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Questioning God: Learning from Samsons parents.

I read Judges 13 recently and somehow i have been unable to get past the story of Manoah and his wife - who for whatever reason was not named, and a couple of things stood out to me.

I think you should read it on your own, but let me give you a brief summary.

Before Samson was born, his parents had been praying to God for a child. One day, The wife (let’s call her SERAH for the purpose of this summary), was in the field when a man came up to her to tell her that she would conceive and have a son. He also gave her certain instructions to adhere to during the course of that pregnancy as well as instructions for her son after birth. SERAH went back home to report her encounter to her husband, she said the man “looked like an angel of God”, mainly because of his countenance not because she knew him to be an angel of God as we will see later on in the story.

After SERAH reports back to her husband, her husband goes back to God and what he did really made and an impression on my heart:

Judges 13 verses 8&9 NIV says: 8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

9 And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her.

There are 3 things in these verses i think are worthy of note.

1. Manoah went back to God to ask for a repeat of that encounter where he’d hear with his own ears what the angel had said,

2. There was no undertone of doubt in his request. “I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

3. God obliged him. Our heavenly father created us, and knows us better than we know ourselves. He understands how how the human mind (he created us) works and he knows that we are curious creatures who sometimes require tangible evidence to help our faith/belief in things.

For Manoah, it was more a thing of confirmation than unbelief. SERAH practically recounted everything the angel said, and when the angel returned, he basically said “what i told your wife, is what you people should make sure you do.” I strongly believe his request had nothing to do with unbelief.

These days, many people hold the belief that if a person were to ask God questions or want a confirmation of something God has said to them, it is a sign of unbelief or a sign of disrespect to God because “God is all powerful, all knowing and he is superior to you. His ways are not our ways”, yada yada yada… while these are very true, the people who follow this belief have taken it to an extreme where asking God for anything outside our material needs is seen as disrespectful. As a result when they hear something that seems like it’s from God or a messenger of his, they immediately take it without confirming the source of that instruction or encounter. But this biblical account seems quite contrary to that belief because it shows a man who was clearly interested in hearing from God himself. In fact, I believe this thing Manoah did was a thing of great Faith. It is very important that we know as believers, that God is our Lord, but also our Father and as our father, he will never shy away from confirming his word or repeating something he has said. God is too secure in himself to get angry because you ask for a confirmation of his word. God did not feel disrespected by Manoahs request for another “encounter”, God did not get angry that he had even thought of asking. God listened and sent that angel again.

If you ever feel confused about something you feel God is telling you, or something he is asking you to do, ALWAYS ask God for wisdom or confirmation. A beautiful of this is Gideon in the book of Judges chapter 6.

Another thing that stood out to me was the angels response when they offered to entertain him with a meal.

Judges 13:15-16 NIV
[15] Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.” [16] The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)

• Remember when i said they did not know it was an angel that had appeared to them? They did not know till the sacrifice was offered and the angel practically wafted up to the heavens with the smoke from the offering.

The angel simply pointed them back to God.

Any “encounter”, instruction, word, etc that does not pass the “Gods word/Bible” test, are encounters you should be weary of.

God will never give you words, instructions or revelations that are inconsistent with his character or his word and to know his character, you’d have to know his word. Neither is independent of the other.

If there are 2 lessons we learn from Manoah and SERAH, they are;

1. We must never be afraid to ASK God questions. He’s our God and King, but he’s also our Father. He listens to the requests of his children.
2. Encounters, instructions, words etcetera, from God will be verifiable when it’s placed besides God’s word — the Bible.

b. God sends things, people etc, that point us back to him. If it doesn’t expressly point back to God, it’s your responsibility to go back to him to confirm what you’ve heard.

All through scripture, we read the stories of men and women who were not afraid to talk to their heavenly father and ask questions if necessary. Gideon had been called a “mighty man of valor” at a time where what he was doing in that moment was ridiculously contadictory to the words “mighty” and “ valor”. He was beyond shocked. nothing about him or where he came from was mighty and so, he could not see himself as such, yet God in his mercy confirmed Gideons God given identity 3 times( you can read more in Judges 3). Mary the mother of Jesus had asked God how it was possible for her to birth a child as a virgin and God through the angel explained how it would happen(Luke 1:34) and he confirmed this through during her meeting with Elizabeth. Abraham, the father of Faith asked if he was really going to have a child at a hundred years old. he wanted to be sure God really knew what he was saying so to speak(Genesis 17:17–19). King David asked questions in most of his psalms, yet even in these instances of seeming disbelief, God never struck him dead for his “disrespect and disbelief” in his promise to make him king.

As my father always says, “You must always have it at the back or better still, at the front of your mind that God is always more interested in speaking to you, than you are in hearing him. if you ask him, he’ll answer.”

Shalom.

P.s

I was halfway through writing this and i showed my daddy to go through it for mistakes and he made a joke “If the husbands name is Manoah, then the wife’s name should be Womanoah nau”. his dad jokes really stress me😭.

Anyway, till next time…