Manoah and His Wife Facts for 9-13 Year Olds

Categories: Samson

Manoah’s name means “rest.”
He belongs to the tribe of Dan and lives just north of the Tribe of Judah.
He is the father of Samson.
His wife is not named; she is referred to as the wife of Manoah.
She is childless.
It never says that she prays, but surely she is praying for a child.
One day an angel appears to her and tells her that she will give birth to a son.
The announcement comes with the condition that she refrain from drinking any wine.
She is also not to eat anything unclean.
The son’s head should never by touched by a razor because he “is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
Obviously, the woman is very excited.
Keeping her wits about her, she calmly goes to tell her husband.
She fully trusts that he will understand her communication with the angel.
She says to him, “A man of God came to me.”
She never asks his name.
She repeats word for word what the angel has said.
Manoah prays that God will send the angel back to teach them “how to bring up the boy….”
God hears the prayer of Manoah.
One day, the angel comes again to Manoah’s wife while she is out in the field when her husband is not with her.
She runs to get her husband saying, “He’s here. The man who appeared to me the other day!”
Manoah follows her. He asks the man, “Are you the man that talked to my wife?”
The angel replies that he is.
Manoah asks, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”
The angel repeats the instructions he has already given to Manoah’s wife.
In gratitude, Manoah invites him to stay while they prepare a young goat for him.
The angel refuses to eat anything but suggests they offer that goat for a burnt offering to the Lord.
Manoah asks the angel his name, “so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”
The angel replies that his name is “beyond understanding.”
Manoah follows his instruction and takes the young goat with the grain offering and sacrifices it on a rock to the Lord.
While the flame blazes high, the angel ascends.
Manoah and his wife fall with their faces to the ground.
Both are convinced they have seen “God,” and Manoah exclaims, “We are doomed to die!”
His wife, however, comforts him saying, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and grain offering, nor shown us all these things.”
Manoah’s wife gives birth to a boy and names him Samson.
Little is known about their family life.
When Samson is grown and ready to marry, he sees a young Philistine woman. He asks his father and mother to get her for him.
They reply: “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people?”
Samson, however, is insistent, demanding his father “get her for me!”
Nothing they say dissuades Samson.
It is his parents’ responsibility to negotiate terms for the bride, even when they oppose the marriage.
His parents attend the marriage.
There is no further information about them in the story.
However, when Samson is laid to rest, he is placed in his father’s tomb by his “brothers and his father’s whole family.” This suggests that Manoah and his wife have additional children.