May 25: GOD’S PLAN FOR SAMSON (part 1)

…and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. Judges 2:12-13

Falling under the sway of the people . . . all around them is a recurring theme in the Bible. This is exactly why God’s word is especially applicable today. Many say, “the world is getting smaller,” and we understand that to mean that all cultures are everywhere. While there are many lovely aspects of various cultures (many excel in the area of hospitality), the LORD has repeatedly warned His people — those chosen to bear the message of His salvation to the multitudes — that they are vulnerable to influences that entice them away, by small degrees, from their relationship with the true God. A summary message to this effect is found in Proverbs 4:23: Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

Now amid the general apostasy in Israel, a couple true to Jehovah was found. They lived in the little town of Zorah, on the edge of the hill country that overlooked the plain where the Philistines dominated. This household of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, was childless. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to [Manoah’s wife] and said to her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean” (Judges 13:3-4) The word wine referred to the juice of the grape, wholesome when fresh. But the problem of storage quickly rendered it fermented/corrupted and no longer wholesome. Therefore, the Angel of the LORD instructed the mother-to-be not to place her own health and the baby’s at risk by consuming only healthy food and drink. The child would be affected for good or evil by the mother’s habits. The distinction regarding things eaten was not a ceremonial or arbitrary rule; it was based upon basic sanitary principles that distinguished clean animals from scavengers, the latter being God’s lowly but noble “clean-up crew” in the world.

Manoah’s wife told her husband, saying, “A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’” (vv.6-7) Manoah’s response was a prayer: “Oh my Lord, please let the Man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.” (v.8)  

If only every set of parents were teachable for the sake of their children! God directed Manoah and his wife in the formation of every good habit, and to instruct the child from infancy to learn temperance, self-denial, and self-control in every area of life from the start.

So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. Judges 13:24