Manoah and His Wife, Who Conceived Samson

Manoah and his wife had no child, so they prayed earnestly to God. The angel of Yahweh came to the wife in person and told her she would bear a son, commanding her to give up wine and strong drink and not to eat any unclean thing. For the sake of a child who would live as a Nazirite from the womb to the day of his death, the parents had to live the Nazirite life first.

God could simply have given them the child, but his purpose was first to make clean the vessel that would hold something precious. A life of not drinking what everyone else drinks is hard, but if people live just as the world does and do not want to be called odd, they cannot receive what God entrusts to them. The angel of Yahweh gave his name as Wonderful, which speaks of God’s nature beyond human understanding and is also a name the Old Testament uses for the Messiah.

Samson was born amid such special grace and his parents’ devotion, yet he failed to keep a whole character and a pure faith, and his great strength brought him ruin instead. Receiving God’s love is not hard, but how that love is kept and used is up to each person. This was the message: God’s people, too, are called as Nazirites, so they are to obey with broken and humbled hearts and prepare to take on the souls God entrusts to them.