Christ as set apart

Samson was sent to begin bringing deliverance from the Philistines. It was a time of small beginnings. Full deliverance from the Philistines would have to wait until David. But the Lord’s amazing grace was there in Samson’s day. The birth of Samson, Sunny Boy, marked the new dawn. But Samson was not the full sun. Not even David, who delivered Israel from the Philistines, was the full sun. Years later, after the exile, the prophet Malachi was still looking ahead to the day when the Sun of Righteousness would rise, bringing full deliverance for God’s remnant. That Sun finally arrived, as Jesus, the promised work of wonder. The parallels between Samson and Christ jump out at us. Christ was announced by an angel to a woman. He had a miraculous conception. He was set apart before birth, for lifelong service to God. He also had to meet certain requirements to be the deliverer of God’s people: born of a woman, born under the law, born in the line of David, born to save his people from their sins.