It was during this time when God initiated his move to save them from the oppression so that they might know him as their God.
“I lift up my eyes to the hills-- Where does my hope come?” asked a psalmist in Psalm 121. “My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,” the psalmist answered. God wanted the Israelites to know that he is their Maker, their Great helper.
God’s plan of saving action involved Manoah and his wife. God moved by sending his angel to Manoah’s wife to let her and her husband know that God was on the move. God was going to deliver
Today, we are going to continue our journey from 13:6 to the end of chapter 13. Our focus will be on how Manoah and his wife responded to God, especially on Manoah’s response. God was on the move to save the Israelites; God chose Manoah and Manoah’s wife for this purpose. The question is how did they respond? And, what can we learn from their responses?
1. Manoah’s wife told Manoah what God said to her through the angel (13:6-7).
As soon as the angel appeared to Manoah’s wife, she went to her husband and told him what happened. She said in verse 6, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.” She had an extraordinary encounter with the angel; but she didn’t know at first it was the angel of the LORD who visited her. She thought the angel was a man of God, someone very special and important. But, he left such an impression in her mind; she thought he looked like an angle of God. The encounter also evoked fear in her that she couldn’t ask where he was from or the angel’s name. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but intuitively she knew that the person whom she met was no ordinary person. She went to her husband and informed him about her encounter with the angel and the message from the LORD.
2. Manoah tried to compensate his unbelief and spiritual dullness with further revelation from God (13:8-14).
When Manoah heard from his wife about her encounter with the angel, he prayed to the LORD, “O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”
God already told his wife to bring up the boy according to Numbers 6, by the Nazirite rules. His prayer had the appearance of godliness, but it was not driven by sincere faith; he was jealous that his wife got to meet the angel, not him. He was also skeptical and distrusting of his wife.[1]
God answered Manoah’s prayer, but not in the way he expected. He probably thought the angel would come to him directly this time. But, verse 9 says, “God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.” God is gracious to hear our prayer, but he often doesn’t answer our prayer in the way we expect him to answer us. By not sending his angel to Manoah directly, God was making a statement that Manoah’s prayer was not sincere.
Just like the first time, his wife again told Manoah that the angel visited her. This time, Manoah followed his wife and was able to encounter the angel. When he saw the angel, he asked in verse 11, “Are you the one who talked to my wife?” His question reveals the depth of Manoah’s spiritual dullness and doubts. His spiritual eyes were so poor that he couldn’t discern that he was talking to the angel.
Verse 12, he asked the angel, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy’s life and work?” To his question, the angel answered in verse 13-14 that his wife must do all that she was told to do earlier. The angel told Manoah nothing new. God already revealed his will to Manoah’s wife earlier when the angel visited her first time.
Manoah was fishing for more information from God to compensate his doubt, lack of trust. God knew this unbelief was Manoah’s problem, not the lack of information.
We do this too. We think that more information, more revelation than what’s given in God’s word, more of some special insights would help us get over doubts and disbelief. But, the reality is not that we need more information, but we need to learn to trust God for what has already revealed to us.
3. Manoah tried to compensate his unbelief and spiritual dullness by his attempt to manipulate God (13:15-23).
Now, having tried and failed to extract more information from God to compensate his unbelief, from verse 15-23, we see him trying to compensate his unbelief with manipulation.
He told the angel in verse 15, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.” This can be literally translated as in NASU, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” Manoah was trying to slow the angel down. By delaying the angel from leaving, Manoah was hoping to get a meal ready for the angel. It sounds like a nice gesture. In Genesis 18:5, Abraham also asked the angels to stay around so he could prepare a meal for them. The difference is that the angel agreed to Abraham’s invitation.
In Manoah’s case, the angel responded in verse 16, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.”
K. Lawson Younger notes that “in ancient Near Eastern religions, feeding a deity or his envoy provided the basis for the supplicant’s expectation of divine action on his behalf.[2] Another word, Manoah was thinking that he could obligate God’s messenger to act on behalf of him by feeding him some nice meaty meal.
But, this didn’t fly. Proverbs 17:3 says, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.” He tested Manoah’s heart and found Manoah was trying to compensate his unbelief with manipulation. When the angel told him to prepare a burn offering and offer it to the LORD, he was telling Manoah that he needed to stop trying to manipulate God; Manoah didn’t need to manipulate God for favor. God was already working in his life; all he had to was to acknowledge that God was moving in his life; in thankfulness he was to worship God. This is what he needed to do; not trying to earn more of God’s favor through manipulation.
Verse 16 says, “Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the LORD.” This sums up his spiritual state. He was spiritually dull and blind; he was spiritually not in tune.
Manoah also tried to find out the angel’s name in verse 17. He reasoned that he wanted to know the angel’s name in order to honor the angel when the promise came true.
