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Jephthah judged Israel six years,
and then died. And now the people began again to sin against the
Lord, and He gave them up to their enemies the Philistines for forty
years. This was a long time to be in sorrow and trouble; but the
Israelites deserved punishment. Many times they had displeased God,
and now He showed them again the evil of sin, by letting them
suffer. But God did not forget His people, though He punished them;
He knew how to deliver at the right time, and He had a deliverer ready to
save them when He pleased. There
was a good man in the tribe of Dan, named Manoah. He and his wife
both served God. They had no child. One day, an angel of the
Lord appeared to Manoah's wife, and said, "Soon God will give thee a
son, who shall deliver Israel from the Philistines. No razor must
come upon him, for he shall be a Nazarite unto God." Who
were the Nazarites? They were people who had made a vow to give
themselves to God. They did not drink wine, nor any strong liquor;
and they never cut their hair nor shaved their heads. Manoah's
wife wondered very much to hear what the angel said, and she went and told
her husband. Manoah believed it all, for he had great faith in
God. He knew that nothing was too wonderful for God to do: and
he felt very thankful for God's promise to deliver Israel by the child who
should soon be born. But Manoah feared that he and his wife might
forget what the angel had said, and not bring up their child rightly; so
he prayed God to send the angel to them again, to tell them what they must
do. God heard Manoah's
prayer. A few days after, the woman was sitting alone in the field,
and she looked up, and saw the angel again standing by her; then she ran
directly, and called her husband. Manoah followed his wife, and came
to the angel, and asked, "What shall we do to the child when he is
born?" The angel told them what he had told the woman before,
and then Manoah said, "Stay here till we have made ready a kid for
thee." The angel answered, "I will not eat of thy bread;
and if thou wilt offer a sacrifice, offer it to God." Manoah
did not know who the angel was, and he asked again, "What is thy
name?" But the angel answered, "Why dost thou ask my
name? It is a very secret, and a very wonderful name."
Then Manoah offered a kid in sacrifice to the Lord upon the rock, and God
sent fire upon the sacrifice to consume it, and Manoah and his wife looked
at the angel, and they saw him going up to heaven in the flame of
fire. Then they both fell upon their faces in holy fear and wonder,
and Manoah said, "Now we shall die, because we have seen God." The
woman said to her husband, "Do not be afraid. God has just
shown us wonderful things, and has accepted our sacrifice, and He can not
surely wish to hurt or frighten us." No, the Lord never does
anything to hurt His people; He comes to them in love; and they are happy
people who have Jesus for their Friend, as Manoah and his wife had.
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