A Bible Study on the Story of Samson.

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"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years." (Judges 13:1).

At first glance at looking at this verse, one would think God is just giving what the Israelites had sown. But God did not just deliver Israel to an enemy of Israel and leave it at that. There was a greater purpose for good in God allowing the Israelites to be delivered into the hand of the Philistines. That plan was.... Samson. That plan was to get the Israelite's to seek God in their distress. Samson was the answer to helping the Israelite begin that road of deliverance from the Philistine.

Also, the Israelites would be in the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. 40 is the biblical number for trial or test. Noah was in the trial of weathering the storm within the Ark while it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus was under the trial of fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.

In any event, it seems like a constant theme that the Israelites had. They kept sinning, and then they fell into the hands of their enemies whereby God had to deliver them. Why? To show them that God is their Savior. To show them that they do not have to be captive or slave to their life of sin and they can be set free and live the good life with the Lord. Samson is a type of a Savior who was to be their beginning deliverer. Samson was a type or like figure of the true Savior (i.e. the Messiah Jesus Christ).​

 

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2 "And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.
3 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son." (Judges 13:2-3).

The name "Manoah" means "rest." Manoah was Samson's father. Before Samson was born, his mother was barren (i.e. she could not bare children). However, God by a miracle made Manoah's wife to conceive. This miracle would be Israel's deliverer, which is clearly a "type" of Christ. For Christ was born by the miracle of having no human father (i.e. The Incarnation and the virgin birth). In fact, the words of "the Angel of the Lord" are similar to the angel who announced Christ's birth, "Thou shalt conceive, and bear a son." Also, this angel of the Lord was was no ordinary angel, either (More on this later). Anyways, God was preparing to give the Israelites a start towards having rest from the Philistines with the birth of Samson. This announcement by the angel was certainly good news (and many did not know it yet).​

 

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4 "Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no rasor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." (Judges 13:4-5).

Verse 4: "drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing"; Oh, how we need more believers today who have a Nazarite mentality. Granted, I am not saying that the Nazarite requirements under the Old Law still applies for us today in any way. What I am saying is the part about being holy and set apart unto God. Denying ourselves and picking up our crosses and following Jesus. At the heart, that is what a Nazarite is doing. They are obeying God, being holy and set apart by doing certain things that make them stand out from other people. They also do things that are healthy and good, too. Not drinking strong drink and not eating unclean food is a healthy thing to do. In fact, staying away from strong drink is even more helpful to a person because they will not be led down the road of drunkenness and addiction. Some today scoff at the idea of believers giving up alcohol and in warning others against it's dangers. For how dare we teach to put away a pleasure of this world that God made for us! Granted, I believe the some believers can drink soberly and responsibly. But that's not the point. The point is that we are bought and paid for with a price and we are not our own. So when we say we want to drink, is that really what God wants for our life? Have you prayed about it? Is alcohol truly a part of our worship of God and in loving our neighbor? In any event, we know that Samson's mother and Samson were not to drink strong drink or wine. In fact, we see the life of Samson that by his going by the vineyards of Timnah, he would not have encountered the lion which later led to his violation of his Nazarite vow in going near a dead carcass (When Samson retrieved honey from the dead lion's mouth).

Verse 5: "No razor shall come upon his head" and "he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." Samson's strength was within the form of obedience to God. In his keeping of His Nazarite vow of not cutting his hair, he had great strength. I believe one possible interpretation of symbolism of Samson's long hair is that it was symbolic of a lion's mane. More specifically his hair was symbolic of the mane of the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah." For in Judges 15:11, the men of Judah asked Samson to turn himself over to them so they could hand him over to the Philistines because he burned down the Philistine's crops using 300 foxes. Little did they know that Samson would end up destroying 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey (By their delivering him into the hands of the Philistines). So we can see the symbolism here. Samson (By his obedience to God with his Nazarite vow of not cutting his hair) begins to deliver these men of Judah just as Christ (Who is the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah - Revelation 5:5) begins to deliver those who believe and follow Him.​

 

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6 "Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name:
7 But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death." (Judges 13:6-7).

"A man of God came unto me" "he said unto me, Behold you shall conceive and bear a son."

Clearly this was someone who appeared as a man from God who was a prophet because Manoah's wife quoted this man of God as saying that she was going to bear a son (Which did not happen yet). He also did not tell her his name, either. We see a parallel of these two verses take place in the New Testament. In John chapter 4 we see Jesus talking with the woman at the well. He told her things that only a prophet of God could possibly know about her and she perceived that He was a prophet. The woman talked about the Messiah and how He will tell us all things; and Jesus said He was that Messiah. The interesting thing here is that Jesus never revealed his name to her. She later goes around and talks about a man and how He knows everything about her."​

 

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Judges 13:8
"Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born." (Judges 13:8).

Here in verse 8 we see Manoah wanted to see this Angel of the Lord for himself. For he did not ask God to just show his wife these things again. He said, "teach us" what "we" shall do unto the child that shall be born.

Built into our genetic make up, man craves things that are spiritual. For God designed our hearts to yearn to have a relationship with GOD and to share in His amazing Kingdom (that makes us in awe of Him). For seeking after even the message of what we believe to be an angel is like talking to GOD; For angels are God's messengers. But was this really just an ordinary created angel? Well, again, this is an answer for another comment within an upcoming text within Judges.​

Judges 13:9
"And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her."

I find it fascinating that Manoah was not with his wife so as to seek the Angel of the Lord. Maybe Manoah was expecting the Angel of the Lord to visit him. However, God has a way of working in a way that we don't expect always. For He is GOD and works things according to His will and not our own will.​

Judges 13:10
"And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day."

Catching a glimpse of something divine is exciting. She did not want this Angel of the Lord to disappear on her and so she ran to catch her husband so that he could see what she had seen.

For we should always seek to be connected with God and His divine power; And we should be willing to run to others so as to tell them about how God works His divine power within our own lives.​