Good morning. Let's open our Bibles together
to Judges chapter 13. Judges chapter 13. Good to have Bert and Jennifer
and Adam, Rachel, I guess, in the nursery. But great to have
you all here today. I've titled this message, When
God Appears. when God appears. That is your
greatest need this morning, that God Almighty would make himself
known to your heart, that God would appear. It's my greatest
need. It's our hope every time we come together that the Lord
would rend the heavens and that he would come down, that he would
show himself to us and give us faith to see him as he is and
believe on him. In our story this morning, we
have an experience that Manoah and his wife had with the appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are some things in
this narrative, in this experience that they had that are consistent
today with what happens when God appears. So I hope the Lord
will Bless his word and more than anything else, I hope the
Lord will do for us what he did for Isaiah when Isaiah in wonder
said, when the seraphim were hovering over
the throne of God and he saw the glory of the Lord. Let's pray together. Our merciful
heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank
you for your Holy Spirit. Truly, these are the two witnesses
that you have sent and how dependent we are, Lord, that you would
be pleased to bless your word by your spirit and enable us
to say with the prophet Isaiah, I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. His train filled the temple.
Lord, might the train of your glory fill this temple this morning. Might there be no room for no
one else or anybody else to have any glory, that our hearts and
minds, our eyes will be fixed on thee, and Lord, that you would
be pleased to save us, save us from ourselves, save us from
our sin, save us from the temptations of this world Lord, save us from
the evil one. Deliver us from evil. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. Judges chapter 13, the Lord Jesus
Christ himself appears to first Manoah's wife. And the first
point I want to make is that when the Lord appears, he only
appears to his wife. He appears to his bride, to his
church. The evidence that we belong to
him is that we have seen him and that our hearts have been
moved to love him and to believe on him. He's not going around
wishing that men would see him. He's not forcing himself on anyone. Isaiah chapter 42 says he doesn't
make his name known in the streets. He doesn't raise his voice. He's
not looking for a following. He has a people and he reveals
himself unto them. I'm always encouraged when I
see how often the Lord revealed himself to women in the scriptures. We find Mary at the open tomb,
the very verse one that the Lord made himself known to, and how
oftentimes that is consistent. And so it is with the Lord is
making himself known to his bride. No man ever hated his own body,
but he nourishes it and cherishes it. And so the Lord, his bride.
And so when in Ephesians chapter five, when we read about husbands
loving your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it, this is a great mystery concerning Christ and his church. What a
blessing. So here's my first point, as
the Lord reveals himself to his bride. Second thing we see in
this passage is that when God makes himself known, it's always
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God doesn't
draw attention to himself. Lord made that clear in John
chapter six, said the spirit, when the spirit comes, he's gonna
lead you into all truth and point you to me. The father is known
in the person of the son. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if
you've known me, if you've seen me, you've seen the father for
I am the father of one. This pre-incarnate appearance
of God almighty is the person of Christ. We see that. Look
at verse 11. And Manoah rose and went after
his wife and came to the man and said unto him, art thou the
man that speaketh unto the woman? And he said, I am. I am. And now look over with me in
verse 22. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die now because we've seen God. They thought
it was just an angel. But when the Lord himself ascended
into heaven in the smoke of the sacrifice that Manoah offered
up, they knew that it was none other than the Lord himself.
