Judges 13:1-14 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Judges 13:1-14. Let’s go!
Judges 13:1-5 (NIV)
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless.
3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son.
4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean,
5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
On verses 1-5: The purpose of a Nazirite vow was to live a life that was specially set apart for God for a short period of time. According to Numbers 6:1-8, a person making a Nazirite vow must abstain from wine, haircuts, and touching dead bodies. Usually a Nazirite vow was something that a person took voluntarily for a set period of time. In the case of this child to be born in Judges 13, the Nazirite vow was a calling he was given by God (it wasn’t voluntary) and it was to last all his life.
Personally, I would have struggled with being a Nazirite, in particular because I dislike growing my hair long. (The wine and touching dead corpses I can live without.) That said, whether we take a Nazirite vow or not, we are called to live our lives set apart for God. That doesn’t mean we can’t drink wine or can’t get our hair cut or can’t attend a funeral. It simply means that we carry on the attitude that in whatever we do we want to give God glory. So though we might never take a Nazirite vow specifically, may we live our lives set apart for the LORD.
Judges 13:6-14 (NIV)
6 Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.
7 But he said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.'”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “O Lord, I beg you, 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 one 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 for 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.”
On verses 6-14: In these verses, Manoah and his wife demonstrate two ways that faith shows up in our lives.
First, faith shows up in our willingness to believe what God says even when the circumstances say otherwise. For Manoah and his wife, experience told them that Manoah’s wife was not able to get pregnant. Yet both Manoah’s wife and Manoah showed a willingness to believe what the angel of the LORD told them. In verses 6-7 Manoah’s wife shows that she accepts by faith what the angel of the LORD told her, that she would be pregnant have a son (v3). Manoah, upon hearing what his wife experienced, didn’t doubt or second guess her; rather Manoah prayed for confirmation and wisdom about what the LORD had said (v8). Both Manoah and his wife exercised faith through a willingness to believe. That doesn’t mean that people with faith are necessarily gullible. But people with faith have an openness to the idea that God can and does speak to people.
Second, faith shows up in a willingness to obey. We see this in Manoah. When the angel of the LORD returns to them, Manoah asks him “When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy’s life and work?” (v12) In other words, Manoah believed what the angel said (“When [not if] your words come true”), and Manoah was committed to obeying whatever the LORD was saying.
A willingness to believe and a willingness to obey – these are the basic hallmarks of faith.
Father, I pray that I would live my life set apart for You. Holy Spirit fill me today that I would be willing to believe what God says over what my circumstances tell me, and that I would be willing to obey whatever You say. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
Copyright © 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
