Deeper Commentary
Jdg 13:1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of
Yahweh and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for
forty years-
"The children of Israel did evil in the sight of Yahweh" is a refrain which occurs seven times in Judges
(Jud. 2:11; 3:7,12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1),
recalling how Israel both over history and in the last days were to be
punished "seven times" for their sins (Lev. 26:23,24).
Biblical history is unlike any other national history of a people in
that it seems to emphasize the spiritual weakness of Israel. The heroes
are nearly all flawed- and that, surely, is so as to give us realistic
inspiration to rise up to their spirit, knowing how flawed we also are.
And yet there's a tendency amongst some of us to idealize these men, in
the same way as the Catholic and Orthodox churches portray them as white
faced, haloed saints. Judaism has done the same. Despite the evident
weaknesses of Samson (and other judges, e.g. Gideon) as revealed in the
inspired record, later Jewish commentary sought to idealize them. Take
Ecclesiasticus 46:11,12: "The judges too... all men whose hearts were
never disloyal, who never turned their backs on the Lord...". Perhaps the
psychological basis for this tendency is that we simply don't want to be
personally challenged by the fact that heroes of faith were
so
much like us...
We know, or we ought to, how weak our moral judgment is, how prone we
are to forget the degree to which God has justified us from our sins. This
weakness is seen in the difficulty we have in analyzing the characters we
read of in Scripture. For example, from reading the record of Lot in
Genesis, it would seem that Lot was a materialistic, weak, faithless man
who is shown to be the exact opposite to Abraham, who is held up as the
example of real faith. Yet in the New Testament record, Peter points out
that Lot was a righteous man. We are therefore left to conclude that the
Genesis record is highlighting the weaker aspects of Lot's character,
without commenting on the good points. We may have the same sort of
surprise when we read in Hebrews 11 that Samson was a man of outstanding
faith- yet the record we are reading at the moment in Judges seems framed
to paint Samson as a womanizer, a man who lacked self-control and who only
came to God in times of dire personal need.
But just imagine if only the negative incidents in our own lives, over
a period of 20 (or 40?) years, were recorded. Anyone reading it would
conclude that we were a complete hypocrite to claim to have any hope of
salvation. In our self-examination, we sometimes see only this negative
record; we fail to see that God has justified us, that in His record book,
we are ranked among the faithful, as Samson was in Hebrews 11. Any
character study of Samson needs to bear this in mind. Samson, over 40
years of service, courted a girl not in the faith and tried to marry her;
once went to a prostitute in Gaza; and had an on-and-off relationship with
a worthless woman in Sorek for a few months (?). And yet he seems to have
lived the rest of his life full of faith and zeal- although I say this not
in any way minimizing the mistakes he made. This is hardly evidence that
Samson was the renegade sex-maniac that he is sometimes made out to be.
Jud. 17-21 contain various pictures of and insights into the apostacy
of the tribe of Dan, providing the backdrop for a character study of
Samson. These chapters seem chronologically out of place; they belong
before the Samson story- perhaps. Although I have made a case on
Jud. 17 that in fact some of the people of Dan from Samson's village home
migrated north exactly because he had not delivered them from the
Philistines. And the mother of the apostate Micah was likely Delilah, with
her 1100 pieces of silver. Jud. 18:30 speaks of Jonathan the grandson of Moses,
and 20:28 of Phinehas the grandson of Aaron (cp. Num. 25:11), which would
place these events at the beginning of the period of the Judges, once
Israel had first settled in the land. Dan's apostacy is suggested by the
way in which he is omitted from the tribes of the new Israel in Rev. 7.
Zorah, Samson's home town, was originally Judah's inheritance (Josh.
15:33-36), but they spurned it, and passed it to Dan (Josh. 19:41), who
also weren't interested; for they migrated to the north and too over the
land belonging to the less warlike Sidonians (Jud. 18:2,7-10). Their
selfishness is reflected by the way they chide with him: "What is this
that you have done unto us?" (15:11). "They had become
reconciled to the dominion of sin since it did not appear to do much harm.