And so when God is pleased to reveal himself to his bride,
he does it in the glorious, omnipotent, holy, harmless, undefiled, person
of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his love and all of his affection
for his bride. And he reveals himself in his
accomplished work. The sacrifice that Manoah is
going to make in this chapter is a picture of what the Lord
Jesus did on Calvary's cross when he offered himself up to
his father as the sacrifice for sin and succeeded in accomplishing
the salvation of his people. The Lord is not trying to save
anybody. He accomplished the salvation of His people. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the successful Savior of sinners. He is our
surety. Everything that God requires
from us, He looks to Christ for. And everything that God requires
from us, we look to Christ for. That's faith. That's faith. So
when God appears, He appears to His bride. and he appears
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, man, how do I know if he's
appeared unto me? Well, we just read where Manoah refers to his
wife in verse 11 as the woman. Previous to that, she's referred
to as his wife. This glorious appearance of Christ
was made to a woman who is unnamed. We don't know her name. We know
Manoah's name. Manoah's name is the same as
Noah, which translated means rest. It is a picture of Christ. Manoah represents the Lord Jesus
Christ as our Sabbath, as our rest, who has finished his work
from the foundation of the world. And so we rest our souls. We rest our hope. We rest our
lives in the accomplished work and glorious person of Christ,
our Manoah. And if that be the case, then
the bride goes unnamed. She doesn't want any glory to
herself. It's okay if... Here's a picture
of God's elect. We don't know who God's elect
are. Only the Lord knows the names of his people. Ah, the
bride of Christ goes unnamed to us and to the bride, that's
okay. That's okay. It's okay. It's a matter of fact, it's not
just okay. We, we, we, we love it that the Lord Jesus Christ
gets all the glory. Manoah's wife's only identity
was with her husband as it related to her husband. And, uh, And
that's the believer's life. Our identity is all bound up
in our union with Christ. The fact that we are the bride
of Christ. When God appears, when God appears,
he appears in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He appears
only to his bride and he leaves her. He leaves her not just content,
but glad. that she's unnamed. She's unnamed. She's happy with that. She wants
him to have all the glory. She's content in remaining in
the shadows as long as her husband loves her and as long as long
as she gives birth to the Savior of Israel. Every woman in the
Old Testament, every woman dreamed of becoming the mother of the
Messiah. Beginning with Eve, when Eve
gave birth to Adam, she said, the Lord has given me the man.
She thought that this was the Savior that had been promised.
This is the seed of the woman. And so every woman in the Old
Testament dream was that she might be the one chosen of God
to give birth to the Savior. of Israel, and she was content
with that. That's why the scripture speaks of the woman being saved
through childbirth. It doesn't mean through your
personal childbirth. It means the childbirth of Christ
birthed into this world through the womb of his church, his bride,
the woman. There's our salvation. And so
Manoah's wife, referred to as the woman, was content She was
content with the promise that God had made to her. You're going
to bring forth a child, and this child is going to be the savior
of Israel. Samson, clearly a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, he saved Israel only from
the Philistines and only for a short period of time. But he
pictures the accomplished work of Christ saving all of Israel
from their sin And we're content with that now,
aren't we? We're content with preaching the gospel and knowing
that as the gospel is preached and God is pleased to bless it
by his spirit and with his grace, that the church is still continuing
to give birth, continuing to give birth to Christ. Paul said,
oh that Christ might be formed in you. We think of the new birth
as our experience of being birthed into the family of God, but through
the gospel preached by the church, the Lord Jesus Christ is still
being birthed. Here's our hope. Like Manoah's
wife, we're content. Lord, if you'll just birth Christ
in me, and if you'll make him known to me and to his people,
Lord, that'll be enough. I don't need a name. I don't
want any glory. I want him to have it all. We
know that God's appeared to us when that is our heart. That's
our heart's desire. unnamed bride notice also in
our text we're just picking particular verses here but look at verse
3 and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto
her behold now thou art barren and bearis not but thou shalt
conceive and bear son now to be barren for a woman was to
She had no hope of being the one that might bring the Messiah
into the world. And what the Lord is saying to
his bride, you are infertile, not capable of bringing life
into this world. You never have had a child and
you never will. You're barren. What is the picture? Except for the promise of God,
except for a miracle of grace, we see this over and over in
the scriptures, don't we? Sarah, 90 years old, still waiting
for the promise to be fulfilled. God had to perform a miracle
of grace in order for that woman to be able to have a child and
Isaac is birthed into the world. We see the same thing with Rebecca.
