0193. Samson Was Called to Serve in a Great Time of Need

Samson Was Called to Serve in a Great Time of Need

"For the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines" (Jdg_13:5).

1. Samson found Israel under the iron heel of the Philistines. The children of God had done evil in the sight of the Lord and God had delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. The time for deliverance was at hand. God was raising up a man for this special hour.

Is it not true that we are living in a time of dire need? Has not higher criticism been sweeping many from the moorings of the faith, once for all delivered to the saints; is it not true that a spirit of worldliness is pressing down upon our churches, and that many of our people are being carried adrift from God; is it not true that a social gospel, which is not the Gospel, is overwhelming the pulpit, and demanding a new method and a new message?

God surely needs prophets now, if He ever needed them; men who will not count their lives as dear; men who will stand at the parting of the ways, and call the church back to Christ.

2. Samson not only found a time of need, but he was particularly called of God to meet that need. God gave to Samson’s parents special announcements as to his coming birth.

The angel of the Lord appeared unto Manoah’s wife and told her that she should bear a son; the wife told her husband, and then Manoah prayed unto the Lord for instructions as to what should be done unto the child, that should be born.

The wonderful signs that accompanied Samson’s birth may not mark our call, but it is true that God still calls men with a special call for service. Samson, and the saints of old, are not the only ones with a before-prepared plan, marked out of God.

In our day, has God not a work, a special work, a God-ordained work for every man? Are we sent out, simply hit or miss, with on before-arranged program?

Impossible. "There was a man sent from God whose name was John" and there are men sent from God today, whose names are quite as truly John, or some other name. Paul delighted in the assurance that he was an Apostle, sent of God and called. Certainly there is a great need, certainly we have, if we will only listen, a special call to meet that need.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR