When the angel of the Lord approached Manoah’s wife, he told her that she was going to conceive a child, and that child would be a Nazarite. The angel also said that her son would “…take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” (Judges 13:5 NIV)
The woman didn’t question the angel in any way. Instead, she ran to tell her husband the good news.
He wasn’t convinced.
He and his wife were undistinguished unknown Israelites from the family of Dan, certainly not worthy to have a child who would deliver their nation. His wife so desperately wanted a child, surely she just imagined the whole thing.
But he prayed and asked the Lord to send the man of God again and teach them what they should do for the son who was to be born.
God listened to his prayer and the angel came again to the woman. She was alone in the fields, but she ran quickly to her husband and dragged him to the angel. The angel repeated his words so that Manoah could hear for himself.
Manoah tried to feed the angel, but he said instead for them to offer up a burnt offering to the Lord. When they did, they realized that the man was in fact an angel. Though Manoah feared they’d die because they’d seen God, his wife wasn’t worried. She knew He’d come to prepare them for what was in store.
Sure enough, the woman did give birth to a son, and she named him Samson, which means “strength of the sun”. We’re told that Samson grew and the Lord blessed him.
May we have the faith of Manoah’s wife to accept what God says as truth.
Read about Manoah and his wife in Scripture: Judges 13
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