Still reflecting on Bill Mowry’s upcoming ministry to seniors in which he wants to help them be “flourishing, fruitful, and faithful,” I’m fascinated by this recent article in our local paper: Softness through strength: Retired-surgeon-turned-sculptor captures raw beauty of Christian suffering, by Debbie Kelley, February 18. 2024. Here’s how it starts:

For 36 years, the strong yet tender hands of ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr. Joel Ernster aided patients to hear better, breathe easier and rid their bodies of cancer. A year and a half ago, he retired and traded his scalpels and scopes for clay scrapers and smoother.

The transition from performing surgery on human bodies to sculpting three-dimensional busts felt natural, he said. “There are common traits,” he said. “Art is a very tactile thing that uses fingers and sensation and understanding the anatomic relationship.”

Known in his field as southern Colorado’s preeminent otolaryngology cancer surgeon, Ernster’s career also included serving as chief of medical staff for Penrose-St. Francis Health Services and medical director at Penrose Cancer Center. “This is a lot of work,” he thought in his 37th year and decided to step aside.

It’s not that Dr. Ernster slaved away for 37 years as a doctor when he really wanted to serve God with his art. He knew he was working with God all along:

The same feelings of being God’s assistant in the operating room envelop his body when making what’s become his forte: religious-themed art.

“Joel has shared with me that he has felt God’s presence working through his hands, especially when he was involved in a critical surgery. I believe that he has found a new outlet for those same gifted hands,” said Colorado Springs resident Randy Cloud, who owns one of Ernster’s pieces.

It’s clear that Joel considered his work as a surgeon as a ministry of helping people physically. Now he considers his art as helping people spiritually:

The thing that I want to portray is to show a dramatic pose and engage the onlooker and try to have them have an emotional response to the event that’s happening with the human body…I think Christian suffering creates a story that’s compelling and dramatic. – Dr. Joel Ernster, surgeon turned sculptor as reported by Debbie Kelley, Colorado Springs Gazette, February 18, 2024

Bravo to Dr. Joel! An example for us all.

Good people will prosper like palm trees, Grow tall like Lebanon cedars; transplanted to GOD’s courtyard, They’ll grow tall in the presence of God, lithe and green, virile still in old age. (Psalm 92.12 – 14, MSG)

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3.17, NIV)

A day that comes only once every four years ought to be celebrated! At least noticed and remembered. Here’s the best and most succinctly written technical reason for Leap Year that I’ve seen:

The Earth takes exactly 365.24219 days to rotate around the sun. Adding an extra day every four years makes the average length of a year 365.25 days, slightly too much. The Gregorian calendar eliminated leap days in years ending in 00 and that made the average year 365.24 days, a bit too short. The solution: add a leap day in years divisible by 400 which makes the average year 365.2425. – Elliot Eisenberg, February 29, 2024

In our lifetime, we didn’t miss a leap year. 1900, however, was not a leap year as Elliot explains.

Seth Godin is one of my inspirations for the daily blog, and he wrote a nice piece for today pointing out the value of “leap:”

In action movies, there’s a lot of leaping. Brave shifts in which the hero gets from here to there, all at once.

It’s easy to imagine that sudden leaps are how we make our impact.

This is blog post #9000 (give or take).

When did the leap happen?

It wasn’t an external leap. The first hundred blog posts were read by fewer than a dozen people. It was an internal one. The decision to be a blogger. And then redeciding, each day, not to stop. [I can relate to that!]

Every four years, we have a worldwide holiday to celebrate this sort of leap. The leap of choice. Not to suddenly get from here to there, but to choose to go on the journey.

It’s only once every 1,460 days, you can do it.

Leap today.

Perhaps we begin by visualizing it. In the most concrete terms you can find, write it down. If you took a leap today, what would it look like? Who would benefit? And then, share it with just one other person.

Often, the act of physically writing it down is the most difficult part. – Seth Godin, February 29, 2024

A good challenge. I decided to write a daily blog beginning January 6, 2019. By Seth’s definition, a “leap.” Now perhaps it’s time for another one. The leap is “Not to suddenly get from here to there, but to choose to go on the journey.”

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Genesis 12.1 – 4, ESV, emphasis mine)

My friend Bill Mowry gave me another idea in our conversation last week. He has just assumed responsibility for launching a ministry for the senior members of his church. Often, when we think of ministry to seniors, we think of care, but that’s already covered at Bill’s church. We also think of entertainment: a monthly luncheon with a speaker or trips to places exotic and local.

Not Bill. He wants to help these older members be flourishing, fruitful, and faithful. I like that.

Flourishing: physically, mentally, emotionally, financially flourishing.

