Samson's mom

This is a strange little story. The angel of the Lord appears to a woman in the time of Israel's history when "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25)---in other words, a time when there was chaos and immorality and self-destruction and being overrun by foreigners. (Sound familiar?)

The angel of the Lord told the woman, who was barren, that she would conceive and bear a son and that "he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines" (Judges 13:5). The woman ran and told the head of her household, her husband, Manoah. He in turn prayed to God that the mysterious visitor would come back. God heard his prayer and the angel of the Lord came back again---to the woman. (The husband missed being there a second time.)

But Manoah followed his wife around until he finally got to see the angel of the Lord himself. Then there was an awkward little supper invitation scene, followed by a burnt offering, after which the angel of the Lord went up toward heaven. When they were alone again, Manoah told his wife he was afraid that they were going to die now because they had seen God. "But his wife said to him, 'If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these'" (Judges 13:23).

In the very next verse we learn that she bore a son and called his name Samson.

And in one felled swoop, Manoah's wife showed me that God is very pleased when we do not merely sit in our pews on Sunday and let the preacher preach words at us, but when we actually think hard about the things God says. The Lord likes us to put one word together with another, and one Scripture together with another, and reflect logically and creatively on how the Word of God bears on our present situation. This personal activity is no doubt part of what it means to "love the Lord with all your mind."

When we spend time thinking carefully and deeply about God's Word---before we open our mouths to answer someone, before we make decisions, before we write that nasty letter, before we take that offered promotion at work---I think God feels loved.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.