They could still grow their crops etc.". It is even possible that
his
parents had elements of weakness in them; for his name doesn't include the
'Yah' prefix, and 'Samson' ('splendour of the sun') may be a reference to
the nearby town of Beth Shemesh ('house of the sun-god'). It could be
argued that because the father was responsible for his son's marriage
partner (Jud. 12:9; 14:2; 15:2; Gen. 24:3-9; Neh. 10:30), therefore
Samson's father was equally guilty for Samson's 'marriage out'. Many of
the commands against intermarriage were directed to parents, commanding
them not to give their children in intermarriage. All the Judges were
preceded by a period of Israel prostituting themselves to the surrounding
nations (Jud. 2:16-19); and this was evidently true of the period in which
Samson grew up. From this apostate tribe and background came Samson. The
way his own people angrily rebuked him that "Don't you know that the
Philistines are lords over us?" (Jud. 15:11) was tacit recognition of the depth
of their apostacy. They seemed to have no regret that they were fulfilling
the many earlier prophecies that they would be dominated by their enemies
if they were disobedient to Yahweh. The fact that Israel were dominated
throughout Samson's life by the Philistines is proof enough that they were
apostate at this time (Jud. 13:1; cp. Jud. 15:20; 16:31).
Jdg 13:2 There was a man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose
name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and childless-
Judges typically gives a cycle of sin, suffering, repentance,
prayer to God, judge sent to save, sin, suffering, repentance, prayer to
God, judge etc. The case of
Samson is different. Israel suffer for their sins but they do not repent
nor pray to God,
yet Samson is still sent. Likewise, the barren woman stories in the Bible
usually have the woman desperately praying for pregnancy, and then getting
a Divine intervention through an Angel, with a message about the child's
future mission. This pattern is followed here apart from the fact Manoah's
wife isn't recorded as praying. But she apparently experiences God's
intervention by grace, on His intervention, without her [recorded]
prayers. Grace is to be a dominant theme of the Samson story. Throughout
the Samson story, there are anomalies, not least that a Nazirite
continually broke the conditions of Naziriteship but was still a "Nazirite
unto the Lord", in His sight. These are all summed up in the comment that
his marriage to the Philistine was "of the Lord". The introduction to
Samson's birth mirrors the introduction we have to Abraham. He is
mentioned first, by name, and then his wife, with the comment she was
barren. We are set up to expect a significant child from this barren
woman. And that is typical of God's work with Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel,
Hannah, Elisabeth... from the barren is brought forth something meaningful
and salvific in God's purpose. And yet what we see in the child born is
not at all a spiritual hero, but a very weak and confused man who was used
by God. Samson is rather an anticlimax, intentionally so. And yet God
still worked out His salvation through him. Manoah is named 15 times, his
wife never; she is simply called "the woman", reflecting how she was
perceived. As rather a childless nobody. God has a penchant for working
through anonymous nobodies. And so the Angel was focused upon her rather
than Manoah, even the second time appearing again to her alone, and she is
presented as more perceptive than Manoah. It has been observed that "the
large number of details about Manoah―he is given location, tribe, name and
marital status―contrasts with the anonymity of his wife".
We note too the similarities with the account of the birth of Samuel. 'There was a certain man [Elkanah] of the family of... whose name was... whose wife was barren' (1 Sam. 1:1). Samson is to be a Nazirite to God from birth, and Hannah promised that Samuel was to be given up to Yahweh's service (1 Sam. 1:11-18); indeed it could be argued that Samuel was also a Nazirite. The Qumran text of 1 Sam. 1:13 has Hannah saying that "I will give him as a Nazir for ever" [MT "no razor shall come on his head"]. Both Elkanah and Manoah make offerings to God. Hannah assures Eli that "I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink" (1 Sam. 1:15), just as Manoah's wife is commanded not to [the phrase "wine nor strong drink" recurs], and just as the Nazirite was not to. We also note the repetition of phrase "If it had pleased God to kill us..." (by Manoah's wife, Jud. 13:23) and then in 1 Sam 2:25, talking of Eli's sins, who were slain "for it pleased God to kill them". The records are so similar that we wonder if what Samson failed to achieve, despite the potential given him, God set up Samuel to achieve. Although if Samuel were a Nazirite, he was defiled by touching a dead body (when he slew Agag, 1 Sam. 15:33). The parallels could mean that Samuel was intended to do the work Samson didn't. God raised up deliverance from another place, as Mordecai reasoned to Esther. And in seeking to understand our own lives and ministries, there must always be the consideration that perhaps we were raised up to do what others failed to do, perhaps even in previous generations. On Jud. 14:19 I note the parallels between Samson and Saul, and also David. God seems to work similarly today. One man [Samson] is raised up for a task, he fails or only partially does it; another [Samuel] is raised up and likewise doesn't complete it; and another likewise [Saul]. And then another [David] is raised up who does do it.
