Judges 13

It is a riddle wrapped up in a mystery inside an enigma.” In a speech broadcast October 1, 1939 that’s how Sir Winston Churchill described the actions of the Russians in his day. But what he said about Russian actions could be applied to Samson, the last of the judges, for his behavior is “a riddle wrapped up in a mystery inside an enigma.”

Samson was unpredictable and undependable because he was double-minded, and “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). It has well been said that “the greatest ability is dependability,” and you could depend on Samson to be undependable.

Bold before men, Samson was weak before women and couldn’t resist telling them his secrets. Empowered by the Spirit of God, he yielded his body to the appetites of the flesh. Called to declare war on the Philistines, he fraternized with the enemy and even tried to marry a Philistine woman. He fought the Lord’s battles by day and disobeyed the Lord’s commandments by night. Given the name Samson, which means “sunny,” he ended up in the darkness, blinded by the very enemy he was supposed to conquer.

Four chapters in the book of Judges are devoted to the history of Samson. In Judges 13–14, we’re introduced to “Sunny” and his parents and we see the light flickering as Samson plays with sin. In Judges 15–16, the light goes out and Samson dies a martyr under the ruins of a heathen temple, a sad end to a promising life.

Let’s open Samson’s family album and study three pictures of Samson taken early in his career.

Consider the great promise that was wrapped up in this person named Samson.

He had a nation to protect (v. 1). With monotonous regularity we’ve read this phrase in the book of Judges (3:7, 12; 4:1–2; 6:1; 10:6–7), and here it appears for the last time. It introduces the longest period of oppression that God sent to His people, forty years of Philistine domination.

The Philistines were among the “sea people” who, in the twelfth century BC, migrated from an area of Greece to the coastal plain of Canaan. The Jews weren’t able to occupy that territory during their conquest of the land (Josh. 13:1–2). As you study your map, you’ll note that their national life focused around the five key cities of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron (1 Sam. 6:17). The land between Israel’s hill country and the coastal plain was called the “Shephelah,” which means “low country,” and it separated Philistia from Israel. Samson was born in Zorah, a city in Dan near the Philistine border, and he often crossed that border either to serve God or satisfy his appetites.

Samson judged Israel “in the days of the Philistines” (Judg. 15:20), which means that his twenty years in office were during the forty years of Philistine rule. Dr. Leon Wood dates the beginning of the Philistine oppression about 1095 BC and the end in 1055 BC with Israel’s victory at Mizpeh (1 Sam. 7). About the middle of this period occurred the battle of Aphek when Israel was ignominiously defeated by the Philistines and lost the ark and three priests (1 Sam. 4). Dr. Wood suggests that Samson’s judgeship started about the time of the tragedy at Aphek and that his main job was to harass the Philistines and keep them from successfully overrunning the land and menacing the people.

It’s worth noting that there is no evidence given in the text that Israel cried out to God for deliverance at any time during the forty years of Philistine domination. The Philistines disarmed the Jews (1 Sam. 13:19–23) and therefore had little fear of a rebellion. Judges 15:9–13 indicates that the Jews were apparently content with their lot and didn’t want Samson to “rock the boat.” It’s frightening how quickly we can get accustomed to bondage and learn to accept the status quo. Had the Philistines been more severe on the Jews, perhaps the Jews would have prayed to Jehovah for help.

Unlike most of the previous judges, Samson didn’t deliver his people from foreign domination, but he began the work of deliverance that others would finish (13:5). As a powerful and unpredictable hero, Samson frightened and troubled the Philistines (16:24) and kept them from devastating Israel as the other invading nations had done. It would take the prayers of Samuel (1 Sam. 7) and the conquests of David (2 Sam. 5:17–25) to finish the job that Samson started and give Israel complete victory over the Philistines.

He had a God to serve (vv. 2–5). The tribe of Dan was originally assigned the land adjacent to Judah and Benjamin, extending to the Mediterranean Sea (Josh. 19:40–48). Since the Danites weren’t able to dislodge the coastal inhabitants, however, the tribe relocated and moved north (Judg. 18—19), although some of the people remained in their original location. Zorah is about fifteen miles from Jerusalem in the foothill country near the border of Philistia.

When God wants to do something really great in His world, He doesn’t send an army but an angel. The angel often visits a couple and promises to send them a baby. His great plan of salvation got underway when He called Abraham and Sarah and gave them Isaac. When He wanted to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage, God sent baby Moses to Amram and Jochebed (Ex. 6:20), and when in later years Israel desperately needed revival, God gave baby Samuel to Hannah (1 Sam. 1). When the fullness of time arrived, God gave baby Jesus to Mary, and that baby grew up to die on the cross for the sins of the world.

Babies are fragile, but God uses the weak things of the world to confound the mighty (1 Cor. 1:26–28). Babies must have time to grow up, but God is patient and is never late in accomplishing His will. Each baby God sends is a gift from God, a new beginning, and carries with it tremendous potential. What a tragedy that we live in a society that sees the unborn baby as a menace instead of a miracle, an intruder instead of an inheritance.

We have every reason to believe the “angel of the Lord” who visited Manoah’s wife was Jesus Christ, the Son of God (see Gen. 22:1–18; 31:11–13; Ex. 3:1–6; Judg. 6:11–24). Like Sarah (Gen. 18:9–15), Hannah (1 Sam. 1), and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5–25), Manoah’s wife was barren and never expected to have a child. Since it would be the mother who would have the greatest influence on the child, both before and after birth, the angel solemnly charged her what to do.

Like John the Baptist, Samson would be a Nazirite from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:13–15). The word Nazirite comes from a Hebrew word that means “to separate, to consecrate.” Nazirites were persons who, for a stated period of time, consecrated themselves to the Lord in a special way. They abstained from drinking wine and strong drink; they avoided touching dead bodies; and as a mark of their consecration, they allowed their hair to grow. The laws governing the Nazirite vow are given in Numbers 6.

