Last week we read about Manoah and his wife before Samson was born. The narrative is recorded in Judges 13. If you missed it, I’d recommend catching up on the story in the Bible, and some of my thoughts here.
Something to show for?
It’s one thing to read Samson’s story through. It’s another thing to view his story from the lens of his parents.
Samson married a Philistine woman Timnah despite his parents’ protests (14:1-3). The author of Judges adds a commentary: ‘His parents did not know that this was from the Lord , who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel. ‘ (14:4) Samson’s bad choices weren’t a hindrance to God’s plans. God, in His wisdom, weaved even Samson’s foolishness into His grand plan to confront the Philistines. Surely though, there was plenty of heartbreak that accompanied this choice.
Samson went down to speak to Timnah, but on the way stopped to kill a lion. (14:5-6) He went back after a while to marry her, he ate some honey from the lion’s carcass (it was still there!) and gave it to his parents. (14:8-9) The author of Judges was careful to say that Samson didn’t tell his parents. (14:6, 9) This was because he was a Nazirite and wasn’t supposed to touch dead bodies. (Numbers 6:6) It might also have alluded to the fact that if his parents had known, they might have stopped and rebuked him. Nonetheless, not even his parents knew the riddle he posed to the wedding guests.
Through his wife, the Philistine companions found out the answer to the riddle, which angered him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty there. (14:12-20) His wife was given to someone else by her father, which angered him even more and attacked the Philistines with some foxes (15:4), which in turn led to the murder of Samson’s wife and her father by the Philistines themselves, and this led Samson to further retaliation (15:6-8)
The people of Judah took Samson to hand over to the Philistines. As an aside, this really shows how depraved God’s people were: to hand over God’s chosen judge and deliver him into the hands of the enemy, in exchange for some futile peace agreement! (15:12) When they reached the Philistine place called Lehi, Samson had strength from the Lord, broke free, and struck down a thousand men with a donkey’s jawbone. Not much was said about the twenty years of his ministry (15:20), but we know it included promiscuous living, for the author noted that he went in to sleep with a prostitute, which was when the Gazans wanted to kill him at dawn, only for him to escape in the middle of the night (16:1-3). It is clear that the Lord had been preserving him for something in the future.
His downfall came when he fell in love with Delilah, revealed his secret for his strength, and got captured by the Philistines after his head was shaved. (16:4-22) He couldn’t lose himself, as the Lord had left him (16:20), but there was a glimmer of hope: But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. (16:22) This was a gradual crescendo to the most impactful moment of his life – his death.
The pinnacle of his ministry was at his death. The Philistine rulers were all gathered to offer pagan sacrifices. Samson was brought out to entertain the crowd. Samson prayed to God for strength, was led to the pillars of the temple, and stood by it. (16:23-29)
Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led[d] Israel twenty years. (16:30-31, emphasis mine)
So, Manoah never saw the height of his ministry. God had used this tragic story for His purposes in confronting the Philistines. Samson was buried in his father’s tomb. The story seemed to have quite a bleak ending. Manoah and his wife were just parents to one judge in a line of judges who led Israel, spiraling further and further into moral depravity and rebellion against their covenant God.
What are we to think as we finish this sad story?
Someone better than this
First we must not discount all of Samson’s ministry. Manoah and his wife didn’t raise a failure, at least not in God’s eyes. How do we know? We see in Hebrews 11:
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. (Hebrews 11:32-34)
Samson was listed in the Hebrews Hall of Fame. Was there disappointment in his life? Most certainly. But there was also the redemptive power of God. God used even his poor choices to accomplish His purposes, to confront the Philistines who had been oppressing God’s people (Judges 14:4) From God’s strength Samson “shut the mouths of lions”. He relied on God’s strength for his final act of heroism against the Philistines (see Judges 16:28-30) True, Manoah and his wife never would have seen Hebrews written in their lifetime nor seen Samson’s accolades. But we do know, and we see God’s hand at work throughout his life as Israel’s judge.
The pinnacle of Samson’s ministry was arguably at his death, where he took down many more Philistine rulers and leaders at the temple at his death, than he ever did when he was alive. In a way, Jesus’s ministry also culminated at his death. But instead of killing wicked people in judgement, He died so that people could be set free from sin. His burial wasn’t final too – He rose again on the third day, something Samson never did, so we know that death is conquered and we have a living hope. Samson achieved at his death more than what he had ever done when he was living. Jesus achieved at his death more than all of what anybody has ever done, put together. He achieved for us salvation, for all who would believe!
What about Manoah and his wife? We don’t know much about the rest of their lives independent from Samson’s ministry. But what we do get is that they played a small part in God’s redemptive purposes for the nation Israel. They were by no means perfect parents, but we see God using the obedience of Manoah’s wife to achieve for Himself what He had purposed for His glory.
the migrant wife 
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