Samson lived at a time when Israel were hopelessly weak. His great desire was to do the work of the promised seed, who would save Israel from their enemies. He resented the Philistine domination and sought, single-handed, to overcome it in faith, not only for himself, but for his weaker brethren. As predestiny would have it, in recognition of his zeal for these things, he came from Zorah, 'the hornet'- a symbol of the Divine power that would drive the foreign tribes out of the land, as Samson dedicated himself to do (Dt. 7:20). And his father's name, Manoah, meant "rest", or inheritance (cp. Josh. 1:13,15). Samson-ben-Manoah was therefore Samson, the son of the promised inheritance.
Jdg 13:3 The angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, Look
now, you are barren and childless but you will conceive and bear a son-
"You are barren... but you will conceive" is typical of how
God seeks to bring us to real acceptance of how we are, before offering
deliverance. We think of the Lord asking the blind man what he wanted the
Lord to do for Him. It was in one sense obvious, but the Lord wanted to
convict him of what he really wanted. We too pass through that process of
conviction before God delivers.
God's Angelic appearance to barren or childless women and promising them a very significant child is quite a theme. We think of Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 17:19; 18:10,14), Hannah (1 Sam. 1:17), Elizabeth (Lk. 1:13) and Mary (Lk. 1:31). These women were intended to have reflected upon the experience of those previous women, and to have taken strength and guidance from their response. This is the advantage of daily Bible reading and familiarity with the text and historical narrative of the scriptures. Even if we 'don't get anything out of it' at the point of reading, when events occur in our lives, we are able to see them in the context of Biblical history, and are comforted that we are not alone. Our experiences are not so totally unique. And it is the sense of walking alone in unchartered, unexperienced territory which is where much of our fear comes from. And yet because the hand of God works according to a historical pattern, we need not feel so alone; through patience and comfort of the scriptures we have hope (Rom. 15:4), as if these historical records speak to us in a personified form and comfort us. See on :3,24.
"You will conceive" can be understood as 'You have conceived'. If so, we note how the Angel pointed out the obvious [that she was barren / infertile] and juxtaposed it with God's action: "You are pregnant". But the future tense would suggest that Manoah still had to do his part by sleeping with his wife.
Jdg 13:4 Now therefore you must be careful and drink no wine nor strong
drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing-
As discussed on :4, Manoah's wife was here promised that her son
would be a Nazirite from birth; and she was to become the pattern for
later women who were told likewise (1 Sam. 1:11; Lk. 1:15). It
could be argued that she is being told that she too must be a Nazirite. At
least until Samson is born. Menstruation meant touching the unclean (Lev.
15:19); so female vows of Naziriteship could not have been for longer than
a month for pre menopausal women. But she would not have been menstruating
whilst pregnant. If she was not asked to be a Nazirite, we would have an
example of fences being placed around the law- Samson was to be a
Nazirite, so his mother was not to drink wine whilst he was in her womb.
The command to not eat anything unclean suggests she was likely or
accustomed to eating unclean food.
Jdg 13:5 You shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor must come upon
his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he
will begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines-
It would be simplistic for a character study of Samson to see Samson as
some kind of sex maniac of a believer. He was a man of faith who,
amidst a weak and indifferent brotherhood, tried to rise up to the spirit
of Messiah in delivering Israel from their spiritual enemies. In order to
devote himself to this, it seems that he chose the single life. In common
with others who trod that path of zeal (e.g. Timothy and possibly
Hezekiah), he couldn't maintain it all the time. He stumbled, and his
stumbling in this area resulted in him reasoning that the end (i.e. the
work he was doing) justified the means, and that therefore he could do
God's work in a way which in fact gratified his own flesh. He had to learn
the spirit of the cross-carrying Christ; the lesson of the whole burnt
offering: that the whole of a man's life must be affected by the
cross- not just those parts which we are willing to surrender. We can't mix the service of God with the
service of self. There is no third road. Because Samson failed to realize
this (until the end), he was a man who in many ways never quite made it;
he never quite lived up to the spiritual potential which he had.
Although
he was to be the beginning of serious deliverance of Israel from the
Philistines, the whole story of Samson is prefaced by the fact that
during the 40 years of Samson's' ministry (15:20 + 16:31), "the Lord
delivered (Israel) into the hand of the Philistines" (13:1). It is
emphasized in Jud. 14:4 that "at that time the Philistines had dominion over
Israel" ; and the men of Judah chode with him: "Don't you know that the
Philistines are rulers over us?" (Jud. 15:11). The point is hammered home in
Jud. 15:20: "He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years".
God's intention was that Samson was to deliver Israel from the
Philistines; but somehow he never rose up to it, and only 'began' to do it
(Jud. 13:5). They remained under the
Philistines, even during his ministry. He made a few sporadic attempts in
red hot personal zeal, confirmed by God, to deliver Israel. But he never
rose up to the potential level that God had prepared for him in prospect.
