Samson pt. 1: “A Righteous Vow”
By Dayle K. Barrett
Sunday, August 17, 2025
Reading: Judges 13:1-25
Well, congratulations. You've made it to the penultimate installment of our series on the Book of Judges entitled, “There Are No Heroes.” It hasn't been an easy one, has it? But you made it through. You're doing great.
Here we arrive at a very important character in the book. The only character I'd say that rivals Gideon in terms of his stature in the Book of Judges. And that is Samson. Who knows the name Samson? Who's familiar with Samson? Okay, some of you went to Sunday school, that's great.
The thing is when we hear of these stories in the Bible these characters often get sanitized in Sunday school, right? Gideon's just a hero. He went, took care of the enemies with 300 because he had faith in God. Let's be like Gideon. Then when you keep on reading the story, you realize maybe he wasn't so perfect. It's a similar thing with Samson.
If last week's story was similar to a Greek tragedy, this one we have a glimpse of what a Greek strongman looks like. Samson is like the biblical version of Hercules and it's an amazing story. There are riddles and quests and betrayal and romance. In fact, I do have some homework for you. Next week Jason is going to be preaching on Chapter 16, but if you have 20 minutes during the week, please read Chapters 14 and 15 of the Book of Judges because you're not going to want to miss all the other things that happen in Samson's life. Samson is a cool character. He does great things, but he's not perfect. No one's perfect. And the whole Book of Judges is this explanation. This grand story of how God uses imperfect, broken people to bring about his will on the Earth. There are no heroes except Christ. We start to hear this motif repeated in the last three chapters of Judges. It says that “in those days, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
This story begins, though, with the other repetitive motif that we hear in the Book of Judges. “Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.” And the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. Forty years. Forty is significant in the scriptures, isn't it?
Forty years is the amount of time the Israelites spent in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. Forty days and forty nights is the time that Jesus spends in the wilderness in the desert while being tempted by the devil. Whenever we see this number 40, we should be reminded of the idea of trial and testing. A difficult time that you have to go through in order to get to the place that God has for you.
Israel was indeed in a time like this under the hand of the Philistines. Now, if the name Philistine sounds familiar to you, it's not an accident. Even though this is one of the earlier times we hear of the Philistines in the Bible, they end up battling with Israel for several books ahead. In fact, even though Samson begins to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, that deliverance is not complete until the time of King David.
The Philistines become one of Israel's greatest foes, and this rivalry, this fighting continues for years and years. The raising up of Samson isn't like some of the other stories we've heard before. Samson doesn't arise and become a great judge. I'm not even sure if we could call Samson a deliverer. Samson is kind of a troubled loner, stumbling his way through life, trying to complete God's mission to save the people he loves. A lot of it has to do with the fact that Samson really likes the local ladies too. You'll hear about that in chapters to come.
The word Philistine is one that's actually related to one we hear today. It probably rings a bell as you hear it. A bit of useless information for you: The word Palestine that we use today to describe a region in the Holy Land was actually given to that area by the Romans after they destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. They used the word Palestine because it was the Greek word for the Philistines. They called the place Syria-Palaestina in order to insult the Jews whose temple they had just destroyed. Now, it's very unlikely that the people inhabiting Gaza descend from the Philistines we're reading about in this text, but it lets you know how long this struggle over the Holy Land has been going on and how deeply complicated it is.
While all this is going on, while they're being oppressed, fighting for their freedom, and wondering what was going to happen next, the Bible says there was a man from Zorah of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah (which means rest) and his wife was barren. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman – who is not given a name in this text – and spoke to her.
She doesn't seem to have an identity or a hold in her society because she lacks the very thing that everyone thinks should give her value in a society like this. So, she represents a kind of emptiness that exists amongst the people of Israel at this time. What they're looking for is rest. Deliverance. Hope.
