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Father's Day: Manoah

Judges 13

“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.” 6 Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 But he said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.’” 8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “O Lord, I beg you, 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 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. 10 The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!” 11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the one who talked to my wife?” “I am,” he said. 12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy’s life and work?” 13 The angel of the LORD answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.” 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 realise that it was the angel of the LORD.) 17 Then Manoah enquired of the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honour you when your word comes true?” 18 He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” 19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar towards heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. 21 When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realised that it was the angel of the LORD. 22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” 23 But his wife answered, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.” 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.” Judges13:1-25

I don’t know where it started, but I have been taught that living for God is the most important thing a person can do. From my early childhood, I have had this idea ingrained within me: “Whatever you do in life, be in the center of God’s will. If you are going to be a mechanic, be a Christian mechanic. If you are going to be a politician, be a Christian politician.”

Along with that idea was the thought that in being a Christian, I would have God’s blessing on my life. If I went beyond just playing the game, but followed Christ from the heart, my life would be blessed before God.

Psalm 1 verifies this. “Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of God and in that law doth he meditate both day and night.”
As a Dad, my great desire is for my children to be blessed by God.

I don’t know if you want the same thing or not for your children. It may be that your desire is to see your children wise, wealthy and worry free. That seems to be the dominant view of our world. Get a good education, find a good job, be happy in all you do. This is what the world around us says to us.

So I understand a bit of a disconnect when I come in front of you and say, “Education, money and removal of stress should not be the primary goals. Having God’s blessing on our life is.”

Jesus asked this question, “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

You see, Jesus is looking at our eternal welfare, what is best for us in the long run. We look at this life and our 80 or 90 years and say, “I want my kids to enjoy life.” But Jesus says, “What about the next life? Are you concerned about that?”
Some people will get “the best of both worlds.” Certainly in America we who love the Lord also live well when compared with Christians in other parts of the world.

This year I chose a father from the Bible as an example of what we are looking at. Manoah was Samson’s father. He has an interesting story to tell.

He and his wife were visited by an angel. The angel actually came to his wife first. She went and told him that some unnamed person told her she would have a son and that she needed to raise him according to the Nazarite vow.

Then we see Manoah’s prayer. 8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “O Lord, I beg you, 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.”

God, how do we raise this child? Just asking the question causes a focus that isn’t there if we don’t ask the question. Because the question begs an answer, you focus on God and what he wants for your child. There are things he doesn’t want. You know what those are. God doesn’t want mom and Dad to abandon the child. He doesn’t want the child to grow up in a family with physical abuse and constant putdowns. He doesn’t want a child to grow up without exposure to God, Jesus and the Bible. Just asking the questions brings up a list of negatives.

I have found these negatives helpful. If we don’t know what to do, we almost always know what not to do.

God answers Manoah’s prayer. The angel of the Lord comes to his wife, she runs to Manoah and he comes out to the field with her. He now asks a very pertinent question:

12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy’s life and work?”

Here is the question asked again. “What will be the rule for the boy’s life and work? What is fitting for this boy? What is right for us to do for him as parents?”

This is what I am going to ask you as father to do.

1. Go home and pray to God, how do you want us to raise this child?
2. Discuss with your wife, what standards are we going to place around our children?
3. Share with your children your spiritual goals. Samson knew of his parents vow for him.

Just asking for these things under the umbrella of God’s will may change the tone of your home.

24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him

The Lord blessed him because he chose to bless him. But part of that blessing was the faithfulness of his parents. If you raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they have a greater chance of having God’s blessing on their lives.

And if they fall away, what you gave will never leave them. Samson calls on God in the last hours of his life. Franklin Graham returns to follow the Lord after doing drugs and living in rebellion. Some of you may have that same testimony.

I don’t know why, but I do know that how we as Father’s treat and interact with our children will have a huge impact on whether or not they living under God’s blessing.