Judges 13:1-25

     The Central Idea of the Text is that God revealed to Manoah and his wife that they would have a son who would help to begin the defeat the Philistines (Judg. 13:5).

     Manoah’s wife was barren and could not have children (like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and Elizabeth).  God intervened to provide a son—Samson—that He would use to accomplish His will among His people.  Samson had a divine calling from birth (Judg. 13:2-25), as did Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5), John the Baptist (Luke 1:13-17), and the apostle Paul (Gal. 1:15-16).  Samson fought against the Philistines, who were later defeated by Samuel (1 Sam. 7:10-14), and David (2 Sam. 5:17-25).  Samson was a contemporary with Jephthah and Samuel.

     Samson was called to be a Nazarite from birth until death (Judg. 13:7).  The Nazarite vow was normally a voluntary consecration to God which required abstaining from wine, cutting one’s hair, and not touching a dead body (Num. 6:2-6).  Abstaining from wine would have cleared the mind for biblical thinking, leaving the hair uncut was a public declaration that one had taken the Nazarite vow, and not touching a corpse would have kept one ceremonially clean for worship. 

     Manoah requested to know his son’s future vocation, perhaps to prepare Samson for his future work (Judg. 13:12).  God refused Manoah’s request, but restated the original instruction concerning his wife’s diet during her time of pregnancy (Judg. 13:4, 7, 13-14).  Manoah and his wife both came to realize they’d had a personal encounter with God (Judg. 13:20-21); however, their responses were different.  Manoah responded with irrational fear, believing they would die (Judg. 13:22), but his wife corrected his thinking with a biblical-rational response in order to allay his fears (Judg. 13:23). 

     Though much of Samson’s life is marked by carnality, he also obeyed God, and this resulted in his being recorded among God’s faithful (Heb. 11:32).  We learn from Scripture that God often calls the weak to accomplish His will in the world (1 Cor. 1:26-29); however, a divine call does not guarantee spiritual success (Jam. 4:17), as each believer must choose to walk with God (Gal. 5:16-17), and to obey His will (Rom. 6:11-13).  Spiritual success depends on biblical obedience.