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. (3 John 1.2, ESV)

Fruitful: if I were doing that ministry, I’d be teaching them the six ways God uses us as defined by Mark Green in Fruitfulness on the Frontline.

• Model godly character
• Make good work
• Minister grace and love
• Mold culture
• be a Mouthpiece for truth and justice
• be a Messenger of the gospel

In my book Everyone on the Wall, I added a 7th M: Making Disciples!

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15.16, ESV)

Faithful: I wonder if this is the hardest one in an age when there are so many ways to get off track.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15.58, NIV)

I wish Bill well in this new endeavor. “The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few,” and some of those laborers may be older with their potential contributions locked up inside. (More about that tomorrow.) Overall, Bill’s goal is to raise up people like this:

¹²  The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
¹³  planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴  They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
¹⁵  proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” (Psalm 92.12 – 15, NIV)

My friend and fellow Navigator staff Bill Mowry, author of Ways of the Alongsider, sent me his “Life Rules” before a one-to-one Zoom meeting a few days ago.

When I saw the file title, I thought it was a list that included these words of wisdom that I’ve heard Bill articulate often:

• Life is too short to work with people you don’t have good chemistry with.
• Life is too short for one more meeting.

Those are good rules! But not the ones he calls “Life Rules.” He has nine, and they are good ones, reproduced here with his permission:

• I’m enjoying God’s presence and I’m faithful to His purposes in the rhythms and routines of life.
• I will grow a marriage with Peggy marked by fun, intimacy, and an ever-growing faith.
• I will live generously — giving away my gifts, wisdom and time to write, teach, and coach.
• I will cultivate a wise and thoughtful life through the wisdom of God’s word, mentors, books, and lifelong learning.
• I will invest in and enjoy a small circle of friends while growing my local circle of acquaintances and new friends.
• I will practice living within limits, caring for my body so that I’m physically, mentally, and emotionally able to serve God and others.
• I will slow down to savor God’s goodness in creation, culture, and life’s routines avoiding analysis, criticism, and complaining.
• I will practice creativity by thinking, writing, gardening, and pioneering.
• I will invest in the local, loving my neighbors and my neighborhood — pushing back the darkness and bringing in the light.

Both in our 70s, we discussed the importance of “living within limits” and “slowing down to savor God’s goodness…” Bill would be honored if any of us integrated one or more of these “rules” into our lives.

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90.12, ESV)

Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: (1 Peter 4.10, MSG)

We saw in Judges 14 and 15 that the Philistines threatened to and later burned Samson’s wife and her father to death. These were not nice people! I thought the same when I heard about the death in prison of the Russian opposition leader. Here is another set of not-nice people: the gambling industry.

I am stunned by a February 18, 2024, article in the Wall Street Journal: A Psychiatrist Tried to Quit Gambling. Betting Apps Kept Her Hooked. It’s worth the read in its entirety. Here’s how it starts:

Kavita Fischer couldn’t believe her luck.

She started with $750 and hit a hot streak last summer that stretched over six days. She played round after round of online casino games until her winnings hit $500,000. The windfall would make up for every bad bet and pay off all she owed.

Fischer, a 41-year-old mental-health professional and suburban homeowner with two boys, was by then in debt by six figures from online gambling losses. For nearly a year, she lost again and again, complaining to at least one gambling company that she had a problem but couldn’t stop. As a psychiatrist familiar with human impulses and addiction, Fischer knew better than most what she needed to do.

Yet she was up against an industry skilled in the art of leveraging data analytics and human behavior to keep customers betting. Gambling companies tracked the ups and downs of Fischer’s betting behavior and gave bonus credits to keep her playing. VIP customer representatives offered encouragement and gifts.

After her six-day hot streak, Fischer made several requests to start withdrawing the half-million dollars from the PointsBet gambling app. But she kept changing her mind and plowed the money back into play. Within a day, she lost nearly all of it.

As I said, these are not nice people. Here are some snippets from the rest of the story:

Online casino gambling, which became Fischer’s habit, is legal in six states and has been an industry gold mine…Soon after Fischer started playing, a customer representative sent an email introducing himself. At DraftKings and other online betting companies, they are identified as VIP hosts. “I look forward to working with you and building a great relationship!” Jamyl Cogdell wrote on Dec. 9, 2022. Over four months, Fischer said they exchanged dozens of emails and text messages…

DraftKings and other gambling companies doled out tens of thousands of dollars in credits that kept Fischer playing long after she wanted to quit. With a real-time view of a customer’s gambling activity, VIP hosts keep in close touch. They can track when customers last used the app and offer credits and other incentives to persuade their most-valued gamblers—by definition, the biggest losers—to return.