And yet for all this, he was accepted in the final analysis as a man of
faith. It may be possible to understand that the breaking of his
Nazariteship was yet another way in which he never lived up to his
God-given potential. He was "a Nazirite unto God from the womb to
the day of his death" (13:7). Yet he broke the Nazirite vow by touching
dead bodies and having his hair shaven (Num. 6:6); and
probably drinking alcohol at the wedding feast and every time when Delilah
betrayed him. This may mean that he
chose to break God's ideal intention for him, to take a lower and lower
level of service to God until actually he had slipped away altogether.
However, it may be that God counted his desire for the high
standard of Nazariteship to him. He saw him as if this never happened, in
the same way as He saw Abraham as if he had offered up Isaac, even though
ultimately he didn't (Heb. 11:17; James 2:21). Intention, not the human
strength of will to do the act, seems to be what God earnestly looks for.
Jdg 13:6 Then the woman went and told her husband, A man of God came to
me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome. I
didn’t ask him where he was from, neither did he tell me his name-
LXX "I asked him whence he was, and his name, but he did not
tell me". "I did not ask him His Name". Therefore the husband did ask His
Name when He appeared again. She assumed this was a prophet, a "man of
God", but she had the suspicion that it was in fact an Angel.
Jdg 13:7 but he said to me ‘You will conceive and bear a son; drink no
wine or strong drink, and eat no unclean thing, for the child shall be a
Nazirite unto God from the womb to the day of his death’-
He was a Nazirite to God (i.e. in God's eyes?) all his life-
although he broke his Nazariteship by contact with dead bodies (Jud. 14:19;
15:15 cp. Num. 6:6) and probably by drinking wine at his wedding (Jud. 14:10
"feast" = 'drinking', Heb.). This was not only imputed righteousness, but
God counting the essential intentions of a weak willed man to him as if he
had actually achieved what he fain would do.
Or it could be that we are to read this as meaning that it was God's
intention that Samson should be a Nazirite to the day of his death- but he
failed to live up to that Divine intention and potential. Which is a sad
theme of the Judges record. Jud. 13:7 cp. Jud. 16:17 implies that Samson himself felt
he had broken his Nazariteship. Likewise Zacharias was "blameless" in God's
sight, even though in this very period of his life he was in some ways
lacking faith that his prayers would be answered (Lk. 1:6). It is our
holding fast that is our acceptable service (Heb. 12:28 mg.); not the
occasional heroics of outstanding acts of obedience.
We know that we sadly oscillate between the flesh and the spirit. And
yet Scripture abounds with examples of where God sees us as in a permanent
state of either sin or righteousness. We are fountains that bring forth
good water, and therefore by that very definition cannot occasionally
bring forth bitter water; we are good fruit trees or bad ones. We aren’t a
little of both, in God’s sight. This is surely because He sees us on the
basis of the fact that we are in Christ, clothed with His righteousness,
rather than as individuals who sometimes act righteously and sometimes not
during the course of a day. Thus God saw Samson as a lifelong Nazirite, although we know there were times when he broke the
Nazirite
vow by, e.g., touching dead bodies and having his hair cut. The
challenging thing is to behold our brethren as having the “in Christ”
status (for we can’t impute anything else to them, lest we condemn them),
and not to see them from the point of view of people who sometimes act
righteously and sometimes don’t.
Likewise the Angel declared that he would “begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (Jud. 13:5). Yet he died with the Philistines firmly in control over himself and Israel. This was potentially possible in the Angelic plan; but he didn’t live up to what had been made possible in prospect. Significantly, Samson’s mother omitted to repeat this part of the Angel’s conversation when she relayed the incident to her husband (Jud. 13:7)- perhaps because she didn’t believe that her child would be capable of this. And perhaps this was a factor in his failure to achieve what God had intended for him.
The woman fails to repeat what was most important in the Divine plan- that "he will begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines". And she doesn't repeat the requirement about not cutting his hair. Possibly we have here the theme that will be repeated in the Samson story- of partial spirituality. She is thrilled that she will have a child. But she doesn't see much further than that. And her lack of focus upon the hair issue may have come to full term when Samson effectively allows his hair to be cut.
