Judges 13:1-25
As we journey through the Book of Judges, we can see that there is a significant role played by The Angel of the Lord at various times.
We took a look at the encounter with Gideon last time, and today we will explore a very familiar passage and look at Samson. As we explore this, we can see that there is a pattern that emerges here: the Israelites forsake God, begin to worship idols, and then, God allows the surrounding peoples to punish them. (By the way, the enemies are invading us here in North America as we get further and further from God.)
In Gideon’s day, it was the Midianites, but now in Samson’s time, it is the Philistines. The Jews have been oppressed by the Philistines for 40 years, we are told in Judges 13:1. God sends and tells a woman that she is going to have a son; he, Samson, would begin to deliver the people from the Philistines. Samson was not even born yet, and if we simply take a look at what was considered a man for war, he would have had to be 20 years old before he began his acts of deliverance against the Philistines. So, even with his birth, there was still a long time to be oppressed before the deliverance came.
In verse 3, The Angel of the Lord appears to a woman in the tribe of Dan, who is married to Manoah. The Angel, Jesus, as we have discovered in previous encounters, promises her that she will have a son, and then tells her how to raise him. He is to be a Nazarite from birth; he is not allowed to eat grapes, raisins, drink wine, cut his hair, be around the dead, or eat any unclean food. This dear Sister is barren, and Samson would be her first son. In verse 6, she tells her husband Manoah all that The Angel had told her, and he asks God to come and tell him as well. In verse 9, The Angel appears to Manoah’s wife again, and she runs to get him so that he can hear for himself.
In the next few verses here in Judges 13, The Angel identifies himself as God to Manoah, and we will explore that here. First, in verse 11, Manoah asks the ‘Man’ if he is the same person who spoke to his wife, and The Angel answers, ‘I am.’ Not ‘I am her.’ Not ‘Yes, it was me,’ but He specifically answers with the name for God given to us in Exodus 3. In verses 16-20, The Angel accepts a burnt offering as a sign of worship from Manoah and his wife. No mere angel will allow this; even in Revelation 22: 8-9, the angel showing John around the New Jerusalem would not allow John to bow down to him. He tells John, I am just a servant like you, and he refuses to allow John to worship him. So, this Angel in Judges allows Gideon to worship Him with a burnt offering in Judges 6:21, and He receives worship here from Manoah and his wife in Judges 13:20. Once this happens, Manoah is afraid. It would appear that up until this time, he was not convinced that this was God talking to him. But once he saw that this Angel accepted the sacrifice and went up into Heaven in the flame of the sacrifice(verse 20), then Manoah understood that this was God who spoke to them (verses 19-22).
So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on— 20 it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar—the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 When the Angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shall surely die, because we have seen God!’”
This was a genuine fear that Manoah had; it was irrational, as his wife pointed out, but a genuine fear nonetheless. He knew that in Exodus 33:20, the Torah tells us that ‘No man can see God and live.’
Now God tells us that He spoke to Moses ‘face to face,’ in Exodus 33:11; this refers to clear and direct conversation. God tells Miriam in Numbers 12:8-10 that she should have had more reverence than to speak out against Moses because he spoke to him ‘face to face.’ Somehow, Moses had access to God that no mere man has had since. But Manoah understood that seeing God meant death.
The Angel of the Lord is God. This is Jesus, as we established in Joshua, the Commander of the Lord’s Armies. Then one more look as we explore the story here of Samson. In verse 17, Manoah asks The Angel for his name, and The Angel answers, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?”
In Isaiah 9:6, we are told that one of the names of the Son that will be born to redeem us is ‘Wonderful.’ Jesus is Wonderful. We know the rest of the story: Samson grows up, he has a real problem with women, and while they are the eventual Achilles heel that brings his downfall, he does begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. He kills about 3,000 of their lords and leaders when he is also killed as a temple falls on them and him. We are told that he judged Israel for 20 years.
Jesus is the central theme, the star, the main character, the subject of the ever-present God in the Old Testament. We saw Him in the Exodus and the journey through the wilderness; we saw Him with Joshua; and now, we see Him in the Book of the Judges. Jesus has been the story of the whole Bible from the very beginning. We are told in John 1 that He created everything.
Those of us Gentiles have been blessed in that we have been granted eyes to see Jesus in the Old Testament. And there are some Jews that, by the grace of God, when they take the time to read the OT, can also see Jesus; they repent and come to trust in Him as Savior. But the vast majority of Israel is still blind. One day soon, their eyes will be opened, and they will see that Jesus is the Messiah. Rejoice that you can see Jesus as your Messiah. Don’t ever take that grace for granted.
I pray that as you read through the Bible, you will be looking for Jesus, looking to see references to Him, looking for pictures of Him, descriptions of Him, and where He is there doing stuff and pushing God the Father’s agenda forward.
Jesus is God, 100% God, but it was the plan from the beginning for Him to come as a Man, 100% Man as well. This was never the ‘backup plan’; it was the ONLY plan. Jesus, the God-Man, living on Earth, experiencing life as a Man, being hurt, betrayed, hated, tempted, seeing how frail we are, experiencing hunger, fatigue, thirst and all that we go through. He had to bury Joseph and experience loss. He was poor and totally dependent on God the Father for all He needed. But all this was done for you and me; this way, Jesus can truly be an authentic Advocate for us in Heaven. He could be the authentic substitute for us on the cross and take our sin. He would rise from the dead and kill the one thing that makes all men fear, death.
In Jesus, by Jesus, and through Jesus, we have Hope; we have the promise that death is a door and not a destination. For those of us that have this hope, we need to be constantly rejoicing, and for those that don’t have this hope, you need to repent and humble yourself under the promise and the person of Jesus. He is the Hope for this life and the next.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario