May God be with us as we consider
his word together this evening. We'll turn to the chapter that
we read together, the book of Judges in chapter 13, and we'll
read verse 19. Judges chapter 13, reading verse
19. So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. and the
angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on." Well, in this chapter, as we
read together, we have the account of this man, Manoah, and his
wife. We don't know her name, but this
man, Manoah, and his wife had a clear problem, a great problem,
a great trial. She was barren. They had no children
and it would seem that they had very little prospect of having
children. She was barren. And perhaps they
had struggled with that for many years. And it was a very hard
path for them to accept and for them to understand. In the time
and the culture in which they're living in, to be barren was really
almost seen as a curse, that clearly if you were barren there
was no chance that the Messiah would be born through either
you or through your descendants. And therefore this must have
been very hard for Manoah and his wife to be barren. But maybe they had at some point
come to accept it as hard as it was, that they would not have
children and that that was the path that God had ordained for
them. Well, as we read, it seems quite out of the blue, really,
without expecting it, they have this visit from the Lord. This
visitor, this messenger comes and appears to the woman, appears
to Manoah's wife, and he says these wonderful things, a wonderful
message to this couple who have struggled with her barrenness.
Behold now, thou art barren and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive
and bear a son. And this is the message from
the Lord. You notice the Lord acknowledges, first of all, the
problem. Thou art barren and bearest not.
The Lord, as it were, is saying, I know the problem and I know
how hard it is that you are barren, but nothing is too hard for me.
Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Thou art barren, but thou shalt
conceive and bear a son. And then these instructions are
given as to how she should live and how he, the son that is,
will live. He shall be a Nazarite unto God
from the womb. So this wonderful message from
Manoah and his wife, the Lord has promised a son to them who
had no children to her who was barren. And then, Manoah, having
heard the message himself, after the messenger, the Lord has come
again, then desires to offer this sacrifice. Well, first of
all, desires to offer him some food, to prepare a meal, to thank
him, to welcome him, to show him hospitality. But the angel
says, No, I will not eat of thy bread. But if thou wilt offer
a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. So, the angel
directs him that he would not eat, but that he should offer
this burnt offering unto the Lord. Unto the Lord in thanksgiving. A burnt offering to the Lord. And then we read that Manoah
says unto the Lord, the angel of the Lord, what is thy name?
And when those things come to pass that we may do the honour.
He wanted to honour the angel. He still, it seems, at this time,
thinks that he is an ordinary man. Though a messenger of God,
he is a man nonetheless. And then the angel says, why
seekest thus after my name, seeing it is secret? We'll come to that
in a moment. And then Manoah lays this kid out, this meat
out as an offering upon the rock. So this is the scene that we
have. The wonderful news has been given that they would conceive
and have a son. And Manoah lays out the meat
for a burnt offering upon the rock as directed by this angel
of the Lord. And then we have these words,
the angel did wondrously. Now what did he do? What was wondrous? What was so wonderful that the
angel did? Well, it would seem probably
it was like the occasion when the angel appeared to Gideon. And there Gideon laid out the
sacrifice, and the angel touched the rock with his staff, with
his rod, and fire came up out from the rock and consumed the
sacrifice. And it seems probable that that
is what happened here. or something similar, that the
fire comes up and consumes this sacrifice. But nonetheless, what
certainly happened is that this angel then ascended in the flame
up from the altar into heaven. I think as Manoah and his wife
watch this, it's wonderful for them to behold as the fire comes
forth and this angel, as it were, is taken up in the flame up into
heaven. It becomes part of the sacrifice
almost. Accepts the sacrifice as he goes
up in the flame, up into heaven itself. This is, I believe, what
the angel did wondrously and was so wonderful to behold. For
they, it seems, at this time thought that this was an ordinary
man, a messenger from God, but an ordinary man nonetheless.