She adds the detail "to the day of his death". The Angel didn't say that. And we are left to ponder the intentional ambiguity. Was this prophetic, that he would be seen by God as a Nazirite "to the day of his death"? Or is this the mother assuming he would not break his Naziriteship all his life? In which case her hopes for her son were to be majorly disappointed. Naziriteship was a voluntary vow, but here we see the higher hand of God, making Samson a lifelong Nazirite on the Divine initiative; and likewise making Manoah's wife a Nazirite at least until she gave birth to Samson. It's like his marriage being "of the Lord" (Jud. 14:5). That higher hand of God's working over against our freewill is the Old Testament version of the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
Jdg 13:8 Then Manoah entreated Yahweh and said, Oh Lord, please let the
man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do
to the child who will be born-
The Angel had explained already; they were to raise him as a
Nazirite. But as with Gideon, Manoah had a weak faith and wanted continual
confirmation. And there was also the fact that he may well have doubted
how a woman could speak to him God's words. He wanted to hear them for
himself. And God made a concession to that weakness, as He does to many
cultural mores which are a denial of deeper spiritual principle.
Manoah's prayer was answered in that the Angel did come again- to his wife. He obviously wanted personal reassurance that his wife's pregnancy was from him, and that indeed she was telling the truth. The essence of the prayer was answered- the Angel came to his wife. And stayed long enough for her to dash to Manoah and get him to come and meet the Angel. We likewise often receive answers to prayer that are not to the letter of what we asked, but fulfil the spirit of it. But it is surely significant that the Angel appeared to his wife whilst she was alone. Clearly God was focused upon her as His channel, although she remains nameless as "the woman", and Manoah is mentioned by name 15 times. We note that in :11 Manoah refers to his wife as "the woman" rather than 'my wife'.
Jdg 13:9 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, wasn’t
with her-
I suggested on :8 that he may well have doubted how a woman could
speak to him God's words. He wanted to hear them for himself. And God made
a concession to that weakness. But He does so by all the same first
appearing to the woman alone, and not directly to Manoah in the first
instance.
Jdg 13:10 The woman quickly ran and told her husband, and said to him, The
man has appeared to me, who came to me that day-
We note that the woman ran quickly, whereas Manoah arose and
walked behind his wife (:11 Heb.). She consistently is presented as the
more responsive and dynamic. Even though she is left anonymous. We note
too that the Angel refuses Manoah's offer of hospitality and declines to
give Manoah his name- actions which would have been seen as a slight to
the hospitality culture. The focus is repeatedly upon the anonymous woman
rather than Manoah. The record of Samson's birth frequently uses the phrases "the man"
and "the woman" (:10,11), as if to send the mind back to Eden- with
the implication that Samson was the seed of the woman, in type of Christ.
"The woman" is a phrase nearly always associated in Scripture with the
birth of someone who was to be a seed of the woman. "Of all that I said
unto the woman, let her beware", coming from the mouth of an Angel
(:13), surely confirms the Eden allusions.
Jdg 13:11 Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and
said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman? He said, I am-
To hear the words of God directly, Manoah has to follow after his
wife. I suggested on :8,9 that he may well have doubted how a woman could
speak to him God's words. He wanted to hear them for himself. And God made
a concession to that weakness. But He does so in such a way that still
requires him to follow behind his more spiritual wife (see on :23), in
order to hear those words.
Jdg 13:12 Manoah said, Now may your words come true. What should the
child’s way of life and mission be?-
There may be here the slight hint that he did not have total faith in
the words of promise. For we could understand him as meaning
'Well I hope
what you say is true. Should it be true, then how should we, in that case,
raise the child; what is his mission going to be, so that we might raise
him towards it?'. I note on :23 that his wife has more faith and
perception than he does. And it is highly significant that the description
of the "mission", to deliver Israel from the Philistines, is told only to
the woman and not to Manoah.
Jdg 13:13 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, All that I said to the woman
she must do-
Although God is making a concession to Manoah's weakness in appearing
to him, He emphasizes that His primary word had been to the woman, not to
Manoah. The concession to his chauvinistic weakness was therefore not
total, but done in such a way that he was reminded that God had chosen his
wife before him in revealing His word. See on :14.
Jdg 13:14 She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, neither let
her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I
commanded her let her observe-
"Let her observe" may have been the command to Manoah, to not stand
in the way of her obeying the call to also be a Nazirite. See on :13.
Jdg 13:15 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, Please, let us detain you so
that we may make a young goat ready for you-
The record of Samson has a large number of examples of the repetitions in
Biblical narrative. They are situations where he was connected into the
experience of those who had gone before- e.g. Manoah's desire to detain
the Angel recalls Jud. 6:18; Gen. 18:5. His desire to detain the Angel and offer sacrifice was exactly that of Gideon (6:18). His belief after he had seen the Angel ascend (Jud. 13:20 =
Jud. 6:21), and his subsequent fear, were again expressed in the words of Gideon (Jud. 13:21,22 cp.