The Bible says that the angel of the Lord appears at this time. Now in the Old Testament, when you read the words, “the Angel of the Lord,” it's easy to think we're talking about a winged creature like, I don't know, modern depictions of Gabriel. But the words, “the Angel of the Lord” in this context mean something very different. John tells us that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Angel of the Lord many times in the Old Testament is kind of conflated with the Lord himself. In Exodus when the Lord appears in the burning bush it says that an Angel of the Lord appeared in the burning bush and then when Moses approaches the bush the Lord speaks to Moses from the bush. Similarly with Gideon the Angel of the Lord speaks to Gideon and at the end of the story Gideon knows that he's just spoken with God.
We see the same thing here. In verse 22, Manoah says to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” God sees his people - nameless, fruitless, without identity, under oppression, feeling like they're nothing and God comes to Earth to visit them. Is it beginning to sound like a gospel story yet?
This is the word he has for the barren one. “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink and not eat anything unclean… And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child will be a Nazarite to God from the womb…”
A righteous vow is what I've come to talk to you about today. Last week we were warned against vows, weren't we? We heard the story of Jephthah, a man who tried to make a vow with God and it ended up with the loss of his beloved daughter. It was a cautionary tale, a warning, not that we should never make promises at all, but that we should never try to bargain with God. We should never approach God in such a way where we're saying to him, “I will do this for you, God, if you do this for me.” That was the type of vow that we heard about last week. One that ended up with destruction and death as people tried to give something to God in order to get something from God.
In this story, we hear about something completely different. We hear about a righteous vow, the vow of the Nazarite. The vow of the Nazarite goes all the way back to the Book of Numbers, Chapter Six, in which God gives special codes to a people who would be set apart and consecrated to a period of time of holiness. You might actually have heard of some modern people who take a Nazarite vow. Who knows what a Rastafarian is?
All right, I'm not just talking about people who wear dreadlocks and smoke weed and listen to reggae music. I'm talking about religious Rastafarians, who live by the Nazarite vow that we hear spoken of in Numbers Chapter Six. The dreadlocks are because, like it says in this passage, no razor shall come upon their heads. So, they grow dreadlocks in order to keep this vow that they would never cut their hair during this period of holiness. Another thing that religious Rastafarians often do is abstain from alcohol because in the Nazarite vow, you will not drink wine or any strong drink. Most of them also have very strict rules about eating. So many Rastafarians are vegans, vegetarians, or pescatarians. Most of them won't eat red meat and very few of them will go anywhere near pork. There are variations on the code, but they're trying to abide by this Nazarite vow, this Old Testament idea of a people set apart, living a certain way of holiness in order that they would be special to God.
The closest thing we have in Christianity to that, I'd say, is a monk, a monastic. And while the Nazarites aren't hermits or ascetics, there are people who follow certain strict guidelines, who separate themselves from the rest of the world so that they would live a life completely devoted, completely honoring God. That's the nature of a righteous vow, isn't it? It doesn't intend to bargain and get something from God for oneself. It intends to offer oneself up in service to God. In fact, all righteous vows have those characteristics.
Why is marriage a good vow? Because it's not about saying, let's go and see what I can get from the other person. Marital vows say, “I offer my life and give myself up for you.” Same thing with vows of ordination. When we go before God to be ordained as priests or pastors or whatever the specific denomination says, we're not saying, “God, I want power to be able to boss around your people.” We're saying, “God, I offer my life to you in service.” To steal some words from a wise politician, “Ask not what God can do for you, but instead what you can do for your God.”
A righteous vow offers the self to the God who offers himself for us. This is especially important if you are in a season of your life where you feel like the woman in this story. No matter what is going on inside your body, you might sometimes feel like you're living a life that has a certain amount of barrenness in it. You haven't gotten to where you thought you should be.
Maybe you thought by now you'd have children; be married; be in a better financial situation; further along in your career; be better educated; or, healed from some traumas you suffered in the past. Whether you're male or female, no matter how you identify, no matter where your life has brought you, we all go through seasons where we feel like we're a little bit barren, lost, missing something, not where we're supposed to be. And hoping that a messenger of God or God himself will come and meet us where we are and give us the very thing that we've been praying for. The thing that we want the most. The thing that might make life just a little bit more meaningful. But the interesting thing about this story is that when God offers this thing to the woman that she's been craving forever, He doesn't say that this child should be yours, no. He said, “You will conceive and bear a son, and the son will be a Nazarite to the Lord.”