And yet suddenly here they behold This angel is taken up into heaven
in this flame of the sacrifice and the flame comes up out of
the rock. There's an amazing miracle, there's an amazing sight
that they behold. He does wondrously. And they
look on. Well, this angel, who is this
angel? Well, there are different views exactly. Some would hold
that this is an angel of the Lord, a created angel. I believe,
though, that this is an appearing of none less than the Lord Jesus
Christ, the pre-incarnate Son of God, who has come to speak
to Manoah and to his wife. How do we know that? Why do I
say that? Well, firstly, we have it here. When Manoah asks his name, in
verse 18, he responds, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing
it is secret? And that word secret could also
be translated wonderful. Wonderful. Well, of course, immediately
our mind goes to the prophecy of Isaiah, doesn't it? His name
shall be called wonderful. The counsellor, the everlasting
father, the prince of peace and so on. His name is secret. His name is wonderful. But also we have it, don't we,
when Manoah says, we shall surely die. For we have seen God. Manoah, it seems, had some understanding
of who it was that was before them. And he was fearful. What
would happen? Because they had seen God. They'd
heard Him. They'd been in His immediate
presence. So, I believe what we have here is the pre-incarnate
Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, has appeared to Manoah and his
wife and has done wondrously as the flame has come and as
he has been received up into glory in that flame. And you see, as he does this,
as they have received the message, and as he does these wondrous
things, what do Manoah and his wife do? Manoah and his wife
looked on. They looked on. They didn't do
anything. They looked on. Here we have,
his wife was barren. There was nothing they could
do about that fact. And yet the Lord had come and
as it were, they looked on as they received the message. As
they received the promise that the son would be born, they looked
on at the wonder, the promise and the power of God that they
were to experience. It was not of them. And it was
not anything they could do to bring that to pass. And now as
this miracle comes to pass, and as the angel of the Lord is brought
up in this flame of the sacrifice, so they look on as they realise
their unworthiness, their low condition, and yet God's grace
and God's might and God's glory as he appears and ascends in
this flame. Surely now they realize that
here is no ordinary man. Here is not just a prophet of
the Lord. Here is the Lord himself who
has come. And they stand and look on amazed
as they see God working, as they see God's work. Manoah and his
wife, they stood and looked on at the wonder before them. Have you ever, as it were, stood
back and just looked on as the Lord worked? Just had to observe
and see His work and amazed as the Lord appears and realize
that God is doing an amazing work and all you can do is look
on as he works. There's nothing you can do. And
like Manoah and his wife, you were in a place of impossibility
and didn't know what to do and didn't know what he could do
to help. and yet there's come a time that
you, as it were, have just had to look on and watch as the Lord
does wondrously, as He works in a way that you couldn't have
imagined. Yet He has come and you've stood
amazed as you've seen the Lord's wisdom and the Lord's power and
the Lord's grace as He has appeared and done wondrous things. Think firstly in our lives, our
natural lives. And the things that we go through. We have those times of real difficulty. It's a real problem. You think,
how will the Lord appear? How can he appear in this situation?
What will he do? How could he possibly help? It
seems so impossible. It seems so beyond you and you
start to think maybe it's beyond the Lord. And you start to doubt
his words, you start to doubt his promises, you start to doubt
the need and that there will be any answers to your prayers.
Do I need to pray? What is the point of bringing
this matter to the Lord? I can't possibly see how he could
solve it. I can't possibly see how he would
ever answer this prayer. Has he left me? Has he deserted
me? There's an impossibility in front of me. Like Manoah and
his wife, it was impossible for them to have children. You stand
and you say, there's time, there's mountain, there's difficulty.