At surface, asking for name doesn’t sound too bad. But, it was wrong because Manoah was going to honor the angel instead of God. Well, he wasn’t even going to honor the angel then. He was going to wait to make sure what was said would come true, and then he was going to honor the angel whom he thought of as a human being. Well, not too much of thankfulness or faith there, right?
The angel questioned Manoah’s real motive behind asking for his name. Verse 18, the angel asked, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.”
4. Gain spiritual sight by worshiping God (13:19-24).
Up to this point, Manoah tried very hard to compensate his unbelief with more information from God and attempts to manipulate him. He was spiritually blunted that he didn’t know that he was talking to God’s spiritual messenger, an angel.
Earlier when he tried to detain the angel with a meal, he was told to offer sacrifice to God instead in verse 16.
Now, in verse 19, we see him doing what he was told to do by the angel. Instead of getting ready for a meal, he offered a young goat and grain on a rock to the LORD. The flame blazed up towards heaven and the angel ascended in the flame.
This is the first time when Manoah’s spiritual eyes opened to realize that God had visited him through the angel. This happened when he did what he was told to do; it happened when he worshipped God.
We are subject to spiritual dullness just like Manoah was. God is always on the move in our lives, but we don’t perceive it, we don’t know it because we are dull.
The key to the spiritual awakening is to know that God is God and we are not. This simple realization evokes host of emotion in us; it can cause to feel fearful of God, it can cause us to feel calm and peaceful knowing that he is in control, it can cause us to feel amazed by who he is.
When we are awakened to the greatness of our God, then we also gain spiritual perception to know what God is doing in us, around us, and through us.
5. Gain spiritual sight by remembering God through his word.
John Piper wrote in his book When I Don’t Desire God, a helpful chapter on the issue of seeing God. In this chapter, he wrote, “The Fight for joy is a fight to see God.” Another word, seeing God is essential to experiencing joyous walk with God. When we are most joyous and happy because of who God is, how he relates to us, how he works through us, this is what life of worship looks like.
And, this seeing God is directly related to hearing, reading, and meditating in God’s word.
Why did the Israelites do so much evil? Judges 8:34 says that the Israelites did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They did so much evil, turned away from their God, their helper, their creator, and turned to the idols because they did not remember their God.
Why did they not remember God? It is because they didn’t hear God’s word, read God’s word, meditate in God’s word.
Apostle Paul said, “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” Romans 10:17.
When we deprive ourselves this meals, God’s revelation about himself through his word, we become just like Manoah, spiritually dull, skeptical, and unaware of God’s activity in our lives.
In order to gain spiritual sight, we need to be all the more diligent in remembering God through his word.
I am so convinced about this each evening I read two to three chapters from the Bible to my children. In this rate, they would be able to hear the whole Bible read to them in a year. By the time they are in their teens, they would have heard and read through the Bible at least 10 times. I know that they don’t understand everything that I read to them now. But, their comprehension will only grow and things will click in their brain that God is really awesome! I want that!
6. Gain spiritual sight by being thankful.
We are all celebrating the Thanksgiving weekend. What have you done besides getting together with people and eating tons of turnkey and other food? Have you slow down and try to remember what you are thankful for? Being thankful happens when you actively remember the things that have happened to you. If you have done this act of remembering, most likely you’ve spent this past week also being thankful as well.
Being thankful, remembering, God’s word, they are all connected. You cannot be genuinely thankful to God without the act of actively remembering who he is, what he has done, is doing and will do. And, you cannot remember God without actively engaging your mind in God’s word. And, you cannot worship God without being thankful!
Can you imagine how Manoah would have acted differently if he was actively recalling God’s activity in his life and in
You know when you see genuinely happy people! Genuinely happy people are the people who are overflowing with thankfulness.
Do you want to be genuinely happy person? Then, you need to take time to remember your God. You remember God by revisiting again and again the beautiful stories after stories from the Bible how God has always been on the move for his people.
You need to zero on the greatest love story ever told, the life of Jesus Christ. He didn’t shy away from going to
Or, more importantly, what do you do when you feel this way? How you try to pacify your sad, void, out of sync heart? Where do you turn? My prayer is that you turn to your Helper, your Creator, your Lord, your Savior, the One who loves you the most in this whole world! Turn to his word. Open the door of your heart by engaging your eyes of your heart on who God is, what he has been doing, and what he is going to do.
Then, unlike Manoah who were too dull spiritually to see God at work in his life, you will be able to see how he is inviting you to be part of his salvation plan. You can consider how God is calling you out of your little world of worries, anxiety, mad-rushes, emptiness, and rages into his world of peace, calm, purpose, fullness, love, and empowerment. You will be genuinely happy and thankful person.
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