Iron Sharpens Iron #17: Father's Day 2026: Manoah, Father of Samson

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Plan

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Welcome to Beren's Corner, the podcast where we go through books of the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Wherever you are in the world, thank you for joining. Grab a glass of water, a cup of coffee, a tea, and let's get into today's lesson.

Father’s Day And A Different Angle

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Today is Father's Day 2026, and I wanted to do a different lesson today. Today I want to talk about a I want to talk about Fathers. First of all, happy Father's Day to you. No matter what continent you're on, if they celebrate Father's Day there, listen, yes, we know that it's a man-made of traditional holiday, but it's still a holiday that us that they made for a lot of us fathers to celebrate and have a day of recognition and remembrance. And I am not one that's opposed to that or think that there's anything wrong with that. So if that's your thing, happy Father's Day to you. What I want to do is I want to talk about fathers in the Bible. So I was going through uh some of my research and I was thinking about fathers who are not always recognized. Now, you have heard about certain fathers like Joseph, the uh earthly father of Jesus. You hear about a lot. You've heard about Abraham, you heard about Isaac and Jacob, uh, you've heard about Noah, uh, you hear about a lot of these uh, I would say, uh more famous fathers who stand out, and you have heard sermons and you've heard people talk about them a lot. But I wanted to find a father that is not as well known, maybe not to some of you, and uh talk about this father here

Why Manoah Matters

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on Father's Day. And the father that we are going to talk about today is Manoah. And if you don't know who Manoah is, he is the father of Samson. Now, Samson is well known, but his father Manoah is not. So if you want to follow along with me, if you have your Bible handy, go to Judges chapter 13, and we're gonna look at uh chapter 13, and we're gonna look at part of chapter 14, and let's learn something about Manoah and what kind of father he was. Starting at verse 1 of

Judges 13 Sets The Scene

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in chapter 13. Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines, of the Philistines 40 years. And there was a certain man of Zarah of the family of the Danonites, whose names whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and had no children. So now we are introduced to the man, Manoah. He is of the tribe of Dan, and he is married to a barren wife. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing, for behold, you shall conceive 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 deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines. Now, this angel of the Lord shows up to Manoah's wife, it doesn't tell tell us her name, and tells her that the reason you're not gonna have strong drink or wine is because this young man is going to be a Nazirite, this child who you are going to give birth to. 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. But he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

Manoah’s Immediate Faith And Prayer

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Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O Lord, please let the man of God whom thou hast sent come to us again, that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born. Now notice that Manoah went immediately into belief. His wife tells him that a man of God appeared to her and said, You will no longer be barren, but you are going to have a son. She tells her husband, her husband believes it, and notice what Manoah does. He goes right into prayer, which is something that us fathers should be doing for our families and for our children. You go into prayer and you ask the Lord to lead you and guide you even before these children are born. Look what he said, Oh Lord, please let the man of God who now has sent come to us again, that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born. So he is already praying for guidance of what to do with this child before this child is even born, and which is a lesson to us. You know, for us, uh for for though I should say for those of you who are future parents or would will be parents, already start praying and asking the Lord for the guidance of how to lead. Okay, so I'm sorry, verse 9. God

The Angel Returns And "I Am"

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listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, Behold, a man who came the other day has appeared to me. Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man, he said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman and he said, I am. Don't overlook that part where the angel of the Lord said, I am. Manoah's wife goes and get him. Manoah takes off running with his wife back to the field. The man is standing there, and the man says, Yes. It was it was me, it was I am who was standing here talking to your wife. Manoah said, Now, when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy's mode of life and his vocation? So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, let the woman pay attention to all that I said. So the angel of the Lord is telling Manoah, I told all of these things to your wife. She should not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. Let

A Name Called Wonderful

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her observe all that I commanded. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a kid for you. Now he's saying, Let us detain you, because remember, this was the time of hospitality. So in other words, let us give you a place to lodge, let us give you a place to wash your feet and wash up, let us give you something to eat. The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. He seems that this is just a man of God, but he does not realize that he's talking to I am. So he said, No, I will not eat, but I will take a sacrifice. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name? So that when your words come to pass, we may honor you. But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name? seeing it is wonderful. Now you and I know that wonderful is a name for our father. That's one of his many names. He is no, he is called Wonderful. So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord,

Fire, Worship, And Holy Fear

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and he performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. Who is he? The angel of the Lord. For it came about when the flame went up from the altar towards heaven, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. Why? Because they realized that they were in the presence of the Lord himself. When the flame went up, he went up to heaven with the flame. Now the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah or his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. So Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. But his wife said to him, If the Lord had desired to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would he have shown us all these things, nor would he have let us hear things like this at this time. Now his wife is understanding what's going on. If the Lord wanted to take us away, if he was, you know, could because we saw his face as the angel of the Lord, he would not have even asked us for a burnt offering, he just would have taken us out.

