Judges 13 The "man" in the field

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Judges 13:8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

9 God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!”

11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”

“I am,” he said.

12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”

13 The angel of the Lord answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”

15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.”

16 The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)

17 Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

18 He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.[a]” 19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. 21 When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”

23 But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”

24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.​

a. Judges 13:18 Or is wonderful

Can you imagine.... you go to work out in the fields and this guy shows up.... and then right before your eyes he "ascends in a flame"!

I'd freak out.... I'm glad Samson's mom had the sense to know it was all going to be ok.

This commentary is from the easy English site.

In the Bible, when God promised to give a son, he promised this to the most unlikely people. It seemed impossible that they could have a child. And therefore to have one was a miracle. Manoah believed what the person with the message had said. He asked what they should do. He believed in a very simple way. Manoah’s wife had not mentioned that Samson would kill Philistines. The person with the message was an angel from God. Neither Manoah nor his wife knew that. They welcomed an angel, although they did not know it. (Look at Hebrews 13:2.)

Manoah invited the visitor to a meal. The visitor suggested that they should offer a sacrifice to the Lord. So Manoah brought meat and a grain offering. He asked what the visitor’s name was. The visitor told him that it was ‘wonderful’. In other words, it was something that they would not be able to understand. The visitor called ‘Wonderful’ acted in a wonderful way. He went up to heaven in a flame. This was the flame that came up from the altar (stone table). Manoah was afraid. But his wife was more understanding about how things were in reality. She had gained this from experience of life. She said that God would not kill them. He would not kill them because he had planned special things for them in the future.

This is from the blueletterbible.org site.

He would not have accepted a burnt offering: The basis of the faith of Manoah's wife was that she knew that the LORD had accepted their offering to Him. If the LORD wanted to do you evil, He would have never accepted an offering on your behalf - the offering of Jesus on the cross.

Manoah's wife was a smart cookie.... I would have freaked out!

:coffee:
 
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