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Judges 14:1-5

27 May

14 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

4 His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

Judges 14:1-5

Dear God, it’s too bad we don’t get any stories from Samson’s childhood. He was born and now, all of a sudden, he’s ready to get married. He presumably has long hair and an unruly beard (I assume the razor rule applied to his facial hair too). And he is apparently pretty unruly when it comes to his personality too. Did it have to be this way for your plan to work. Manoah and his wife seem like legitimately sweet people. It feels like they were simply ill-equipped to handle their son’s personality.

Yet, this is who you chose to be Samson’s parents. I’ve no doubt they did their best with him. I am sure they felt extra pressure to be good parents given their two angel visits. I’m reminded of a guy my dad knew years ago who used to say that you chose our parents for us. They were who you wanted us to have. I’ll confess, I think about some children who are abused and question that sometimes. I know a boy right now who seems to have been set up for failure in life by the parents you chose for him. I want to go ahead and stop and pray right now that you will raise up people in his life who will guide him on the path you have for him. Draw him to yourself. Use this pain of his childhood to form him into the man you are calling him to be. Don’t let this pain be wasted. It’s too great to be wasted.

Of course, Father, as I sit here I can only think of my flaws as a father. How I let my children down. I did some good things to be sure. Some really good things. As I see them living good lives right now, I can see my wife in there. I can even see myself. But I also know I got a lot of things wrong. I’m sorry. I love you. I love them. Please use the pain all of us have experienced to be glorified in us and through us. Help us to all worship you well. Help us to love justice, seek mercy, and walk humbly with you. And I pray this for their significant others as well. They are our family too, and I wish I could do more to know and bless them.

Oh, you know what? I was about to wrap up, but this just made me think of something: daughters-in-law and sons-in-law. Ever since my children started dating, I’ve told people–and this is true–that what I really looked for in my kids as they were dating someone is whether or not I saw good fruit growing from them through the relationship or if I saw bad fruit. And there were definitely differences. It was always fun to see good fruit brought into their life through their relationship with another person. And it was discouraging and even heartbreaking to see bad fruit. I know that’s one of the things Samson’s parents were afraid of with this match with a Philistine woman. They wanted to see good fruit in Samson’s life, and how could that happen if he married a Philistine. I’m sure they had dreams of who he would be for Israel after the angel’s visit. How could this match lead to that? But as Judges 14:4 says, “4 His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.” Father, in the things that break my heart, help me to be at peace in the hope that you are seeking an opportunity through the circumstances that concern me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on May 27, 2026 in Judges

 

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Parents of the Bible — Manoah and His Wife (Samson’s Parents) Part 2

07 Feb

One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye. When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.” His father and mother objected. “Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry?” they asked. “Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.” His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time. As Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah, a young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah. At that moment the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion’s jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat. But he didn’t tell his father or mother about it. When Samson arrived in Timnah, he talked with the woman and was very pleased with her. Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion. And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and mother, and they ate it. But he didn’t tell them he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion. As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom for elite young men. When the bride’s parents saw him, they selected thirty young men from the town to be his companions. Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I will give you thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing. But if you can’t solve it, then you must give me thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.” “All right,” they agreed, “let’s hear your riddle.” So he said: “Out of the one who eats came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet.” Three days later they were still trying to figure it out. On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle for us, or we will burn down your father’s house with you in it. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor?” So Samson’s wife came to him in tears and said, “You don’t love me; you hate me! You have given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.” “I haven’t even given the answer to my father or mother,” he replied. “Why should I tell you?” So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the young men. So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with their answer: “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” Samson replied, “If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle!” Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother. So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson’s best man at the wedding.
Judges 14

Dear God, these poor people. I would not have liked to have been Samson’s father. What do you do with him? He’s another one that you made a judge of Israel that I just don’t get. He was terrible. Is that really what you wanted? Did you really want him to do all of the awful things he did? And what were his parents to do?

This one sentence is what humbles me about my own parenting and what I think is my wisdom and insight: “His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.” If Samson had been my son I would have been telling him he was wrong to do what he was doing. If he was the president, I would be wanting to vote him out. If he was the king I would hope he would be overthrown. That’s why, ultimately, I can have my opinions, and I may very well be right, but I can also not live in fear when things don’t go my way. Maybe you are doing exactly what you want done through those who are ungodly.

Father, thank you for this faithful couple. This is the last story we get about them. I think it’s interesting to see Samson’s love for them in his line to the woman: “I haven’t even given the answer to my father or mother. Why should I tell you?” He obviously respected them and revered them as his parents because he said as much to his new wife. They were good people who really tried. I am sure it didn’t work out at all like they thought it might. It almost never does. But here they are. They get their own chapter in Judges 13 and then we get to see them doing their best in the next chapter (chapter 14). I hope history will look on me as kindly (if not as publicly) as it does these two people.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 7, 2020 in Fathers of the Bible, Judges, Mothers of the Bible, Uncategorized

 

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Parents of the Bible — Manoah and His Wife (Samson’s parents) Part 1

06 Feb

Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed them for forty years. In those days a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children. The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. So be careful; you must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.” The woman ran and told her husband, “A man of God appeared to me! He looked like one of God’s angels, terrifying to see. I didn’t ask where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name. But he told me, ‘You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.’” Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, saying, “Lord, please let the man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born.” God answered Manoah’s prayer, and the angel of God appeared once again to his wife as she was sitting in the field. But her husband, Manoah, was not with her. So she quickly ran and told her husband, “The man who appeared to me the other day is here again!” Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife the other day?” “Yes,” he replied, “I am.” So Manoah asked him, “When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy’s life and work?” The angel of the Lord replied, “Be sure your wife follows the instructions I gave her. She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food.” Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for you to eat.” “I will stay,” the angel of the Lord replied, “but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.” (Manoah didn’t realize it was the angel of the Lord .) Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you.” “Why do you ask my name?” the angel of the Lord replied. “It is too wonderful for you to understand.” Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the Lord ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground. The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the Lord, and he said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God!” But his wife said, “If the Lord were going to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles.” When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew up. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he lived in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol.
Judges 13

Dear God, parents so often are just desperate to get it right.

I remember being at the hospital holding our son and thinking, “Okay, I haven’t screwed up yet.” Of course, I was only about an hour into being a father. There were many screw ups to come. I also remember being incredulous that they were going to trust us enough to take this new baby home and care for it. What were they thinking? We didn’t know what we were doing!!

For my wife’s part, she read parenting books and tried to do everything right as a mom. Schedules. Reading to them while she nursed them. Bible time at the breakfast table every morning. Play groups.

I see that here in Samson’s parents. One might look at the finished product (which I’ll do tomorrow? And say that they failed, but there’s no doubt that they wanted to give this their all. Their interactions with the angel were all about getting it right. They were all about sacrificing to you and submitting themselves to the process you had for them. I just love the excitement and obedience represented in this story. This was going to make their lives weird and interesting, but they were so excited to have a child. You put something in us, I suppose, that makes us want to love something the way you love us.

Father, thank you for the time this author took to tell us the story of Manoah and his wife (I wish we knew her name). They could have skipped this and gone straight to Samson, man of power, but they took a whole chapter in the midst of Judges to tell us about these two faithful, good-hearted people. Even though my wife and I made many mistakes, I would like to think that you saw us as faithful and good-hearted as well. What can I say except that we will continue to offer ourselves up to you through this process of caring for our adult children, our parents, and those around us.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 6, 2020 in Fathers of the Bible, Judges, Mothers of the Bible

 

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