I can't possibly overcome it. But then if you come to see and
witness the Lord doing wondrously, the Lord appearing in an unexpected
way, the Lord coming in a time that you didn't expect, the Lord
coming in a way that you had not imagined He possibly could,
and the Lord answering your prayer when you thought He was no longer
listening. and you've had to stand and look
on as the Lord has worked and been amazed that he could do
such wondrous things and be amazed that he has appeared on your
behalf. You've looked on and you've come
to learn that God works in wondrous ways, that God works in so many
ways and so many areas that we cannot see and grasp and understand. You know, we see our little life,
don't we? We see us and the people and
the immediate surroundings around us. And we have this very limited
view of our life and think that if certain things happen, then
the law cannot work in any other way. And we so often forget that
the Lord is working in someone else's life and the world is
working in a different way somewhere else. And all these things the
Lord has his sovereign hand over, every circumstance and every
time and every place. He knew that we would come to
this impossibility and he knew that way back in eternity past
so that in the years past perhaps he has put his plan into action
so that when that impossibility came it would all fit together
for him to work and to help. We forget that the Lord's hand
is on every person and on every circumstance and in every place
And yet we have to look on sometimes as we see his wisdom and we see
his goodness and we see him appearing in our circumstances and we look
on as he does wondrously. We stand amazed as we learn more
of his goodness and grace towards us. You know, it's a great blessing
and a real privilege sometimes to be made by the Lord. He has
to make us do it, to sit still. As Ruth was exhorted by Naomi,
sit still my daughter and see how the matter will fall. And
that's a real privilege to be brought there at times. Sit still. Sit still and see me working. See my help, see my appearing,
see as I do wondrously. Look on and be amazed. Wonderful blessing to know that
he has appeared for us. Despite our unbelief, despite
our doubts, he's appeared. One clear example of this is
the well-known account of Joseph, isn't it? When you think of Joseph,
the problems that he had to endure and the difficulties that would
come into his life. Sold by his brothers into Egypt
as a slave. Sold into the house of Potiphar
to work in the house of an Egyptian master. What a time of difficulty. How different from the life that
he was used to with his father as the favourite son of Jacob. And there he is now, a servant
of Potiphar, far off Egypt. But yet, even there the Lord
blesses him and the Lord brings him to a place of favour and
a place of authority in the house of Potiphar. And then we read
in Joseph's life of how he is accused by Potiphar's wife and
by an injustice he is thrown into prison And there he is now,
really in the lowest place he can get. So far off from his
family back in Canaan. So far off from the joy, the
relative peace he enjoyed with his father. And there he is in
prison, with no hope of escape. With no hope of being set free.
He's been accused of adultery. with Potiphar's wife. But then we read that when he's
in prison he is raised up as being one who's respected and
given a level of authority, of looking after the other prisoners
in prison. Joseph must have thought, well, The Lord is with him, as
the Lord clearly was, and maybe the Lord will bring him into
favour, maybe the Lord will bring him out of prison. And it seems
that it's all coming to pass as the butler and the baker come.
And he speaks to them and he interprets their dreams. And
it seems, I'm sure to his mind, that as the butler is restored
back to his position, and he says to him that, remember me,
That there goes his friend, the butler who he has helped and
given the interpretation of the dream. And there he goes to speak
on his behalf. That he might be freed from prison,
that he might be let go again out of the impossibility, the
difficulty that he finds himself in, cast there into the Egyptian
prison. But Joseph, the butler forgets. The chief butler, but yet did
not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. He goes
off back to his work, back to his family, back to his service
of Pharaoh, and he forgets all about Joseph. And as the days
go on, and then the months, Joseph, who must have hoped that this
was the sign that he was to come out, is still in the prison. And when the door is opened,
it's not opened for him to be released. He forgot. And there he was in prison. Where were the promises, Joseph?
Where's the fulfilment of your dreams, Joseph? Where's the word
of God now to you? Has God got it wrong? Is he mistaken? Has he forgotten you as he left
you? Does he even exist? Or have you been believing in
a God who cannot help? And a God who does not care?
What an impossible situation Joseph is in, it must seem. And
how many hopes he must have had that things were getting better
in Potiphar's house, and that things were getting better in
the prison, and all those hopes are dashed, and he's left forgotten
in the prison house again. What an impossibility for Joseph.
