A Message of Hope

We have arrived at the story of Samson, the last of the judges mentioned in this book. From beginning to end, however, the story of this judge is unlike that of any before him; it is “very surprising and uncommon,” Matthew Henry writes. “We never find him at the head either of a court or of an army, never upon the throne of judgment nor in the field of battle, yet, in his own proper person, [he was] a great patriot of his country, and a terrible scourge and check to its enemies and oppressors.” Above all, this story, in its length and depth of detail, gives glory to the God who works through flawed men.

As the story opens, sinful Israel has been delivered by God to the oppression of the Philistines. Though His people have not cried out to Him, it is God’s intent to bring deliverance. And so He extends His call—not to an adult ready to march to war, but to the parents of a yet unborn and even unconceived child. The Angel of the Lord comes to earth, as we have seen Him do throughout Judges, to the unnamed wife of a man called Manoah of the tribe of Dan (located adjacent to Philistia). As Gabriel will do centuries later for Mary, the Angel comes to announce the birth of a deliverer for God’s people. But the message holds personal significance for Manoah’s wife, for she is barren. Now, at last, she will have a son. Thus, God brings blessing upon this couple and all His people simultaneously.

But the Angel adds that “ ‘the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb.’ ” The law of the Nazirite (Num. 6:1–21) was given to Israel as a way to show special devotion to God. It involved taking a vow to abstain from wine and other fruit of the vine; to refrain from cutting one’s hair and shaving; and to avoid ritual uncleanness. The vow usually was taken for a time, but the Angel indicates that its provisions are to apply to Samson for life—even while he is in the womb, for Manoah’s wife must observe the tenets of the vow, presumably until Samson is born. This regimen is intended to mark Samson as special, set apart for God. “This deliverer of Israel must be in the strictest manner devoted to God and an example of holiness,” Henry writes.

The child, the Angel says, “ ‘shall begin to deliver Israel.’ ” He will not shatter the Philistine oppression like earlier judges. However, he will start a process that King David will finish many years later.