GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 13:6-8
6 Then the woman went to her husband and said, “A man of God came to me. He looked like a angel of God—so terrifying! I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink any wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.’” 8 Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord, let the man of God you sent to us come again and teach us how to raise this boy that is going to be born.”
Let’s step into Manoah’s shoes. In fact, we need to get into his house; right into his kitchen. He and his wife had been married a while, long enough to know that they weren’t able to have children—maybe eight or ten years? More? Now, Manoah comes home from work, and his wife explodes into the kitchen: “An angel came to me and we’re going to have a baby and he said I can’t have any wine or beer or raisins (weird, I know) and I have to keep away from unclean food and I know we’re kosher anyway but that’s what he said and he’s going to be a Nazirite, not a man from Nazareth because we’re not from Nazareth but a Nazirite, a no wine, no dead bodies, no haircuts Nazirite—not the angel, the baby—until the day he dies!”
And what did Manoah say? “Okay. Since there’s no book called What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Nazirite Baby, we gotta pray. Right now.”
He didn’t question her. He didn’t flip out. He prayed. Period. Their relationship was so honest and so solid that he didn’t even ask her to repeat what she said. He just took it all in, like she said nothing more unusual than “The tree lost a branch” or “The cat’s having kittens.” His reaction was simply, “All right. There are some things we need to do, and since we don’t know how to do them, we’d better pray.”
Is that what you’re relationship with God and your spouse is like? Is your answer to most unexpected things, “We’d better pray about it”? It should be. That’s what God wants us to do. He invites us to pray so that we’re there with him all the time; so that any bump in the road will be just that: a bump in the road.
Don’t let my “It should be” (three sentences ago) be something that gets you frustrated or ashamed if it’s not the case. “Thou shalt pray” isn’t one of the Ten Commandments. Prayer isn’t a means of grace. We don’t receive the forgiveness of sins based on how often we pray, or how many people know about it. No—prayer is one of the benefits that comes along with the forgiveness of sins. Just as we get assurance of a place in heaven, eternal life, a clear conscience and so many other things from Christ, so also we get the invitation from God to pray, to come to him with our words or thoughts so that we can speak what’s in our heart to God.
God speaks to us in his holy word, the Bible. That’s his communication to us: his answer book, his advice, his warning, and his good news. But because God is has compassion, he knows that we will want to talk to him. So in his grace, he has given us prayer, a line of communication through which anyone who believes in him can speak, and he will listen.
David compared his prayers to incense, always rising up to God like the marvelous-smelling smoke at the altar (Psalm 141:2). Whether he was hiding in a cave afraid for his life (Psalm 142 title) or secure at home embracing his simple, childlike faith (Psalm 131:1-2), David prayer to the Lord, and he knew that the Lord was listening and watching over him. And David still preaches about this to us by including you and me in the word “our” when he says: “Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Ps. 124:8). The One who created everything is the One who loves you, who watches over you, and who is your Helper, now and always. Who better to go to for help?
The tree lost a branch. The cat’s having kittens. The doctor says it’s dementia. Or cancer. Or we’re pregnant with a Nazirite. The Mighty Lord is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Tell him what you need.
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