July 7, 2019: Day 71 – Judges 13

Every time that you read a chapter beginning with a barren woman you can pretty much lay money down that the child who will be born from the barren woman is going to be pretty special.  Think of Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth…, Mary wasn’t barren but you get the picture.  This is where we find ourselves in this Scripture.  As you read through this Scripture we can’t find the name of Samson’s mother, only his father.  I googled: “what is the name of Samson’s mother?”  Guess what came up?  Wife of Manoah.  Yeah, not what I had in mind.

So the angel of the Lord promises that Samson will be a Nazarite.  All this means in the Hebrew is that he will be someone “separated or consecrated”.  The mom was not to drink any alcohol or eat anything unclean.  The child, once born, shall not have his hair cut.  Then comes a promise if she were to follow God’s command.  This child will lead the people of Israel out of bondage from the Philistines.  Remember how this chapter begins in vs. 1?  Let’s see if we can guess: “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  They were under the rule of the Philistines for 40 years.  

We find that once Samson is born that the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him.  Hang on, because things are going to get really interesting with Samson.