More Christophanies in today's reading...evidence of God the Son in the Old Testament.

Manoah's wife was sterile until she was visited by an angel of the Lord. When his wife saw the man of God she thought He looked like an angel. In Manoah's encounter with this same man of God, Manoah recognized that this man of God was the angel of the Lord. Manoah inquired of Him, “Are you the one who talked to my wife.”

The angel identified Himself just as He did with Moses at the burning bush, as “I am.”

Then Manoah asked His name, just as Jacob did in the “wrestling” incident with the man.

Then this most wonderful of images…Manoah and his wife witnessed the ascension. They knew they had seen God because they thought they were doomed to die…same thing that Gideon said when he saw the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Son of God!

Oh, and the son born of the sterile wife of Manoah? None other than the man Samson.

Samson was a Nazarite, set apart from birth to begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. The spirit of the Lord came upon him in power and he was able to do great and powerful things.

"The Spirit of the Lord began to stir him..." What exactly does that mean to have the Spirit of the Lord stir a person? The Hebrew word is "pa-am" and means "to thrust, agitate, be disturbed, troubled". Now if the Spirit of the Lord is the one doing the stirring, it must be to agitate a person to do something godly, or to be disturbed about sin, or be troubled about current events that are not going the way they should. In 2012, many people were reading the book, The Harbinger. We were stirred to DO something. 

Samson taking a Philistine wife was "of the Lord", which means this was in the plan in order to fulfill the purposes of God.

Because he was a Nazarite, Samson was to use no razor on his head, and yet he allowed his head to be shaved, breaking his vow. After this the Lord left him.  The length of his hair had nothing to do with his strength.  His strength came from God.

Samson did redeem himself later when he began the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. He accomplished what God intended him to do. God's will WILL be done!