March 19 Daily Devotional

Judges 12–13

The twenty-five years which followed the rule of Jephthah were quiet. During these years three men judged Israel. Their names were Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. Very little is said about them. Perhaps it may be of interest to know that one of the three, Ibzan, was of Bethlehem in Judah. It seems that during these years the worship of the true God prevailed.

But the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. They turned away from the living God and brought in the idols of their heathen neighbors. Thus idolatry spread through the country, and God’s punishment was sure to come. It was an oppression of long duration. The Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

The Philistines lived west of Israel on the plains adjoining the Great Sea. They were a strong and cruel people. Their chief cities were Ekron, Ashdod, Gath, Ashkelon and Gaza. They worshipped an idol called Dagon, set up in the temple of Gaza. It had the face and hands of a man, and the body of a fish. The Philistines sent their hosts from the seashore to the mountains of Israel, causing havoc and disaster. They robbed them of what they could get, and the people had to suffer a great deal.

Adjoining the country of the Philistines was the land of the tribe of Dan. In this land lived a man by the name of Manoah, who, with his wife, was god-fearing. They had no children. One day an angel appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Behold, thou shalt 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.”

No doubt Manoah and his wife were glad to hear this message, and they were careful to obey the words of the angel. The word Nazarite means “one who has a vow.” A Nazarite was a person who either gave himself to some special work of God, or it may be a child that is especially dedicated to God by his parents at the time of or before his birth. A Nazarite was forbidden to drink wine, and as a sign of the vow, his hair was left to grow long while the vow was upon him.

The word of the angel was fulfilled. The child was born, and his name was called Samson. He grew up and became very strong—the strongest man of whom we have a record in the Bible. Instead of leading an army, like Gideon or Jephthah, Samson was chosen to do a great deal of fighting with his own hands. For such fighting great strength was necessary. The secret of his strength was that the Spirit of God was upon him.