13:3
The importance of the wife is shown by the fact that the angel of the Lord appears to her, rather than to Zorah. He announces that though she is barren, she will become pregnant and give birth to a son. We see here that God is directly sending a saviour to Israel, though this saviour is only a “type” of Christ. As the story unfolds we will see that Samson is far from holy. My wife once described him as “the Ian Botham of the Bible”. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ian Botham, he was a great all rounder cricketer for England, playing a major role in defeating the Autralians (the equivalent of the Philistines 😉), but for whom controversy was not unknown.
13:4
The wife was given special instructions regarding her soon to be born son, and herself. She was to make sure that she did not drink any wine or other fermented drink (I am sure health officials would approve) nor to touch anything unclean. In previous cases it seems that God chose a judge, here He is in it right from the start. So in that sense there is a closer parallel with Jesus, who is the Son of God sent by the Father. Of course, in terms of lifestyle the differences could not be more stark!
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