Grace in a Barren Place Text: Judges 13:2-7
Introduction: The Logic of the Impossible
The book of Judges is a grim and bloody book. It is a book of cycles, a downward spiral of apostasy, oppression, crying out, and deliverance. It is the story of what happens when every man does what is right in his own eyes, which is to say, what is wrong in God's eyes. And right when the story seems to be at its darkest, when Israel has been handed over to the Philistines for forty years, God decides to move. But we must pay close attention to how He moves. God's methods are not our methods. His ways are not our ways.
When men want to accomplish something great, they look for strength, for resources, for existing power. They look for a full treasury, a mighty army, a competent committee. When God wants to accomplish something great, He consistently, almost stubbornly, looks for emptiness. He looks for weakness. He looks for the impossible. He goes to the barren womb. This is a pattern woven throughout all of Scripture. Sarai is barren, and from her comes the promised seed. Rebekah is barren, and from her comes the nation of Israel. Rachel is barren, and from her comes Joseph. Hannah is barren, and from her comes Samuel, the great prophet. And here, in the dark days of the Philistine oppression, God begins His work of deliverance not in a palace, but in the quiet grief of a barren woman from the tribe of Dan.
This is not just a recurring plot device. It is a foundational theological principle. God does this to show that salvation is of the Lord. He brings life out of death, fruitfulness out of emptiness, so that no flesh may boast in His presence. The barren womb is a stage God builds to display His glory. It is a physical picture of our spiritual condition apart from Him: empty, unable, and without hope. And it is into that very condition that He delights to speak His creative, life-giving Word. The story of Samson's birth is not first a story about a strong man. It is a story about a strong God, a God who specializes in impossibilities.
We are introduced to a man named Manoah and his unnamed wife. We are told two things about her: she was barren, and she had borne no children. The repetition is for emphasis. Her condition is total. It is a settled fact. But God is about to intervene, and His intervention will set in motion the deliverance of His people, and it will do so in a way that points forward to an even greater deliverance, and an even more impossible birth.
The Text
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children.
Then the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall be with child and give birth to a son.
So now, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.
For behold, you shall be with child and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.
And he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall be with child and give birth to a son, so now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, and you shall not eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”
(Judges 13:2-7 LSB)
The Divine Intrusion (v. 2-3)
We begin with the setting and the startling announcement.
"And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. Then the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, 'Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall be with child and give birth to a son.'" (Judges 13:2-3)
Notice the ordinariness of the scene. A certain man, from a certain place. Nothing remarkable. And his wife, whose defining characteristic is her lack, her emptiness. This is the raw material God chooses. Then comes the intrusion: "the angel of Yahweh appeared." We must not read this as though it were just any angel. This is a specific title. The Angel of Yahweh in the Old Testament is a divine figure who speaks as God, receives worship as God, and is identified with God. This is a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And who does He appear to? Not to Manoah, the head of the household, but to the woman. God often works this way, honoring the lowly and working through unexpected channels. The angel begins by stating the obvious, the very source of her pain: "Behold now, you are barren." He is not mocking her. He is acknowledging her reality, her impossibility, before He overturns it. He is touching the wound before He heals it. God meets us where we are, in our barrenness.
And then comes the gospel promise, the word that creates reality: "but you shall be with child and give birth to a son." This is pure grace. She did not ask for this. She was not praying for this, as far as the text tells us. This is a sovereign, unilateral act of God. He is initiating deliverance for Israel, and He begins it with an act of creation in a barren womb. This is the pattern of salvation. God speaks His promise into our deadness, and that word brings life.
The Consecrated Life (v. 4-5)
The promise comes with instructions. This will be no ordinary son, and so his life, and even his mother's life during the pregnancy, must be set apart.
"So now, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall be with child and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines." (Judges 13:4-5 LSB)
The Nazirite vow, described in Numbers 6, was typically a voluntary and temporary vow for an adult. It involved three main prohibitions: abstaining from grape products, not cutting one's hair, and avoiding contact with dead bodies. It was a vow of special consecration to the Lord. But Samson is different. His is a lifelong vow, and it is not one he chooses. It is imposed upon him by God from the womb. Even more, the restrictions are placed on his mother before he is even conceived. This shows that his consecration is total, and it is entirely God's doing.
