Samson’s Dad (Judges 13)

Judges chapter 13. Judges chapter 13, I’m going to begin reading at verse 1.

Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family 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 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 any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb. And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.’

So the woman came and 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 Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.”’

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O 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.’

And God listened to the voice of Manoah. And the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her.

Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband, and said to him, ‘The Man has just now appeared to me, the one who came to me the other day.’

So Manoah rose and followed his wife. When he came to the Man, he said to him, ‘Are you the man who spoke to this woman?’ And he said, ‘I am.’

And Manoah said, ‘Now let your words come to pass. What would be the boy’s rule of life and his work?’

So the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her let her observe.’

Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, ‘Please let us detain you, and we will prepare a young goat for you.’

And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord.’ For Manoah did not know he was the Angel of the Lord.

Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, ‘What is your name, that when your words come to pass we may honor you?’

And the Angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?’

So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on. It happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar that the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

When the Angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, Manoah knew that he was the Angel of the Lord.

And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shall surely die, because we have seen God!’

But his wife said to him, ‘If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time.’

So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

One of my favorite characters in the Bible is Samson’s dad. Now I think you will agree with me that many people know the name of Samson. In fact, people who know very little about the Bible would recognize the name of Samson. People would say he was the strongest man who ever lived.

But if anybody asked what was the name of Samson’s father, the chances are good that 99 percent of people would not be able to come up with the name Manoah. And yet the interesting thing is, my friends, that Manoah gets a whole chapter in the Bible, the chapter that we have just read.

It is possible for us to learn some very important truths from what we discover here about the father of Samson.

Now I presume that an audience like this, I don’t need to convince you, do I, that fathers have a very, very important role in the home? I don’t need to convince you. But the society and culture around Dallas probably needs some convincing.

An item appeared in USA Today for May of 2000 with the title “What Father Involvement Means.” Let me just read you a few short excerpts of this. It begins by saying that more than one-fourth of American children, 17 million, don’t live with their fathers. Think about that for a minute. Nearly one-fourth of American children, 17 million, don’t live with their fathers.

What have they discovered about the absence of the father? Girls without fathers in their lives are 2.5 times more likely to get pregnant and 53 percent more likely to commit suicide. That’s an astounding figure. Boys without fathers are 63 percent more likely to run away and 37 percent more likely to use drugs.

Boys and girls without father involvement are twice as likely to drop out of school, twice as likely to go to jail, and nearly four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. The role that God has given to the father in the home is a very important role indeed.

What kind of a father did Samson have? Well, this chapter reveals the character of his father with the usual skill and insight that we find in the Bible.

God was in the process, just at this point in the history of the judges, of raising up a new judge who would be an instrument of His justice against the Philistines who were oppressing His people. That judge, of course, was to be the famous Samson.

So on one occasion the wife of Manoah was apparently out in the field, and the Angel of the Lord appeared to her. We want to say that even though she does not recognize him right away as the Angel of the Lord, and Manoah does not, the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament was one of the ways God Himself manifested Himself to the people of Israel from time to time and under various circumstances.

So the Angel of the Lord says to Manoah’s wife, “No longer are you going to be barren. You’re going to conceive and you’re going to have a son. Now while the son is in your womb be careful that you don’t drink wine or strong drink. And that you don’t eat anything that is unclean under the law, because your son is going to be a Nazarite from the womb.”

Now we need to understand that the Nazarite was a special category that is described for us, for example, in the Book of Numbers. It was possible for a Jewish man to take the Nazarite vow. And apparently he could specify for how long this vow would last. This is an Old Covenant arrangement such as Lewis was referring to this morning.

And when a man took the Nazarite vow, the things he did not do were, number one, he didn’t cut his hair at all. Number two, he didn’t drink wine or strong drink or eat anything that was inappropriate for him to eat. And he didn’t touch dead bodies.

So the Nazarite, for the period of his Nazarite vow, was not allowed to do any of these things. Now while the child is in her womb she is not to do things like drinking wine. But Samson himself is to be a Nazarite from his mother’s womb, which means his hair will never be cut and he will never drink wine or strong drink.

So when the woman gets this revelation from God, she runs to Manoah. And the Scriptures are careful to show that she repeats the information that she got from the Angel of the Lord exactly as she got it. So that Manoah gets all the facts.