Rebecca was barren and cried out to God that Jacob, that she
might conceive a child and bring... What is this a picture of? It's
a picture of our inability to bring forth life. Apart from
a miracle of grace, apart from the intervention of God, making
himself known to us, we are not capable. We are not capable of
producing life. We come into this world dead
in our trespasses and sins. We come into this world with
no power and a barren and beareth not, impotent, infertile, unable
to have a child. We see this with Hannah. You
remember Hannah going to the temple and pouring her soul out
before God. And Eli thought she was intoxicated
and he rebuked her. And Hannah said, oh no, no, I'm
pleading with God that he would, that he would bless my womb with
a child. And Samuel is the blessing that
comes as a result of that. We see it with Elizabeth. Elizabeth
and Zachariah. John the Baptist was a miracle
baby. She was old in years, the scripture
says, and the Lord blessed her with the forerunner of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The miracle of all miracles when
it comes to the birth of life is that a virgin conceived, that
Mary herself conceived of the Holy Ghost, brought forth. the Messiah, Christ. And here's
our hope. Here's our hope. Lord, if you're
going, if I'm going to see you, you're going to have to, you're
going to have to give me life. You're going to have to breathe
life into my nostrils. You're going to have to shut
my mouth. You're going to have to, you're
going to have to give me your spirit. You're going to have to form
Christ in me because left to myself, I'm barren. I'm barren. I am not capable of producing
life. I can't believe unless you give me faith. Do you believe that about yourself?
Lord, I can't believe unless you give me faith. Lord, the
faith that I have, I feel it. I feel it slipping away every
day. Lord, if you don't keep me, I
won't be kept. Lord, you've got to grow. Increase our faith,
Lord. Increase our faith. Keep me.
Lord, I can't love you. Someone said, well, you know,
I just don't think I love God like I ought. You don't. But
you can't love him at all unless he reveals himself. And we love
him because he first loved us. And he has to put the love of
God in our hearts. We can't see him unless he gives
us eyes to see. We are barren. Here's the truth
of what God reveals himself in Christ to his bride, who left
to herself is barren, unable, unable to produce life. Lord,
you can't, you say, well, I don't believe God like I ought to.
No, you don't. None of us do. That's why we, Call out, Lord,
I'm dependent upon you for faith. Repentance, that's a work of
grace. You don't just decide one day
that you're gonna change your mind, change your heart. You can change your friends,
you can change your looks, you can change your location, you
can change your behavior, but you can't change your heart.
Ethiopian can't change the color of his skin. A leper can't change
his spots. That's a work of grace. Lord, I'm barren. Lord, I can't
produce life. I'm dependent upon you for that.
That's how we know that God has appeared. You see, the natural
man thinks, well, you know, surely I can do something. You can't
worship God. unless he seeks you and makes
you to worship him in spirit and in truth. You can't pray
unless he moves the heart to pray. You see, we're barren. Can't serve God acceptably unless
he works in us, causing us to will and to do after his good
pleasure. Here's who the Lord reveals himself to, the poor
and the needy. Those who can't do anything left
to themselves. Thou art barren and bearish not. You have no life in your womb.
We know that every time we gather together to preach. Lord, if
you don't attend your word with your spirit and make it effectual
to the hearts of your bride, Lord, this will all be in vain.
This will all be in vain. We are barren and without child
left to ourselves. John chapter one, verse 12, to
as many as receive him, to them gave he the power to become the
sons of God, even them that believe on his name. And listen to the
next verse. You know, people read that and
they say, well, I've got to, I've got to make a decision to receive
Christ before I can become a son of God. Let's turn to that passage
with me for just a moment. I want you to see these two verses
as they're written by God, the Holy Spirit in God's word. Look at verse first, John chapter
one, verse 12. To as many as receive him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, who were born. What's the tense of the verb
there? It's past, isn't it? You can't receive Christ and
become the sons of God unless you were born. Born how? Not of blood, nor of the will
of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. You see, the new
birth necessarily precedes faith. That's the work of grace. We can't believe on him until
he births us. That's what he told Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom
of God. You can't perceive of it. You
can't understand it. You can't believe. Who were born. You were born. Now, chronologically, you understand
these things happen simultaneously, but in the order of events, In
the logical order of events, regeneration necessarily precedes
faith. God, you can't believe without
being born again. Who were born, not of blood,
