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1And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
2There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. 3And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines." 6Then the woman came and told her husband, "A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, 7but he said to me, 'Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'"
8Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, "O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born." 9And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. 10So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, "Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me." 11And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to this woman?" And he said, "I am." 12And Manoah said, "Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?" 13And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. 14She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe."
15Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you." 16And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.) 17And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?" 18And the angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?" 19So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. 20And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.
21The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. 22And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, for we have seen God." 23But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these." 24And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
God's investment in Samson as a deliverer is enormous, and the birth narrative raises the expectations of the reader. At the same time, the seemingly unstoppable decline in the effectiveness of the judges and Israel's reckless spiritual tail spin pull in the opposite direction. For the time being, there will only be partial deliverance for Israel. "Samson shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines" (13:5).
The Philistine threat would raise its ugly head again during the times of Saul and David. There was not even "rest" for Israel at the end of Samson's tenure. The closing words of the cycle will simply be, "He judged Israel for 20 years" (16:31). Here is a mystery. It is not that God could not override every sinful desire and level every form of resistance to his will in the world. He simply will not do it, and without the exercise of his people's faith blessings will be withheld. Both we and our institutions can advance as well as stand in the way of God's will being done in a given situation. Ultimately, God's plan and loving purpose for the people of God and for Christ will materialize. His specific will for good in a particular situation, however, may be helped or hindered by what we and others do with our time and lives. Sometimes the consequences are staggering.
Are you hindering God's will in your life? And if so, how? Have you thought about how your life affects the people around you? On the other hand, if we give ourselves to the Lord, the possibilities are limitless. For, like Samson, God has invested in us in tremendous ways. The greatest investment is God's immeasurable love (Eph. 3:19). Paul's words come to mind, words in which he describes his response to love and grace received: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly then they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me" (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul, knowing his own heart and history as a blasphemer, called himself the chief of sinners. But when the light of God's knowledge flooded his heart, he gave himself to the Lord, and he never looked back.
We do not have the spiritual stature of the apostle. But we are no different from him, in that as children of God we wish to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't wait for something to happen. Believe in the Son and use the grace and power of Christ that rests on you by his Spirit—and his grace will be with you.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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