time.”
He went on to explain that Samson’s vow was “not voluntary, it was for his whole life.” There were three restrictions for a Nazirite that Pastor Reggie informed us of and said Samson violated all of them: 1) must not eat or drink anything from a grapevine, not even raisins; 2) could not cut their hair; 3) could not go near a dead body.
In my search regarding Nazarene, Jesus is referred to as “Jesus of Nazareth” in Mark 1:24.
Matt. 2:21-23 tells us that He was called a Nazarene. “So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. 22 But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. 23 So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
And in Luke 1:26-27 we are told that Nazareth, a town in Galilee, is where Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her that she would give birth to a son called Jesus.
Pastor Reggie told us that Samson was the “only judge where anything about his birth is recorded.” He was from the tribe of Dan. And his hometown was Zorah.
Conversely, the hometown of Jesus was Nazareth and his lineage is from Judah (…”Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David” Rev 5:5)
Thanks Debi for the clarification. This scripture always comes to my mind,
“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.”John 1:46
Debi, You assured us something beyond good came from Nazareth, Jusus, the Messiah!
Yes…..”Jesus, the Messiah “!
” The Angel of the Lotd, being God in human form appearing to a human… theophany, a manifestation or appearance of God or a god to a person. Not an angel.” Sara, you mentioned this above from Pastor Reggie’s lesson.
I understood him to say from teaching that the angel of the Lord appeared to them as a visitor. That Manoah and his wife “had no real knowledge concerning this visitor until His supernatural disappearance in vs. 20 and 21.” His wife described Him as ‘a man of God’. Pastor Reggie told us “that term applied to prophets in the OT but that He was no ordinary prophet…His appearance was very awesome…He was Deity.” This appearance was compared to one in Judges 6:21 where Gideon saw the angel of the Lord disappear. But this time, the angel of the Lord did something amazing…He dramatically “shot up toward the sky” and “ascended in the fire” (Judges 13:20).
I went back to Pastor Reggie’s Lesson 3, July 24, 2018, “Condemned by The Angel of the Lord.”. He told us there that in Judges 2 the angel of the Lord appeared then to expose them, and that that appearance was God Himself…the meaning of theophany – God taking on physical form.
Rena Oynes writes……
What beautiful comments to Reggie’s lesson which opens up the scripture and also stimulates our thinking.
Here is what I glean from the teaching.
We are told Manoah’s wife was visited by a stranger who had told her about herself being sterile and childless and went on to tell her about having a child, that he would be a Nazirite, and what she could not eat or drink and he was to play a role in Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines.
Interesting she never asked who He was nor did He introduce Himself. Sounds to me she knew His voice.
Perhaps years of being sterile and without child she grew closer and closerto God and knew His voice.
When she went to tell her husband she said he was a Man of God (prophet) looked like an Angel of God (God taking on physical form)very awesome (deity). Sounds like a woman who knew who she spoke to. She left out that her son would have a role in delivering Israel from the Philistines.
Why didn’t she tell?
Manoah then prayed to the Lord wanting Him to send the man of God again to teach them how to bring up the boy who was to be born.
Then the Angel of the Lord came to her again in the field. She knew him and ran to get her husband. First thing he asked. “Are you the man who talked to my wife.” Why did he ask. Didn’t he recognize the voice and his wife had already told him?
Manoah asked about how to raise his son. The Angel of God never answers. Only repeats what his wife says but leaves out the role his son would play in the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines.
The whole thing is interesting and says to me as Reggie says she was the key in the account. It says to me she walked closely with the Lord for a long time. She recognized the one delivering the message as Angel of Lord” (God taking on physical form) “awesome” (deity)and He knew her. Also she had the wisdom to know what should be told and what shouldn’t. A woman of wisdom surrounded by men as Pastor Reggie says. Wow, one who stands in wisdom in a world who doesn’t know or walk with God!
Reminder to me:
Don’t tell everything God gives you to one who doesn’t know Him. Also stand with God in the world who don’t know Him.
Another bullet point Pastor Reggie made and I think of great significance to watch for, “Samson started but didn’t finish,”
Yes, he did say that.
Tammy, Don’t forget to come back Sunday Night and maybe we will find out who finished! 🙏🏻