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Judges 13:1-24 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Lesson
from this woman who was bestowed with God’s favour
 She had been a barren woman for so long, yet she was
assured and reassured and ready to serve God for His divine purpose – “he will begin the work of rescuing Israel
from the Philistines.” Was her womb kept for this divine assignment?
Amidst her predicament, God was ready to use her
willing service as she was informed of the need for her to deny herself and
consecrate her whole being for the Lord (remain pure, devoted and holy) – for
His purpose and to His glory.
Like John the Baptist and Jesus, an angel from
heaven ushers this ‘deliverer’ unto her and gave her a divine pattern of what
was to be done in building and raising this child up.
She was alone when she received the glad tidings.
And what did she do? She ran quickly to recount the good tidings of the Lord
to her husband.
Manoah prayed to the Lord for the angel to visit
again to be assured of the glad tidings, fearing lest his wife’s joy for the
promise might have made her to forget some part of the precept, in which he
was desirous to be fully informed, and lie under no mistake. Then why was it
his wife that the angel of God appeared to again? Why not both of them? Or
why not him alone?
See a virtuous woman (Proverbs 31:11-12),
who ran when the messenger came again while she was alone to beckon unto her
husband, and the husband willingly follows her, not angry that the messenger
did not appear unto him this second time. See a woman to whom was given the
promise but desired that they both come into the careful management of this
promised seed in order to build according to pattern, the child that is
devoted to God and to be brought up for Him.
Did you notice that the instructions given (after
they had both seen the angel), was not different from the earlier one, but
that emphasis was laid on it?
Verse 22
– “We shall die for we have seen God,
cried out Manoah to his wife.” But the wife’s reflection concerning this
was of a great faith. Here, the weaker vessel was the stronger believer,
which perhaps was the reason why the angel chose once and again to appear to
her. Manoah’s heart began to fail him, but his wife, as a help meet for him,
encouraged him.
LET’S LOOK DEEPER INTO GOD’S WORD CONCERNING THIS WOMAN AND USE THIS TO PRAY FOR OURSELVES AS WOMEN:
1 “Again
the people started doing what the Lord
said was wrong. So the Lord
allowed the Philistines to rule over them for 40 years.
2 There was
a man named Manoah from the city of Zorah. He was from the tribe of Dan.
Manoah had a wife, but she was not able to have any children. 3 The
angel of the Lord appeared to
Manoah’s wife and said, “You have not been able to have children. But you
will become pregnant and have a son. 4 Don’t drink any wine
or any other strong drink.
Don’t eat any food that is unclean, 5 because you are
pregnant, and you will have a son. He will be dedicated to God in a special
way. He will be a Nazirite. So you must never cut his hair. He will be God’s
special person from before he is born. He will save the Israelites from the
power of the Philistines.”
Thank You for Your love over us
as travailing women – travailing with You Christ Jesus.
Amidst our frailty and our
feebleness, thank You for daily appearing to us; thank You for what You are
birthing in us O Lord on this platform of ‘Women in Travail’; thank You for
Your instructions and commandments unto us.
Sanctify and purify us (with
Your Word and Your blood) for that great assignment that You have impregnated
us with; help us to deny ourselves – whatever it may cost us – in order that
You may save as many that You desire from the hands and the power of sin and
the sinful world.
6 “Then the
woman went to her husband and told him what had happened. She said, “A man of
God came to me. He looked like the angel of God. He frightened me. I didn’t
ask him where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 But
he said to me, ‘You are pregnant and will have a son. Don’t drink any wine or
other strong drink. Don’t eat any food that is unclean, because the boy will
be dedicated to God in a special way. The boy will be God’s special person
from before he is born until the day he dies.”
Lord, make us women who are
ever ready to run with what You are committing into our hands – be it a
vision, be it a mission; let us not be weary in it, let us not be sluggish
with it. Help us to see and to know that delay is dangerous.
To as many as You have committed
with us to run this race together – for the mission to be accomplished, please
help us Holy Spirit to focus on You; let us not be delusioned about Your
instructions.
Baptise us with power and grace
from on high to be devoted unto You, seeing the dedication of what You are
laying into our hands.
