Judges 13:9 – 25 “And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman ran quickly to tell her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has reappeared!” So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
“I am,” he said. Then Manoah asked, “When your words come to pass, what will be the boy’s rule of life and mission?” So the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “Your wife is to do everything I told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink any wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”
“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “and we will prepare a young goat for You.” And the angel of the LORD replied, “Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the LORD. Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes to pass?” “Why do you ask my name,” said the angel of the LORD, “since it is beyond comprehension?” Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the LORD did a marvelous thing. When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame.
When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground. And when the angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD. “We are going to die,” he said to his wife, “for we have seen God!” But his wife replied, “If the LORD had intended to kill us, He would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things or spoken to us this way.” So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.”
Manoah and his wife did everything correctly, just as the Lord had ordered them. And in the beginning, Samson also was doing everything correctly, and God was blessing him. It is bittersweet to read about Samson’s beginnings when we already know the rest of the story, but never forget that Samson’s parents did their best.
APPLICATION: When Samson first started, God was blessing his efforts. What went wrong later? Perhaps Samson assumed that because God had chosen him from the womb, that God would bless whatever he did, no matter how sinful it might be. Perhaps Samson later assumed that his successes were of his own making and gave no credit to God.
In recent years, there have been a number of financial institutions that have failed. Examinations have revealed that many of the key players began by conducting themselves as professionally as possible; however, at some point in time, the temptation to cheat became too much and they began compromising in bits.
There is a story about a spider who was weaving an intricate web. Other spiders came to watch and admire the beauty and the symmetry of that web. Finally, the spider noticed that there was one thread that was out of place and decided to snip that one thread so that everything would be perfectly symmetrical. But that thread was connecting the entire web to the twig from which it was suspended. When that thread was snipped, the entire web – and the spider – fell, destroying the web and the spider.
When we take a calling from God for granted, when we take credit for the working of God in our lives, we are as foolish as that spider. Our lives hang by a thread, the grace of God. It is only by God’s grace and mercy that we do not die in our sins. Let each of us ask God to show us His call for our lives and let us be serious about that call. Our eternal lives depend on our doing so!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for calling us to Yourself. Help us to always realize that You are the One who has created us and who sustains us. You are the One who gives us life and breath. Help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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