Daily Devotional • August 14
A Reading from Judges 13:15-24
15 Mano′ah said to the angel of the Lord, “Pray, let us detain you, and prepare a kid for you.” 16 And the angel of the Lord said to Mano′ah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food; but if you make ready a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Mano′ah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) 17 And Mano′ah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” 18 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” 19 So Mano′ah took the kid with the cereal offering, and offered it upon the rock to the Lord, to him who works[a] wonders.[b] 20 And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Mano′ah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.
21 The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Mano′ah and to his wife. Then Mano′ah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. 22 And Mano′ah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a cereal offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.” 24 And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson; and the boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.
Meditation
Here is another time in the Bible that God promises the birth of a special baby even before the child is conceived. The angel of the Lord appears to Manoah’s wife, who was barren, and promises her a son, who is to be a Nazirite and will start to deliver Israel from their Philistine oppressors. She is told to avoid strong drink or unclean food — some of the very first advice about diet given to a pregnant woman in the bible. The woman tells her husband who then entreats God to send the angel again to teach them how to raise this child. The angel returns and speaks to them both. They press him to stay and eat with them. The angel declines but asks for a burnt offering to the Lord. Manoah asks him his name,“so that when your words come true we may honor you.”
The angel’s reply is mysterious indeed, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” When the angel ascends in the flames of the altar, Manoah and his wife realize who it is they have been talking to — the Lord himself. They fall on their faces in fear that they will surely die, since no one can see God and still live. But she realizes that God would not have made them such a promise if they were to die. She does become pregnant, the child is born and called Samson, and the Lord who foretold his birth blessed him.
The Lord does not reveal his name nor need a name, since there is only one God; knowing the name of someone, especially of a deity, implies power over them. God names us, not we him. The only “name” he gives them here is an epithet, “Wonderful!” And in the fullness of time, with another woman and her husband, he gives us himself, “God with us.” The only name given under Heaven and Earth for the Lord is Jesus, the name above all names.
The Rev. Dr. Jean McCurdy Meade is a retired priest of the Diocese of Louisiana, formerly the rector of Mount Olivet Church, New Orleans.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Ideato – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
St. Andrew’s Church, Wellesley, Massachusetts