The Parents of Samson (Judges 13:1-23)

The story of Samson has been popular because of his amazing strength and the ways that he used and misused it. Most people have a superficial awareness of his life, including his weakness for women of ill repute. Nevertheless, we have to remember that he is a judge whom God raised up to deliver his people from a captivity that was the outcome of their own sins.

It is true to say that each of the Judges has his or her (in the case of Deborah) unique features. We may regard Samson’s uniqueness to be connected to his great physical strength. Yet an obvious unique feature in his story is that the preparation of his involvement as a judge began before he was born. We can see that this preparation is the theme of Judges 13. In this chapter we are told mainly about the parents of Samson.

It is difficult to know if the incident described in the chapter happened after the fortieth year of the period of captivity or whether it took place during that period. If it occurred after the forty years, it would mean that the captivity would have lasted a lot longer, until Samson was grown up. So I think it occurred during the period, perhaps about halfway through it. This is an example of the Lord planning ahead for the benefit of his kingdom, which means that he reacted before the children of Israel prayed for deliverance. Indeed, we are not told that the people as a whole prayed for deliverance during the life of Samson. So we can say that Samson is a God-sent deliverer to a prayerless people.

Of course, there were some individuals in the country who knew the Lord and we are introduced to a couple of them in the story, the parents of Samson. Clearly, the author of Judges wants us to think about them. So maybe the title of this chapter could be, How to parent a future leader of God’s people? or How to be different parents in an age of spiritual blindness? The other obvious detail from the story is that it describes an encounter with God

A man from Dan living in Judah

Manoah belonged to a tribe that had not yet found its inheritance (the way that they did so is described in Judges 18, and it is not very edifying). Dan had been given some space in the area connected to Judah, but that would not be the same as having their own territory. There is something sad about this fact and it depicts the failure of the children of Israel to conquer all the land of Canaan after several centuries there. Perhaps Manoah had accepted this turn of events and made the best of it as he could. Yet here he was, along with the other Danites, without his share of the Promised Land. Does God use failures? The answer once again is yes.

I realise that this is a bit speculative, yet we are meant to think about why a man from the tribe of Dan was still living in Judah. No doubt Manoah could give his own reasons, but we know that he was being prepared to be the father of the next deliverer of Israel. God in providence had arranged for Manoah to live where he could be used in the fulfilment of God’s purposes. And that is where each of us is in our lives. Nothing about our location is haphazard from God’s point of view, although it may look as if it is from our point of view. God has us where he wants to use us unless we are, like Jonah, on the run from God.

The unnamed wife of Manoah

We are not told how long they had been married or how old they were. Perhaps they had faced the fact that they would never have children. Then one day, the Son of God paid them a visit. We have seen several occasions in the Book of Judges when he appeared with a message for unlikely people. He appeared to Gideon when he was threshing the harvest in secret, a most unlikely choice of a future leader. Now here he is, speaking to an unlikely choice of a couple to be the parents of a future leader. Yet it is obvious that his identity remained a secret because the woman makes it clear later on that she did not recognise who the Visitor was.

We can see how his visit was a very surprising one. Would it not be more suitable to choose another set of parents? Yet I think we have here an important principle of God's recovery methods, which is that he will not choose to use the people that we think could bring it about. Often we imagine that because someone is a great personality, or a great preacher, or has great vision, or has certain kinds of gifts, that he is the ideal person for God to use. God uses people who will make it obvious that all the glory goes to him. And if there is a man in the Bible who tells us that, it is Samson.

If the choice of parents for Samson was surprising, we can see that the message about him was spiritual because it looks from verse 5 that Samson came into the world a regenerated sinner. Of course, the accounts of some of his subsequent behaviour may blind us to the fact that he had been devout. Yet we are told in verse 24 that during his years of growing-up the Lord was blessing him. Here was a child and a teenager that lived for God and knew his favour.

Furthermore, the message was solemn as far as Manoah’s wife was concerned because she was told that she had had to be devoted to the Lord. It is all very well being informed that her child would be a Nazarite, especially devoted to the Lord. That would be nice to look forward to. Yet she is also told in verse 4 that she would have to live like a Nazarite herself. In other words, she was called to be an example to her son every day of his young life.

At the same time, the Son of God gave to her assurance of success when he said that Samson would begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines (v. 5). This divine promise did not say that Samson would have complete success, which is a reminder that sometimes the remedy for a spiritual departure can take generations to work. Instead it said that the process of deliverance would begin with him, and we know that it was not achieved until David defeated the Philistines a long time into the future. We are to remember this promise as we think of Samson's achievements and of what he did not achieve in his life. Yet the extraordinary thing is that the Son of God was at work in the history of Israel.