Manoah’s wife had to be careful what she ate and drank because her diet would influence her unborn Nazirite son and could defile him. It’s too bad every expectant mother doesn’t exercise caution, for in recent years, the news media have informed us of the sad consequences babies suffer when their mothers use tobacco, alcohol, and narcotics during a pregnancy. Samson’s Nazirite vow wasn’t something he voluntarily took: God gave it to him, and his mother was a part of the vow of dedication. Not only was she to avoid anything related to the grape, but also she was to avoid foods that were unclean to the Jews (Lev. 11; Deut. 14:3–20).

Ordinarily, a Nazirite vow was for a limited period of time, but in Samson’s case, the vow was to last all his life (Judg. 13:7). This was something Manoah and his wife would have to teach their son, and they would also have to explain why they didn’t cut his hair. The claims of God were upon this child, and it was the obligation of the parents to train him for the work God sent him to do.

He had a home to honor (vv. 6–23). Manoah’s wife immediately told her husband about the stranger’s visit and message, although neither of them yet knew that the visitor was the Lord (v. 16). Manoah assumed that he was “a man of God,” perhaps a visiting prophet, and he prayed that the Lord would send the man back. We can’t help but be impressed with the devotion of this husband and wife to each other and to the Lord. The time of the judges was one of apostasy and anarchy, but there were still Jewish homes that were dedicated to the Lord and that believed in prayer, and God was still working through them.

God answered Manoah’s prayer and gave him an opportunity to ask an important question, which the angel of the Lord never answered: “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy’s life and work?” (v. 12 niv). The Old Testament law not only gave instructions concerning Nazirites and clean and unclean foods, but also it told parents how to raise their children (Deut. 6). It wasn’t necessary for the Lord to give Manoah and his wife additional instructions when the Word of God already told them what to do. The messenger simply repeated the warning he had already given to Manoah’s wife.

Wanting to be a good and appreciative host, Manoah asked the guest to wait while he and his wife prepared a meal for him (6:18–19; Gen. 18:1–8). The stranger’s cryptic reply was that he wouldn’t eat their food but would permit them to offer a burnt offering to the Lord. After all, their promised son was a gift from God, and they owed the Lord their worship and thanks.

But Manoah thought to himself, If I can’t honor this man of God now, perhaps I can do it in the future after his words come true and the baby boy has been born. (Note that Manoah believed the announcement and said “when” and not “if.”) Manoah would have to know the man’s name so he could locate him nine months later, but the man wouldn’t tell his name except to say it was “wonderful.” (See Gen. 32:29.) This is the same word used to name the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6; it is translated “wondrously” in Judges 13: of KJV, (niv says “an amazing thing”).

Ordinarily, Jewish worshippers had to bring their offerings to the tabernacle altar at Shiloh, but since the “man of God” commanded Manoah to offer the burnt offering, it was permissible to do it there, using a rock as the altar. Suddenly, the visitor ascended to heaven in the flame! Only then did Manoah and his wife discover that their visitor was an angel from the Lord. This frightened Manoah, because the Jews believed that nobody could look upon God and live (see 6:19–23). Using common sense, Manoah’s wife convinced him that they couldn’t die and fulfill God’s promises at the same time.

Every baby born into a godly home carries the responsibility of honoring the family name. Samson’s inconsistent life brought shame to his father’s house just as it brought shame to the name of the Lord. Samson’s relatives had to pull his body out of the wreckage of the Philistine temple and take it home for burial (16:31). In one sense, it was a day of victory over God’s enemies, but it was also a day of defeat for Samson’s family.

The baby was born and was named Samson, which means “sunny” or “brightness.” Certainly he brought light and joy to Manoah and his wife, who thought they would never have a family, and he also began to bring light to Israel during the dark days of Philistine oppression. While other judges were said to be clothed with God’s Spirit (3:10; 6:34; 11:29), only of Samson is it said “the Lord blessed him” (13:24; see Luke 1: and 2:52). The hand of God was on him in a special way.

The secret of Samson’s great strength was his Nazirite vow, symbolized by his unshorn hair (Judg. 16:17), and the source of that strength was the Holy Spirit of God (13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14). We aren’t told that Samson’s physique was especially different from that of other men, although he may have resembled the strong men pictured in Bible storybooks. Perhaps it was as he entered his teen years, when a Jewish boy became a “son of the law,” that he began to demonstrate his amazing ability.

Only a few of Samson’s great feats are recorded in the book of Judges: killing the lion bare-handed (14:5–6); slaying thirty Philistines (v. 19); catching 300 foxes (or jackals) and tying torches to their tails (15:3–5); breaking bonds (15:14; 16:9, 12, 14); slaying 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey (15:15); carrying off the Gaza city gate (16:3); and destroying the Philistine building (v. 30). Judges 16: indicates that he had done many more feats than those listed above, feats that had aggravated the Philistine people.

As you ponder the record of Samson’s life, you get the impression that he was a fun-loving fellow with a good sense of humor, and sometimes he didn’t take his gifts and his work seriously. A sense of humor is a good thing to have, but it must be balanced with serious devotion to the things of the Lord. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Ps. 2:11). Samson’s power was a weapon to fight with and a tool to build with, not a toy to play with.

Notice another thing: Samson was a loner; unlike previous judges, he never “rallied the troops” and tried to unite Israel in throwing off the Philistine yoke. For twenty years he played the champion, but he failed to act the leader. Joseph Parker said that Samson was “an elephant in strength [but] a babe in weakness.” We might add that, when it came to national leadership, he was a lost sheep!