Judges 13:1-5
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.”
Judges 13:24-25
24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Judges 15:20
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Related Text:
Genesis 15:21-24
Numbers 6:1-21
Judges 14-15
Luke 1
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Digging Deeper
When an angel appeared to Samson’s mother and told her she was going to have a special son, it wasn’t the last time God used this technique to announce a unique birth. Hundreds of years later, an angel of the Lord visited Zechariah and told him that he and his wife Elizabeth were going to have a son and that they should name him John (John the Baptist). Around this same time, an angel of the Lord also visited a virgin named Mary, and told her that she too would have a very special child and that she was to name Him Jesus. He will be unlike anyone the world has ever seen.
Luke 1:30-32
“30But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.”
Has God talked to you lately? Some Christians get distraught from time to time because they don’t feel or hear God talking to them or they feel that God can’t use them. Not everyone will be met by an angel of the Lord who gives us a birth announcement, but God still speaks to us all, and He can use us all. We must present ourselves to Him as willing servants.
One very real way God speaks to us is through His word, the Bible. These words of God span time and distance and reach into our hearts. Please take your person time of Bible reading and Bible study seriously. Don’t put it on the back-burner, don’t just skim over it, don’t fill your life with distractions to the point where you can’t hear God.
John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.”
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