Jud. 6:22). As Gideon was, perhaps subconsciously, the hero of Manoah, so Samson followed his father's spirituality in this,
wanting likewise to copy Gideon. It seems he lived out parental expectation, and imbibed the spirituality of his father without making it his own. Born and raised believers, beware.
The whole scene is very similar to that of Gen. 18:7,8. Manoah responded as Abraham did, and later he would have perceived the similarities, and therefore grasped that this "man" was indeed an Angel.
Jdg 13:16 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I
won’t eat your food, and if you prepare a burnt offering, you must offer
it to Yahweh. Manoah didn’t know that he was the angel of Yahweh-
And yet as noted on :15, the whole scene was so very similar to that
of Gen. 18:7,8 that we conclude that Manoah ought to have perceived
["know"] that this was an Angel. The fact he didn't is therefore an
indication of lack of spiritual perception on his part. See on :23. The
fact the Angel didn't eat of his food and meat, whereas the Angels who
visited Abraham did so, could be read as a possible rebuke of Manoah for
not perceiving this was an Angel. It could also be argued that in
a similar scene, the visiting Angel accepted Gideon's food (Jud. 6:18).
See on :17.
"Detain" is the word used for the Angelic restraining of the womb from bearing children (Gen. 20:18), and had been used specifically about Sarah (Gen. 16:2). And this whole incident was intended to help them see the similarities with Abraham and Sarah's Angelic visitation. The Angel may intend them to grasp the point- that they thought they were detaining / restraining Him, when He had been restraining them from having children until this point. Perhaps only later did they perceive this, if at all. There are many such Biblical allusions built in by God to our life experiences; and we may or may not ever perceive them in the course of our lives. Self examination of the path and details of our lives is clearly intended by God.
Jdg 13:17 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, What is your name, that when
your words come true, we may honour you?-
The record says that Manoah said this "to the Angel", whilst clearly
thinking this was a mere man. He acts and reasons as if this is a man, and
he needs to know his name so that he can give him honour. When surely his
mind should have been upon honouring God. "When" may also bear the
implication of "if", as if he still didn't completely believe these words
(see on :12). As noted on :16, his lack of perception that this was an
Angel is criticized implicitly.
Jdg 13:18 The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why do you ask about my name,
since it is beyond understanding-
Or, "wonderful", implying 'miraculous'. This again was urging Manoah
to understand that this was not a human prophet, but an Angel with the
power to do miracles. I have noted on :16,17 that
Manoah is being
implicitly criticized for not perceiving this was an Angel. And so the
Angel replies with exactly the Angelic words to Jacob (Gen. 32:29). Their subsequent fear (Jud.
13:22) is that of Gen. 32:20. See on Jud. 14:12. Yet despite this, Manoah
fails to make the connection, for only at the point :21 does he realize
this was an Angel. The Angel's name was "wonderful" [NEV "beyond
understanding"]. The Angel doesn't give any one word answer, but instead "did
a wonderful thing" (:19). For all time we see that the Name of God is not
a lexical item, but rather manifest in what He does.
Jdg 13:19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and
offered it on the rock to Yahweh. Then the angel did a wonderful thing as
Manoah and his wife looked on-
Manoah had initially wanted to prepare food for the visitor, but He
had declined it, and told him instead to offer it to Yahweh. And Manoah
does so.
Jdg 13:20 When the flame went up toward the sky from the altar, the angel
of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar, and Manoah and his wife
looked on-
The fact they had an altar on their property indicates that
they did
serve Yahweh, although not in the ideal sense of offering at His
sanctuary. But still God worked through that. "Ascended" is the word usually translated "offering". The idea
is that the Angel was identified with the sacrifice, meaning that it had
been accepted. Despite all Manoah's lack of spiritual perception
throughout the encounter, as lamented on :16-18.
And they fell on their faces to the ground-
The phrase used of men doing this with a sense of unworthiness and
conviction of sin (Gen. 44:14; Josh. 7:6; Ruth 2:10). Now that they had
been humbled, God could work further with them. And that is an abiding
principle.
Jdg 13:21 But the angel of Yahweh didn’t appear to Manoah or to his wife
any more. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh-
See on :16,17,18. It was the very absence of God’s direct appearance
in his life that in the end persuaded Manoah that truly, he did have a
fully valid relationship with Him. And the apparent silence of God is
intended to teach us likewise.