The first thing that the woman did was go and tell her husband, which is a reminder that there should be no spiritual secrets between a husband and wife if they are both trusting in the Lord. She had every reason, I suppose, to keep quiet, just in case she was imagining things. Yet she went and told him. Her words give us further insight into the life and death of Samson – he was to be a Nazarite to the day of his death. So in every incident we are to write across it, ‘Here is a Nazarite.’

The response of Manoah (vv. 6-8)

What kind of man was Manoah? The author of Judges tells us two things about him. First, he recognised the spirituality of his wife. We can see this in the fact that he accepted her description of what she had been told. He did not say to her, ‘Are you sure?’ or ‘Did you hear correctly?’ I suspect that he had learned over the years to realise her spirituality. Indeed, the rest of the story suggests that she had a far more sensible grasp of spiritual things that he had.

The second thing that he did was to pray, to make supplication. His petition is full of faith, because he does not doubt that the child is going to appear. But he does doubt their ability to bring up the child in the ways of God. Is verse 8 not a very suitable prayer for those expecting children to make to the Lord? He does not realise it, but Manoah is asking God to involve Jesus in the upbringing of their child. What he did not realise on one occasion, Christian parents can realise on every occasion.

Meeting with the Master (vv. 9-23)

The Lord answered Manoah's prayer, but did so in such a way that ensured his wife remained prominent in the process. And he confirmed his message to her and instructed Manoah how to ensure this would take place. Yet both Manoah and his wife had to find out with whom they were dealing. Manoah imagined that the visitor was only a prophet passing on instructions from God – he had to learn that he was much more than a prophet. So because he thought the visitor was only a prophet, he wanted to show him hospitality. But what happens?

First, he is informed by the Son of God that he has to offer a burnt offering to the Lord (v. 16). The burnt offering was one of the five Levitical offerings and depicted entire consecration. Whatever else his instruction conveyed, Manoah would have realised that God wanted dedication from him, and we know that without dedication worship does not take place.

Second, Manoah is informed that his Visitor has a name beyond human description. Indeed, the same name is used of the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6 where we are told that he is the Counsellor who is Wonderful. Now if someone said to me that his name was full of wonders, how would I respond? I suppose we might think that it would be good to see one, if he was agreeable to perform one. We are not told that Manoah thought this, but we are told that he saw one when the Visitor ascended to heaven from the flame of the altar. Yet it looks as if he offered his sacrifice without fully realising the greatness of the God he worshipped. Consecration and comprehension may not always be equal in our experience. Our dedication should always involve all that we are even when we don’t understand a great deal about God. Manoah would say to us, ‘I began that time of worship in a state of not knowing very much. But I learned a lot when I did worship.’

Third, we can see that Manoah and his wife offered worship with expectancy. The author tells us that they were watching to see what would happen. Worship involves much more than curiosity, but surely we should be curious when we come into the presence of God because we must want to see his response to our worship. The opposite of curiosity is indifference, and if we are indifferent, then we will receive nothing. But we are coming to the God of grace and surely we want to know if he has accepted our worship.

Fourth, the response to observing a divine activity is prostration before the majesty of heaven. If we are not in a position to do it physically we still should do so in our hearts. When Peter saw Jesus perform an incredible miracle he fell at the feet of Jesus and confessed he was a sinner. And John, when he saw the glory of the risen Jesus, collapsed in his presence out of awe and wonder. Prostration is a physical way of saying wow in the presence of God. Manoah and his wife saw the Son of God perform a miracle with their worship and they fell to their knees in adoration.

Fifth, we should not respond to a display of God’s greatness with confusion. This is what Manoah did, but his wife was different. Why was her response different? I think the answer to that question is that she listened to the word of the Lord as well as watching the actions of the Lord. Manoah at that moment was only thinking about the actions, and he responded wrongly to what he saw. Imagine being present when sinners of earth nailed Jesus to the cross at Calvary. If all we could go by was evidences of his power, we might conclude that his response would be one in which he would unleash ferocious judgment on them. Yet if we knew what he had said beforehand, we would know that somehow his going to the cross would reveal his mercy even to them. This is why we should be so thankful that we have a God who speaks. If all we had were evidences of his divine power we would not know how he would respond, and we would be like Manoah. Our gracious God has given us promises and commandments as well as showing his great power.

Sixth, we are to respond to the activities of God with comprehension or what we can call holy logic. After all, we are made in the image of God, and one feature of that image is that we can reason about things. And we are meant to think about what God has done for us. Here we are at a service of worship. Our God has allowed us to express our dedication by various methods and he has spoken to us from his Word. Is it a reasonable response to deduce from what he has allowed that he will now destroy us? We know that we are sinful, but then so were Manoah and his wife. It is intriguing that Manoah and his wife here had different names for God. He calls the Lord by the general name for God whereas his wife calls him by his covenant name. She says to us, ‘Think about and speak about God in covenant terms.’ If we do so, we will use holy logic; if we don’t, who knows what conclusions we will come up with?