Meet the Parents

They mean well.

But gosh. Samson’s parents strike me as about as unzipped as Ferris Bueller’s mom and dad.

Later on they bear an awkard resemblance to Veruca Salt’s father in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But that’s to tackle another day.

When Samson’s screenplay was scripted, somehow or other his parents slipped into that two-dimensional caricature of parents who are endearing but just a little empty-headed.

Cute but clueless.

But they mean well.

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When the angel first appeared to Mrs. Manoah, their visit was brief and cordial. He brought news, gave instruction, and moved on. Most times when an angel had a face-to-face with a person, the first words out of the angel’s mouth amount to “Fear not.” Angels almost always started their conversations with words of comfort to a terrified soul.

Not this time. With Samson’s mother, there was none of the usual gasping, panicking and falling onto face at standing in the presence of an angel. They just took care of business.

He left and she hurried off to tell her husband. She at least had the sense to know he was a man of God, but she stopped short of recognizing his true stature.

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. (Judges 13:6)

Well, Honey, he sure did look like everything I ever imagined an angel to be.  But I don’t know. I’m thinking prophet. Not angel.

To their credit, they took his words to heart. The angel told Samson’s mother she would bear a son though she could not, and that they were to raise him as a Nazirite, set apart to God in the most set apart way a guy could be (we’ll also tackle that another day). This boy would be the beginning of Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines.

Manoah knew this was big, and wanted to get it right. He wanted to talk to this man himself.

So he prayed. He begged God to send the man back and make sure they got it straight.

This is a prayer God loves to answer. Help me know what You want.

This is a prayer He doesn’t think twice about.

True to form, God sent the angel back.

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The angel ran through the plan again, same as before.

Set him apart.

No wine, no dead bodies, no haircuts.

In preparation, Samson’s mother was not to eat anything unclean nor drink any fermented beverage.

Ok, got it.

They were so grateful for this news they pleaded with the angel to stay for a meal. He agreed to stay, but not to eat, and urged them instead to prepare a burnt sacrifice to the Lord.

These folks may have been a bit dizzy, but they never were doubtful. They seemed unaffected by the presence of this angel, awesome though he was, but never found reason to doubt that his message was true.

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They prepared the sacrifice, and much like the angel who spoke to Gideon (perhaps one and the same?), he disappeared into the flame and they did not see him again.

Then, finally, the shock and awe struck home. In a word, Manoah freaked.

Suddenly, he realized this was no man of God. This was no prophet. This was the Lord’s angel.

And they were done for.

“We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” (Judges 13:22)

They were a little slow, sure. But when the dawning came, it pulled the ground out from under them. When they realized it was God, it blew the doors right out of the house.

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I see the Buellers, leaning over the altar with their dopey grins, when the horror crosses their faces like the curtains opening wide.

Ahhhh! We’ve seen God! We’re going to die!

And has become my custom as I plod along in Judges, as soon as I start to make that clucking sound with my tongue and shake my head at a character, I see me.

Painfully, honestly me.

How often I see something of God. I see His mighty work. And I go all Katie Bueller and just don’t get it. I give God the patronizing grin, nod along as though I get what He’s doing.

Even though I don’t.

And then, Bam!

He shows me.

He shows me His plan.

He shows me Him.

And then I don’t nod. I don’t grin.

I fall flat.

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