You see, Manoah prayed. Folks, it’s a good thing in this kind of a situation to pray, don’t you agree? But it would have been nicer if Manoah had said something like this, “Lord, this is wonderful news. I want to praise You because Your power is going to take away the barrenness of my wife. You’re going to give us a son. And Lord, please give us the strength to do the things that You have asked us to do.”

That would have been a good prayer, don’t you agree? But instead, if you will notice it in verse 8, Manoah prays this, “O 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.” Say, “What then are we gonna do with this child?”

Well, the answer is really in the Word of God. If this child is to be a Nazarite from his mother’s womb, then from his earliest years they’re not gonna cut his hair. In fact, they are to keep him away from wine. They are to keep him away from dead bodies. The Word of God had already told them what to do.

The Angel of the Lord had told his wife what she should do. But Manoah says, “We gotta find out what we should do.” But you know how God is. He’s very gracious to His sincere children, however dumb they may be in the requests that they make in their prayers. And He sends the Angel back.

But notice, the Angel of the Lord doesn’t come to Manoah, does he? He comes to the wife again out in the field. And so she goes running to her husband and she says, “The man who appeared to me the other day is here. He’s come back.”

And so Manoah goes out and says to him in verse 12, “What will be the boy’s rule of life and his work?” “You’re the man that spoke to my wife?” “Yes.” “Tell us what his work is to be.”

Notice the answer of the Angel of the Lord. So the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

New information? Zero. An absolute zero. All he does is repeat the information he’s already given to Manoah’s wife.

And at this point it would have been very nice for Manoah to say, “Whoops. I apologize to you. I made you come back here just to repeat what you’d already told my wife. And I should have realized that you would tell her everything she needed to know in the first place. And the rest of it is what we get out of the law of Moses. I am so sorry for having bothered you like this.”

But we know Manoah can’t let it go, folks. He just simply can’t let it go. So in verse 15 he says, “Please let us detain you.” No apology for getting him back. But he wants him to stay awhile. And he says, “And we will prepare a young goat for you.”

Now Manoah’s thinking probably of the standards of hospitality. He had a guest under his roof, he’d feed his guests. But this is not a guest under his roof. This is in the field. But still Manoah’s got to get it right, you know? “We really need to do something hospitable for this man who brought us this.”

So he says, “I’ll get him to hang around a little, ha ha ha, and let me feed you.” And the Angel of the Lord replied, “I’m not going to eat your food. And if you want to use the young goat for a sacrifice, you can. You have to sacrifice it to the Lord.” Because at this point Manoah doesn’t know he’s basically talking to the Lord.

So it would have been nice, don’t you agree, it would have been nice for Manoah to say, “Oh, I am so sorry. I should not try to detain you like this in the first place. I brought you back when you didn’t need to come. And now I’m trying to keep you around and you’re not going to eat the food anyway. Why should I bother you?”

But Manoah can’t let it go. So in verse 17 Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “What is your name so that when your words come to pass we may honor you? I want to be very careful that you get all of the respect and honor that you are due. Because you are making this prophecy. When the prophecy is fulfilled I want to honor you. So tell me your name.”

And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why is it you’re asking after my name, since it is wonderful?” Which is a polite way of saying, “It is none of your business.”

Now Manoah should have said, “Whoops. Not only have I brought you back in vain, not only am I trying to keep you around when you don’t need to stay around, now I’m getting nosy with you. And I’m trying to get your name when I have no business to ask your name. You haven’t offered me your name. You are a messenger of God. I see what I went through in asking that.”

But he can’t let it go, folks. He cannot let it go. The Angel has said the magic word. If you want to offer a sacrifice, so he didn’t say you should, but you know if you do, offer the sacrifice to the Lord.

So Manoah rushes off to get the young goat. And on a rock there he kills the goat, offers it with the grain offering on the rock. And then to the amazement of Manoah and his wife, the Angel ascends in the flame up to heaven and disappears.

And then they realize that they have been talking to the Angel of the Lord. And Manoah says, “Isn’t this wonderful that we have actually had this marvelous experience? I realized I’ve blundered by getting him back here and I was foolish to try to retain him and I was nosy to try to get a name that I was not entitled to get. But this is such a wonderful experience that we have actually encountered the Lord in the person of the Angel of the Lord.”

Oh no. Manoah says, “Oh we’re going to die because we have seen God!” Ouch.

Now I have often said to men that a lot of men, and maybe you’re one of them, are very lucky if they are married to a sensible wife. And one asset that Manoah has is the sensible lady that he is married to.

