While each Judge was different from the others in their personal natures and duties, Samson was perhaps the most unique. For one thing, his birth was foretold and announced by the Angel of the LORD. Why was Samson singled out for such an honor? We never learn why. However, the Rabbis reckon that such an honor must have meant Samson was on a very high spiritual plane. This leads to the second unique aspect of Samson: he never raised an army or led his tribe in an uprising against the oppressors. Instead, we see Samson generally operate as a one-man gang in a manner which could never possibly topple the Philistines from power. Rather, he was just a constant pain in the neck for God's enemy. And even this, on the surface, stemmed from Samson's lack of self-control and warped moral compass.
Moreover, Samson is seen very differently in Rabbinical Judaism than in Christian academic circles. The Rabbis are really out there in their viewpoint of Samson. As we proceed, we are going to see Samson do outrageous things, far from anything we could even remotely label as godly. Although Gentiles know Samson mostly from exciting children's stories, Christians have always recognized Samson's faults. The Rabbis, on the other hand, manufacture amazing and fanciful excuses for each and every one of his dastardly behaviors. They even go so far as to glorify them.
The reason for their unwavering praise of Samson is the exceptional circumstance of his birth, which reminds them of Isaac. (Sarah, Isaac's mother, was beyond child bearing years, and a divine presence came to announce Isaac's birth.) So, the Rabbis simply could not accept at face value that Samson could be the product of miraculous birth and be a self-centered, incorrigible lout. It is a lot like the Christian leaders took the plain case of Jephthah, his rash vow and his daughter who was killed because of it, and decided since Jephthah was called a Bible hero in the book of Hebrews, he could not have done what the Bible plainly says he did. Thus, they came up with a creative way around the problem.
2. (Judges 13:2-3) The Angel of the LORD appears to Manoah's wife
There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. Then the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Behold now you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.
There was a certain man of Zorah: Verse two explains there was a man named Manoah of the tribe of Dan who had a wife who was barren. When the Bible says a woman was barren it means she was biologically incapable of bearing children. Or, she had married so late in life, she had passed her child bearing years. Generally, the fault always fell on the woman, even though in some cases it was bound to be her husband was biologically unable to impregnate her.
Then the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman: Verse three states one day the Angel of the LORD appeared to Manoah's wife. She was told her womb would birth a son. In the Hebrew, the identity of the being who appeared to the woman is stated to be malach YHWH. Malach means angel or more correctly messenger and YHWH is the formal name of God. As the readers of this text, we are told immediately it was the Angel of God who came to the woman; however, we will see the woman did not know who this person or being was.
3. (Judges 13:4-5) Special instructions regarding the child to come
Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
Be careful not to drink strong drink: Manoah's wife, knowing this being was awesome in appearance, paid special attention to the instructions which followed. There are three things she must not do: drink wine or any kind of alcohol, eat anything unclean and shave her son's hair. These are all requirements for the Nazirite vow. Furthermore, it says the son will be a Nazarite from birth. This means, for the child's entire life, he must remain a Nazarite.
Usually, a Nazarite vow was taken as a temporary vow. Once the terms of the vow were fulfilled, he or she was no longer a Nazirite and no longer had to operate under the law of the Nazirite which is found in Numbers chapter 6. In general, all Nazirites have three negative commands they had to follow. 1) They were not allowed to eat or drink any grape product. (This included wine, old wine which was a much stronger drink and even fresh grapes and grape juice.) 2) They were never to touch a dead body. 3) They were not to cut their hair.
Hebrew tradition tended to expand upon these three general requirements. For instance, while only grape based products were prohibited to Nazirites, tradition made it that all alcohol was prohibited. Thus, the standard grain-based alcoholic beverages were also banned for a Nazirite. While the words of Numbers 6 says a Nazirite is not supposed to touch a dead human corpse, tradition expanded it to include dead animals, usually limited to just the unclean animals (otherwise eating meat would not have been possible).
He shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines: The mysterious visitor says something else of great importance: this son will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines. Remember, the Israel being referred to was probably just the tribe of Dan, even though the Philistines were also troubling the southern tribes led by Judah. But, the key word is begin. In other words, Samson would be the catalyst to start the process of removing the Philistine influence from Israel, but he would not finish the job. Some of that had to do with the fact as we discussed earlier that the tribe of Dan was not particularly concerned with their condition. So, Samson would not have much support in his efforts.
4. (Judges 13:6-7) Manoah's wife reported the appearance of the Angel of the LORD to her husband
Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from nor did he tell me his name. But he said to me, 'Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink nor eat anything unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'"
Then the woman came and told her husband: The woman turns and runs home to her husband and tells her husband what transpired. The woman says to her husband that "a man of God" came to her and that his face was fearsome like and Angel of God. When she said "a man of God" that is exactly what she meant. To the woman, this being was a human male for the Hebrew says ish elohim. (Ish means man and elohim is a general name for a god.) The term ish elohim is how a prophet was called. Thus, she saw the being as a human prophet, not a spiritual being. This man was very unusual because his face was like an Angel of God. The Hebrew says that his mar'eh was like malach elohim. Mar'eh refers to his overall appearance, not just his facial features. Malach elohim means messenger of God. Therefore, in our modern thinking, it means a regular heavenly angel. The woman is saying that although he was a human, he had the aura of a heavenly angel. She was confused and unsure just who or what had spoken to her.
But he said to me: As a good Hebrew wife ought to do, the woman repeats to her husband what this man said to her. She explains she did not think to ask where he was from nor did she inquire of his name. Before we continue, we need to clear up what the would "name" indicated in Old Testament times. The Hebrew word is shem. The term has little to do with the means of an individual's identification like it does today. Rather, in those days shem told of that person's reputation and characteristics.
Many times, it spoke of their physical and/or spiritual heritage. A name helped explain the essence of the person, his/her attributes, what they stood for and even what their providential purpose in life was. If the bearer of a particular name was a god, that meant the name assigned to this particular god or goddess indicated what particular sphere of influence (such as fertility, weather or war) they ruled over. If you were a believer in the gods, that was a very important issue because it was essential to know which god to pray to depending on your current need or want. If the name belonged to a human, it spoke of his/her innate nature, abilities and divinely ordained destiny.
In the New Testament, we are instructed to act in Jesus' name or to pray in Jesus' name. It does not really mean to say His name. In other words, if Jesus had been given the name Steve, we are not actually being instructed to say out loud "in the name of Steve" I pray. Rather, we are to behave in Jesus' attributes and character. We are to pray to the Father in Jesus' manner, in His attitude and in the realization of the status Jesus bought for us. I am not saying it is wrong for us to end our prayers and supplications with the phrase, "In Jesus's name". I am saying this phrase is NOT what was at all intended. Rather, ancient gentiles who did not understand Hebrew culture took the word "name" as the way to pray in Messiah's name as Greek and now modern culture takes it--simply as a means of identifying one person from another.
In short, the woman says she did not find out this man's characteristics and essence. Manoah knew this was an important omission of information he needed to remedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment