Dealing With Deception

Journey Into The Promised Land

Judges 13:1–23 (CSB)

BIRTH OF SAMSON

13 The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines forty years. There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was unable to conceive and had no children. The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are unable to conceive and have no children, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now please be careful not to drink wine or beer, or to eat anything unclean; for indeed, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.”

Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring angel of God. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.’ ”

Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, “Please, Lord, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born.”

God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field, and her husband, Manoah, was not with her. 10 The woman ran quickly to her husband and told him, “The man who came to me the other day has just come back!”

11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”

“I am,” he said.

12 Then Manoah asked, “When your words come true, what will be the boy’s responsibilities and work?”

13 The angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “Your wife needs to do everything I told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine or drink wine or beer. And she must not eat anything unclean. Your wife must do everything I have commanded her.”

15 “Please stay here,” Manoah told him, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

16 The angel of the Lord said to him, “If I stay, I won’t eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not know he was the angel of the Lord.)

17 Then Manoah said to him, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”

18 “Why do you ask my name,” the angel of the Lord asked him, “since it is beyond understanding?”

19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord, who did something miraculous while Manoah and his wife were watching. 20 When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the Lord went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown on the ground. 21 The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

22 “We’re certainly going to die,” he said to his wife, “because we have seen God!”

23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had intended to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us, and he would not have shown us all these things or spoken to us like this.”

A Struggle Of Purpose

There was a man in Old Testament times who experienced a tragic defeat due to the deception of the enemy. His name was Samson. His dramatic and true story is found in the Bible in Judges 13-16.

Samson was born at a time when Israel needed a deliverer. In fact, he was born for that very purpose. His birth itself was a miracle in several ways: It was a miraculous answer to prayer by his mother, who was barren. It also was an answer to the groanings of the people who had been under the rule of the Philistines for forty years!

From the beginning, this man was a chosen instrument of the Lord and his parents were instructed to raise him as one separated unto the Lord. Not a razor was to touch his head all of his life as a sign of his separation unto God.

As Samson grew and God blessed him, he began to be moved by the Holy Spirit and did many mighty works of God! When a lion came against him, Samson took it and slew it with his bare hands! On another occasion, Samson outran and captured three-hundred foxes, tied firebrands to their tails, and turned them loose to set fire to the fields of the Philistines.

Once, when the Philistines thought they had Samson securely locked in the city of Gaza, this superman of God took hold of the gates of the city and the two posts and carried them off to the top of a hill. Another time, he slew one-thousand Philistines using the jawbone of a donkey as his only weapon.

This was God’s deliverer! This was God’s judge of His people! This was God’s chosen instrument! But, even in this man — anointed and used of God, separated unto God before his birth — a battle raged. Satan began to speak to Samson through his physical passions. Samson’s eyes fell on a beautiful woman of the Philistines, heathen people God had warned His people to avoid.

Soon Samson began to desire that woman. Satan teased Samson with his fleshly appetites until we see this spiritual giant disregarding his spiritual heritage and going to the camp of the Philistines to indulge himself in sinful pleasures.

God had set a standard for Samson to follow. He wanted Samson to keep himself pure, to obey the laws of God, and to remain in the place of blessing. God wanted him to be a servant of God, a man who could hold his head high and walk down the street anointed with the power of the Spirit of God. Satan’s purpose was to destroy Samson, destroy his life and effectiveness for God, and, in fact, reduce Samson to nothing! A zero!

Don’t be deceived…the battles you are facing today are struggles between the purposes God has for you and the purposes the devil has for your life.

Make this declaration:

The battles I am facing today are struggles between the purposes God has for me and the purposes the devil has for my life. God’s purposes will be fulfilled!

*Adapted from MCWE email – Journey Into The Promised Land by Morris Cerullo

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