Judges 13:1 - Meaning and Application

The first verse gives a brief account of the deep trouble Israel was in, which led God to raise up a deliverer. They did evil again in the Lord’s sight, and so God again gave them into their enemies’ hands. If there had been no sin, there would have been no need for a Savior. But sin was allowed to increase, so that grace might increase even more.

The enemies God now sold them to were the Philistines, their near neighbors who lived among them. They were the first and chief of the nations marked for destruction, but God left them there to test Israel (Jdg 3:1, Jdg 3:3). The Philistines had five lords and only five important cities, so they were small beside Israel. Yet when God used them as the rod in his hand, they became very harsh and painful for Israel. This trouble lasted longer than any they had faced before, continuing for forty years, though likely not always with the same intensity.

While Israel was in this distress, Samson was born, and here his birth is foretold by an angel. We first learn where he came from. He was from the tribe of Dan, and Dan means “judge” or “judgment” (Gen 30:6). Jacob’s dying words, “Dan will judge his people,” likely looked ahead to Samson, meaning that one of the tribes often thought of as small would still provide a judge for Israel (Gen 49:16). Dan’s land lay next to Philistine territory, so a man from that tribe was especially suited to check their power.

Samson’s parents had been childless for a long time. Many important people were born to women who had waited long for children, such as Isaac, Joseph, Samuel, and John the Baptist, so that the gift would be more welcome when it came. “Sing, O barren woman, you who did not bear” (Isa 54:1). Long-waited mercies often prove to be especially rich mercies, and they show clearly that they were worth the wait. They also encourage others to keep hoping in God’s mercy.

The good news came to Samson’s mother through an angel of the Lord (Jdg 13:3), who appeared as a man, like a prophet or man of God. Bishop Patrick thinks this angel was the Lord himself, the Word of the Lord, who would later be revealed as the Messiah. His name is called Wonderful (Jdg 13:18), and he is also called Jehovah (Jdg 13:19). The great Redeemer took special care in the coming of this lesser deliverer. The message was given not mainly for Manoah and his wife, who were plain Danites, but for Israel, whose deliverer Samson would be. It also pointed forward to the Messiah, whose birth also had to be announced by an angel.

In the message, the angel first notices her pain: “You are barren and have not borne a child.” This showed him to be a prophet, since though he was a stranger, he knew her grief. He says this not to shame her, but because she may already be mourning her childlessness. God often sends comfort at the very time people feel their trouble most sharply. “You are barren now, but you will not always be so.”

Then he assures her that she will conceive and give birth to a son (Jdg 13:3), and he repeats the promise in Jdg 13:5. This shows the power of God’s word. The strongest man who ever lived came as a child of promise, like Isaac, who was born through the power of God’s promise and faith in that promise (Heb 11:11; Gal 4:23). Many women have had children after long barrenness by providence, but Samson was born by promise, because he was a picture of the promised seed, long expected by the faith of the Old Testament believers.

The angel also says the child must be a Nazarite from birth. A Nazarite was someone set apart to God in a special way, and so the mother must follow the Nazarite rules too, though she herself was not under a Nazarite vow. She must not drink wine or strong drink while the child was in her womb or nursing at her breast (Jdg 13:4, Jdg 13:5). This deliverer of Israel had to be devoted to God in the strictest way and serve as an example of holiness. It is counted as a kindness to Israel that God raised up some of their young men as Nazarites (Amo 2:11). Other judges corrected Israel’s turning away from God, but Samson was to stand out above them all as one especially consecrated to God.

Even with Samson’s later faults, we have reason to think that, as a Nazarite made by God, he did in his life show the true meaning of that separation to the Lord (Num 6:2). Those who would save others must mark themselves by special godliness. Samuel, who continued Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines, was a Nazarite because of his mother’s vow (Sa1 1:11), and Samson was a Nazarite by God’s own command. So Samson’s mother had to deny herself and avoid even things that were lawful at other times. The promise tested her faith, and the command tested her obedience, for God asks both faith and obedience from those to whom he gives his gifts.

Women who are pregnant should carefully avoid anything they have reason to think may harm the child’s health or strength. Perhaps Samson’s mother was also told to avoid wine and strong drink not only because her son was to be a Nazarite, but also because he was to be a man of great strength, and her temperance would help that. The angel also foretells the work this child would do for his nation: “He shall begin to deliver Israel.” It is a great blessing when our children are not only given to God themselves, but also made useful for the good of others and for their own generation. They should not live hidden away, like candles under a basket, but set openly on a lampstand.

The words, “He shall begin to deliver Israel,” also show that the Philistine oppression would last a long time. Israel’s rescue would not even begin until this child, still unborn, grew up enough to start it. And yet he would only begin the deliverance, which means the trouble would continue after him too. God often carries on his work little by little and through several people. One lays the foundation, another builds on it, and perhaps a third sets the final stone in place.

In this, Samson was a type of Christ, first as a Nazarite to God, a Nazarite from the womb.

Although our Lord Jesus was not a Nazarite himself, the Nazarites pointed to him. He was perfectly pure from all sin, so pure that sin was never even conceived in him, and he was completely devoted to his Father’s honor. Christ came from the Jewish church in respect to the flesh, because the promise of him belonged to them (Romans 9:4-5). In that promise, he had long been as it were in the womb of that church, which for many ages was carrying him, and so, like Samson’s mother, was a holy nation and a special people during that time. Because of him, they were strictly forbidden to touch anything unclean, since he would come from them in the fullness of time.

Christ also came as a deliverer of Israel, for Jesus is a Savior who saves his people from their sins. Yet there is this difference: Samson only began to deliver Israel, and David was later raised up to finish the destruction of the Philistines. But our Lord Jesus is both Samson and David in one, both the one who begins our faith and the one who brings it to completion.

The next point is the report Manoah’s wife brought home in great joy, in a hurry, to her husband, about this surprising message (Judges 13:6-7). The good news came to her when she was alone, perhaps while she was in prayer or thoughtful reflection. But she could not, and would not, keep it from her husband, so she told him everything.

First, she told him about the messenger. He was a man of God (Judges 13:6). She could describe his appearance, and it was very awe-inspiring. He had such greatness in his face, such a bright eye, and such a shining look, that he seemed, by her idea of an angel, to have an angel’s face. But she could not tell his name, or what tribe or city in Israel he belonged to, because he did not choose to tell her. For her part, the sight of him filled her with such awe that she did not dare ask.

She was fully convinced that he was a servant of God. She thought both his person and his message carried their own proof, so she asked no more.

Second, she told him the message itself. She gave him a full account of both the promise and the command (Judges 13:7). She did this so that he would also believe the promise, and so that he could remind her, whenever needed, to keep the command. In this way, husband and wife should share with each other what they have experienced of fellowship with God, and what they have learned of him, so that they may help each other walk in the holy way.