GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 13:15-18
15 Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please stay here and we will prepare a young goat for you. 16 The angel of the LORD answered, “Even if you convince me to stay, I will not eat any of your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” (Manoah did not realize he was the angel of the LORD.)
Manoah’s offer to prepare a meal was typical of hospitality in ancient times in this and other cultures. Both Abraham and Gideon offered a meal to the angel of the Lord (Genesis 18:3-8; Judges 6:17-23), and it isn’t hard to find examples in Greek literature—such as when Eumaeus the friendly swineherd offered his supper to Odysseus: “Follow me, sir, to my cabin, to join me in my meal. When you have had all the wine and bread you want, you shall tell me where you come from and what your troubles are” (Odyssey book xiv).
When God appeared to Abraham, he ate the food that was prepared for him (Gen. 18:8). But in this case, for whatever reason, the angel turned aside the offer and suggested it become a burnt offering instead.
17 Then Manoah asked him, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?” 18 The angel of the LORD replied: “Why do you ask my name? It is wonderful!”
Manoah’s request was so that the stranger would get the credit for his godly prediction. A true prophet should be given credit and honor when his prophecy comes true just as surely as a false prophet should fall by sword or famine for his lies (Jeremiah 14:15; 50:36).
The name the angel gave was Peli (פלאי), “wonderful.” The same word occurs in a feminine form in Psalm 139 6 “too wonderful for me, to lofty for me to attain.” Compare Isaiah 29:14 ha-peleh va-peleh, “wonder upon wonder.” And in Daniel 12:6, peli it is the word for “astonishing things.” The Greek translation has thaumaston (θαυμαστόν), the “remarkable” of John 9:30, the “wonderful statutes” of Psalm 119:129, and the elegant translation for “the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23).
For this occasion, the Lord picked an ideal title. He is truly wonderful, the wonder of wonders, marvelous, remarkable, and astonishing in every way. God sends great and mighty signs and wonders into the world to proclaim his glory and to draw our attention and awe. But God’s greatest wonder was the gift of his Son to save us. The incarnation of Christ as a human is astonishing, a great matter “too wonderful for me” (Ps. 131:1). Every bit as amazing is the clear teaching of the Bible that our bodies will rise from the dead on the Last Day, perfected and holy, reunited with our souls, to bask in the glory of God for all eternity. When Paul preached against Hymanaeus and Philetus, he did so on the basis of their false claim “that the resurrection has already taken place” (2 Timothy 2:18), and that by doing so they had shipwrecked their faith. Jesus himself, our Lord, taught that the resurrection of all the dead is taught even in the name of God: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6; Matthew 22:31-32). How is that so? Because God “is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Therefore those who will be forever in heaven will be living, in the present sense of the word, risen in the flesh from the dead and blessed by God’s grace, at the eternal banquet of his divine hospitality—and the wonders of his love.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota