Judges 13:1-25
Prayer: Father, please use this text to remind us of Your great mercy and grace. Equip us to obey you and serve you in every area of life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
The message of the whole Bible is that God’s grace is greater than you can possibly imagine. It is an ocean that has no coasts, no bottom. His mercy endures forever.
This story of the birth of Samson is one of the places we are reminded of this, and it reminds us of the grace of God because it points so clearly to the birth of His only Son, Jesus Christ.
The Text: “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah…” (Judges 13:1-25)
Summary of the Text
While the judges may have provided some measure of stability, Israel turned back to their evil ways and the Lord delivered them to subjugation under the Philistines (Judges 13:1). But remarkably, without Israel crying out, God began preparing deliverance by appearing to a barren woman and promising that she would bear a son who would be a Nazirite warrior who would fight the Philistines (Judges 13:2-5). When the woman told her husband, he prayed and asked God to deliver the message once more, and God answered and appeared again and repeated the instructions (Judges 13:6-14).
Manoah offered to honor the angel of the Lord with a feast, but the angel proposed a sacrifice be offered to the Lord instead (Judges 13:15-16). When Manoah asked what the man’s name was, he said he could not tell him because it was too wonderful, but when the sacrifice was offered, the angel ascended in the flame on the altar and Manoah and his wife fell on their faces on the ground (Judges 13:17-20). Knowing that this was the angel of the Lord Himself, Manaoh feared for his life, but his wife reassured him (Judges 13:21-23). And the woman bore the son as she was promised and named him Samson, and the Lord blessed him and filled him with His Spirit (Judges 13:24-25).
Nazirite Vows
A central element of this story is the repeated instructions to avoid the fruit of the vine and that Samson will be a Nazirite – repeated three times (Judges 13:4-5, 13:7, 13:14). A Nazirite vow was taken by ordinary Israelites for special priest-like missions – usually temporary but sometimes, as in this case, permanent from conception (Num. 6). In the Song of Deborah, she sings praise to God for the people who “willingly offered themselves,” but literally it’s for the “loosening of the locks of hair freely” (Judges 5:2). This is a poetic reference to the Nazirite vow, which many of the men apparently swore when they joined the armies of Barak. Paul also took Nazirite vows in Acts during his missionary journeys (Acts 18:18, 21:24). Just as priests were required to wear a covering on their head while they ministered in the tabernacle/temple (Ex. 28:36-38), the Nazirite vow included not cutting hair while on this mission and functioned as their covering and indicated that their mission was dedicated/holy to God.
The priests were forbidden from drinking wine in the tabernacle in order to distinguish carefully between holy and unholy, unclean and clean (Lev. 10:9-10), and so Nazirites also completely abstained from the fruit of the vine while on their holy mission. The Nazirite vow was an Old Testament type that pointed to the coming gift of the Holy Spirit that would anoint all believers and set them apart for mission and war.
Part of this is reversed in the New Covenant: whereas Old Covenant priests never sat down and were forbidden all wine in God’s presence, in the New Covenant, we get to sit down and rest in Christ and share a taste of wine in His presence. At the same time, there is still an abiding warning: sobriety is necessary for making careful distinctions, especially in battle (1 Thess. 5:6-8). This is why Christians are warned not to be drunk with wine but filled with the Holy Spirit by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:18). This means that the buzz of alcohol (or drugs) is a false Holy Spirit, an idol that you are seeking peace and joy from, that only the Holy Spirit can actually give. And your judgment is being impaired.
Samson was a type of the only faithful Savior who is full of the Spirit, whose judgment is always righteous, and who delivers us from all our enemies.
The Barren Gives Birth
After the Fall into sin, one of the central marks of the curse is difficulty and pain in conception and childbearing (Gen. 3:16). And despite many improvements in this area, it is still one of the great reminders today of Adam’s sin (e.g. barrenness, miscarriage, pregnancy complications, pain, etc.). And yet that curse was pronounced alongside the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). At the very point where the curse makes itself known and felt, God promised to demonstrate His power and mercy. It is therefore no accident that so many of the stories of the Old Covenant are stories of barren women giving birth: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Ruth, and Elizabeth. And here, it is a nameless woman, known only to history as “Manoah’s wife.”
Where sin destroys, God still brings life. But the point is also that God is determined to do this through the seed of the woman, at the very point of the curse. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). All sin is barrenness. It is fruitlessness. It is turning away from the light and life of God and turning toward darkness and emptiness. And this theme culminates in the ultimate “barren” womb of the virgin and the barren womb of the tomb. We serve the “God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17).
Conclusion: The Grace of God
While Israel was doing evil and being oppressed, God was preparing their salvation. This is the nature of grace – completely undeserved. While we were still enemies, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8-10).
In fact, there is some indication that God may have been doing this with three different barren women all around the same time leading to the births of Obed (Ruth), Samuel (Hannah), and Samson (wife of Manoah).
But of course you would not have known it – you could not have seen what God was doing. It looked like the Israelites were doomed. It looked like the Philistines would rule them indefinitely. But God was starting a revolution in the wombs of barren women. It would be years before anyone knew. But faith knew. Faith in the living God knows.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). One of the foundational things that faith knows is that God made everything that we see out of nothing (Heb. 11:3). But the most glorious thing that faith knows is that God has come for His lost and rebellious people, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those under the curse of the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:4-5). And as sons, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us (Rom. 8:37). In the very places where sin does its worst, God’s grace shines forth.
And that is why His name is wonderful. His name is Jesus, which means Savior.
Prayer: Father, help us to be preoccupied with Your grace. In all that we do, make us constantly remember what You have done for us through Your only Son, Jesus Christ – let it shape our work, our thoughts, our families, and our nation, and we ask in His name, who taught us to pray…
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