This child is to be set apart for a divine purpose. The word Nazirite means "separated one." This separation is not for its own sake; it is for the sake of his mission. He is set apart to God for a task: "he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines." Notice the word "begin." Samson is not the final savior. He is a type, a forerunner. He is a flawed and fleshly picture of the true Savior who would come later. His miraculous birth from a barren womb points to the even more miraculous virgin birth. His lifelong Nazirite consecration points to the perfect, sinless consecration of Jesus, who was truly "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26).
Samson's strength would be in his hair, which was the outward sign of his vow. His strength was not in the hair itself, but in what the hair represented: his submission to and dependence upon God. When he broke the vow, he lost his strength, because he had abandoned the terms of his consecration. This is a lesson for us. Our spiritual strength lies not in our own abilities, but in our consecration to God, our glad submission to His terms.
The Faithful Report (v. 6-7)
The woman's response to this stunning encounter is immediate and proper. She goes to her husband.
"Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, 'A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.'" (Judges 13:6 LSB)
She demonstrates both godly fear and godly submission. She recognizes the visitor as a "man of God," but his appearance was so majestic that she compares it to "the angel of God, very awesome." She has seen something of the divine glory. Her response is not chatty curiosity. She doesn't pepper him with questions. She is rightly terrified. She understands this is a solemn and holy moment. She notes that she did not ask his origin or his name. This is significant. Later, when Manoah asks the Angel His name, He will reply, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?" (Judges 13:18). His name is a secret, because He is the one whose name would later be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
She then gives a faithful report to her husband, her head.
"And he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall be with child and give birth to a son, so now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, and you shall not eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’" (Judges 13:7 LSB)
She relays the message accurately. She understands the terms. The promise is repeated, and the conditions are laid out. She operates as a faithful messenger, bringing the word of God to her husband. This is a beautiful picture of how headship and submission are meant to function. God spoke to her, but she did not use this private revelation to usurp her husband's authority. She brought the word she received and laid it before him. She did not say, "God spoke to me, so here's what we are doing." She said, "A man of God came to me, and here is what he said." This allows Manoah to then step into his role as the head, to seek God himself, and to lead their family in responding to this divine command.
Her report is straightforward and exact. She adds one detail: "to the day of his death," emphasizing the lifelong nature of the vow. She has heard the word, she has believed the word, and she has reported the word. This simple faith is the soil in which God's mighty works begin to grow.
The Gospel in the Barren Womb
This entire scene is saturated with the gospel. It is a story about God's sovereign grace breaking into a hopeless situation. The barrenness of Manoah's wife is a picture of Israel's spiritual and political state. They are fruitless, oppressed, and unable to save themselves. And it is a picture of every sinner before conversion. We are spiritually barren, unable to produce any righteousness that pleases God.
Into this barrenness comes the Angel of Yahweh, the pre-incarnate Christ, with a promise of life. He does not come because they are worthy. He comes because He is gracious. He announces a birth that is impossible by natural means, signifying that the salvation He brings is supernatural. "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).
The child, Samson, is a savior, but a deeply flawed one. He will "begin" to save Israel. His life is a series of spectacular victories mixed with tragic moral failures. He is a type, a signpost pointing to the true and better Samson. Jesus is the true Nazirite, perfectly set apart to God from the womb. His birth was not just from a barren womb, but a virgin womb, an even greater impossibility. Where Samson's strength was in his hair, a symbol of his vow, Christ's strength was in His own perfect, unbroken communion with the Father.
Samson began to save Israel through mighty acts of strength, often fueled by vengeance. Christ accomplished a far greater salvation, not by killing His enemies, but by dying for them. Samson pulled down a pagan temple on himself and his enemies in his death. In His death, Christ pulled down the temple of sin and death itself, and in His resurrection, He built a new temple, the Church, in three days. Samson's story begins with a promise spoken into barrenness. Our story begins the same way. God speaks His gospel promise into our dead hearts, and by His sovereign power, He makes us alive together with Christ. He takes our barrenness and makes us fruitful for His glory.