In the first four months of 2023, she lost about $141,000 to the company. During that time, DraftKings gave her more than $36,000 in gambling credits. Overall, she lost more than $190,000 to DraftKings in 2022 and 2023…

A member of DraftKings’ Player Protection Team said in an email that she couldn’t get a refund for her losses. “We are sorry to hear about your experience with our platform and the financial issues you now are facing,” a representative of DraftKings’ Player Protection wrote. The email included phone numbers for gambling hotlines and links to gambling addiction websites.

As I have written before, the real message here is that just because society’s standards are changing doesn’t mean that something that used to be considered wrong or unwise is now OK. We need to be careful not to get sucked in, especially when we are fighting not only our own weaknesses but also a Satanically-inspired industry that preys on those weaknesses. These are NOT nice people!

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6.12, ESV)

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5.15 – 17, ESV)

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (1 Timothy 6.9 – 11, ESV)

We continue our Lenten meditations with stanzas 9 – 18 of George Herbert’s poem “The Sacrifice.” Note that many of the stanzas contain what some analysts have called a paradox. Opposites. For example, in the fourth stanza below: “I suffer binding, who have loosed their bands.”

(Bullets allow me to single-space the lines.)

• Arise, arise, they come.  Look how they run!
• Alas!  what haste they make to be undone!
• How with their lanterns do they seek the sun!
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• With clubs and staves they seek me, as a thief,
• Who am the Way and Truth, the true relief;
• Most true to those, who are my greatest grief:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Judas, dost thou betray me with a kiss?
• Canst thou find hell about my lips? and miss
• Of life, just at the gates of life and bliss?
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• See, they lay hold on me, not with the hands
• Of faith, but fury: yet at their commands
• I suffer binding, who have loosed their bands
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• All my Disciples flee; fear puts a bar
• Betwixt my friends and me.  They leave the star,
• That brought the wise men of the East from far.
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then from one ruler to another bound
• They lead me; urging, that it was not sound
• What I taught: Comments would the test confound.
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• The Priest and rulers all false witness seek
• ’Gainst him, who seeks not life, but is the meek
• And ready Paschal Lamb of this great week:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then they accuse me of great blasphemy,
• That I did thrust into the Deity,
• Who never thought that any robbery:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Some said, that I the Temple to the floor
• In three days razed, and raised as before.
• Why, he that built the world can do much more:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then they condemn me all with that same breath,
• Which I do give them daily, unto death.
• Thus Adam my first breathing rendereth:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine? -“The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, stanzas 9 – 18.

“Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. (Matthew 26.46 – 50, ESV)

Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’” (Matthew 26.59 – 61, ESV)

OK, let’s wrap this sordid Samson story up. Chapter 16 opens with just a little vignette involving Samson, a prostitute, Philistines, and the city gate:

Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute. He went to her. The news got around: “Samson’s here.” They gathered around in hiding, waiting all night for him at the city gate, quiet as mice, thinking, “At sunrise we’ll kill him.” Samson was in bed with the woman until midnight. Then he got up, seized the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts, bolts and all, hefted them on his shoulder, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. Judges 16.1 – 3, MSG)

Just a day in the life… Then Delilah comes on the scene:

Some time later he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek (Grapes). Her name was Delilah. The Philistine tyrants approached her and said, “Seduce him. Discover what’s behind his great strength and how we can tie him up and humble him. Each man’s company will give you a hundred shekels of silver.” (Judges 16.4, 5, MSG)

It must be that Samson wasn’t that big of a guy, not muscle-bound like, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger (two mentions in two days!?), or they wouldn’t be looking for the secret. At any rate, Delilah is on board with it, betraying Samson for money. His first woman was motivated by fear. I can’t figure out why Samson stays. He offers her three lies:

• Seven bowstrings
• New ropes
• Seven braids of my hair

And each time, she tries to subdue him and turn him over to the Philistines. Again, why does he stay? Aren’t her intentions obvious? Maybe the answer is in the first sentence of her story:

Some time later he fell in love…

Of course, the inevitable happened:

She kept at it day after day, nagging and tormenting him. Finally, he was fed up—he couldn’t take another minute of it. He spilled it. He told her, “A razor has never touched my head. I’ve been God’s Nazirite from conception. If I were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would be as helpless as any other mortal.” When Delilah realized that he had told her his secret, she sent for the Philistine tyrants, telling them, “Come quickly—this time he’s told me the truth.” They came, bringing the bribe money. When she got him to sleep, his head on her lap, she motioned to a man to cut off the seven braids of his hair. Immediately he began to grow weak. His strength drained from him. Then she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He woke up, thinking, “I’ll go out, like always, and shake free.” He didn’t realize that GOD had abandoned him. (Judges 16.16 – 20, MSG)

A sad verse. May it not happen to any of us: “He didn’t realize that GOD had abandoned him.”

