During the 40 years when the Philistines oppressed Isra’el (again) lived a man from the Tribe of Dan named Manoah. One day his wife came to him saying that an angel of Adonai had appeared to her. The angel told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son. The child would be a Nazirite from the womb until his death. The angel told her not to drink wine or strong drink or eat anything ritually unclean. She was also not to allow a razor to touch his head –– cut his hair. Her son would begin to deliver Isra’el from the Philistines.
Manoah pleaded with Adonai to send the messenger again so they could understand more fully how to raise this unique child. Adonai heard Manoah’s prayer and the ‘man of Adonai’ returned. He repeated his original words and tells Manoah’s wife that she is to obey all the commands given her.
Manoah asks the messenger if he is the same ‘man of Adona’ who that appeared to his wife, and he responds, ‘I Am’. Manoah asks the man’s name so that when the promise is fulfilled they can honor him. The ‘man of Adonai’ replies that his name is ‘incomprehensible’ or pe’li meaning ‘secret.’
Manoah tests the identity of the ‘man of Adonai’ and invites him to stay for a meal. The man tells him to make an olah or ‘burnt offering,’ specifically a fellowship offering when Adonai and man share the offering together. This offering in Hebrew is called zebach sh’lamim having shalom as its root. The ‘peace offering’ was considered a freewill thanksgiving offering to Adonai.
Manoah takes the goat along with the grain offering and offers it to ‘I Am’ on a rock. The ‘man of Adonai’ does something astonishing while Manoah and his wife watch. When the flame went up from the rock altar toward heaven, the ‘angel of Adonai’ ascended in the flame of the altar. This ‘man’ can be no other than Yeshua, the divine presence, the ‘I Am’ ascending in the flames of fire.
Manoah and his wife fell on their faces to the ground in worship. However, Manoah becomes afraid. They had just seen Adonai and he knew that anyone who sees Adonai dies. His wife tells him that ‘I Am’ would not have been given them such an incredible promise if He desired to kill them.
Manoah’s wife gave birth to a son and they named him Samson.
Judges 13:8
“Then Manoach prayed to Adonai, “Please, Adonai, let the man of Adonai you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the child who will be born.”
Manoah’s prayer has two purposes. One is to prove the validity of his wife’s encounter with the ‘man of Adonai.’ The other is his desire to be taught –– specifically from the ‘man of Adonai.’
“The children born when one is young are like arrows in the hand of a warrior” (Psalm 127:4).
The word for ‘teach’ comes from the Hebrew word yarah and means to ‘throw or shoot.’ Manoah desires to learn how to direct the aim of this unique arrow he is being given, the arrow that promises to deliver Isra’el from their enemies. In essence, Manoah asks what every parent wants to know when they have a child. How do I raise this child?
“Train a child in the way he [should] go; and, even when old, he will not swerve from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
This verse in Proverbs is believed to be a promise that children won’t leave the spiritual path on which they are raised; however, that is not its inherent meaning. In Hebrew, the word derech or ‘way’ has a little nuance suggesting that parents train a child in ‘his way’ or ‘bent’ meaning with the child’s desires, interests, and passions.
The instructions for a Nazirite vow are given in Numbers 8, but Samson is the first person known to be born into the vow. The upbringing of this young boy has serious ramifications not only for Isra’el, but for Manoah as his father. He wants the ‘man of Adonai’ to reveal the child’s ‘bent.’ The only answer Manoah receives through the ‘I Am’ are the same instructions previously given to his wife. There is a divine plan for his son’s life, but his ‘bent’ will be revealed in time.
©2021 Tentstake Ministries Publishing, all rights reserved. No copying or reproducing of this article without crediting the author or Tentstake Ministries Publishing.