W. Robert Godfrey

So women are very important in the life of Samson, and part of what's being said, as is being said in the whole book of Judges, women are very important in the history of redemption for good, as is the case with his mother, or for evil.

as is the case particularly with Delilah, but with the other two Philistine women as well.

So this is a very intricately told story.

It's very thoughtfully put together, and its intentionality is going to help us see what is the message the Lord wanted to have for his people through this.

So let's begin Act 1.

There are several scenes in this act.

if we want to continue the theatrical image here.

And scene one tells us there was a certain man of Zorah, that's the town, of the tribe of the Danites, that's the region not far from the Philistines, whose name was Manoah.

So Manoah is the father of Samson.

And his wife was barren and had no children.

Now, what's interesting here is that as we think about the women in the life of Samson, the first three are nameless.

His mother is not...

She must have had a name, but we're not told the name of his mother.

We're not told the name of his Philistine wife.

We're not told the name of the Philistine prostitute.

It's only Delilah who has a name in the story.

We'll talk about her name when we get to her.

It's an interesting name.

But here is a mother who is nameless.

And as we look at her, what are we told about her?