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Jephthah's Conflict with Ephraim: Pride and Division 0:09 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word. Thanks for joining me this morning as our journey takes us to probably the best known of the judges, and that is Samson. But first, we have to finish with0:21 Jephthah, then we have Ibsen, Elon, and Abdon. Verse 1 of chapter 13, and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,0:33 and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. The cycle keeps repeating itself. Alright. Judges chapter 12 finishes up with the reign of Jephthah with an encounter from the0:45 men of Ephraim. Verse 1. Then the men of Ephraim gathered together, crossed over toward Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon and0:57 did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire. And Jephthah said to them, my people and I were in great struggle with the people of Ammon. And when I called you, you did not deliver me out1:08 of their hands. So when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come to me this day to1:19 fight against me? The men of Ephraim seem to have a problem. Alright? They have some issues. They crossed over from the west side of the Jordan and threatened to burn down Jephthah's1:31 house because he did not call them when he crossed over and fought against the Ammonites. Now Ephraim had a, sim the the tribe of Ephraim had a similar1:43 encounter with Gideon back in chapter 8 complaining that he did not call them when he went to fight against Midian. Here's how Matthew Henry describes the tribe of Ephraim, a proud tribe that1:55 wanted the honor of victory without the burden of battle. You see, when the outcome of the conflict was known, they were there for the pictures. Alright? They were ready. But they didn't have a good track record of being2:05 tenacious in facing the opposition. Back in chapter 1, we read that Ephraim ran into resistance from the Canaanites as they went to take the possession of the land that they were2:17 given. So they just they, they compromised. They, they didn't drive them out. They let them stay. Spiritual compromise and pridefulness are often connected. And together, they2:29 fracture communities, they weaken nations, and they deceive and derail the leadership. Now this is 1 of several internal wars that were very costly to the nation of Israel. As we read2:41 here, 42000, men of Ephraim were killed on this occasion. Now they, I mean, this is a huge number. Right? We kinda get2:53 lost in the numbers sometimes with all these different battles and people dying and all of that. I mean, it's kinda like our nation's debt. You know, we get lost in the trillions as we're bumping up to 400000000000003:03 dollars in debt. Most of these were probably warriors, because they had crossed over to burn Jephthah's house. Now it had been several years, but the last time3:15 that a census had been taken when they had crossed over into the promised land, there were about 32000 warriors. So this is 10000 larger than the warriors3:27 taken in that last census. Now it's a similar tragedy today when there's division in the church, local church, churches in the the the universal church,3:39 driven by pride and spiritual compromise. And you know what? It leaves many spiritual casualties. I've seen it. Now how do we prevent that, though? How do we prevent this from happening?3:51 Well, individual and corporate obedience to God. Had Ephraim obeyed God, well, most likely, this would not have happened. Alright. The rest of the chapter and the same is4:03 true for us. We individually and corporately, we need to be in the word of God. We need to obey the word of God. We need to walk according to God's ways. The rest of chapter 3, the rest of the chapter covers 3 more4:15 judges who, other than the fact that they lived, died, and some had a lot of kids, others had lots of donkeys, there's not much recorded. Now, of course, this is not necessarily bad. They may have done a good4:27 job, and the media had no scandals to report. Then we see the cycle beginning again, verse 1 of chapter 13. Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of4:37 the Philistines for 40 years. Now there was a certain man from Zorah of the family of the Danites whose name was Manonah, Manoah, and hisSamson's Miraculous Birth and Nazarite Calling 4:49 wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the lord appeared to the woman and said to her, indeed now, you are barren and have no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now, therefore, please5:01 be careful not to drink wine or similar drink and not to eat anything unclean. For, behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be5:13 a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Now with Samson, we come to the twelfth and the final judge. Now we're gonna read a Samuel. A little5:25 bit later, we're gonna encounter Samuel, but he was in a category by himself. Now we're we're we're getting a lot more information about Samson than we did the other judges. He was to be a Nazarite5:37 from birth. Now we might need to brush up a little bit on the definition of a Nazarite. We've had this before. Anyone could take a Nazarite vow. It was voluntary. It was to be separated5:49 unto God for a limited time. Now as we read here, that was not the case with Samuel I mean, Samson rather. And there are 3 may he was to be a Nazarite from6:01 life in, from for his entire life, and he didn't choose it. It was given to him. He was called to be that. Now there are 3 main provisions of a Nazarite vow.6:13 Number 1, nothing you could be a part of nothing associated with the vine. No grapes, no wines, no raisinets at the movie theater. No haircuts, number 2. Number 3, no contact with anything6:24 dead, and we will soon see that Samson violated all 3. In many ways, Samson embodies the nation of Israel at that time. Called by God, filled with6:36 promise and potential, yet morally compromised, surrendering to their unbridled passions over obedience to god. Now it's interesting that we do not know the name of Manoah's6:48 wife, Samson's mother, but she was the 1 that appeared to have the faith and the the discernment in this encounter. You know, god often uses those who are nameless to