When Manoah found out that he and his wife were going to have Samson he asked the angel of the Lord, “How shall we order the child?” This is given to us in Judges 13. The only instruction the angel gave was directed to what the mother was not to eat during the pregnancy because the child was to be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
A Nazarite is defined by Unger’s Dictionary as one who set apart for the service of God. This is God’s ultimate intention for all men and women. We were created for God. But how do we order ourselves and our children to be set apart for God? The Psalmist found God’s answer. It is recorded for us in Psalm 119:133,
“Order my steps in Thy Word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”
God’s instruction for Samson’s mother on ordering her child was not to eat anything that came from the vine or anything unclean. God was instructing her to watch what she fed the baby inside of her. This referred to not only physical food but spiritual food also. God wants children fed spiritual food from His Word beginning in the womb.
In 1 Samuel 1, Elkanah realized the importance of the Word in his young child’s life. Hannah would not leave Samuel until he was weaned which was usually between 3 and 5 years of age. Elkanah gave her instructions on what to do while she stayed with him. He told her, “Only the Lord establish His Word.”
When my husband and I found out we were going to have a child, we responded similarly to Manoah. We asked, “How can we teach him to have a heart for You, Lord?” God began to teach us the importance of saturating our minds with His Word during that time especially. As soon as our child was born, God further taught us that ordering our child in the Word during the first 5 years was foundational for his spiritual growth.
This book is written to every person who has a desire to have children set apart for God from the very beginning. Especially in a day when Satan is launching an all out attack for the minds of our children through humanism, television, illicit sex, pornography, drugs, alcohol, and other devices, must children be set apart for God from the start. We would all like to prevent our children form ever falling into these sins rather than trying to recover them from Satan’s control in later years. God’s only instruction for Manoah and his wife concerned the prenatal months. He lead Elkanah to instruct his wife to spend the first 3 to 5 years in having His Word established in Samuel. God would rather we have a preventive ministry than a recovery ministry with our children. His preventive plan is to order the child in His Word beginning in the prenatal months and the first 5 years. With this start our children will be equipped for life and “iniquity will not have dominion over them.”