Liv
Extracts of Truth & Encouragement from a Growth Journey with God
“…My Name…Is Wonderful!”
Can you believe it’s been a month ago since we first broached the topic of one of Jesus’ names being A Wonder?!? If you missed that post, check out “Wonderful Counselor…OR Wonder and Counselor,” posted on December 7, 2020! It’s the foundation of the other posts published this past month. Today, we’re going to finally get to the part of Judges 13 that God led me to while writing that original post, which kept feeding more and more about Who Jesus is and our response to Him!
We left off, last post, with the Angel of the LORD telling Manoah that He wouldn’t eat the goat Manoah wanted to prepare for Him and suggesting, instead, to offer the goat as a burnt offering…but the focus of the offering was that it MUST be given to the LORD! After that, we see Manoah asking the Angel of the LORD (remember, he didn’t know that’s who He was!) what His name was. He said, “…that when Your words come to pass, we may honor You.”
“Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, “What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass, we may honor You.”
Judges 13:17 NKJV
Last post, we talked about the beautiful desire, though improperly directed, Manoah had to celebrate the one Who gave the promise of their child during his wife’s barrenness, to offer Him their appreciation; yet, did you notice the word, “WHEN?” in this verse above? Manoah not only wanted to celebrate and offer appreciation; the reason he did this was because he believed that what the Angel of the LORD told him and his wife would happen! Consider that.
- When you read the Bible, do you pick up on the promises of God? Does your life display that you believe they are promises that will be kept, or does it resemble more that circumstances are bigger than our God?
- Are you listening for the LORD’s direction? If so, when you receive the LORD’s direction, do you believe it WILL happen, or does fear or lack of faith stand in the way, as you say, “…IF it will happen?”
We know Manoah and his wife were thankful, and they wanted to offer their appreciation to the One giving them this message, but there is a bit more we can glean from this verse. See that Manoah uses the word “honor?” Ok. My inner grammar geek is coming out, again; please bear with me. In the original text, the word for “honor” is a verb…an action verb. The verb’s object is God (remember how we established, in the “Wonder–Too Good to Stop There” post, that the Angel of the LORD was a “theophanic” angel, which means it’s GOD, showing Himself in a way that was clear to see?). Now, we all should know that if there is a verb (an action), and something or someone is being acted upon (the object), there has to be a subject (someone or something DOING the acting). The subject in this is Manoah. What he was wanting to do was give honor (an action!). This word, in its original context means that because the object (God) has an abundance of honor, it causes the subject (Manoah) to be overwhelmed with satisfaction and pride, wanting to brag profusely about the object (God), the object’s (God’s) abilities, and the object’s (God’s) achievements. Another way we may refer to this is “glory.” It weighs heavily on the subject, who can’t wait to share this honor/glory with others (again…an action!).
In Hebrew, this verb is connected with giving honor freely as an offering. In Leviticus 22:18-23, we see that a freewill offering is a kind of burnt sacrifice, which we talked about in the last post; the offering still had to be a male from the cattle, sheep, or goat families, without blemish, but it was acceptable to give a bull or a lamb that had a limb that was too long or too short as a freewill offering only. To be a freewill offering, it meant that it was given of their own free will. It wasn’t commanded to give this kind of offering; nor was it the perfect sacrifice. The part that stands out about this kind of offering is that it was given and that it was given freely! As we see in Judges 13:16, the Angel of the LORD didn’t command this offering, but rather, suggested it to Manoah. He wanted it to be an offering from Manoah’s heart…and given to the appropriate recipient!
I can imagine…a couple, in a time when having children is looked on with favor, who can’t have kiddos, finally gets the news that they will become pregnant…and have a boy; a boy who will be set apart to serve God and who can carry on their family legacy! That would be rather overwhelming…in a good way! Isn’t that what believing parents want of their children? They couldn’t wait to tell this great news…but as we touched on in the last post, Manoah wanted to make sure that they gave credit where credit was due, which is why we see him, in today’s verse, asking the Angel of the LORD His name. This is where we see the original connection with Jesus’ name, A Wonder, found in Isaiah 9:6.
“And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?”
Judges 13:18 NKJV
Wonderful–this is an adjective, a word to describe His name. It originates from the same noun as Jesus’ name in Isaiah 9:6, “Wonder” (we explored this in the “Wonderful Counselor OR Wonder and Counselor” post). Basically, the Angel of the LORD told Manoah, I AM an incomprehensible Wonder! This is our God!
Wonderful–this is an adjective, a word to describe His name. It originates from the same noun as Jesus’ name in Isaiah 9:6, “Wonder,”…
Let’s stop there today and ponder…
- What wonders has God done in your life?
- Have you been overwhelmed by His character and goodness? If so, have you freely offered honor/glory to Him in a way that brags profusely about God, God’s abilities, and God’s achievements? Please do not hear any words of condemnation here, if you haven’t. This is not a command, just a suggestion. Feel free to use this opportunity to comment on this post and freely give honor to God…by sharing Who God is and What He has done!!
I’m excited to hear and freely give Him honor with you, as we celebrate together!
Liv 