Posted on 11/06/2021 12:17:40 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, 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 art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and 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. Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: ( Judges 13:2-6)
Samson is the only one of the judges, whose birth story is told (saving Samuel, the last judge). He was born to a family of faithful Danties ( we know this because they were of the few who remained in the allotted Danite land).
In a similar fashion to Jesus, the Messiah, Samson’s birth is announced beforehand by the Angel of the LORD, “…You shall conceive and bear a Son…” . Also like Jesus, the announcement was made to the mother, and not initially to his Father.
Furthermore His mother is put under a Nazarite vow, and the son she would bare, would be a lifelong Nazarite. (We will elaborate in what that means in the next article).
(The Angel also made a cryptic pronouncement upon the child, that He would “Begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines). This pointed to the fact that the child would die before the deliverance was wrought.
There is a second visitation of the Angel,
…Then Manoah intreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her. And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe ( Judges 13:8-14)
Manoah, the father of the deliverer, begs the Lord for a second visitation, and one is granted, but in this fashion; The Angel again approaches the woman while she is alone in a field.
The fact that in both visitations, the woman is the primary recipient, perhaps underscores the ancient prophecy that salvation will come through “the seed of the woman”, and not through man.
But the woman hastened to bring her husband to meet the Angel. This also is an echo of the birth of the Messiah, for the Angel appeared to Mary first, but then appeared to Joseph to give him instruction to keep the child from harm. He was to ensure that both Mother and child keep the Nazarite vow.
Manoah beseeched the Angel to remain for fellowship. He prepared a Kid and some bread, and at the Angel’s instruction, made an offering of the Bread and the meat, unto the LORD, as a whole burnt offering.
When Manoah asked the Angel to tell him his name, the answer was stunning;
And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour? And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? (Judges 13:17-18)
The King James tells us that the name is Secret, but what the Hebrew Text tells us is that the name is “Wonderful” which is a title that can only be applicable to God.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.(Isaiah 9:6)
What happened next is of the deepest typological and prophetic significance,
So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord: and the angel did wonderously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.(Judges 13:19-20)
When Manoah put the sacrifice on the burning altar, the Angel stepped into the flame, and ascended to heaven. The Angel, whose name is ‘Wonderful’ would not eat of the sacrifice with Manoah, instead He would become the sacrifice, and from there, He would ascend back to heaven. This is a wonderful prophecy of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Christ’.
Next there is conversation between Manoah and His wife. Realizing who it was that they had seen (God) Manoah tells his wife, that they should die, and that they both deserved to die.
Manoah’s wife replies with the gospel, “True we should die, but the LORD received the sacrifice, and has shown us these things (The LORD himself being the sacrifice) and nor would he have given us this instruction, if He intended to Kill us.”
This is the birth story of the deliverer, Samson.
For future study.
I loved it, IDK how I missed Part 1 but it left me wishing for a link to it. Maybe it is within. If so I will find it. Thank you for it pastorbill...
I loved it, IDK how I missed Part 1 but it left me wishing for a link to it. Maybe it is within. If so I will find it. Thank you for it pastorbill...
Samson is one of the craziest stories in the bible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.