Now how about this, you know John the Baptist it's so important that our Old Testament
Actually finishes off with the prophecy with the prophecy of him coming
I mean literally the Old Testament finishes off talking about John the Baptist
Look at it says in verse 5 behold
I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and
He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers
lest I come and smite the earth with a
Curse now, here's the thing is that obviously when we read this this is referring to end times Bible prophecy
Okay, and in its most literal sense, it's referring to those two women one of those two witnesses
which I believe one of them is Elijah because it's talking about the great and
Dreadful day of the Lord referring to the rapture and that is exactly when the two witnesses come to the earth
They come a little bit prior to the second coming of Christ
And so this is literally referring to Elijah returning back, but this is later reiterated in the Gospels referring to John the Baptist
Because the day of the Lord could also be referred to as the visitation of the Lord
Referring to the second the first coming of Jesus Christ and we know that John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah, right?
Now Samson on the other hand, he wasn't prophesied of
But he was mentioned in the Hebrews Hall of Fame
So that still says something let me read to you from Hebrews 11 32
it says and what shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of
Samson and of Jephthah of David also in Samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness
Obtained promises look what it says stop the mouths of lions, which is exactly what Samson did
He rent a lion and twain giving us a spiritual application that we as Christians can also
Overcome Satan Satan a lion is obviously a picture of Satan
Now I'm going to show you some similarities between the two and make some applications to them go with you if you would to Luke
chapter number one Luke chapter number one
What are some similarities between the two well number one both of their parents were childless and barren
Now both of the parents were godly as well
because
Samson had Manoah his mother who Manoah and his mother who you know, there were godly parents. They loved the Lord
They were serving God and they wanted a child and God granted them that petition there and you know
What John the Baptist had the same thing Elizabeth and Zacharias who were godly people who were simply, you know, they weren't
Special in the sense of you know, they weren't preaching God's Word
They weren't mentioned a whole lot in the Bible
But there were godly parents who wanted to raise up a child unto the Lord now
Let me read to you from Judges chapter 13 verse number 1
it says in the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord and the Lord delivered them into the hand of
the Philistines 40 years and
There was a certain man of Zora of the family of the day-night whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and bare
Not and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her behold now thou are barren and barest
Not but thou shalt conceive and bear a son
so we see the similarity with Jesus Christ that an angel comes to
Mary and says that she shall be with child in like manner an angel comes to Manoah and tells them
Hey, you shall conceive you shall have a child. You see that symbolism there now look at Luke chapter 1 in
Verse number 1. It's our verse number 5
Excuse me
It says there was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a
Certain priest named Zechariah of the course of Abia and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth
And they were both righteous before God
Walking and all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless now look folks, you know
Not much is said about these parents, but just to have that one phrase right there that one verse that one sentence says a lot
You know, it's like when God
Saw fit to describe Eglon as a very fat man
Is that he gets that one little phrase, but there's a lot of packed into that one little phrase pun intended, right?