nor the will of man, nor the flesh, but of God. Oh, here's our hope. We're dead in our trespasses
and sins, brethren. We're just like Manoah's wife,
barren. Can't birth Christ, can't have
any hope of life or salvation. Here's who the Lord reveals himself
to, sinners. Here's a faithful saying, Christ
has come into the world to save sinners. Those who left to themselves
will remain in the tomb, in the grave. when the Lord Jesus Christ
went to Bethany and met with Martha and Mary and John chapter
11 there and they took him down to the graveyard? Did the Lord
Jesus Christ say, Lazarus, if you want, you can come forth. Lazarus, if you wanna make a
decision to come out of that grave, come on out. Lazarus was dead. His body stunk. He'd been dead four days. Now
there we are. There we are, barren and bare
as naught. The bride of Christ, whom the
Lord is pleased to reveal himself to, has to say effectually and
irresistibly to you and me what he said to Lazarus. Call us by
name. Come forth. Come forth. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
stand there in that graveyard and say, I think I'm gonna give
Lazarus a chance, another chance at life. No, no chance in salvation. Our God is not a God of plans,
he's a God of purpose, isn't he? So we see that when God appears,
he appears only to his bride. He appears in the person of Christ. He appears and makes those to
whom he appears unnamed in and of themselves. Their whole identity
is with their husband. That's their whole identity. And he appears to those who are
barren and bearish not. those who don't have the ability
in themselves to bring forth life. Now, we know from the scriptures
that the Lord often appeared himself as the angel of the Lord
or in some physical form. but he doesn't do that now. I
don't want anyone here or anyone that's listening to this message
to think, you know, well, I've got to, I've got to have an experience
like that. When God reveals himself now,
he does it by his word and by his spirit to the heart. We're
not looking for a physical experience. We're not looking for some sort
of physical manifestation of God's presence. No, the Spirit
of God takes the Word of God and applies it through faith
to the hearts of God's people. And that experience, that is
an experience, but that experience is more real and life-changing
than anything that you might have physically speaking. You
know, we know that eyes are deceiving, feelings are fleeting, and they
cannot be trusted. Even in a court of law, oftentimes
eyewitnesses are proven to be wrong. What they thought they
saw, they didn't really see. When God speaks to the heart,
you're fully persuaded. fully persuaded that Jesus is
the Christ, the son of the living God, that he's all the hope of
your salvation before God. You're not like a gripper who
said, well, you've almost persuaded me. No, no, we know whom we have
believed and we are fully persuaded that he is able to keep that. When God speaks to the heart
by his word, through the foolishness of preaching to save them which
believe, That's how he speaks now. He speaks through the audible
voice of another man, taking the message of the gospel and
making it effectual to the hearts of God's bride, of his elect. He sends his spirit and power
to give faith. love and assurance. Listen to
what Paul said in first Thessalonians chapter one, verse five, our
gospel came unto you, not in word only. Now you remember the verb, the
most often passage in the old Testament quoted in the new Testament
is found in Isaiah chapter six. where the scripture says they
will have ears, but they will not hear, eyes they will have,
but they will not see. They'll have some understanding
of things, but they won't really believe. They won't come, they
won't bow. Our gospel came not to you in
word only, but also in power. and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance. In much assurance. Now that passage
in Isaiah chapter six is speaking of the religious folks who think
they understand some things about God, and they think they've had
some encounters with God, but they don't believe the gospel. They don't have any assurance
that Jesus is who he said he was. And he'd accomplished what
he said he would accomplish. We're not talking about assurance
of your personal salvation. We're talking about being sure
of who Christ is. That's the much assurance. When
the gospel comes in power and in the Holy Ghost, we are certain. We may, we may stand in doubt
of ourselves or our circumstances, but we are certain that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of the living God. and that he has successfully
accomplished the salvation of his people and fulfilled all
that the father came in to do, gave him to do. We're certain
of it. We're hanging all the hopes of
our immortal soul on him. How do I know if the Lord's appeared
unto me? Well, notice. As soon as the
Lord had appeared unto Manoah's wife, look at verse six, then
the woman came and told her husband saying, a man of God came unto
me and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of
God, very terrible, but I asked him not whence he was, neither
told me his name. Even though she knew so very
little about who this man was, she could not keep this revelation
that God had given to her to herself. She couldn't keep it
to herself. She ran immediately to her husband.
