Who Is The Angel Of The Lord? (Manoah and his wife, their story with Sampson)

The Israelites were God's chosen people, but we find that they were not perfect. Nor a sinless nation. Time and time again, they did evil. And yet, time and time again God forgave them. The angel of the Lord, or God himself came to various ones to make known the things that were going to happen. In the case of this husband and wife, he was once again sending a son with which to deliver them out of the hands of their enemy.

Manoah and his wife were to have a son as announced by the angel of the Lord in this passage. He was named Samson and he grew up to have great strength. God's spirit came upon him many times to fight the Philistines. He was a judge for 20 years and a "Nazarite"  chosen by God from before his birth but he broke many of the Nazarite rules.

He was a womanizer and one of the things that we should take from his story which can be found in Judges 14 & 15, is that he was a sinner just like every human being that has walked the earth. And even though he was chosen of God, there were consequences to his sin. Just as there are consequences to our sin today.

 Sometimes we think we are so bad that God could never or would never even want to use us for his glory.  Why should he, we might ask ourselves. Or we do not understand how God can love us. And yet God used Sampson, despite all the bad in him, we see by his life that God can use anyone. And he can and will use us despite our failures and our disobedience at times. Why? Because he is God, that is why. But more then that, because he loves us.

Up next time: Who Is The Angel Of The Lord? (David's story)

September 9, 2019 Promise: The Lord is my strength and my shield,  my heart trusts in him and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song, I will praise him. Psalm 28:7

Thanks for coming by Friends! God bless you this week!