Jdg 13:22 Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have
seen God-
He failed to learn the lesson from Gideon, who had likewise wrongly
panicked (Jud. 6:22,28); and likewise of Jacob and others who saw the face
of an Angel and lived (Gen. 16:14; 32:30). Isaiah too failed to learn this
lesson from history (Is. 6:5).
This is typical of man's tendency to think that God is "a hard
man", indifferent to us as persons, distant, judgmental. Again Manoah is
presented as far less spiritually perceptive than his anonymous nobody of
a wife, who [as many such are today] was far more perceptive in spiritual
things.
Jdg 13:23 But his wife said to him, If Yahweh wanted to kill us He
wouldn’t have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from us,
neither would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us
such things as these-
She reasoned that if God had accepted the sacrifice, and told
them they would have a child, they would therefore not be slain at least
before she gave birth. She presents as far more perceptive than Manoah,
even though she remains unnamed. Here we have a repeat of the essence of the situation between Deborah
and Barak, where again a woman’s faith was greater than a man’s fear; see
on :12. Such interconnections within the Biblical record reveal an overall
Divine mind behind the entire volume. And we see too how Biblical history
is intended to serve as a precedent for us, teaching us that we are not
alone, not on unmapped territory never passed before. But all is working
out as God has worked previously.
Jdg 13:24 The woman bore a son, and named him Samson, and the child grew and Yahweh blessed him-
"The child grew, and Yahweh blessed him" is the language used of Samuel, John and the Lord Jesus- all likewise chosen from the womb, with births announced by Angels to childless women. See on :2,3. It is possible that his parents still had elements of weakness in them; for his name doesn't include the 'Yah' prefix, and 'Samson' ('splendour of the sun') may be a reference to the nearby town of Beth Shemesh ('house of the sun-god'). We note that it was the wife who named him Samson, and it was unusual for a woman to name the child. Zorah was only 3 km. from Beth Shemesh. Long hair was associated with the sun gods- the long hairs representing the rays of the sun. The sun gods are depicted as having long hair- Ra-Horakhtz, Attis, Surya and Lugh. Samson chose to wear his long hair as seven locks (Jud. 16:13), and this is exactly the kind of radiant crown seen on the sun gods. The crown of the Greek sun-god Helios was often depicted with seven spikes. This continues the theme- that Samson mixed Yahweh worship with paganism; and his hatred of the Philistines was not therefore purely a result of his love for Yahweh. He died with the request “that I may avenge myself the revenge of one of my two eyes” (Jud. 16:28). The sun was thought to be the 'eye' of Heaven. Samson's dying request that he be avenged for the loss of his eyes suggests he died still with a strong sense of association with the sun god.
It could be argued that because the father was responsible for his son's marriage partner (Jud. 12:9; 14:2; 15:2; Gen. 24:3-9; Neh. 10:30), therefore Samson's father was equally guilty for Samson's 'marriage out of the faith'. Many of the commands against intermarriage were directed to parents, commanding them not to give their children in intermarriage.
Jdg 13:25 The Spirit of Yahweh began to trouble him in the camp of Dan,
between Zorah and Eshtaol-
Samson was intended to "begin" delivering Israel from the Philistines (Jud. 13:5), and so the Spirit of God "Began" [s.w.] to move him to do so (Jud. 13:25). But he didn't let that process progress as intended, becoming caught up on anger and sexual lust issues. We have the sense that God began a work in and through Samson that wasn't completed as potentially possible- perhaps with the implication, that it should have been but wasn't. Not until David's time would Israel be free from the Philistines (2 Sam. 8:1). Yet despite only partially fulfilling his potential, Samson did make a beginning. And he will be saved, despite all that was unfinished and all the unrealized potential. On one hand, the fool begins and doesn't finish (Lk. 14:30 "This man began to build, and was not able to finish"). On the other hand, we are saved by grace even when we don't finish. Likewise the Lord has "begun a good work in us" and will complete it- if we let Him, for He will keep on trying to finish it ("Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will keep working at perfecting it, until the day of Jesus Christ" Phil. 1:6). The Galatians 'began in the Spirit' but left that path and tried to complete the work without the Spirit, "by the flesh", and failed (Gal. 3:3). The Lord 'began' doing and teaching in His ministry (Acts 1:1; 10:37 "that word began from Galilee") and continues. So many times the Lord's words are prefaced with the statement that He "began to say..." (Mt. 4:17; 11:7,20; Mk. 4:1; 6:2,34; 8:31; 10:32; 12:1; 13:5; Lk. 4:21; 7:24; 11:29; 12:1; 20:9; 24:27). This is all quite some theme. His words were intended to commence something in the hearers, although usually that intended process wasn't and isn't allowed to go forward to its intended end. When a man today hears the Lord's words, that process likewise begins; but men truncate it.