She confessed that she had seen a man of God and heard a message
from God and that she believed what she heard. That's exactly what happens when
the Lord appears to our hearts through faith in Christ. Can't keep it to ourselves. First
thing we want to do is confess him in baptism. That's the first
thing we want to do. We want to talk to other believers
about their experience with Christ. We want to share in this fellowship
that we have. Christ is our life. We've got
to have someone to... You confess me before me and
I confess you before my Father, which is in heaven. That's the
believer's experience when God appears. Can't keep it to ourselves. Though we may know very little
about Him, what we do know, we know is true. We know He's glorious. She said, this man was very terrible,
which means it was very glorious. He was, he was not just a natural
man. I don't know where he's from
and I don't even know his name, but, but, uh, here's what he
told me. And she relates back to her husband,
what the angel, what the Lord Jesus Christ had said to her. Secondly, her and Manoah, wanted, needed
the Lord to come back. Look at verse seven. But he said unto me, behold,
thou shalt conceive, and hear, and bear a son, and now drink
no wine, nor strong drink, nor eat anything, any unclean thing. For the child shall be a Nazarite
to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah entreated
the Lord and said, oh my Lord, let the man of God which thou
didst send come again unto us and teach us what we shall do
unto the child that shall be born. Now that will be your prayer
if God ever reveals himself to you. Lord, come again. Come again and come again. That's
why we're here, isn't it? Lord, it seems that these experiences
that I have with you are only fleeting moments, but come again,
Lord, and entreat us and teach us about this child that shall
be born. He wanted to know more about
Christ. And that's every believer's Oh,
I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me, but
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling
in Christ Jesus. Lord, show me more of Christ.
We're never satisfied with how much we know of Him. or how many experiences we've
had of him. We want more. If we've tasted
of the heavenly gift of grace, we know the taste of that. We
want more. We keep coming back to the table.
Lord, give me more. Give me more of Christ. I've
got to have him. It's not just that I want to
have him. I've got to have him. He's my
life. Lord, what you've revealed to
me about him is so terrible and so glorious. Reveal more. Teach me what I should do with
this child that shall be born. Here's how we know that the Lord's
appeared unto us. He appears in the person of Christ
only to his bride who goes unnamed, left to herself, is barren and
undone. She wants to know more about
him. She can't help but to tell someone else what she has learned. She's got to share him. Look at verse nine, and God entreated,
God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and he always does. I will let no wise cast thee
out. When God makes himself known
and his children have a hunger for him and they keep coming
back again and again and again and again, wanting more of him,
he always hearkens unto them. He's pleased to make himself
known. He glories in making himself known to the hearts of his people. Now I say this to us, brethren,
I say this to myself, our God is much more willing to make
himself known to each of us than we are for him to be made known
to us. If he's not known to our hearts,
it's not on him, it's on us. God hearkened to the voice of
Manoah. And we've already seen that Manoah
is a picture of Christ. Noah rests. He's our Sabbath. Here's our hope, that God the
Father always hearkens unto the prayers of his son. Father, I pray not for the world. I pray for them which thou hast
given me out of the world, thine they were. Lord, I finish the
work which thou gavest me to do. Keep them, keep them. Peter, be of good cheer. Yeah,
you're gonna deny me three times with cursing, but be of good
cheer. I have prayed for you. When you fear that perhaps your
prayers are not effectual, the effectual prayers of the righteous
man are always heard. Look to Christ and His intercession
for you. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Manoah has prayed for his
bride, and God has hearkened unto him. And the angel of God came again,
you see that in verse nine? Unto the woman as she sat in
the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. So the Lord
answers the prayer, but he reveals himself to the wife again. honor
the Lord gives women in the Bible? You know, there's not a religion
in this world that honors women like our God honors women, holds
them up in high esteem. Every other religion suppresses
a woman and holds her down and What a glorious picture of our
Lord's affection. You know, I think about that
woman at the well. You know, she'd been married
five times. The man she's living with wasn't her husband, but
she knew more than those stupid disciples knew. You know, they
went down into Sychar to buy some food. And, you know, here
the bread of life was making himself known to this woman.
Is not this the Christ? He's told me everything. Come
and see a man that told me everything I ever did. Disciples didn't
know anything that this woman knew. He comes again to the woman.