And when Manoah says, “Oh we’re going to die because we have seen the Lord,” she says, “Cool down, honey. And don’t get upset.” Well she doesn’t quite say that, but you understand that’s about what she meant.

She said, “If the Lord had wanted to kill us, would He have accepted from us a sacrifice and a grain offering from our hands? And not only that, would He have given us the kind of information, the kind of news that He’s given us? He said we’re going to have a son. What’s the point in Him telling us, after telling us we’re gonna have a son, before we even have the son, mind you?”

And I get the impression that Manoah calmed down with the sage advice of his wife.

What’s wrong with Manoah? Very simple. His relationship to God is tinged with a deep element of fear. In his relationship to the living God, he is fearful.

So when he gets information that God is going to give them a son, he’s worried they don’t have enough information the way he wants it. Once more, when the Angel actually returns his word, he isn’t showing him the right hospitality. So he tries to offer hospitality.

When he asks for his name, he’s worried that he will be able to honor the Angel properly after his words are fulfilled. And now he thinks this is it.

He is a man who obviously believes in God. But at the same time he’s scared of God. He’s frightened in his relationship with God. He’s kind of the kind of person that, “Boy, if I don’t just do this right, God will zap me.” You know that kind of mentality.

“But if I don’t get up in the morning and say my prayers for 15 minutes, he’s going to get me. Or if I don’t read my Bible for 20 minutes, it’s all right to read in the evening, folks. So you’re reading it.” But fear can enter into it.

Was this the kind of father that Samson needed? I don’t think so.

I like to imagine Samson coming to his father at the age of 14 or 15 and saying to Manoah, “I have a problem. All of my friends make fun of me because my hair has never been cut. I have so much hair on me and they all tell me I look like a girl. You know how kids are. They probably started telling him that from his earliest years. ‘You look like a girl, Samson. Only girls wear their hair like that.’”

And now, says Samson to his dad, “They’re starting to bring out wine glasses because they think they’re old enough to drink a little wine. And I can’t drink any wine because I’m a Nazarite. And they’re making fun of me. ‘Oh you can’t drink wine with us, right? We’re going to enjoy this in front of you.’ And all of this. What do I do, Dad?”

Wouldn’t it have been nice if he had a father who said to him, “Look, you are acting in obedience to God’s word to you. God told your mother before you were even born that you were to be a Nazarite. And the Word of God says that as a Nazarite you are not to do certain things. And what you need to do is to be strong on the basis of God’s word, to stand your ground, and to realize that God will help you. God will defend you and God will be with you. Don’t worry about your friends. Don’t get scared. Stand firm on the simple word of God.”

Can you imagine Manoah ever saying that to Samson? Since he didn’t know how to do it himself, he is fearful in his relationship to God. How can he teach his son to be brave and courageous in the world?

Now the sad thing is that Samson needed that kind of a figure in the home. And it appears from the life of Samson, among other things, that he was driven to prove his manhood. So he’s always hooking up with the wrong type of woman. He doesn’t want to marry an Israelite girl. He wants to marry a Philistine girl.

After that collapses on him, he has affairs with a harlot in Gaza, with a woman named Delilah. Putting it very simply, he’s not attracted to the good girls. He’s attracted to the bad girls. Because, you know, he proves his manhood. If he’s attracted to that, he must be a man.

And you’re making a guy grow up with this long hair and probably getting all the kidding that he got. When he became a man, he was driven to a very significant extent by his need to prove himself a man.

In addition to that, it appears that Samson had at least a subconscious desire to get his hair cut. Remember his relationship with Delilah. He tells her three lies when she tries to find out the source of his strength. And each time he gets closer to the truth. And then to our dumbfounded amazement, after she has proved that she’ll do whatever he tells her to do to find out the source of his strength, he tells her the truth.

And he says, “If the locks of my hair are cut, I’ll be weak like any other man.” And sure enough, and I think Samson unconsciously knew this, if not consciously, then, “She’ll cut my hair. Oh she sure will. I can’t do it myself but she’ll do it.” And she did. And it was a disaster. Because Samson lost his eyesight and his freedom till the day of his death.

I want to suggest to you that Samson suffered in his adult years because he had a dad who was fearful in his relationship to the living God. The role that God has given fathers in the home is extremely important.

Now maybe you’re a father here and your problem is not that you’re fearful in your relationship to God. But if you have a very significant personal or spiritual weakness, be assured that will have an effect on your family and on your children.

