1-She was barren.
2-She received counsel on how to care for her body and her baby during pregnancy.
3-She seemed to have a good relationship with her husband and they seemed to be unified in their desire to raise a righteous family.
4-She and her husband asked for guidance on raising Samson and helping him fulfill his purpose here on Earth before he was even born.
1-The first thing we learn about Samson's mother is that she is barren. Being barren is a very common thing among the women of the Old Testament. When I was going through my struggle with infertility it was one of the hardest trials I have ever faced. I was able to find some comfort from the stories of these women that struggled with the same thing. However, I didn't know until I began my study of Samson's mother that she was included in the barren women category. I still find strength in reading these scriptures and I feel like I can understand and empathize with these women a little better because of my own trial.
2-An angel appeared to Samson's mother and told her that she would conceive and bear a son. The angel counseled her on how to take care of her body and her baby while she was pregnant. Now a days you can find more advise and counsel than you could possibly want in that subject, but back then there was very little known on things like the effects of alcohol on a fetus. While I was pregnant I tried to be very cautious about the things I ate and drank. And now that I am breastfeeding I still need to be aware of the things that I'm putting in my body since these things also effect my son's health and nourishment.
3 and 4-After Samson's mother spoke with the angel she went and told her husband, Manoah. He asked the Lord to give him the same information. As a side note: I found it interesting that even though Manoah asked the Lord to show him the same things, the angel again appeared to Samson's mother. After the angel appeared she went to get her husband and they were able to speak with the angel and asked him about how they should raise Samson. Samson was foreordained before birth. The angel told his mother and father that he would be a Nazerite and that he would help save Israel from the Philistines. He had a big mission to fulfill and his mom and dad wanted to know how to help prepare him for it. I think about my relationship with Michael and how we want to raise Nathan. We both want to teach him the gospel, teach him to work, to serve, to love the Lord, among a lot of other things. Sometimes I think that he is too little for us to begin teaching right now because he's only now beginning to reach for toys and hold his head up better. However, Samson's parents began asking for guidance before Samson was even born. I think we can begin now to establish good habits of reading scriptures, praying, having family home evening, etc. so that when he is old enough to understand we won't have to make big changes and it will already be apart of his routine.
Just one last thing- as I studied Samson's mom I kept wondering how Samson turned out the way he did. I had an institute teacher in college that referred to him as "a big, stupid jock that never learned his lesson." His mother and father seemed like wonderful, faithful people that did their very best to raise him in the gospel and according to God's will. The Old Testament Student Manual summarizes it pretty well, "Heralded by an angel, born of a barren woman, blessed with tremendous gifts from the Lord, Samson should have lived one of the greatest lives in scriptural record. Instead, his life was one of self-indulgence, immorality, selfish seeking for revenge, and violation of the covenant. Samson's life is truly one of the great tragedies of history." His parents did the best they could, but ultimately we all have our agency and Samson used his to make some pretty dumb choices.
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