Judges 13

Bible Passage: Judges 13

In this chapter, we see the events that led up to the birth of the strongest man to have ever walked the earth, Samson. In brief, the Angel of the Lord told the wife of Manoah (a man from Zorah) about the forthcoming birth of Samson, who would deliver the Israelites from the Philistine. After she had told Manoah everything, he prayed that he might see the Man again, and he did. He asked the Angel of God some questions and in the end made an offering. After the Angel of God had ascended, Manoah believed. And… Samson was eventually born.

Now… What would you be thinking about Manoah, who happens to be our main focus in today’s entry?

Was he very “kan cheong” (meaning: nervous, hurried or uptight)? As in he got so excited about this piece of news and with the Angel of God? Or perhaps he was being kinda doubtful? Didn’t immediately believe what his wife told him or what the Angel of God said to him at first?

To be honest, I was initially thinking of the second likelihood, that he was being doubtful, and in a slightly negative way.

However, I did ask a brother about this, and he offered me a different angle… In a way, he did say it was like doubting, but for good reason. And that Manoah was being careful.

At the beginning of the chapter, we see that, because Israel had done evil in the sight of the Lord, He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines. And for 40 years! Perhaps, we could say that during that time, God was not with them, as their punishment.

And then suddenly, Manoah’s wife got a message from the Angel of the Lord, telling her about the birth of Samson, and what cannot be done. If you were in Manoah’s shoes, wouldn’t you be kinda surprised? After so long being in the hands of the Philistines, you hear of this wonderful and seemingly too-good-to-be-true news, that your son to come will deliver you guys from the enemy? To be fair, Manoah had a good reason to be a little cautious. However, he did have the faith to pray that He would return to tell him those things again, and God heard (v. 9).

And even when he did meet the Angel of the Lord, he was still being cautious and showing some level of discernment when he asked Him again the words He had revealed to his wife. He remained wary up till the point where the Angel of God ascended in the flame of the altar, and that was when he believed 100%.

I’m sure that we have heard of many cases where people thought they had received some divine messages or visions from God, and believed in them very hastily, only to discover (usually by other people, not themselves) that they had been sucker punched by the devil, drawing them further away from God.

Very often, people might think that seeing glorious light in their visions, or what looks like heavenly angels undoubtedly proves that they had seen visions from heaven, and that the messages that they had been given were from God. No way, no how they could be from the devil… Correct?

*Buzzer*… Wrong!

For such are false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11: 13-14)

From the above verses, the Bible tells us that the devil can make himself appear to be like an angel of light, or one who is of Christ (just basically looks correct and good and all that kinda stuff to make you believe that it’s from God). But of course, beneath that holy exterior, is the same old evil waiting to devour us if we let our guard down. And apart from seeing wonderful “revelations”, we are also exposed to other tricks of the devil (and I’m not talking about card tricks). And one of those famous ones are in the form of false teachers.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (Mt 24: 11)

For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Mt 24: 24)

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:

As we all know, we are in the end times now. And as Jesus had warned us in the gospel of Matthew, there will rise many false teachings and teachers that will come to deceived us, to take us away from the truth and the salvation grace. Sadly, we all have heard of many who had fallen because they had been led astray by these Decepticons (sorry… always wanted to use that word…). These false things can also show great signs and miracles, or in the name of fooling whose who are not cautious like Manoah was.

Paul even told us that if any other brethren, or anything/one that looks like an angel were to tell us a different gospel from what is being taught to us by the Bible, we must not believe. Plus those Decepticons (ah.. again…) will be accursed. Putting this in another way, we must not be fooled by the exterior, or what we see that would lead us to believe. Rather, we have to exercise good judgment and discernment, and be careful, like what Manoah had done in his case.

We have to be firm and sure of what we believe in in order to be able to guard ourselves from these wiles of the devil. We have to constantly pray for spiritual wisdom and understanding from God, for His guidance to protect us. We cannot be too hasty in deciding what is from God and what is not. With human understanding, I think discernment would be almost impossible (Editor’s note – It would be IMPOSSIBLE).

But, with the spiritual wisdom from God, we will be able to make spiritual discernment to set apart the things of God and of Satan. Therefore, we have to equip ourselves with the armour of God, so that we will be able to stand firm till the end.

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Eph 6: 11, 13)