And the woman, look at verse 10, made haste and ran and showed
her husband. And said unto him, behold, the
man that appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. And
Manoah rose and went after his wife and came to the man and
said unto him, art thou the man that speaketh unto the woman?
And he said, I am. And Manoah said, now let thy
words come to pass. How shall we order the child?
And how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman, I'm just gonna
repeat to you what your wife has already told you twice. She may not eat of anything that
cometh of the vine. We looked at this last Sunday
of what it meant to be a Nazarite. We won't go back into that. But
Samson is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the separated
one, the Nazarite. She shall not eat of anything
that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink the wine, a strong
drink, nor eat any unclean thing. All that I have commanded her,
let her observe. And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, I
pray thee, let us detain thee. Here's another way we know that
the Lord's appeared unto us. Lord, don't leave us. Don't leave
us. Don't leave us to ourselves.
Lord, I've got to have you with me. Moses, when he was there
at Mount Sinai and the Lord told him to pick up and move on, Moses
said, Lord, if you don't go with us, don't let us take another
step. Keep us right here lest you go with us. Those disciples
walk in with the Lord on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter
24. The Lord acted as if he would go on and he always does. He will act toward you and me
as if, you know, I'll just go on. Lord, and they pleaded with
him to come into their home and to break bread with them. And
in the breaking of bread, he was made known unto them. The
Lord always puts us in a place. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
those disciples, aren't you to go with them also? What does
the Lord do? He's trying us. How badly do
you need me to detain, to be detained and stay here with you?
When Ruth, after her husband and sons died in Moab, said to
her two daughter-in-laws, no, you all stay behind. And Naomi,
and Ruth said, no, I'm going with you. And Naomi tried to
insist, no, stay, stay with your people. What did Naomi say? She finally, Ruth said, She finally
said, oh no, your God is my God. Your people is my people. Wherever
you go, I'm going. I've got to go with you. I've
got nothing here in Moab. And the Lord will do the same.
We know that God's appeared unto us by how important it is for
him to remain with us. That's what the story of the
unjust judge is all about. When the woman in importunity
pleaded with him, begged with him, and he answered her prayer
out of importunity. How important. If God's ever
revealed himself to you, you know that you can't live without
him. You've got to have him. Lord,
let us detain thee. and quickly. Manoah asked him, until, look
at the end of verse 15, until we shall have made ready a kid
for thee. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread.
If thou will offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord.
For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah
said unto the angel of the Lord, what is thy name? That when thy
sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor. God reveals himself
to us by his names. And that's what we want to know.
Lord, I know your name is Jesus, but what does that really mean?
Interpret that name for me. Interpret that name. God shall
save his people. Oh yes, he shall and he did. Jehovah said, can you? Yes, Lord,
you are my righteousness. But interpret that for me, that
I may give the honor and glory. Lord, reveal to me the meaning
of your names, because it's in his name that is his glory. So Manoah makes an offering,
took a kid in verse 10, the meat offering, offered it upon a rock.
That's what Gideon did, didn't he? Made an offering upon a rock.
That rock is Christ. That offering is Christ. And
the smoke goes up from the offering unto the Lord. And it came to
pass when the flame, verse 20, went up toward heaven from off
the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame
of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked
on it and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel
of the Lord did not appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then
Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said
to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. And Manoah's wife had some understanding. that Manoah didn't have. Look
what she says. But his wife said unto him, if
the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received
a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he
have showed us all these things, nor would he at this time have
told us such things as these. And there's a whole message in
that one verse. If God was going to send us to
hell, he would not have received the Lord Jesus Christ into glory. His ascension into glory is the
assurance of our salvation. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. He would not have
received that offering if he was going to send us to hell.
And he would not have shown us the things that he's shown us.
if he was gonna kill us. Here's our hope. The Lord has
revealed himself. And what he has promised, he
is also able to perform. Look at the last two verses of
this chapter, and the woman bear a son. and called his name Samson. And the child grew and the Lord
blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Esther. God performed what he promised
he would do. A lot of blessing. The Lord would
make himself known to us like he did to Manoah and his wife. thing.