September 3rd, 2013
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Unto Us A Boy Is Born

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Opening Prayer

Holy Father, I dedicate this day to seeking Your guidance, following Your direction, and doing my best according to Your will.

Read JUDGES 13:1-25

[1] Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. [2] A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. [3] The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. [4] Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. [5] You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” [6] Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. [7] But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.'” [8] Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.” [9] God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. [10] The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!” [11] Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?” “I am,” he said. [12] So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?” [13] The angel of the LORD answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. [14] She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.” [15] Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.” [16] The angel of the LORD replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the LORD.) [17] Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?” [18] He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” [19] Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: [20] As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. [21] When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. [22] “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” [23] But his wife answered, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.” [24] The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, [25] and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine … to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:20,21). We mustn’t limit God to our limited expectations.

Think Further

This chapter sets the course for Samson’s life. We can see several aspects of God’s ways that we notice elsewhere in biblical history and supremely through Jesus. For example, the story starts before the baby is born when an angel appears to his mother.

Two aspects of Samson’s arrival in Israel are particularly striking. First, God’s grace is always “despite.” God shows his faithful love to the Israelites despite their repeated rebellion and his repeated judgment. His grace works deliverance despite the people’s prayerlessness. Under previous invaders they have cried out to God for help, if not actually in repentance. That’s not the case here, though. God raises up Samson despite the fact that his parents are childless. How good to see that God won’t be waiting for us to create the right conditions in which his grace can work today in our own souls, our families or churches, or as we bear witness to Jesus at the office, the gym, the playgroup, in the hospital bed, or elsewhere. 

Second, God’s sovereign will is always better than we could expect. Manoah and his wife receive the good news that they will have a son, but it gets better (not necessarily easier, though) when God’s amazing purposes for their son are revealed in v. 5b. Manoah thinks it’s wonderful to have a visit from what he takes to be a “man of God” (8), but it’s better than that: he has been in the presence of the holy and gloriously unmanageable God–and lived (22,23)! Perhaps our prayers and expectations of God tend to be small, short-term and manageable. We are more often too cautious than too bold. Perhaps we fear disappointment, but God’s ways are more wonderful than we usually dare to think.

Apply

Samson was dedicated to God and God’s service from birth. How can you go about dedicating yourself to God but being apart from the world (see John 17:13-19)?

Closing prayer

Lord, I think back to times when I dedicated myself afresh to You. As I recount them, speak to me today and motivate me to dedicate myself anew to You.

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