Perhaps that's something that's difficult for us to wrap our heads around, but maybe it's one of the reasons why things get kept out of our grasp so much. Because it's good to remember that when God gives you something, it is for you, but it belongs to him. That the story of your life is not your story in which God gets to be a character, but it is God's story in which he has written you to be a feature. That every single breath you take and every single move you make is moving towards a purpose that God has for a new creation beyond any of our wildest dreams. That all the desires God has given you are to be ordered towards service of Him, of God's kingdom, of the greatest world there could ever be.
Perhaps the things that we want the most from God will come into our hands when God is satisfied that we're willing to give them back to him. When we're willing to say, “My life is not my own, God, but it is yours.”
One of the funniest comments I got this week during Bible study, when we were talking about this woman, somebody said to me, “Dayle, about three times in this chapter, the angel has to say that she can't have any wine or strong drink. What is she, a wine-o or something? I don't understand why it's said so many times.”
That's probably not the reason, it's possible, but probably not.
The reason why is because while the child is in her womb, everything that she does affects this thing that God has given her. The child's consecration unto God didn't begin at birth. The child was consecrated to God while he was yet unborn. It says, “the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb.” Here's an unpopular take: That means that the child in the woman's womb was not a parasite and was not a clump of cells. The child was a consecrated Nazarite unto God before birth. That has implications for the lives we live today, doesn't it?
In Psalm 139, the writer says this:
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
You might be facing tough decisions in your life right now. You might be feeling like you're not in the place you're supposed to be in your life. I want to tell you that the God that looks at you from heaven is not surprised with one single moment of your life. For God knitted you in your mother's womb and saw your substance when it was yet unformed. God had a plan for you, a design for you, a destiny for you, something for you to do and to be before your parents even thought of bringing you to being. So, the things that leave you barren are not a surprise to God. They're not a thing that God can't solve. They're not something God has to come up with a solution for. They're a journey on a way to God's fulfillment. They're the days fashioned for you when as yet there were none of them.
Your life is not your own. It belongs to a God who sees and knows. And even though he sees and knows all the darkest parts of yourself that you don't want to share with anybody, he sees and knows the parts of you that you're trying to hide from yourself. He sees all of that and still loves you. Thoughts towards you are good. Destiny is sure. Days are written. And he delights in you, my friend.
A righteous vow is not one where we seek to get from God what we need from him, but rather one where we realize who we are to God and live our lives trying to live out that destiny. And so this is what Manoah said when he met the man of God.
He says, “Let your words come to pass. What will the boy's rule of life and his work be?”
God comes into the life of this couple and their response, their righteous response is, “God, what do you want me to do with the life you've given me? What do you want me to do with this opportunity you've put in my hands?” Not what can I get from you, Lord, but how can I serve you? For this is the righteous vow.
There's a story that I heard from Rabbi Shais Taub, and it goes like this:
There was a man on his way home from work one day. He's driving his car, and he's had a really bad day, horrible day, absolutely hated it. He starts crying out to God. He's pounding on his steering wheel. ‘God, I hate my life. I can't take this anymore. I need this to end right now. God, I need you to give me a new life. Just give me a new life right now.’ And God actually replies. God says, ‘all right, sure. I can give you a new life. I'm the creator of life. This is kind of what I do. But this is how it's gonna work. It's not free. How much have you got on you right now?’
The man sticks his hand in his pocket, pulls out his wallet and goes through, he goes, ‘Oh man, I got 20 bucks, God, that's all I got, 20 bucks, I need a new life.’
God says, ‘all right, well, it's your lucky day. It's on sale right now, I can give you a new life for 20 bucks. Give me the 20 bucks, I'll give you a new life.’
The guy goes, ‘yeah, well, the thing is, God, I'm running on empty, I've got to put gas in my car, so I need some of that $20 so I can put gas in my car.’