Well, the day comes when Pharaoh dreams and when Pharaoh speaks
of his dreams and when the butler finally remembers Joseph and
speaks to Pharaoh about Joseph. And then we read that Pharaoh
sent and called Joseph and they brought him up hastily out of
the dungeon and shaved him and changed his raiment and came
in unto Pharaoh. Now remember that Joseph didn't
know that Pharaoh had these dreams. Joseph didn't know that the butler
was speaking to Pharaoh. The first thing Joseph knows
is that suddenly the door is opened, he's given clothes to
wear, he's washed, he's shaved, he's made ready and he's taping
up the steps on the dungeon to stand before the king of Egypt
himself, the great king, Pharaoh. Surely Joseph, as it were, must
have had to stand on as the Lord did wondrously. Suddenly here
I am, in front of the King, being asked to interpret his dreams. And not only that, God is with
him to give him the answer, the interpretation. Joseph answered
Pharaoh saying, it's not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer
of peace and he does. And he interprets those dreams. Pharaoh hears, Pharaoh understands,
Pharaoh receives those interpretations and we know the account as we
go on of how Joseph is raised up essentially to Prime Minister
and given the responsibility of putting into action the plan
to store up from the years of plenty. Joseph was brought up from nothing,
from the lowest place, forgotten in the prison. And yet God exalted
him. God brought him out. Joseph didn't
do it. God worked so that it was clear
it wasn't Joseph's ability. Yet the day came that the Lord
did wondrously. Joseph looks on. Joseph knew
then, as he carried on his life, as he carried on his place of
responsibility, his place of authority in Egypt under the
king, surely he must have remembered every day that he stood in that
office in Egypt. I am here because God has put
me here and only because God has put me here. The Lord has done wondrously
and he just looks on. Can you not join with the delight
and with the praise of the psalm when it says that when the Lord
turned again the captivity of Zion, we are like them that dream
Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with
singing. And they said among the heathen, the Lord has done
great things for them. The Lord hath done great things
for us, whereof we are glad. You think of a time, just in
our natural life like that, like Joseph, when the Lord has appeared
and helped. The Lord is blessed in a way
that we could never have imagined. He's done wondrously and He's
taken us to a place where we can only look on and wonder at
His goodness and His wisdom. Oh, what a reason to trust Him
for the future. What reason to exalt Him, to
love and to worship Him who does appear that we can leave our
way, our future entirely in his hands. The angel did wondrously
and Manoah and his wife looked on. But I also want to look at
this from another angle. Manoah and his wife looked on.
Our mind goes to that group of people who sat and looked on. at the suffering and the crucified
Lord Jesus Christ. We read, as he was there on that
cross, and as the people who had crucified him, as it were,
stepped back to see the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
read, sitting down, they watched him there. Sitting down, they
watched him there at the foot of the cross. They sat and watched. They watched him suffer. Now
they watched him really in a spirit of mocking, maybe just of interest. Many of them despised and railed
at him. They sat to watch Him whom they
despised, whom they had crucified. They sat to watch Him suffer
and die. And yet for the Lord's people,
may we as it were join and sit and watch Him there, not in a
spirit of mocking and of despising. but watching him on that cross,
as it were, looking on as the Lord does wondrously. Because
on that cross, though to them he seemed defeated and to them
he seemed to be suffering to an inevitable death, on that
cross we see the Lord Jesus doing wondrous work, a most wonderful
work. the most glorious work that has
and that ever will be done. On that cross we see the Lord
carrying and bearing the sins of his church upon his own body. On that cross we see him carrying
and bearing the full weight of our guilt, the full weight of
our sin. And he bears that burden to Calvary
and he bears that burden on that cross. The burden that we cannot
bear, the burden that we can never take away from ourselves
or from each other and yet he on that cross does wondrously
as it's laid upon him and he carries it on our behalf. the angel, the Lord, doing wondrously. They watched Him there. And then
we see Him, or rather hear Him on that cross as He does wondrously.
