The Seventh Period of Disobedience

Click here to read Judges 13.

Chapter 13 records the seventh and last cycle of disobedience recorded in Judges.

1. Their sin:
   The people of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of God.
2. Their servitude:
   The Lord gave them over to the Philistines for 40 years.
3. Their repentance:
   The people cried out unto the Lord.
4. Their restoration:
   God used Samson, the 12th. Judge of Israel.
5. Their rest:
   Chapter 15, verse 20 says, "Samson judged Israel for 20 years and there was peace in the land from the Philistines.

Chapter 13 begins the story of Samson, the 12th. Judge of Israel. A man named Manoah, of the Tribe of Dan, had a wife who was childless. An Angel appeared unto her and told her that she would conceive and bare a son and that he would become a Nazirite. Only one other became a Nazirite before birth and that was John the Baptist. She was told that he would drink no wine or strong drink or eat anything unclean. No razor would ever touch his face, and he would deliver the land from the Philistines. Manoah's wife ran immediately and told her husband.

She then prayed for more information. The Angel appeared again, this time in the presence of her husband who asked the Angel his name. The Angel replied, "Don't ask, for it is a secrete." (The names of Angels were unknown until the destruction of Jerusalem around 586 BC.) Manoah and his wife took a young goat and a grain offering and sacrificed it to the Lord. As the flames leaped up into the sky, the boy was born and they called him Samson. The Lord blessed him and he grew strong of frame and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him.

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