John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 20

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 20


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The Nazarite

Judges 13

There is no judge in Israel whose history is so fully related as that of Samson. It occupies four of the twenty chapters which compose the book of Judges. It is full of striking and marvellous incidents, arising from the great physical strength and the great moral weakness of the hero—mixed up with a prevailing and childlike trust in the Lord, in which lies all of greatness that belongs to his character. The history, in its main features, is familiar to all our readers from childhood. We need not, therefore, occupy our shortening space in the recapitulation of it, but may select for observation the facts which seem to us suitable for remark in these Daily papers.

Samson’s history commences before his birth. He is introduced with great pomp, which awakens expectations scarcely satisfied by the ultimate facts and real results of his career. This may not strike us at first, the events being so far uncommon as to appear great by their very singularity. But, closely considered, there are none of his feats, or all of them together, of near so much importance as the simple victories of Barak, Gideon, or Jephthah. This, we think, can only be accounted for by his great destinies having been marred by his vices and indiscretions, which incapacitated him from acting efficiently as the leader of the people, by rendering it impossible for them to trust in him, leaving him only to display the most astonishing acts of individual prowess that the world ever witnessed. Some have blamed the Israelites for not placing themselves under his guidance and crushing the Philistines, who were, in his time, the oppressors of Israel. But it seems to us that they were completely justified in withholding their confidence from him. A mere slave of the senses like him, who could repeatedly sacrifice or endanger the most important interests to a woman’s sigh, was not one into whose hands the elders and warriors of Israel could entrust their lives and fortunes. Had he wrought out the possibilities of his destiny, and had his character been equal to his gifts, there is no knowing to what greatness he might not have attained; but as it is, he left a name which is at once a miracle and a byword, a glory and a shame.

Of persons whose births were solemnly disclosed by angels before their birth, there are but two in the Old Testament; and Samson was one of them. This was a great and splendid distinction. In both instances the mothers were barren women, and had abandoned the hope of children, which, to both, greatly enhanced the importance of the communication. In the case of Isaac, the announcement was made to Abraham in the hearing of Sarah; in the case of Samson, it was made to the woman in the absence of her husband. The man to whose wife the angel came was of Zorah in the tribe of Dan, a place close upon the borders of the Philistine territory. His name was Manoah. We do not know that the appearance of an angel is anywhere in the historical Scriptures described with so much particularity as in this account. The wife herself, in describing him to her husband, says: “A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name.” By this it appears she took him in the first instance for a prophet sent from God, yet entertained the suspicion that he might be something more than human. A favorite old poet well describes the heavenly seen through the earthly, which must have given rise to this impression—

“In his face

Terror and sweetness labored for the place.

Sometimes his sun-bright eyes would shine so fierce

As if their pointed beams would even pierce

The soul, and strike the amaz’d beholder dead:

Sometimes their glory would disperse and spread

More easy flame, and like the star that stood

O’er Bethl’em, promise and portend some good

Mixt was his bright aspect, as if his breath

Had equal errands both of life and death

Glory and mildness seemed to contend

In his fair eyes.” Note: Quarles: History of Samson.

Again, in relating the same to Manoah—

“Appeared before mine eyes

A man of God: his habit and his guise

Were such as holy prophets used to wear:

But in his dreadful looks there did appear

Something that made me tremble; in his eye

Mildness was mixt with awful majesty.”

The angel, not yet fully known to be such, not only foretold the birth of a son, but gave directions as to the manner of his bringing up, seeing that he was to be “a Nazarite unto God from the womb.” His vocation as one to deliver, or rather, “to begin to deliver,” Israel from the Philistines, was indicated.

The law of Nazariteship is laid down in the books of Moses; Note: See Numbers 6. but this is the first instance we have of its practical application. The Nazarite (or separated one) was to be considered as in a special manner separated from ordinary life to religious purposes; and whose condition, as consecrated to the service, worship, and honor of God, was to be manifested by certain personal peculiarities and acts of self-denial. The chief personal peculiarity consisted in the hair being suffered to grow during the whole period—even if for life; and the chief self-denial in abstinence from wine and all strong drink. The obligation against the drinking of wine was secured from evasion by the fruit of the vine being forbidden in every shape from the kernels to the husk. This was a very mild asceticism—unlike what we now witness in the Pagan East, and even in Christian Europe. A Nazarite might eat, and drink, and marry, and possess, and mingle in society—and his condition, as under vows to the Lord, was manifested only by a becoming peculiarity, and by a wholesome abstinence. He was to take special care to keep himself from ceremonial pollution—particularly from such as was involved by contact with a dead body. He was not to make himself unclean by touching even the corpse of a relative. But if he did contract accidental defilement, he was to shave his head, and counting as lost all the time of his separation which had previously passed, was to begin anew. The obligation was usually undertaken for a limited time, but sometimes for the remainder of life. It might be imposed by parents upon their children, even before their birth—as in the case of Samuel; and in this case of Samson, as well as in that of John the Baptist, the condition was imposed, before birth, by Divine appointment. In these cases there was of course no such discharge from the obligations of the vow as existed when it was voluntarily undertaken, and for a limited time.

Although Samson was obviously made a Nazarite to indicate his being specially set apart to serve the Lord by the gift to be given to him—yet there was a peculiar fitness in its being imposed upon one to be so gifted with the utmost perfection of physical strength. For the hair was a sign and symbol of manly strength—inasmuch as men possess it more abundantly than women, and strong men more abundantly than weak. Wine and strong drink also impair the strength and clearness of the intellect. The retention of the hair, therefore, and the abstinence from vinous drinks, expressed the highest perfection of body and mind—the full possession of all his powers and capacities in the individual. This had an analogical conformity with the law which required that animals offered to the Lord in sacrifice, should be free from all blemish and defect.

It is worthy of note that when Manoah received from his wife this information, he fully believed that the angel’s promise would be fulfilled. Every one else to whom such a promise was ever made, whether by prophet or angel, received it with distrust. Abraham and Sarah “laughed;” the Shunamite woman said to Elisha, “Nay, my lord, do not lie unto thine handmaid;” and the father of John the Baptist, although a priest, and addressed by an angel under the most solemn circumstances, said, “Whereby shall I know this?” and was struck dumb for his unbelief; even the Virgin Mary said, “How can this thing be?” But Manoah, the only one who received no direct intimation from angel or prophet, had no hesitation in believing that what had been promised to his wife would come to pass. He was, however, not without fear that she might not clearly have apprehended the directions given to her; and therefore he implored the Lord that another interview with “the man of God” might be afforded. His suit was granted. The angel came again, when he was absent in the field. But his wife ran for him, and to him the seeming prophet repeated the instructions already given to the woman. Perfectly satisfied, Manoah proposed to offer the usual hospitality to the stranger, requesting him to tarry until a kid could be got ready for his entertainment. The stranger agreed to remain; but suggested that the kid should rather be presented as a burnt-offering to the Lord. During the delay Manoah entered into conversation with the stranger, and among other things ventured to ask his name, with the view, as he said, of rendering him becoming honor when his prediction should be fulfilled—probably by spreading the fact abroad, and also by presenting him with some proper token of acknowledgment. But the angel answered, “Wherefore askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret?” By this time Manoah may have suspected the heavenly nature of his guest, and all doubt was removed, when the kid was presented; for the angel then disappeared, ascending upward in the flame and smoke of the offering.