And what wondrous words do we hear from Him as He suffers there
in those hours of agony. What do we hear? We hear His
words, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. He utters words of forgiveness,
words of love to those even around him, those who have crucified
and rejected him at that time. We hear him speak to the sinful
thief who turns and says, Lord, remember me, and he turns to
this thief in his agony. Today shall thou be with me in
paradise. We hear words of love, we hear
words of forgiveness, we hear words of acceptance, we hear
words of promise, of glory from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There as we look on, as we sit and watch Him there, He does
wondrously. For there, from that cross, we
hear words of love to sinners, words of forgiveness to sinners. Words that we need to hear. for
our own souls, He does wondrously. A wonderful work. Now we know. We know that God is a God of
mercy and a God of grace and a God who pours out that mercy
and grace to His people as it flows from the cross at Calvary. We know it because the Holy Son
of God Himself utters such words of forgiveness and love from
the cross. He does wondrously as we look
on. And there, as we look on, we
see him suffering what we deserve, what we deserve. We deserve to
be there. We deserve to endure the death
he died. And there on the cross, we see
him enduring the darkness for three hours, the agony in his
soul. We see him forsaken of God, experiencing
hell itself as God turns from him and as he knows what it is
to bear the punishment for sin. That is what we see on that cross. The darkness, the agony, the
suffering of Christ as he does wondrously sitting down, we watch
him there. This is what we see. We see the
sacrifice for sin. Menorah and his wife, Gideon
and others, they laid out, you think as well of Elijah, they
laid out the sacrifice and the Lord brought the fire and consumed
the sacrifice. It was received, it was accepted
and the fire burnt up the offering and here the angel, the Lord
ascended up in that flame to the altar, a sign it was received,
a sign it was a messenger from God. What do we see on that cross? That He does wondrous work. Not
just as it were the fire has come. Not just to burn the sacrifice. He is the sacrifice. He is the offering. And He is
there enduring the fire. to be burned, to be consumed
because of our sin. He is the offering. He is the
sacrifice. And He's there in His people's
place instead of them. We sit down, we watch Him there
as He does wondrously. For we deserve to be there. We
deserve to be cast off. We deserve to be consumed in
the fire of God's wrath. And yet He is doing wondrous
work so that we receive life and forgiveness and peace with
God. What is this wondrous work that
he is doing? He is redeeming his people. He's saving his church. He is buying them back. He is
buying their life. He might give them life. He is
shedding his blood. so that that blood might wash
the sins of his church and that they might be clean. What a wondrous
work the Lord does on that cross. A work that we need him to do. A work that we could never do
ourselves and we could never do for each other and yet he
has come in his grace, in his perfect love and he has taken
himself willingly to that cross and he has given his life and
he has suffered in our place and there he is doing a work
for our unworthy, sinful souls, he is doing wondrously. A wonderful, wonderful work. And what do we do? As the Lord does this work, we
join Manoah and his wife. and we simply look on. Manoah and his wife looked on. A few of us sat with that crowd,
watched him there, considered him working this wonderful work,
not with a crowd mocking, but now in an attitude of wonder,
an attitude of adoration and we've looked on. Because there
is nothing we have done. There is nothing we could do.
We have looked on. There is no strength in us. There
is no goodness in us. We've looked on and we've stood
in wonder. Our death wouldn't save us. Our
works couldn't save us. Our friends couldn't save us.
Our own desires even couldn't save us. Nothing in us could
save us. We were lost, we were ruined,
we were without hope and yet we have stood and looked on because
there is one who has done it for us, who has worked wondrously
on our behalf and we've stood in amazement that that work could
flow by his grace to our heart, to your heart, to me. could flow
from the loving Lord Jesus Christ as He suffers on the cross and
flow to us, then we have looked on as by His grace He has come
and He has blessed us. What He has done, His work, it's
His grace. You know, here is the place of
peace, here is the place of hope, of joy, of life? As we behold Him doing wondrously
and we simply look on and see all that we need in Him. Well, have you, have I looked
there? Are we struggling tonight with a sense of our sin? with
a sense of our inability to do anything good and anything righteous
and anything that can ever be accepted by the Lord. We're struggling. And the more we go on, we feel
the more like Manoah and his wife. I'm barren. I cannot bear. I have no hope. There will be no hope of blessing
in the future. I go on another step and I feel
all the more barren and what can I do about it? What hope
is there for me? And yet by His grace the Lord
came to them. He did a wondrous thing. He promised
them that a son would be born. He accepted the sacrifice. He
went up in the flame into heaven itself, the Lord himself appeared
to them, he did a wondrous thing for them and they looked on,
they heard the promise, they saw his blessing, received his
blessing and of course we read the woman bear a son and called
his name Samson. It came to pass. And the Lord used Samson. As
difficult a character as he is, clearly the Lord used Samson.
And the Philistines for a time were defeated through him. they
looked on. Well, we might feel like them. May the Lord direct us and may
we go to join and to watch him there as we go to the cross at
Calvary and consider him and what he has done and see there
a wonderful work, the most wonderful work, that he has done everything
that we need And may we be given grace, as it were, to reach out
our hands so we see the work and be given faith to claim it
and to cling to it ourselves. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling. While the angel, in this case,
the Lord Jesus Christ, has done wondrously. May we be led to
join Manoah and his wife and look on.