The Birth of Samson.And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are infertile and have no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. Jdg 13:3
INTRODUCTION
This is a history of the chosen people during the 400 or 450 years which intervened between the death of Joshua and the time of Eli, Act_13:20. It is not a connected history, but a collection of outstanding incidents, which determined the fortunes of the chosen people, and gave special illustrations of the power of faith in God. The chief lesson of the book is the intimate connection between loyalty or disloyalty to God and the corresponding results in well-being or misery. This is distinctly stated in Jdg_2:11-23.
The judges were extraordinary agents of the divine pity and helpfulness, raised up as the urgency of the people’s need demanded, to deliver Israel from their oppressors, to reform religion, and to administer justice. Their administration was generally local, as Barak among the northern tribes, Samson in the extreme south, and Jephthah across the Jordan in Gilead.
It must not be supposed that Israel perpetrated an unbroken series of apostasies. Though these and their special deliverances occupy the major part of the book, there were evidently long interspaces of fidelity and prosperity. And in the darkest hours, there were probably large numbers who, amid the abominations, sighed and cried for a better day.
There are two appendices, relating events which took place not long after Joshua’s death, and therefore preceding the greater part of the history. We may almost consider the book of Ruth as the third. The touches of human characteristics are very vivid and instinctive, and the book deserves much more attention than it receives from the ordinary reader.
Israel’s Apostasies and Deliverances
INTRODUCTION, Jdg_1:1-36; Jdg_2:1-23; Jdg_3:1-432.
RULE OF THE JUDGES, Judges 3:5-16:31
Following repeated apostasy and oppression, the Israelites were successively delivered:
6. From the Philistines by Samson, Judges 13-16
28. What evidence is there that Samson’s parents were true to Jehovah?
THE LORD RAISES UP JUDGES
THE BIRTH OF SAMSON
Now Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was infertile and had no children.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are infertile and have no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.
Therefore, be careful not to drink wine or [any other] intoxicating drink, and do not eat anything [ceremonially] unclean.
For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite [dedicated] to God from birth; and he shall begin to rescue Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
Then the woman went and told her husband, saying, “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 came from, and he did not tell me his name.
But He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or [any other] intoxicating drink, nor eat anything [ceremonially] unclean, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.'”
Then Manoah pleaded with 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 for the boy who is to be born.”
And 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.
So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the Man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.”
Then Manoah got up and followed his wife, and came to the Man and said to him, “Are you the Man who spoke to this woman?” He said, “I am.”
And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what shall be the boy’s manner of life, and his vocation?”
The Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “The woman must pay attention to everything that I said to her.
She may not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or [any other] intoxicating drink, nor eat anything [ceremonially] unclean. She shall observe everything that I commanded her.”
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
OnJudges 13:1-14
THE PROMISE OF A NAZARITE CHAMPION
The secret of Samson’s strength was a puzzle to his contemporaries. Even Delilah could not account for it, Jdg_16:5-6. Clearly, then, it did not depend on his great height, nor his brawny chest and arms, nor his muscular development. It was due, as Heb_11:32 explains, to his faith, which opened his nature to the Spirit of God. See Jdg_14:6; Jdg_14:19; Jdg_15:14. But faith is always in direct proportion to consecration. The soul cannot give itself in two directions nor serve two masters; and if it draws its energy from the eternal God, there must be strict discipline exercised on the gateways of sense.
This was the intention of the Nazarite vow, which was generally taken for a limited period, but in this case for life. Its three particulars are enumerated in Num_6:4-9. Modern physiology has laid heavy emphasis on the necessity for a mother’s careful regimen. How blessed it would be if not mothers only, but fathers and indeed all who influence young life, would, for the sake of Christ and the children, abstain from alcohol! Is this price too much for love to give? See Mar_9:42.
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