URC Daily Devotion 30 April 2026
Judges 13:2 – 25
The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren, having borne no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, or to eat anything unclean, for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.’ Then the woman came and told her husband, ‘A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel of God, most awe-inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name; but he said to me, “You shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.”’
Then Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, ‘O Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.’ God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, ‘The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.’ Manoah got up and followed his wife, and came to the man and said to him, ‘Are you the man who spoke to this woman?’ And he said, ‘I am.’ Then Manoah said, ‘Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy’s rule of life; what is he to do?’ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Let the woman give heed to all that I said to her. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine. She is not to drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. She is to observe everything that I commanded her.’
Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ‘Allow us to detain you, and prepare a kid for you.’ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘If you detain me, I will not eat your food; but if you want to prepare a burnt-offering, then offer it to the Lord.’ (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ‘What is your name, so that we may honour you when your words come true?’ But the angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.’
So Manoah took the kid with the grain-offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him who works wonders. When the flame went up towards heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shall surely die, for we have seen God.’ But his wife said to him, ‘If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt-offering and a grain-offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.’
The woman bore a son, and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. The spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Reflection
This story begins like a deliverer story in which the Philistines are the oppressors and ends with the birth of Samson, whose exploits fill chapters 14-16 but the main focus here is on his father, Manoah, and his unnamed mother, from the tribe of Dan.
Manoah is portrayed as a rather stupid man, who fails to recognise God’s presence in the ‘man’ who visits them; and demonstrates a lack of religious awareness throughout the story. His wife, however, is presented in the tradition of Sarah (Genesis 18), as a barren wife to whom God appears to promise a son. She immediately appreciates the divine nature of her visitor; but when she reports the encounter to her husband, she adds a reference to the death of their, as yet, unborn son (vv.5,7). A nazirite vow (see Numbers 6:1-8) is usually entered into by the individual concerned as a temporary commitment. Here it’s decreed by God to apply to Samson from birth; but the conditions about eating and drinking are also imposed on his mother. The significance of nazirite status will unfold in the whole Samson narrative.
Manoah isn’t satisfied with his wife’s report and asks God to send the man again, to both of them; but the angelic figure appears again only to the woman. She fetches her husband who asks the ‘man’ to repeat his instructions; but is effectively told ‘support your wife in responding faithfully – she knows what to do’. Manoah tries again to take control of the situation and still doesn’t understand that it’s a divine encounter until the angel disappears in the flame on the altar (as in 6:21).
Even then it’s his wife who has to correct his understanding of what’s happened – she’s the one who displays religious insight at every point in the story; and she gently corrects her husband when he makes foolish statements.
At one level this story mocks patriarchy; but it challenges us all to be expectant that God might appear in unconventional ways.
Prayer
Amazing God,
break through the conventions of church and society
by which we live, especially when
they prevent us from seeing or hearing you though others.
Whenever we discern your guidance,
help us to be gentle with those who are slower to grasp
what you are saying or where you are leading us as your people today.
Help us always to build one another up in faith,
that together we might fulfil your purposes. Amen.