Judges 13: The birth of Samson.

Chapters 13-16 of Judges tell the story of Samson, one of the greatest judges of Israel. At the time of Samson’s birth, Israel had been under Philistine oppression for forty years, because they had once again sinned against the Lord. As we have seen in previous chapters, the Lord appears to have punished them, but this is not the case; it is really our own waywardness that brings about these negative consequences.

This story begins with Samson’s parents, Manoah and his wife. Manoah’s wife was barren, but the angel of the Lord appeared to her, with news that she would have a son. The angel said that she was forbidden to drink alcohol or eat anything unclean, and that her son was never to have his hair cut, for he would be a Nazirite. And finally, the angel prophesied that her son would deliver Israel from the Philistines.

When Manoah’s wife told him what had happened, he prayed to the Lord for the man to return. The angel reappeared to Manoah’s wife, so she brought her husband to speak with the angel directly. Manoah asked what they should do for their child, but the angel only told Manoah that his wife must follow the instructions she had received.

Manoah offered a meal to the angel of the Lord, but the angel declined, saying that the burnt offering must be made to the Lord. Manoah brought out the meat of a young goat, placed it upon a rock, and gave it as a burnt offering to the Lord. The angel of the Lord ascended in the flames toward heaven, and the couple knew that they had seen God.

In time, Samson was born, and the Lord blessed him.

*****

Samson’s name literally means “sun-like”. He was a mighty warrior, a womaniser, and a powerful character prone to sudden outbursts and rage, but his intention was to defend Israel and defeat the Philistines. He was strong in his acknowledgement of his people and his God.

Samson represents the Lord in His divine human, and also the power of the Word in its literal sense. This is why Samson had strength in the abundance of his hair (see Swedenbrog’s works, Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 49[2], and Arcana Caelestia 9836[2]).

Spiritually, barrenness stands for a lack of personal doctrine or a spiritual path, representing how life can feel before regeneration begins. The angel of the Lord appeared to just the woman at first, because the purpose of regeneration is primarily to make us love what is good (represented by a woman). We do this by knowing and obeying truth (represented by a man).

The Nazarites, who vowed not to drink or cut their hair, represented the Lord as the Word in its ultimate and fullest sense (see Swedenborg’s work, Apocalypse Revealed 47). These customs are the marks of a natural and genuine life, as wine can lead us astray, and focusing on appearances can lead to vanity. Above all, Samson’s uncut hair represented this greatness of divine truths from the Word (see Swedenborg’s work, True Christian Religion 214).

The angel was reluctant to tell Manoah and his wife details about their son’s future, except that he would be a Nazarite, and would deliver Israel. He intentionally kept them from knowing what would take place, because if they knew the future, they would no longer be able to act in freedom. Divine Providence - the Lord’s plan for our world - cannot be disclosed to us, or we would no longer live in freedom to make our own decisions (Arcana Caelestia 2493).

Manoah asked the angel what his name was, so he could be honored. However, the angel declined to tell them, as his name was wonderful. A name describes a person’s spiritual qualities, and we are unable to fathom the extent of heavenly qualities because they are of God.

The spiritual meaning of Manoah’s sacrifice comes from the correspondence of a young goat (innocence within the human soul) and the rock (truth). The young goat, placed on the rock as a sacrifice, represents worshipping from our hearts in faith to the Lord. This is the Lord’s requirement of us (Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 18[3] and Arcana Caelestia 9393).

215. The truths in the literal sense of the Word are in part not bare truths, but appearances of truth. They are like similes and comparative analogies taken from appearances in the natural world. Thus they are adapted and brought down to the level at which they may be understood by simple people and even children. But because they are at the same time correspondences, they serve to receive and make a home for genuine truth. They are containers in the sense that a crystal cup is a container of vintage wine, a silver salver of tempting foods; or like the clothes which we wear, whether a baby's shawls or the pretty dresses of a girl. They are also like the facts stored in the memory of the natural man, which include his perception of and affections for spiritual truth. The bare truths themselves which are wrapped, contained, clothed and grasped, exist in the spiritual sense of the Word; the bare forms of good exist in its celestial sense. But illustrations must be given from the Word.

[2] Jesus said:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but the insides are full of robbery and intemperence. You blind Pharisee, clean first the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside too may be clean, Matthew 23:25-26.

In saying this the Lord spoke in similes and comparisons which are at the same time correspondences. When He said 'the cup and dish', cup not only means but stands for the truth of the Word, since cup implies wine and wine stands for truth. Dish, however, implies food, and food stands for good. Therefore cleaning the inside of the cup and dish means purifying the interior parts of the mind, the seats of will and thought, by means of the Word. 'So that the outside may be clean' means that in this way the exterior things too, what we do and say, are purified, for their essence is drawn from the interior.

[3] Again Jesus said:

There was a certain rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted magnificently every day; and there was a poor man named Lazarus, who lay in his entrance porch full of sores, Luke 16:19-20.

Here too the Lord spoke in similes and comparisons which were correspondences and had a spiritual content. The rich man means the Jewish nation, which is called rich, because it possessed the Word containing spiritual riches. The purple and fine linen which he wore mean the good and truth of the Word, purple its good and fine linen its truth. Feasting magnificently every day means taking pleasure in having the Word, and hearing many things from it in their temples and synagogues. The poor man Lazarus means the gentiles who did not possess the Word. The contempt and rejection they suffered at the hands of the Jews are meant by Lazarus lying in the entrance porch of the rich man. Full of sores means that the gentiles were plagued by many false notions due to their ignorance of truth.

[4] The reason the gentiles were meant by Lazarus was that the gentiles were loved by the Lord, just as Lazarus, who was revived after being dead, was loved by the Lord (John 11:3, 5, 36). He is also called the Lord's friend (John 11:11), and he reclined at table with the Lord (John 12:2). These two passages show plainly that the truths and kinds of good in the literal sense of the Word are like vessels and garments serving to clothe bare good and truth, which both lie hidden in the spiritual and celestial senses of the Word.

The Word being like this in the literal sense, it follows that those who possess Divine truths, and believe that the Word inwardly in its depths is something holy and Divine, and more so those who believe that the Word is like this because of its spiritual and celestial senses, these people, when they read the Word and receive enlightenment from the Lord, see Divine truths by natural light. For the light of heaven, which illuminates the spiritual sense of the Word, exerts an influence on the natural light which illuminates its literal sense, and enlightens man's intellectual, also called rational, faculty, enabling it to see and recognise Divine truths, whether plain to view or hidden. The light of heaven has this effect upon people, sometimes even without their knowing it.