Judges 13:1-23
The story of Samson is one of the most popular
of the children’s Bible stories because Samson was a real live super hero, the
world’s first.
Part 1:
A mysterious vistor visits Manoah and His wife: Sampson’s parents
The children of Israel had done evil again in
the sight of the Lord. They forgot about God. They forgot about doing what
pleases Him. They didn’t want God to rule over them, so God delivered them over
to the Philistines for forty years. The Philistines made their lives miserable.
But then one day the angel of the Lord appeared
unto an Israelite woman. Her husband’s name was Manoah and he was from the
tribe of Dan. The woman was barren and could not have children. The angel told
the woman, “Behold, I know that you are barren and cannot have children, but
you shall conceive and bare a son.”
Well this was big news! The woman had never
been able to have children and I am sure this news caused her heart to skip a
beat! How wonderful she was told she would have a son!
The angel continued to say, “You must not drink
wine or any strong drink, and when your son is born you must never cut his
hair. For your child will be a Nazarite unto God from birth. He will begin to
deliver your people from the Philistines.”
Now, never getting a hair cut seems like an odd
thing to command, but her son was going to be dedicated to God from birth. You
can read about this Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter six. When a man or woman
made this vow to God they were not to drink any wine nor strong drink, nor were
they to cut their hair for as long as they made this vow. The angel of the Lord
told the woman her child would be a Nazarite from birth so this meant he was to
never cut his hair, nor to drink any wine or strong drink.
Well anyway this sort of thing – an angel
appearing out of nowhere with a message from God – doesn’t happen every day, so
the woman ran to tell her husband.
“A man of God came to me today, and I think he
was an angel!” she said. “I was so frightened that I didn’t ask him his name
nor where he was from!”
She continued to tell her husband, “He told me
I was to have a son! I was not to drink wine nor strong drink. He said the
child would be a Nararite to God all the days of his life.”
Then Manoah prayed, “Please my Lord, let the
man of God you sent return and teach us what we shall do when the child is
born.” And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah.
The angel of God came again to the woman as she
sat in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran
to get her husband and said to him, “The man that came to me the other day has
come again!”
Manoah rose up and ran after his wife and they
came to the man. Manoah asked him, “Are you the man that spoke to my wife?” And
he said, “I am.”
Let’s pause here a moment and think about how this angel responded to
Manoah. He said “I am”, that’s the very name God gave to Moses to explain who
He was to the children of Israel. God told Moses to tell them “I am sent you”,
remember? Well, doesn’t this kind of make you wonder if this was not God
Himself speaking to Manoah and his wife?
Anyway, Manoah said to the man, “When your
words come to pass and the child is born how shall we treat him?” And the angel
of the Lord said, “Everything that I told the woman shall she be aware of. She
may not drink wine nor strong drink, all that I commanded her let her do.
And Manoah not knowing that the man was an
angel of the Lord, said to him, “Please don’t go until we can prepare a young
goat for you to eat.” And the angel of the Lord said, “I will stay but I will
not eat. If you prepare a young goat, you must offer it has a burnt offering to
the Lord.”
Then Manoah asked, “What is your name? And when
the child is born how may we give you honor?” And the angel said, “Why do you
ask my name, seeing it is a secret?”
So Manoah took a young goat and offered it upon
a rock to the Lord. And then an amazing thing happened!
As Manoah and his wife looked on, the angel of
the Lord stepped into the fire that was rising up from the altar – and went up
into heaven in the flames! Manoah and his wife were so frightened they fell on
their faces to the ground.
Manoah then knew the man was truly an angel of
the Lord. He said to his wife, “We will surely die now that we have seen God.”
But his wife said, “If it pleased the Lord to kill us, He would not have
received our burnt offering, nor would He have showed and told us all these things.”
And it did come to pass and the woman did have
a son, and she named him Samson. The child grew, and the Lord blessed him.
Special note: Remember earlier in the story when I asked you to pause
and think about the angel’s response to Manoah when he said “I am”? Then afterwards
Manoah thought he was going to die because he had seen God?
Well, when
angels appear in the Bible, sometimes they are angels like we think of angels.
They are messengers from God. But sometimes they are God himself! And since Jesus
is how God comes to us and makes himself visible to us, it seems the
"angel" that came to Samson's parents was most likely Jesus himself!
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