Context No. 3431 of 4322 · Judges

Judges 13:11-15: in context

11Manoah arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” He said, “I am.” 12Manoah said, “Now let your words happen. What shall the child’s way of life and mission be?” 13The LORD’s angel said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. 14She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. Let her observe all that I commanded her.” 15Manoah said to the LORD’s angel, “Please stay with us, that we may make a young goat ready for you.”

Manoah, told by an angel that his barren wife will bear a son, does a wise thing: he asks God for more guidance. When the child comes, he prays, what is to be his manner of life, and what is his mission? He wants to know how to raise the child God is giving, how to prepare for the calling on his life.

There is a good instinct in this, a father seeking God's direction for how to bring up a child set apart for God's purposes. He does not simply receive the gift and go his own way; he asks how he and his wife should order their lives so the child can be raised as God intends. Parenting a child God has entrusted to us is itself a holy responsibility, and it is right to seek God's wisdom for it, to ask how shall we do this well? Manoah's prayer is a model, not only gratitude for the gift, but a humble seeking of guidance for how to steward it faithfully.

When God entrusts me with a responsibility or a person to care for, do I, like Manoah, seek his guidance for how to steward it faithfully?

Sources

Judges 13:12: "Now let your words happen. What shall the child's way of life and mission be?"
Judges 13:13: "Of all that I said to the woman let her beware."
Proverbs 22:6: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."