SERIES H --- THE JUDGES --- LESSON 14

SAMSON’S BIRTH

A MIRACLE CHILD

From Judges 13

Once more the people of Israel turned away from Adonai to worship other gods. Adonai let the Philistines rule them for forty years. The wife of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, had no children. One day the Angel of Adonai appeared to her at her hometown of Zorah. ‘Although you have no children now, you will soon have a baby boy,’ the Angel said. ‘You must not drink wine or strong drink and you must eat nothing considered unclean by Jewish Law. Never cut the boy’s hair, for he will be a Nazirite from the day he is born, given to YHVH to begin to save Israel from the Philistines.’ When Manoah’s wife heard these words, she ran to tell her husband. ‘A man of YHVH talked to me today and he surely must be the Angel of YHVH, for he was almost too glorious to behold,’ she said. ‘I did not ask him where he came from and he did not tell me who he was. But he did say that I will have a baby boy and that I should not drink wine or strong drink or eat anything unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite all of his life.’ ‘O Adonai,’ Manoah prayed, ‘let this man of YHVH whom You Sent come back to us and help us know what we should do with this boy who will be born.’ Adonai heard Manoah’s prayer and sent His Angel once more to Manoah’s wife as she sat in a field alone. She hurried to find Manoah and told him that the man of YHVH had returned. Manoah and his wife went back to the field where the Angel waited. ‘Are you the one who talked to my wife?’ he asked. ‘I am,’ the Angel answered. ‘When the boy is born, what shall we do to follow Adonai’s Instructions?’ ‘Your wife must be sure to do what I told her,’ The Angel said. ‘She must not eat anything that grows on the grapevine or anything that is unclean and she must not drink wine or strong drink. It is important that she follow these instructions.’ ‘Please wait here until I cook some meat for you,’ said Manoah. ‘I won’t eat, but you may bring food for an offering to Adonai,’ said the Angel. Manoah did not know yet that this was an Angel of Adonai. Then Manoah said to the Angel, ‘what is your name? We would like to honour you when your prophecy comes true.’ ‘Why do you ask my name?’ said the Angel. ‘It is Wonderful.’ Manoah took a young goat and offered it with a grain offering upon a rock to Adonai. When the flame from the offering rose up toward heaven, the Angel of Adonai ascended in the flame. As Manoah and his wife watched this miracle, they fell down with their faces to the ground. Although the Angel never returned, Manoah realized at last that this was the Angel of Adonai. ‘We will certainly die, for we have seen YHVH!’ Manoah cried out. ‘No, if Adonai planned for us to die, He would not have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering,’ said Manoah’s wife. ‘And He would not have shown us these miracles.’ At the promised time, Manoah’s wife had a son and named him Samson. Adonai blessed Samson as he grew and stirred him whenever he visited Mahaneh-dan which was between Zorah and Eshtaol.

COMMENTARY

THE TRAVELS OF WEN-AMON: THE TALE OF THE EGYPTIAN PRIEST

Wen-Amon is one of the oldest adventure stories known. Dating from the eleventh century B.C. when Egypt’s power was fading, it reveals much about travel and trade toward the latter times of the judges. Each year the Egyptians had a great festival in honour of Amon, the sun god. Amon’s priests carried a statue of the god the length of the Nile River on a cedar barge so that he could visit his many goddess-wives across Egypt. But one year the ceremonial barge needed repair and Wen-Amon was sent to buy wood from Byblos in Phoenicia. Wen-Amon set sail on a merchant ship, which scheduled a stop at the busy harbour at Dor. The local Tjeker ruler, Prince Beder, greeted him graciously, as custom demanded. But while the ship lay unguarded, another passenger stole the silver and gold meant as payment for the expensive cedar, the worried priest argued that Prince Beder should repay him since the theft occurred in his port. The prince refused, not surprisingly. After days of searching, Wen-Amon gave up and sailed for Tyre on a Tjeker ship. In the hold, he discovered a large amount of silver nearly equal to what he had lost. He took it, and sailed on to Byblos. Word of his troubles with Beder had already reached Byblos. The Egyptian had barely arrived when a message came from Prince Zaker-Baal: [Get thee out of my harbour!] The prince did not want to irritate his trading partners at Dor. Wen-Amon tried for five months to secure timber, but the prince refused. On the very day the discouraged priest was to leave for home without his timber, the prince changed his mind and ordered him to remain. It seems that one of the prince’s servants had received a message from Wen-Amon’s god that ordered the prince to do business with him. Grudgingly the prince called Wen-Amon for an interview and the two men bickered endlessly until they reached an agreement. Zaker-Baal’s craftsmen prepared timbers for Amon’s barge; already cut to fit! In payment, Wen-Amon called for an Egyptian cargo ship filled with linen, papyrus, gold and silver. Prince Zaker-Baal was impressed. But Wen-Amon had been in Byblos a year and the prince advised him to leave quickly or would he like to visit the graves of other Egyptian messengers who had never made it back home? Wen-Amon prepared to go. Then a fleet of Tjeker ships anchored in the harbour and demanded his arrest. At this, both Prince Zaker-Baal and Wen-Amon wept in frustration. When the Tjekers decided to seize the timber, the prince acted. He allowed Wen-Amon to leave the harbour secretly and explained he could not arrest a representative of Amon. Alas, Wen-Amon! Violent winds blew his ship off course to the island of Cyprus. The Cypriotes knew what to do with cargo ships; kill the crew and steal the cargo. Did the harried priest ever make it back home and to a calmer life in the temple? No one knows. But one thing is certain: Egypt had lost the power to control events in Canaan and the surrounding countries.