I may mention a couple just to illustrate. Indifference to the Lord. Am I talking about a person who doesn’t come to church? I’m not talking about a person who won’t send their kids to Sunday school. I’m talking about a dad for whom God is not in first place in the home.

And you know who’s going to be the first person to discover that? Probably the wife. And after that the kids. The kids come to church perhaps and they hear that they should love the Lord with all their heart. They should be dedicated to God. And then they go home to a dad who watches TV more than he reads his Bible, who prefers sports to spiritual activities, and on and on it goes.

Don’t you think that that kind of a dad will have a negative influence on his children? You better believe it they will.

Let me try another one. Here’s a dad that loses his temper at his wife, uses loud harsh language in addressing her, yells at her. I’m talking about Christian dads now. Now the Bible says that the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. And it is clear that we cannot think of the Lord as losing His cool with His church or screaming at His church.

And when a father does that in the home, and he will do it repeatedly, it has a very negative effect on the kids. Now that also goes for the ladies, right? This goes for the ladies too. You don’t scream at your husband. That’s contrary to the Scriptures too. You’re supposed to be submissive to your husband.

And if you have screamed at your husband, the best thing to do is to go to your bedroom and ask God to help you never do it again. To give you a lock, so if necessary, to keep you from doing it again. But I’m not talking to the ladies directly, only indirectly this afternoon.

But I’m saying to the husbands that if there are significant flaws in your spiritual character, your children will see them and they will be negatively impacted by what they see and by what they hear in the home.

May I ask each of the fathers to do something here? I’m not going to ask you to do it publicly. But just to think for a minute. If your children came to you one by one and you asked them, “What is my worst failing as a father?” What would they tell you? What would they tell you?

And if you can’t figure out what they would tell you, ask your wife. Because she probably knows and they probably told her.

And the point that I am making this afternoon is that there is an enormous privilege in being a father. But there is a very, very solemn responsibility. And I think we can be very sure that God will hold all of the fathers responsible for the kind of people that they have been in the home.

Lewis was talking about that a little bit this morning and saying correctly that the father’s role is more important in its own way than the woman’s role. The father is the head of the house.

And Manoah is an example of a dad whose character subverted the future life of a son that God wanted to use and did use in spite of the flaws that he had.

Now I know that our church is praying for its children. And Lewis again reminding us of that this morning. And I commend the church for that. And I’m proud of those who do come to the prayer meeting. And I think more parents should be here, by the way. I come to it if I’m well and in town. I come to it. But this is for parents and it’s important for us to pray for our children.

But I also want to say this. I know that many have the problem. But one of the reasons that our children are not with us at the present time is because they have seen and heard things in the home which have subverted their Christian walk.

And I think it is possible that we have parents sitting here who need to go home and to ask yourself very seriously whether you have met the obligations that God has for you, whether you’re a father or mother, and whether there are significant flaws in your personality and in your character, in your relationship to God, significant flaws that have negatively impacted your children.

And I think you should ask God to correct those flaws in you at the same time that He is correcting the flaws in your children.

There was a minister one time who had three boys. And one day a stray dog came to their house and they didn’t know who it belonged to. And so they took it in and the three boys fell in love with it.

Then one day there appeared in the newspaper an advertisement advertising for a lost dog. And one of the distinctive features of the description of this lost dog was that it had three white hairs in its tail. Apparently not a white dog, but it had three white hairs in its tail.

So the minister, in the presence of his three sons, took the dog and very carefully plucked out the three white hairs. And after a while somehow or other the owner of the dog found out where his dog had gone and came to the house to claim it.

And the dog apparently recognized his former owner. But the minister stepped forward and said, “Didn’t your advertisement say that your dog had three white hairs in his tail?” And he says, “As you can see for yourself, this dog doesn’t have them.” And the owner of the dog had to turn around and go home without his dog.

And later the minister said this. He said, “We kept the dog and I lost my three sons.” They were crying because after that the sons did not take seriously the messages that their minister father preached. Because he did not practice what he preached.

Go home this afternoon and in the presence of the Lord ask the Lord to show you any inconsistencies that you may have in your life that are harmful to your children. And ask God for the grace to correct those habits.

And make it, if you’re a father, because it’s the fathers particularly that I am appealing to this afternoon, if you’re a father make it your objective that by the grace of God and by the strength that only God can give you, that you will be the father that your children need you to be.

I believe I don’t want to take questions on this, okay? I think I would like to leave it at that. So I’m going to ask that we give thanks for the cup.