8 “Then Manoah prayed to the Lord. He said, “Lord, I beg you to
send the man of God to us again. We want him to teach us what we should do
for the boy who will soon be born.” 9 God heard Manoah’s
prayer. The angel of God came to the woman again. She was sitting in a
field and her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 So the
woman ran to tell her husband, “The man is back! The man who came to me the
other day is here.”
For every vision that You give
O Lord, there is a mission and a commission to go with it. Anoint us with
Your power everyday for the accomplishment.
Build in us Your confidence to
take up the responsibility as You desire; let our passion be – to please You
and You only; help us to distinguish Your voice from the voice of men.
Where need be O Lord, visit us
once again to re-affirm Your instructions, so that we will build according to
Your divine pattern.
11 “Manoah got
up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the same
man who spoke to my wife before?”
The angel said, “I am.” 12 So Manoah said, “May what
you say happen. Tell me, what kind of life will the boy live? What will he
do?”
13 The angel
of the Lord said to Manoah,
“Your wife must do everything I told her. 14 She must not eat
anything that grows on a grapevine. She must not drink any wine or strong
drink. She must not eat any food that is unclean. She must do everything that
I have commanded her to do.”
As women whom You have bestowed
with Your favour, Lord, increase our faith so that our obedience unto You
will be a complete one and not partial.
Help us to conscientiously
avoid any prejudice contrary to Your heavenly directions.
As the vision might be for an
appointed time, Lord, help us to patiently tarry and wait for it to come to
pass (Habakkuk 2:3).
As You choose to carry out Your
work gradually and by several hands, O God, help us to persevere and not kill/abort/amputate
the particular vision that You are revealing unto us [notice verse 5b … ‘he will begin to rescue Israel from the
Philistines.’]. Help us to believe Your promise and on all occasion
respect Your precepts.
Guide us Holy Spirit by Your
counsel as we sincerely desire to know our duty and to surrender ourselves to
You to teach us –Psalms 25:8-9.
Holy Spirit, help us to
carefully cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit,
and do nothing to the prejudice of the new creation man, as Christ is being
formed in us.
15 “Then
Manoah said to the angel of the Lord,
“We would like for you to stay a while. We want to cook a young goat for you
to eat.”
16 The angel
of the Lord said to Manoah,
“Even if you keep me from leaving, I will not eat your food. But if you want
to prepare something, offer a burnt offering to the Lord.” (Manoah did not understand that the man was really
the angel of the Lord.)
17 Then
Manoah asked the angel of the Lord,
“What is your name? We want to know so that we can honor you when what you
have said really happens.”
As women, please Lord Jesus, help
us to beware of giving Your honour/glory to any living creature, save us from
idolising men whom You intend to use or You are using for the accomplishment
of that which You have committed into our hands; instead help us to know that
as we daily offer our lives to God, it is Christ in our hearts by faith that
makes our offering a sweet smelling savour before the Father.
18 “The angel
of the Lord said, “Why do you
ask my name? It is too amazing for you to believe.”
19 Then
Manoah sacrificed a young goat on a rock. He offered the goat and a grain
offering as a gift to the Lord
and to the One Who Does Amazing Things. 20 Manoah and his
wife were watching what happened. As the flames went up to the sky from the
altar, the angel of the Lord
went up to heaven in the fire.
When Manoah and his wife saw that, they bowed down with their faces to
the ground. 21 He finally understood that the man was really
the angel of the Lord. The angel
of the Lord did not appear to
Manoah and his wife again. 22 Manoah said to his wife, “We
have seen God. Surely we will die because of this.”
23 But his
wife said to him, “The Lord does
not want to kill us. If he wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our
burnt offering and grain offering. He would not have shown us all these
things or told us this.”
Lord Jesus, as Your travailing
women, make us strong and let our faith increase more and more in You; uphold
us with Your hand of righteousness and deliver us from every doubt/unbelief
from the pit of hell; help us to remember that curse in Genesis 3:15, as You
have declared enmity between the woman, her offspring and satan, that in Christ
alone are we able to crush its head and all its schemes and devices against
Your vision for us; thank You Jesus for what Calvary brought us out of and
what Calvary brought us into, Amen.
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