Most Jewish people today are very family oriented, and take seriously their responsibility of caring for other family members. Rebels in a family are still accused of bringing shame on the whole clan. Notice how often we read in the Old Testament the identification of a person by their tribe.

These verses remind me of films we may have seen where a group of people was camping around the town of an enemy. Everyone was afraid. Nobody had any idea what to do! So a delegation was sent under a banner of peace to find out what the enemy wanted.

It seems from this chapter that Samson had no common sense, and very little spiritual discernment. We never read of him asking God what to do. He was chosen from birth and given supernatural strength to do what God planned for him. That was to have victory over the Philistines.

The Vengeance of Samson on the Philistines. This chapter tells us of the ungodly attitude this judge of Israel had towards his enemies. But in those Old Testament times, it seems as though fighting was the way to make progress! Some cultures of our world today still think that way!

It is hard to believe that Samson was chosen by God to lead Israel. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways! He used Samson to make the Philistines think twice before attacking the Israelite nation. The problem was not the size of their army, it was the strength of their leader!

It seems that the people of this town where his wife lived were the ones to choose the entourage for this wedding celebration! That is a strange thought for us. The people we invite to our own wedding would be our family and friends, not people we do not know!

What a strange episode this is, creating many unanswered questions. If Samson was with his parents, how could they not have been aware of his episode with this lion? And why did he not tell them what had happened? Why did The Lord not prevent the lion from attacking Samson?

Once dedicated to God, we can find ourselves being used in some strange situations. Often wondering how we got there! This was the case for the parents of Samson! God used different ways to bring the Israelites back to Him. In this case it was an enemy wife for Samson.

The angel announcing the birth of Samson, gave the parents no instructions about his name. So we can suppose that Manoah and his wife chose the name themselves. Samson means Sun. This child must have brought a lot of sunshine into the home of this couple, even before his birth.

The parents God chose for Samson the strong man, a future leader in Israel, had an angelic visitation. But they did not recognise it until he disappeared upwards to Heaven! The reaction of Manoah on realising that this had been no ordinary visitor was to fear that they would die!