this world to accomplish great6:59 things for the kingdom of god, and I believe they'll be celebrated in eternity. Now she tells her husband what she had been told. Verse 8, then Manoah, prayed to the lord7:11 and said, oh my lord, please let the man of god whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born. And god listened to the voice of Manoah, and7:23 the angel of the lord came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. Now I took note of this verse because it's it's actually very encouraging. Manoah7:35 prayed, asking god asking how, look. I wanna honor you. I wanna obey you. I I I wanna be obedient to what you said, but I wanna make sure I got this straight. And guess what? God answers his prayer,7:47 and he reappeared to his wife. Verse 11. So Manoah arose and followed his wife when he came to the man. He said to him, are you the man who spoke to this woman? He said, I am. Then Manoah said to the angel of the lord,7:58 what is your name that when your words come to pass, we may honor you? And the angel of the lord said to him, why do you ask my name seeing that it is wonderful? Now most interpret most biblical scholars interpret this8:09 as a Christophany, a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. We've seen it before. We'll see it again. So Manoah makes an offering, and it happens as verse 20. It it happened as the8:21 flame went up toward heaven. From the altar, the angel lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. Now something very similar took place with,8:33 Gideon. And even though sacrifices were to be, made at the tabernacle of Shiloh, an an offering to God is made here as it was with Gideon. Now the reason for the8:45 limitation of only allowing these offerings at Shiloh was to prevent idolatry, not the obedience in the worship of God. And in this case, they it was affirmed for them to do8:57 this. Verse 21, when the angel of the lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, and Manoah knew that he was the angel of the lord. And Manoah said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen9:09 god. You know, that's how people respond. We see this in scripture when they encounter the holy god. But Manoah's wife quickly reasoned with her husband. Look what she said. Verse 23. But9:21 his wife said to him, if the lord had desired to kill us, he would have not accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would he have shown us these things, nor would he have told us such things as9:32 these at this time. So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson, and the child grew and the lord blessed him. Now in chapter 14, we immediately see theSamson's Flawed Beginnings: Lust, Violations, and Vengeance 9:44 flawed and fade the the fatally flawed character of of Samson. Verse 1. Now Samson went down to Timnah and saw the woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. So he went up and9:56 told his father and mother saying, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore, get her for me as a wife. Now remember, God had explicitly told the children of10:07 Israel not to intermarry with the occupants of the land. Verse 5. So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Now to his surprise, a young lion came10:19 roaring against him, and the spirit of the lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as 1 would have torn apart a young goat. And though he had nothing in his hand, but he did not tell his father or his10:31 mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. So some time passes, verse 8, and sometime after sometime when he returned to get10:42 her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. He took some of it in his hand and went along eating. When he came to his father and mother, he10:53 gave some to them, and they also ate, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. This was a clear why not? Because it was a clear violation of the Nazarite vow, touching11:05 dead things. From here, he moves into, to gambling. Another vice he picks up, a riddle that he presents at the wedding, in a wager, 3011:17 changes of clothes. Verse 14. So he said to them, here's the riddle. Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. Now for 3 days, they could not11:29 explain the riddle. So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day of course, they had leaned on his wife to, to extract the answer from him. So on the seventh day before the sun went down right at11:41 the buzzer, what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion? And this is Samson. He said to them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.11:53 Then the spirit of the lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ascalon and killed 30 of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of the clothes clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his12:05 anger was aroused, and he went back to his father's house. So he solved, he paid his debt by killing 30 men of the Philistines and taking their clothes. And Samson's wife was given to his companion12:17 who had been his best man. Alright. The story, the tragic story is to be continued next time. Father, we thank you for your word. And and, lord, again, if12:29 Manoah prayed, asking for guidance to to hear clearly, to to to know how to honor you. Lord, we know we have the Holy Spirit, and that's the the purpose of the Holy Spirit12:41 to teach us all things that you have said. And so we pray, continually pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us on this journey, helping us to understand how to apply this word to our lives in this world in which we live that12:53 we might honor you and bring glory to your name. For we pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Thanks for joining me this morning, and until next time, keep standing on the word.13:06 Today's study comes from the Stand on the Word Bible Reading Plan available for free at f r c dot o r g slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you13:18 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 Jephthah's Conflict with Ephraim: Pride and Division4:40 Samson's Miraculous Birth and Nazarite Calling9:40 Samson's Flawed Beginnings: Lust, Violations, and Vengeance
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