Lessons from Manoah and his wife
This is an odd story. Every time I read it, it sticks out to me. Manoah and his wife were the parents of Samson. But how Samson's mother was depicted and how she was treated by her husband always puzzled me. She talked with the angel and relayed everything to her husband. Her husband clearly didn't believe her. I think even the angel was a little put off by his unbelief. Here we have a woman who is godly but her husband lags behind her in faith and belief. She has more sense than her husband spiritually (and maybe in other ways) yet we don't know her name. I thought that was unfair. Part of the reason she wasn’t believed right away was the fact that this was a patriarchal society and women didn’t have many rights. I don’t know how right that was (look at how Job treated his daughters and it’s a different story), but that’s how it was. If an eyewitness to a crime was a woman, her testimony wasn’t allowed in court. And, we have the Bible verses regarding when a woman under a man’s authority make a vow that is unwise, the man can disallow the vow when he hears it. I believe the point was to protect the hierarchy but also to protect women. Feel free to disagree. I know patriarchy has its problems, but those problems can be fixed by fixing men. Patriarchy is certainly better than everything else we came up with.
What value does this story have? God can be asked to repeat Himself and will honor that. It's important to listen to our spouse, especially if they have more spiritual sense than we do, regardless of how society tells us to appraise them. Also, it's important to be with a person who is spiritually mature. Manoah was helped through this process by his godly wife. She exceeded him spiritually. He was blessed to have her. He could have gotten in the way of what God was doing, but he did the right thing and asked to hear the message himself, even though he was not the one to take care of the child. He clearly didn't see the value that his wife brought to the table. He didn't respect her enough. What else do we see here? There is a lot going on. Feel free to comment!
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