Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born” Judges 13:8.

God’s people had put away their foreign gods to serve the LORD. Jephthah, the leader who was weak in faith, had served for six years, and three others had judged Israel for a combined twenty-five.

Now, His people completed the cycle and returned to their sin.

So, God sold them into spiritual slavery to the Philistines for forty years.

1. The first lesson we should draw from this is that if we believe ourselves standing, we should be careful lest we fall. We should continually examine ourselves to see if we have compromised with the world, which is so easy to do!
2. Second, God provided honest seekers, who were also products of a spiritually idolatrous culture. Even though Samson would not be anyone to emulate, his parents truly want to know how to raise a child in the Lord who has been set aside for such a great purpose. He did it then; He can do it today!
3. Third, even the best of parents will produce a Samson, who will be antagonistic towards all even though he was raised in the way God wants.