Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Isaiah chapter 7 - Judges

We have all read Isaiah 7:14 many times, and many of us have taught from it. Isaiah was addressing the king of Judah, Ahaz, and the virgin birth spoken of was to be a sign to him personally, but in the wider picture, this passage is where God prophesies the virgin birth of our Savior, Jesus of Nazareth.

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” (Isaiah 7:14-15)

Even though the words were spoken to Ahaz by Isaiah, the prophecy is for a point in time that would be many hundreds of years later. That is an important feature of many prophetic utterances, but it is also a feature of the connections between Isaiah’s words and the books of the Bible that the Holy Spirit wrote into the book of Isaiah.

In this same passage we find such a connection, not in verse fourteen, but in verse fifteen. Notice the second word of verse fifteen and the four words that follow it. “and honey shall he eat”.

When we think of a Bible character eating honey, who do we think of? Well, some might remember that John the baptizer ate honey and locust in the wilderness, but others will remember that Samson ate the honey from the honeycomb that the bees had built into the carcass of a dead animal. In Samson’s case, touching the dead carcass was the first violation of his Nazarite oath.

Today, Samson may be the most remembered of the Judges. Gideon was one of the Judges too, but he’s not nearly as famous as is Samson. Realizing our location within the book of Isaiah, let’s see if there is something else we might recognize in this chapter as being connected to Samson.

What part of Samson’s story comes to our mind? For me it is that he let Delilah shave off his hair and lost his strength as a result. This was another violation of his Nazarite oath. It’s in Isaiah 7:20 and it is so very specific.

“In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.” (Isaiah 7:20)

Isaiah’s words speak of the hair of the head being ‘shaved’, and the shaving is done with a “razor”. The hair isn’t said to be cut or cropped. It is ‘shaved’; not with scissors nor with a knife, but with a razor. Now look at the verse where Delilah cuts Samson’s hair.

“And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.” (Judges 16:19)

Well, there it is. She would “shave” off the seven locks of his “head”, but it doesn’t say anything about a razor. Hm. For that word we have to go back a couple of verses.

“That he told her all his heart, and said unto her. There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.” (Judges 16:17)

The Nazarite vow included a prohibition on cutting the hair of the head, in other words that a razor should never touch his head. The angel had said to Samson’s mother:

“For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: 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.” (Judges 13:5)

Samson lost his strength. We must assume therefore that a razor was used.

This is the seventh chapter of Isaiah, and Judges is the seventh book of the Bible. They are connected.

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