I suggested on Jud. 17:1 that the story line continues directly from the death of Samson to Delilah and her son making an idol. We note that the camp of Dan, Zorah and Eshtaol are mentioned in Jud. 18:2,8,11,12, just as they are in Jud. 13. The Spirit of God had moved Samson to deliver his tribe Dan from the Philistines in that very area (Jud. 13:25 and see on Jud. 14:19), but he hadn't lived up to that potential. In Samson's time, the tribe of Dan had not possessed the land given to them (Josh. 19:47,48). In Jud. 18 we read of how they gave up, and went up north to drive the people of Laish out of their territory, rather than dealing with the Philistines and having their intended tribal allotment. Samson was their potential means for inheriting the land they were supposed to. The Spirit moved him to be sensitive to this. Yet as we see in Jud. 15, they were prepared to live with the Philistines reigning over them. Samson perceived the potential and wanted to realize it; but his people didn't. And he himself failed to realize his own personal potential. Had he liberated Dan from the Philistines as God potentially enabled, the whole miserable story of Jud. 17-21 need never have happened. But instead Samson was caught up with personal skirmishes arising from his own anger issues and refusal to get over the anger and sense of revenge arising from his failed marriage. Yet he still will be saved, according to Hebrews 11.
Zorah was where Samson was born and he was buried in just the same location between Zorah and Eshtaol (Jud. 16:31). In his youth, the Spirit moved him in between those places, setting him up for his life's work, or at least for the potential of it. The implication of being buried in the exact same place may mean that he didn't actually progress very far, in fact nowhere. Yet still he will be saved. The presence of the Philistines there, and perhaps their abuse of the Danites, provoked his spirit... and the Holy Spirit confirmed him in that. We know from his walk alone in the vineyards in Jud. 14 that Samson was not unknown to go walking alone. And so the LXX here in Jud. 13:25 is significant: "The Spirit of the Lord began to go out / walk with him". As he walked around the local area alone, angry at the evidence of Philistine domination, the Spirit went with him and confirmed him in his desire to break the bondage. Or we can interpret "the camp of Dan" as a military term for the soldiers of Dan in Zorah-Eshtaol, of whom there were 600 at the time of Jud. 18 in just that place; and he was one of them. The difference was that God's Spirit began to impel him personally. We see how the movement of the Spirit is partly a result of Divine sovereign choice, similar to making a man a Nazirite when Nazirite vows were to be taken as freewill decisions. Am. 2:11 speaks of God raising up Nazirites. On the other hand, God's Spirit confirms the human spirit. And yet the various translations all give the range of God's initiative with Samson here: “to stir” (NIV, NRSV), “to move [him] at times” (KJV), “to drive [him] hard", “to arouse”, “to direct”. Only LXX gives "to accompany / walk with". These translations all help us see how the Spirit works internally on a man's heart, and with us too today.
As we will note elsewhere, he failed to realize the potential- of giving his tribe Dan their inheritance free from the Philistines. He got caught up in anger issues over the failure of his first marriage. He turned to prostitutes, and was endlessly set on revenge for it. So that what he achieved was minimal compared to the potential enabled by the Spirit. Yet still he will be finally saved.
Samson was possessed of a finely tuned conscience. The first instance of this is when we read how the Spirit of Yahweh troubled him (Heb.) from time to time in the camp of Dan, in the very places where his people had earlier failed to follow up the victories of Joshua-Jesus by their spiritual laziness. He was troubled, deeply, by the Philistine dominance and Israel's unfaithfulness to Yahweh (s.w. Gen. 41:8). God works directly on the human spirit by His Spirit. And so He provoked Samson to have these concerns in his spirit, and God's Spirit confirmed Samson's positive response to these proddings, which were initially of God's working directly on his heart. This is how the Holy Spirit likewise works today.
The context of Samson's marriage does seem to suggest that Samson himself sought occasion against the Philistines; for the Spirit of the Lord had been troubling his conscience as to why the people of Dan had not followed up Joshua's victories, and had allowed themselves to be overrun by the uncircumcised (13:25 Heb.). The only other references to "troubled" are in Gen. 41:8; Ps. 77:4; Dan. 2:1,3. The Spirit of God worked with Samson's spirit, so that it was troubled as he went for his solitary walks of meditation. It was no accident that he was buried in the very place where his conscience was first awakened (Jud. 16:31); he maybe asked for this burial place, to show he had at last returned to his innocent spiritual beginnings.
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