Prayers About Child Rearing Series

The NIV translates it as "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy’s life and work?" I underlined the word "rule" in this translation for it is also found in Strong’s Concordance as a translation of the word order. Therefore, I believe Manoah was asking the angel of the LORD for the way they were to raise Samson, and according to what rule was he to be held up against?

B. How shall we do unto him?

Again, we have a strange statement to our ears. In the center reference of my KJV Bible it says "what shall he do?" That makes alot more sense than "how shall we do unto him?" What will be his living since he will be a Nazarite?

Does the angel of the LORD answer these two question in great detail? Not in the passage for he had already given the answers to these question in verse 5 when he first came to Manoah’s wife. This is why the answer that is given in verse 13 is so short and to the point "Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware." Of course, this could be taken to only be speaking of the woman herself, but it does say "of all". I believe that Manoah was being told that he already had all the answers he needed for they had already been told the first time. Possibly Manoah wanted to hear the words himself, but one thing can be learned here about prayer - we need not ask for that which God has already given! How often do we have the answer staring us in the face and yet we continue to beseech God to answer our prayer(s)! We need to accept what God has already done, and even ask Him to make the answer clear so that we know when He has answered. There is another side to this principle. It has to do with the revealed will of God that has been given to us in the Word of God. So many believers sit around moaning and complaining about one thing or another, when the answers are right in the Word of God. We do not need to ask for God’s will about a certain matter if it is already clearly revealed in the Word of God. We need to accept it the first time rather than the second time, like Manoah.

We can also learn from this episode in the Word of God that godly parents can and should ask for the Lord’s help and direction in raising their children in the things of the Lord. But much of what they need to do in already written down in the Word of God - just read it and put it to practice.