Samson Grows Up In Judges 14

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Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. And the child grew up, and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahanadan between Zorah and uh and Ishtiel. So the angel of the Lord shows up to this barren woman, tells this barren woman that she is going to have a son. Her and her husband have been praying for this. She tells her husband this. Her husband goes into immediate prayer to the Lord and asks the Lord to let the man of God come back again to teach us these things. So Noah, so excuse me, Mud Noah goes into instant belief. And see, as fathers, that's where we need to be. When the Lord gives you a vision or a dream, and it's about your kids, you need to accept that thing and believe that thing. You need to go and honor the Lord in that thing and pray to him and ask the Lord to let all of these things come to pass and let all of these blessings that he already has in store planned for your children fall on your children. Move right into verse uh excuse me, chapter 14. Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. Now Samson has grown up now, it's been some

A Father’s Warning About Marriage

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years. So he came back and told his father, that's Manoah and mother, I saw a woman in Temnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me as a wife. Then his father, Manoah, and his mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our people that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she looks good to me. Now, did you hear that wisdom that his father Manoah gave to him? He said, Son, are there no women among your relatives or even amongst your own people who you can take as a wife? Why do you want to go to these uncircumcised Philistines? Why do you want to go to people who are outside of our belief and where we stand? See, that's a father giving his son wisdom, trying to guide his son, trying to lead his son and take his son on the right track. But did you notice what Samson said at the end of uh verse three? Get her for me, for she looks good to me. See, Samson has not learned these lessons. Samson is looking with his eyes and not with his spirit. He is uh letting his heart lead him instead of letting the spirit of the Lord lead him and listen to what his father says. It says, However, his father and mother did not know that it was the Lord, for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel. So they say that the Lord stirred this up. But I'm bringing up that love of a father and trying to give it some

Power, The Lion, And Hidden Choices

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advice. Then Samson went down to Temnah with his father and mother and came as far as the vineyards of Temnah, and behold, a young lion came roaring towards him, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a kid, though he had nothing in his hand, but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. Samson had this great power on him. He went down and talked to the woman, and she looked good to Samson. When he turned, excuse me, returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion, and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on eating as he went. When he came to his father, that's Manoah, and mother, he gave some of them and they ate it, but they did, but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion. Then his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there for the young men customarily did this, and it came about when they saw him that they brought 30 companions to be with him. Now notice that his father went down with Samson, and Samson made a feast. Something you gotta understand. Even though his father Manoa is giving him great

When Adult Kids Choose Anyway

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advice, Samson is still a young adult. He is a man and he's just doing what it is he wants to do. Now, it doesn't say that his father blessed what he did, it doesn't say that his father blessed his thoughts and his opinions on this, or it says it just said that his father went down with him because at some point children are going to do what they're going to do. But the lesson here is that children need to hinder to the voices of their father. Your father is always going to lead you right, he's going to always do what he thinks is best for you, and he is not going to put you in harm's way uh to it to his ability. Now, I'm saying to his ability because we don't know everything. We are not, we don't get to see, we don't get to see the future. God did not put the gift of prophecy in us like he did in some of these uh men back in this uh this old testament time. You know, we have to go on what the Lord has put in our spirit and our children are to feed off of that. But you can see here that Manoah is has done everything he can to lead Samson all of these uh couple of decades. So now I think Samson may be like in his, let's say as he's in his early to mid-20s to keep him on the straight and narrow path. He has done everything to be a good father. He's been praying, he prayed for Samson before Samson was born. He's been praying for Samson his whole life when he was a child. He kept him on that straight and narrow path because Samson was a Nazirite. Uh, but as you see, as Samson got older, Samson is doing some of the things he wants to do, and these things are gonna catch up with Samson later. Uh of course I'm not gonna go through all that right now. When the day comes when you and I are going through the book of Judges, we'll uh we'll dig deeper into this. But we know that these things will eventually get Samson in trouble. And I am going to uh jump ahead to the end, uh, just so you can see how things end sometime when you don't heed to the voice of your parents, you don't heed to the voice of your father, since we're talking about

Samson’s End And Manoah’s Tomb

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Father's Day. I'm jumping to chapter 16. Samson uh is about to tear down a temple, and uh it says uh in verse 30, so the dead whom he killed, this is talking about Samson at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. Then his brothers and all his father's household came down, took him, brought him up, and buried him between Zarah and Estiel in the tomb of Manoah his father. Thus he had judged Israel for 20 years. So Samson was taken out. I want to believe that Samson was maybe in his 40s at this time, but still that's young, and he was taken out before his time because he did not heed to the voice to the words of his father. Now, as far as we know, Manoah lived a long life. It doesn't tell us exactly when Manoah passed, but we know that Manoah is now dead, and Samson is buried in a tomb right next to his father. Probably a lot earlier than his father would have wanted to see his son in the tomb next to him, if you asked my opinion.

Honor Your Father And Listen

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So the point today is that honor your father. Uh remember that your father is going to have your best interest in hand. Take that time to sit at his feet and listen to him talk. Listen to him give you that worldly advice. Maybe sometimes when your father is talking to you, he is giving you things that he has actually been through, even if he doesn't tell you that. These are things that he's been through. These are these are hurts that he has caused himself and he has caused on others. And he's doing these things because he doesn't want you to go down that same path. He wants to lay a smooth path for you, as smooth as can be, so you can live a long, healthy life. And that is something that you shouldn't take for granted. If you have a father and he's still here, remember these words, you know, tell him how you feel about him, listen to his wisdom, and know that he did the best that he could do for you all throughout his life, and it will help you live a long, prosperous life in the Lord. All right, that brings us to today's lesson. Father's Day 2026. Like I said, I want to go at it from a different angle and talk about a father that many people don't know about. Some people have forgotten about. Who knows some some people may listen to this and say, hey, I know about Mano and his and his story, but this is really for those who hadn't. And uh that's exactly what I want to do. Find a father that uh we don't really hear a lot about in the scriptures. All right, that brings us to the end of this lesson. Once again, happy Father's Day 2026, and that is all for now. God bless. Thank you for listening to Bereen's Corner. We appreciate you joining us as we dive into God's word and seek biblical truth together. If this episode encouraged or challenged you, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. You can find Berean's Corner on Buzz Sprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon Music, and more. Let's stay connected. If you have questions, comments, or prayer requests, reach out to us at BereansCorner.buzzprout.com

Closing Blessing And How To Connect

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