Sep 7, 2017
This is episode nine on our study of the book of Judges and it covers chapter 13. At this point in the history of the judges, we meet one of the better-known characters whose exploits are almost super-hero like. Of course, we’re referring to Samson, that larger-than-life character who was renowned for his great strength and long hair. But he also had a reputation as a lady’s man and as a loose cannon, who marched to the beat of his own drummer and who was anything but the prototypical servant of God. But chapter 13 is going to provide us with some important insights into how Samson became a judge. This unlikely hero was actually the result of a miraculous intervention by God. In the midst of all the evil taking place in Israel, God would visit a woman who just happened to be barren. She was suffering with the disgrace of childlessness, a powerful social stigma in that day and age. But God was going to give her a child, a boy, whom she was commanded to raise as a Nazarite and whom God said would save the people of Israel from the Philistines. This wasn’t going to be just any boy. He was going to be a God-appointed deliverer. At the worst of times, God selected the least likely woman to bear the child who would become the surprising source of His deliverance for an unfaithful people.