And God replies, ‘yeah, that's right. You have a car, don't you? Well, the price has just gone up. I need 20 bucks and your car and then you can have a new life.’
And the guy says, ‘you can't do that. God, I need my car so I can get to work. Cause you know, otherwise I really need to get to work. I need my car. There's no public transport.’
God says, ‘yeah, that's right. You've got a job, haven't you? Well, the price just went up. I need 20 bucks and your car and your job.’
And the guy says, ‘well, I can't lose my job. How am I going to pay my mortgage if I don't have my job?’
And God says, ‘you've got a house too, don't you? Well, well, and now I need 20 bucks and your car and your job and your house. And then you can have a new life.’
The guy gets really nervous. ‘You want my house too, but where are my wife and children going to live? God, that's not fair.’
And the guy goes, ‘yeah, I gave you a wife and children, didn't I? Well, now I need 20 bucks and your car and your job and your house and your wife and children.’
The guy stopped talking. Probably thought it wasn't a good idea to continue any further.
So, God says, ‘all right, you can have your new life, but this is how it's gonna go. I can see this isn't working for you. Here's 20 bucks, but it's not your 20 bucks, it's my 20 bucks and you can only spend it on things that I want.
He still didn't say anything.
And God says, ‘well, I guess I'll let you drive that car, but it's not your car, it's my car. You can only drive it places that I want to go.
The guy says, ‘all right, I guess I've got my car back.’
And God says, ‘well, and you can go to work as well, but when you go there, know that it's not your job anymore, it's my job. So I need you to show up like you'd show up for me. And I need you to work like you'd work for me. And I need you to treat people like I want you to treat people when you're at work.
The guy nods his head and God says, ‘and you can live in that house still, but it's not your house, it's my house so I need you to act in there the way that I want you to act and be the kind of house that I've called you to be. You can live with your family, but it's not your wife and children, they're my wife and children,’ God said. ‘I need you to treat them with love and compassion and grace like God's wife and children deserve to be treated.
The man nodded his head and God said to him, ‘so here's your 20 bucks and here's your car and here's your job and here's your house and here's your wife and children. Here's your new life.’
And that's the righteous vow.
When evangelicals talk about giving our lives to Jesus, it's a good idea, but sometimes it gives us the wrong perspective, because it makes us think that we're offering something to God that wasn't already His. Here's how you live a life devoted to Christ. Wake up every day and when you breathe, know that that's God's breath in your lungs. When you sit at the table, know that that's God's food on your plate. When you meet another human being, know that that's God's person that he's put in front of you. And all the dreams you have know that God placed those desires in your heart and devote them to God. That the spirit of the Lord might rest upon you and you might do great things for the kingdom on this earth.
Paul said it like this in Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
I know we're in the Old Testament, but do you know what I see in this story? I see a story in which somebody was nameless and broken and didn't have what they needed so God came to earth and made a deal with them.
He said, “I'll give you the desires of your heart. I'll give you what you need. I'll offer you a new life but know that that life I'm giving to you is for me.”
If you're sitting there today and you hate your life, if it feels barren and empty and not where it should be, I invite you to join me in making a righteous vow.
Say,” God, I'm willing to put it all in your hands. I'm willing to follow the way of Jesus. I'm willing to take my hands off the wheel and let you drive. I'm willing to make a righteous vow.”
This Thanksgiving Sunday we'll be welcoming people into communion with our church.
So if you want make a real commitment to Christ, if you've been thinking about the spiritual but haven't really made that commitment to follow Jesus, I invite you to join us during the month of September, we'll be doing classes after church and we'll be going through the creed of faith, the faith of the church, and talking about what it is we believe as Christians.
Come check it out if you're curious and want to know more and deepen your faith. Then if you decide, only if you decide, we will gather around you as your church family, we'll baptize you if you need to be baptized, we'll accept your transfer if you're coming from another church, we'll celebrate with you as you profess your faith, and together as God's people, we will make the righteous vow and walk with God who knew you from before you were born. Thanks be to God. Amen.