JUDGES 13
It is a comfort to read a chapter in the Judges where all the actings are of God. In this chapter we have the great principles on which power would come in for the salvation of the people of God in the last days: that is, all is viewed in this chapter from the divine side. As we go on with the history of Samson we may see a mixture, but in this chapter there is no mixture — all things are of God. The conditions are indicated to us on which divine power will come in to save the people of God at the end. Samson was the last judge; and he represents the last intervention of God in the deliverance of His people before the kingdom is publicly set up.
The principle of sovereignty comes out here, for Samson was taken out of the tribe of Daniel The tribe of Dan does not appear in Scripture in a very illustrious light, but in sovereignty the movement begins there. It is of interest too that the Philistines are the adverse power; they have appeared before [p. 169] in the book, but not at all prominently. It is said in chapter 15. “Samson judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years”. The Philistines are not among the seven wicked nations of Canaan that God had pledged Himself to dispossess, so they represent something different. They seem to represent people who are outwardly in a position that corresponds with what God has given His people. They had come up out of Egypt to the land; their history outwardly was like that of Israel, but they had come up in a natural way. They had never been under the blood of the passover lamb; they had not been redeemed; they had not gone through the Red Sea or Jordan; they had no experience of God’s ways and discipline through the wilderness. Is not that very largely the character of things in the Christian profession today? God speaks in 2 Timothy of persons who have the form of piety but deny the power of it — they deceive by imitation. They seem to indicate Philistine elements come up out of the world into the Christian sphere without conversion, without the work of God; there is no true knowledge of God with them. Those are the conditions in which the testimony of God is found today, surrounded and in danger of being influenced by Philistine elements. In presence of such conditions, power is a very great necessity. How can we meet those who deny the power? Only by having the power.
The point in this chapter is, “He shall begin to save Israel”, verse 5. While we recognise that certain leaders are raised up to do a prominent work, yet we should all be animated by the desire to save Israel. One marked feature in connection with Samson was the individual character of his labours; we never find him leading armies into actual warfare, but what he does, he does single-handed. This character of things is largely contemplated in 2 Timothy; it is an individual path of faithfulness. The more the Christian profession is leavened by the Philistine element, the more necessary it is that we should know what it is to act in the power of God. Timothy was to be a partaker in the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; he was to be a Samson in relation to the testimony, though a weak and timid man. The whole principle on which power comes in is the principle of separation to God. The great feature of 2 Timothy is the insistence on the principle of separation — one is to be a Nazarite to God.
We find in this chapter God’s sovereign movements; we [p. 170] have not the exercises or failures of Samson. God has moved sovereignly; the Nazariteship of Samson was not voluntary, not the ordinary vow of a Nazarite, but a definite call from God to Nazariteship. We read in verse 5, “The boy shall be a Nazarite of God from the womb”, and again in verse 7, “The boy shall be a Nazarite of God from the womb to the day of his death”. Now salvation for Israel comes in on that line; it is God’s side — we are committed to it. If I see the sovereignty of God in connection with myself, my exercise is that I may come up to the call of God. It is an exercise for every one of us whether we have come up to what God has marked us out for and called us to.
Paul says, “God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace”, Galatians 1: 15. It was pure sovereignty that God separated him. He says in Romans 1, “separated to the gospel of God”; that is, separated from every human thought, separated to the gospel, a gospel Nazarite. Then with Timothy there were certain prophecies as to what he was to be as a servant of God, and he is to take up the exercise. All corresponds with the prophecies which preceded. The divine mind was there as to him. You say, That is Timothy; but God has a definite mind in regard to every one of us. We are all called to be separate to God. There is no option given to Samson’s parents and no option left to Samson; he has to move on a certain line from his mother’s womb to the day of his death; and if he left that line he was ruined. I believe that is as true of you and me as of Samson; if we do not come up to the divine calling we shall be spiritually wrecked. God’s sovereign will is that we should be in complete separation from all human thoughts, from everything that has its source in Egypt; we are to be apart from influences that are natural and unclean. We are to be in separation to God, and prepared to be in a place of outward reproach. No razor was to come on his head — that was the secret of power. If I realise I am moving on the line of God’s sovereign will it will give me great power. I am not taking the initiative and hoping God will support me — many a man is like that. If God has called us to the path of absolute separation, He will maintain us in the path He has called us to. The Lord came into this world with the vows of God upon Him, and He is the true Nazarite, absolutely separate from all natural excitement and from everything that would exhilarate the natural man. He was absolutely separate and [p. 171] apart from everything unclean, and He always carried in full sympathy in His own spirit the reproaches of God. “The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me”, Romans 15:3. He was so absolutely separate to God that everything man could say against God came upon Him. That is the One who could save Israel; God can save Israel by that spirit.