But he gets one last chance, praying one last prayer, and goes out with a bang:

Then this: Everyone was feeling high and someone said, “Get Samson! Let him show us his stuff!” They got Samson from the prison and he put on a show for them. They had him standing between the pillars. Samson said to the young man who was acting as his guide, “Put me where I can touch the pillars that hold up the temple so I can rest against them.” The building was packed with men and women, including all the Philistine tyrants. And there were at least 3,000 in the stands watching Samson’s performance. And Samson cried out to GOD: Master, GOD! Oh, please, look on me again, Oh, please, give strength yet once more. God! With one avenging blow let me be avenged On the Philistines for my two eyes! Then Samson reached out to the two central pillars that held up the building and pushed against them, one with his right arm, the other with his left. Saying, “Let me die with the Philistines,” Samson pushed hard with all his might. The building crashed on the tyrants and all the people in it. He killed more people in his death than he had killed in his life. (Judges 16.25 – 30, MSG)

Samson’s life was characterized by a complete lack of self-control yet he killed A LOT of Philistines and is mentioned, as we’ve said before, in the Faith Hall of Fame (Hebrews 11.32 – 33).

You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself. (1 Corinthians 9.24 – 27, MSG)

We left Samson at the end of Judges 14 after he stormed out of his father-in-law’s house and killed 30 men to get their clothes to pay off a bet. Samson is not a role model by any stretch, but God used his lust for the wrong women and his anger to punish the Philistines. The story continues.

Later on—it was during the wheat harvest—Samson visited his bride, bringing a young goat. He said, “Let me see my wife—show me her bedroom.” But her father wouldn’t let him in. He said, “I concluded that by now you hated her with a passion, so I gave her to your best man. But her little sister is even more beautiful. Why not take her instead?” Samson said, “That does it. This time when I wreak havoc on the Philistines, I’m blameless.” (Judges 15.1 – 3, MSG)

So he caught 300 foxes (jackals in The Message), tied their tails together with torches between each pair, and sent them through Philistine grain fields. After which the Philistines burned his wife and her father to death just as they had threatened in Judges 14. So Samson reacts again:

Samson then said, “If this is the way you’re going to act, I swear I’ll get even with you. And I’m not quitting till the job’s done!” With that he tore into them, ripping them limb from limb—a huge slaughter. Then he went down and stayed in a cave at Etam Rock. (Judges 15.7, 8, MSG)

So the Philistines come after Samson even as the Israelites ask Samson to back off:

The Philistines set out and made camp in Judah, preparing to attack Lehi (Jawbone). When the men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up against us?” they said, “We’re out to get Samson. We’re going after Samson to do to him what he did to us.” Three companies of men from Judah went down to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines already bully and lord it over us? So what’s going on with you, making things even worse?” He said, “It was tit for tat. I only did to them what they did to me.” (Judges 15.9 – 11, MSG)

And once more, “the Spirit of God came upon him…”

As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting in triumph. And then the Spirit of GOD came on him with great power. The ropes on his arms fell apart like flax on fire; the thongs slipped off his hands. He spotted a fresh donkey jawbone, reached down and grabbed it, and with it killed the whole company. And Samson said, With a donkey’s jawbone I made heaps of donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I killed an entire company. (Judges 15.14 – 16, MSG)

And the chapter ends with Samson’s first recorded prayer and a miracle:

Now he was suddenly very thirsty. He called out to GOD, “You have given your servant this great victory. Are you going to abandon me to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” So God split open the rock basin in Lehi; water gushed out and Samson drank. His spirit revived—he was alive again! That’s why it’s called En Hakkore (Caller’s Spring). It’s still there at Lehi today. (Judges 15.18 – 19, MSG)

As I wrote in No Magic Formula, all the stories and characters in Judges are different. Gideon won his battle with 300 men, but Samson is a one-man wrecking crew! It reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in True Lies or James Bond. Samson is not that good of a guy, but God uses him to wreak havoc on the Philistines.

