God is full of surprises! The Lord over-answered my prayer, opening my eyes to a paradise of Christ’s glory from an obscure corner of the Old Testament! Seeing Christ greatly encouraged me to trust Him with the spiritual well-being of my children. Many know Samson, Israel’s famous judge, whom artists depict as that long-haired hulk with bulging biceps. Not so well known is the great faith of his parents.
There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman…
Jdg 13:2-3 ESV
For forty years the Philistines had dominated Israel, a consequence of forgetting God and worshiping idols. Despite Israel’s prayerlessness, not just any messenger comes but the Angel of the Lord. “Angel” means “messenger,” not necessarily a created angel. This Angel is none other than the eternal Son of God, the Messiah to come—Jesus! At the burning bush Moses learned that this Angel was God Himself. Manoah soon realized this, too, exclaiming, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God!”
The woman came and told her husband; she said, “A man of God came to me; his face was fearsome, like that of the angel of God.
Jdg 13:6 CJB
Of a dozen appearances the Angel of the Lord’s countenance is highlighted only here. The woman’s response is literally “great fear.” Angelic visitations often had that effect. The Alexandrian Septuagint interprets “fearsome” as epiphanēs —resplendent, illustrious, glorious—to help visualize what likely happened. The Message translation “terror laced with glory” catches both nuances beautifully. Inference of the Angel’s face shining like the sun is upheld by the name “Samson,” which means “like the sun.” (God gave her a sneak preview of the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration!)
So every time Manoah’s wife called Samson—”Like the Sun”—it reminded her of her encounter with God. Remembrance is God’s antidote to forgetfulness. In the midst of a whole nation who’d forgotten God and the wonders He’d shown them (Ps. 78:11), God found a mother who would remember Him. What kind of mom raises godly sons and daughters? One who keeps remembering the Lord.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean… No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
Jdg 13:3-5 ESV
God’s rescue mission begins with a Nazirite from the womb. Anyone, male or female, could willingly consecrate themselves with a Nazirite vow, having these three stipulations: avoiding everything grape, never touching a dead body, and not cutting the hair (Num 6:1-21). Far from being a cold list of rules, it signified the most intimate relationship one could have with God, even beyond the priest. On the return visit the Angel repeats not drinking wine and adds, “She may not eat anything that comes from the vine.” This expresses the Nazirite vow fully: “All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins” (Num 6:4).
The Old Testament garbs spiritual truths with physical pictures. Wine is a picture of earthly joy, “wine to gladden the heart of man,” as Psalm 104:15 says. A heart Nazirite touches absolutely nothing of the “grape,” whether earthly pleasures large (intoxication with wine) or small (seeds or skins). Paul says not to be drunk with wine, but rather, “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Php 4:4). What best prepared Manoah’s wife is what best prepares us. Make the Lord your chief joy, not what this world’s grapes have to offer.
I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name.
Jdg 13:6
Manoah’s asking the Angel for His name was met with similar evasiveness: “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” Why the withholding of the name, not only of the Angel’s but Manoah’s wife, too? The narrator of Judges, who possessed such exact details of this event, deliberately chose to hide it. Odd, since we know other mothers’ names—Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, even contemporary Hannah, Samuel’s mother. But the mother’s name of Israel’s most famous judge is withheld. Why?
The woman’s name is bound up with the name of her husband, Manoah. A wife taking the name of her husband is an act of submission. In the New Testament the wife’s long hair is a symbol of surrender to authority, to a head, her husband (1Co 11:3-15). The long hair of the Nazirite pictures submission to God as head. So without it being explicitly referenced, Manoah’s wife actually fulfilled the long hair of the Nazirite vow! Submissiveness. She stands contrary to Israel, who sought a name for herself instead of yielding to the Lord’s name as her one true Husband.
There is no irony that this Angel would be the Nazirite to God. From the womb to the day of His death this anointed Savior anchored His joy in God and lived unspotted from the flesh. Jesus, the true Nazirite, came not in His own name but in His Father’s (Jn 5:43), His head (1Co 11:3). What Samson could only begin, Jesus completed, delivering the people of God not from the consequences of sin (Philistines) but sin itself.
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.
Jdg 13:9
What the woman was doing the first time not mentioned, but the second time she’s in the field, not tilling or farming as might be expected, but sitting, resting. The Angel’s first appearance was totally unexpected. Now the weightiness of raising a son to deliver the nation from the Philistines occupied her thoughts like it did Manoah’s. God’s wordless message is this: rest while I cultivate your son. What are you to do with the child who will be born? Rest. Just sit and watch Me work. The same miracle-working God who heals the barren womb will raise up this son of destiny.
And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Jdg 13:24-25
Mananeh-Dan means “camp of Dan.” Mahaneh-Dan was the armpit of Israel, where three centuries earlier 600 Danite soldiers marched out to establish idolatry that festered like cancer throughout the land (Jdg 18). America today is a lot like Mahaneh-Dan, a hotbed of idolatry. Praise God that even in Mahaneh-Dan the Spirit is unhindered to work in our kids!
What’s our part as parents? Rejoice in the Lord in everything, not the grapes of this world’s pleasures. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead (2Ti 2:8). Make everything about His name not yours. Rest. Watch God work as your children grow into young men and women. The Lord will bless them. Then the Spirit will stir, convict, and march out together with them on God’s mission!
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 