Divine power would come out in ability to correspond with the position in which we are sovereignly placed. If we are prepared to welcome all His sovereign will, we shall welcome our assigned position in sovereignty. A brother has an assigned position; he is to be marked by readiness to pray everywhere — both at home and in the assembly; that is the sovereign will of God. Each brother and each sister is set in God’s assembly, and they are set there to function in a certain manner according to the sovereign will of God, and, if we are not, we are failures. If divine power comes in, it would help me to function according to God’s sovereign will. “God has set certain in the assembly” — that is a matter of gift. There are certain gifts, and they are graded, they are not all on one level. We must learn our grade in the assembly; it is no use to pretend to be an apostle if I am only a help. If I am content to be a help, power will come in in accepting the sovereignty of God. If we get out of the position in which God in His sovereignty has set us, we cannot expect power. We must not think that Nazariteship is for certain brothers and sisters only; we are under obligation to take the place of Nazariteship, and power lies in honestly accepting and answering to the obligation.
We must not have persons before us instead of the Lord. In this chapter Jehovah seems to say, You must keep Me in mind and not think too much of Samson. The One whose name is Wonderful is acting; now He raises up a spiritual leadership. If I look at a spiritual leader critically I may see defects, but, if I recognise the sovereignty that has put him in that place, I shall not look for defects but for evidence of the power of God. Our happiness in going on together largely depends on each one of us knowing our own place and filling it, and recognising the place which God has assigned to every other brother or sister. Spiritual power will be in proportion to our separation.
The angel’s name is Wonderful. It is a great thing to have before us the One who is Wonderful and who is acting according to His own wonderful Name. When He called me in His grace,
[p. 172] and when He set me in a certain position in the assembly, He was acting according to His wonderful Name. Through the assembly is made known the all-various wisdom of God — it is the setting forth of the wonder of God’s Name. What a pity to let Philistines come in to dispossess us from these precious thoughts! We need power to act against the Philistine element, and the power is according to the coming down and ascending of Christ Himself. He comes down in this chapter and ascends in the power of the burnt-offering.
The angel would direct the thoughts and heart of Manoah to Jehovah. He said, I will not eat anything you have brought. It is interesting that it is a kid and not a bullock. It is a time when there would not be a greater apprehension than a kid; still it is Christ — it is the burnt-offering and the oblation. There is the carrying out of the sovereign will of God that Christ should go into death for His people. God gives power according to the value of Christ. This is wonderful instruction in the character of divine power. Divine power would bring the Nazarite to the true place of the burnt-offering. Samson’s weakness came in on the line of self-gratification, whereas the spiritual instruction set out in chapter 13 is that power moves on the line of self-sacrifice. The angel goes up; divine power is connected with an ascending Christ. People say, There is no power. Is Christ not at the right hand of God? Has He not ascended? All that power is available for every separate man and woman in this world. If there is a vessel unto honour, a vessel marked by Nazariteship, all the power of the ascended Christ is there to support and succour. “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” — that is the risen and glorified Man, and the power that is in the Spirit down here is commensurate with the glorious place of the ascended Christ. We are to be spreading forth that kind of atmosphere here. That is the sort of atmosphere in which Samson was born; he was begotten of the principles of this chapter, and that is the secret of power in the last days. If Samson had but carried with him the secret! But what marked him was the giving up of secrets. What a dreadful thing for a man called to be a Nazarite — whiter than snow — to give up his secret to a wretched Philistine woman! What could be more humiliating! What could be more degrading! But it is just a picture of what might happen to any Christian. If we give up divine secrets, we shall lose our power.