I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the Christians here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah. It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them. So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! (Philippians 1.12 – 18, MSG)

We started our look at the last Judge, Samson, yesterday. The story starts with promise: a couple conceive him late in life, and Samson is called to deliver Israel from the Philistines:

You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God’s Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression.” (Judges 13.5, MSG)

Chapter 13 ends, as I say, with promise, but things start to go downhill right away:

The woman gave birth to a son. They named him Samson. The boy grew and GOD blessed him. The Spirit of GOD began working in him while he was staying at a Danite camp between Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson went down to Timnah. There in Timnah a woman caught his eye, a Philistine girl. He came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, a Philistine girl; get her for me as my wife.” (Judges 13.24 – 14.2, MSG)

When we think of Samson, we think “Samson and Delilah,” but Delilah doesn’t make her appearance until Judges 16. Chapters 14 and 15 are about this first woman, who remains unnamed. He shouldn’t be consorting with foreign women since such behavior is expressly forbidden (see Deuteronomy 7.3 – 6).

We also remember Samson for superhuman strength, an attribute that isn’t forecast, but appears when “the Spirit of God comes on him:”

Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. When he got to the vineyards of Timnah, a young lion came at him, roaring. The Spirit of GOD came on him powerfully and he ripped it open barehanded, like tearing a young goat. But he didn’t tell his parents what he had done. Then he went on down and spoke to the woman. In Samson’s eyes, she was the one. (Judges 14.5 – 7, MSG)

Later, he sees honey in the carcass of the lion. He eats the honey even though as a Nazirite, he is supposed to avoid dead bodies. Then he propounds the riddle at his wedding feast:

From the eater came something to eat, From the strong came something sweet. (Judges 14.14, MSG)

The Philistines threaten to torch the bride and her family (these are not nice people!) so she cajoles the answer out of Samson prompting this famous reaction:

And Samson said, If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, You wouldn’t have found out my riddle. (Judges 14.18, MSG)

Then the Spirit of God comes again:

Then the Spirit of GOD came powerfully on him. He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, stripped them, and gave their clothing to those who had solved the riddle. Stalking out, smoking with anger, he went home to his father’s house. (Judges 14.19, MSG)

Unlike the other judges, Samson never leads the Israelites into battle against the Philistines. He just kills them and irritates them as he has opportunity when he gets angry enough. More to follow…

There is a kind of matter-of-fact indifference in the tone of the narration, almost as if God is saying, “Well, if this is all you’re going to give me to work with, I’ll use these men and women, just as they are, and get on with working out the story of salvation.” These people are even given a measure of dignity as they find their places in the story; they are most certainly not employed for the sake of vilification or lampoon. God, it turns out, does not require good people in order to do good work. – From Eugene Peterson’s Introduction to Judges (in The Message)

 I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets… .Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions… (Hebrews 11.32 – 33, MSG, emphasis mine)

We come to Samson, the last Judge who gets four chapters, the most of any judge: 96 verses! We saw that Abimelech chose himself to be the leader. Jephthah was recruited by his family to lead. By contrast, Samson was chosen by God, before he was born:

At that time there was a man named Manoah from Zorah from the tribe of Dan. His wife was barren and childless. The angel of God appeared to her and told her, “I know that you are barren and childless, but you’re going to become pregnant and bear a son. But take much care: Drink no wine or beer; eat nothing ritually unclean. You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God’s Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression.” (Judges 13.2 – 5, MSG)

The angel’s appearance reminds one of Zechariah in Luke 1 EXCEPT:

• The angel appears to the wife(!), and we don’t even know her name.
• She’s already pregnant.

There are also similarities:

• Samson will be a Nazirite from the moment of his birth (see Numbers 6)
• John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his birth and also avoid wine and strong drink (but the word “Nazirite” is not used).

[Zechariah’s son, called John the Baptist later on] will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. (Luke 1.15, ESV)

Manoah wants to see the angel for himself! So there is another conversation with the angel who ascended back to heaven in the flame of a burnt offering. It’s disturbing…

So Manoah took the kid and the Grain-Offering and sacrificed them on a rock altar to GOD who works wonders. As the flames leapt up from the altar to heaven, GOD’s angel also ascended in the altar flames. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground. Manoah and his wife never saw the angel of GOD again. Only then did Manoah realize that this was GOD’s angel. He said to his wife, “We’re as good as dead! We’ve looked on God!” But his wife said, “If GOD were planning to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our Whole-Burnt-Offering and Grain-Offering, or revealed all these things to us—given us this birth announcement.”

The woman gave birth to a son. They named him Samson. The boy grew and GOD blessed him. The Spirit of GOD began working in him while he was staying at a Danite camp between Zorah and Eshtaol. (Judges 13.19 – 25, MSG)

A good start, but things go downhill rapidly. Stay tuned.

[John the Baptist] grew up, healthy and spirited. He lived out in the desert until the day he made his prophetic debut in Israel. (Luke 1.80, MSG)