In the first place, when Manoa said to the Lord, "What is your name?", the Lord said, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding." (Judges 13:18)
Further, the Lord forbade the Israelites to intermarry with the "uncircumcised". Yet, the Scripture says that Samson 'fell in love' with Delilah, the Philistine woman, and asked his parents to get her for him as his wife. Yet his parents objected to the idea saying, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?" What they said was to the code. Yet, the Scripture says, [His parents did not know that] "This was from the Lord."
The meaning of Deliliah also has a lot of twists: one source says, "Delilah means: 1. a woman who betrayed Samson to the Philistines; 2. A seductive and wily temptress." Another source says it means "the uprooted, the weakened, or the impoverished" [based on the root Hebrew word 'Dar' meaning "weak or poor"]. Still another source says "Amorous or delicate".
Why did God allow (or even arrange) the marriage between Samson and the Uncircumcised (in modern term the unbelieving or simply a woman who is not in the relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ)?
The book of Judges itself gives out the answer: "[The Lord] was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines, for at that time they were ruling over Israel." 14:4
This answer is also puzzling for in the first place it was the Lord who turned Israel to the Philistines for 40 years because again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 14:1
It appears that the Lord found Manoa and his wife worthy of receiving a special 'blessing' that is receiving into the family one of the Judges to save Israel from the oppressive people. Manoa was a man of prayer. When he prayed the Lord answered the prayer and sent an angel again! He along with his wife believed in the Lord, so they advised their son to marry a believing woman. Yet, along with the seeming 'blessing' came with the pain of seeing the two eyes of their only son getting poked out and die with the uncircumcised. Apparently the name "Manoa" means "a place of rest and peace", but due to Samson's arrival, their life became full of thrill and suspense, turning their home from the place of Manoa to that of "Mania".
Through all these turns and twists what message does the Lord want to convey? Ultimately what is the will of the Lord whose name is "incomprehensible" (or "too wonderful to understand")? What is the one message we can grasp out of all these?
I think the answer can still be found in the expression "for at that time [the Philistines] were ruling over Israel."
By definition Israel denotes the one who struggles with men and God and have come out victorious. According to the Genesis account, Israel, Jacob, and Esau are three different categories of people: Esau being a man living purely on a fleshly (or materialistic) dimension, Jacob on a human level, Israel on a spiritual (Lord's dimension). Man consists of three components: what is from below (dust), what is from above (breath of God) and what came out of the two origins (below and above). So man can be compared to a three story house: first story, second story and third story. First story touches the ground. So let say it has earthly dimension. The third floor is close to sky (or heaven). So let say it has a godly dimension. The second story is in between the two, the so to speak "human" dimension. The man living in the first story is likened to Esau, the man on the second story is Jacob, and the man on the third story Israel.
"[F]or at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel." What was wrong with the Philistines ruling over Israel? How is it different than the Israelites doing 'evil' in the eyes of the Lord, that the Israel be ruled by the Philistines? Doing evil is the cause, getting ruled by the Philistines is the effect. As the Philistines ruled Israel, Israel 'suffered' a lot. The life was rendered unbearable. What then does it mean 'they did evil' in the eyes of the Lord? What does doing evil 'in the eyes of the Lord' mean? In the first place what is evil? To this question, you may quickly point me to the forbidden fruit growing on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for it was when Adam and Eve ate the fruit that the good and evil came to rage through out life of the people on the planet earth.
The Scripture says all wrongdoing is sin. Adam and Eve sinned. What did they do wrong? What is the nature of wrong? The answer is "they disobeyed" the Lord. What is so wrong about 'disobeying' the Lord? Again the answer is obvious: you keep yourself out of the "rule" of the Lord. Either the Lord rules or man (or something or someone else) rules.
So the key to understand the Un-understandable rests on the "rule". Who rules? That which drives Esau (who sold the birthright for one bowl of lentil soup)? That which runs Jacob who always makes himself busy to get something from other's pockets into his own? That which leads Israel to be Israel, a man of God?
What difference or differences does it make for man to let the Lord rule? Why does the Lord want his children to be 'ruled' by Him?
I think the answer is found in the meaning of the name, "It is beyond understanding" (or simply "too wonderful to fully understand"). By definition God denotes the one who is infinitely great - his love, power, wisdom, all infinitely wonderful. So who is at the top ruling? If anyone or anything other than the Lord ruling your life, you are bound to go crazy. What is limited cannot rule that which is created to go without a limit. God created man in his image, so man is created to thrive without a limit. For this very purpose, the Lord God sent even His one and only son Jesus.
I think there is one person who understood the will of the Lord God whose name is rightly the "Supreme Incomprehensible", that is, King Solomon, for he says, "Under three things the three things tremble." And the first item is "A servant who becomes king." Proverbs 30:22
So do not let anyone or anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ rule over you. And do not forget that Jesus is not only our Savior and Lord but also our King, that is, the King of kings the Lord of lords. Otherwise, you will have to kick yourself all the time.
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