Manoah isn't asking the Lord about basic childcare. He's asking about the spiritual upbringing of this child. The Lord has big plans for this child because He told Manoah's wife, "He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines." Manoah wants to give his son the best foundation possible for fulfilling this great calling.
"God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman hurried to tell her husband, 'He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!'" (Judges 13:9-10) I would very much like to know why the angel of the Lord appears to Manoah's wife again and not to Manoah, who prayed the prayer. I was not able to find much material regarding the reason for this, and of course all of it was speculation because the Bible doesn't tell us why. But one theory stuck out to me more than all the others and I'll discuss it briefly.
This theory is that the Lord took special care to speak personally to this woman on two occasions because she had long borne the societal shame of being barren. Childless women of her era were pitied. Worse yet, they were often gossiped about, for there was a tendency for people to believe she was a sinner. It was reasoned that if she were not a sinner, the Lord would have blessed her with children. So not only was a childless woman looked upon with pity but she was also looked upon with suspicion. A barren woman of her day probably suffered feelings of shame and inadequacy. She would have struggled with feelings of guilt for not being able to provide a son to carry on her husband's name, even though this problem was beyond her ability to control. She probably knew that her husband's family (and perhaps her husband himself) wished he'd married someone else who might have given him children. I think there's a very good possibility that the Lord wanted to heal her spiritually and emotionally and that He arranged this meeting to prove to her that she is just as worthy of love and respect as any other woman. I think He may done this to erase all her feelings of shame and guilt and unworthiness, to prove to her that she was not in disfavor with Him but that she was highly favored by Him. Some of her fellow human beings may have caused her to feel "less than" other women because of her inability to bear children. Some of the people in her husband's family or in her community may have harbored suspicions that the Lord was displeased with her over secret sins. But the fact that He would not only heal her infertility but would come to announce this in person (many Christian scholars believe this is one of the Old Testament appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ) will forever remove from her the negative feelings she's struggled with for so long.
When the angel of the Lord appears to Manoah's wife for the second time, she rushes to get her husband. "Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, 'Are you the man who talked to my wife?' 'I am,' he said. 'So Manoah asked him, 'When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy's life and work?'" (Judges 13:12) Manoah is able to ask the question he wanted to ask: how is the child to be raised?
The Lord simply reminds Manoah of the instructions already given to his wife. It could be that Manoah didn't trust the word of his wife when she told him of the angel's first visit and the instructions he gave her. Perhaps the two of them are at odds in their marriage over her barren state and any suspicions he may harbor as to whether she displeased the Lord and caused her barrenness. Or perhaps it's because, in Manoah's day, a woman's word was not taken as legal evidence. Whatever the reason, the angel of the Lord appears to her a second time and she goes to get Manoah to introduce him to this person and have this person repeat to Manoah what he said to her. The Lord tells Manoah that what his wife said to do is what they are to do. "The angel of the Lord answered, 'Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.'" (Judges 13:13-14)
The Lord does not answer Manoah's specific question, which is how he and his wife are to prepare the child to grow up to lead the Israelites in their struggle against the oppression of the Philistines. But in another sense, He does answer it because He makes it clear that from this moment on, Manoah's wife is to begin preparing her son to live under a Nazirite vow. Even while the child is in her womb she is to abstain from the things a man or woman abstains from when under a Nazirite vow. Observing these regulations puts her in the right frame of mind, spiritually speaking, to raise the child to fulfill his calling of the Lord. Agreeing to these regulations puts Manoah in the right frame of mind to bring his son up in the respect of the Lord.
Join us tomorrow as we find this couple willing to obey the Lord's instructions and wanting to honor Him with an offering. We'll also discuss the reasons why so many Christian scholars believe that the appearance of "the angel of the Lord" in Chapter 13 is an appearance of the Lord Himself in the form of God the Son before the incarnation: in other words, a "Christophany".
No comments:
Post a Comment