PODCAST
Trying to Get it Right
November 15th, 2022
Judges 13:8-14
Manoah and his wife reacted to the messenger’s words both with joy and fear. Their son was to accomplish the important task of delivering Israel. They understood the incredible responsibility this task implied and their own responsibility in raising the child “right.” So Manoah kept asking the messenger to “teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born” (v. 8), and “what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?” (v. 12).
The angel responds to this double enquiry about the child with a double summon directed at Manoah’s wife: “Your wife must do all that I have told her” (v. 13). “She must do everything I have commanded her” (v. 14).
The answer doesn’t seem to match the question, does it? Or maybe it does and it reminds us of a very important truth: our children will have to make their own decisions about being faithful to God. There is really no magic formula. All we can do is to be faithful to God ourselves, trust God, and pray that by the grace of God our children will choose to do the same.
Author: Tatiana Cantarella
