Let us turn again to God's Word
in the chapter that we read, Judges chapter 13. And I'll read again verses 18
and 19. In Judges chapter 13 verses 18
and 19, And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest
thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? 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. And I want to center your
attention for a while on the words that we find here at the
end of verse 18, where the angel of the Lord speaks again to Manoah,
Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? Or if we read with the margin,
Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is wonderful? And I want us to consider the
significance of that name, wonderful. It goes on in verse 19, So Manoah
took a kid with a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto
the Lord, and the angel of the Lord did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked
on. Both his name is wonderful, and
his work is also a wondrous work. Who is this angel of the Lord? You will observe. Again in this
19th verse that the words the angel appear in italics and we
know what the significance of that is, it means that that's
not a translation of anything that is there in the Hebrew. It's words that have been introduced
in the translation to bring out the sense. But really it could
be omitted and we see quite clearly then that the one who does wondrously
is really that person spoken of previously in verse 19, the
Lord. Manoah offers a kid with a meat
offering upon the rock unto the Lord and he did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked
on. The angel is evidently none other
than the Lord God Himself. And of course, there are numerous
occasions in the Old Testament Scriptures when we read of the
angel of the Lord appearing to various individuals. And the
angel is more than a created angel. It is an appearance of
the Lord, what they call a theophanant. It's an appearance of the Lord
in the form of a man. This angel of the Lord comes
as a man. In verse 6, Manoah's wife speaks
of a man of God who came to her. This is none other than the Lord
himself appearing in human form. It anticipates that that would
occur in the fullness of God's time, when God would send forth
his Son, made of a woman and made under the law. We know that the angel of the
Covenant is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ at the end
of the Old Testament. In that last book, the book of
Malachi, and there in the opening words of the third chapter, we
have this promise, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly
come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom
ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts." Now, it is quite clear here that the Lord
whom they are seeking, the one who will suddenly come to his
temple, is exactly the same as the one spoken of as the messenger
of the covenant. The Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come to his temple, it says, even the messenger of
the covenant, or literally the angel of the covenant. And that
is a promise of the incarnation, the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. and he is the one who now appears
to Manoah's wife and then to Manoah, the one whose name is
called Wonderful, the same person that we read of there in Isaiah
chapter 9, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given
and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall
be called Wonderful. That one whose name is Wonderful
is also the mighty God. As we see there, there are various
names that are given to him. Well, I want us, as I say, this
evening to centre our attention more particularly upon these
words that we find at the end of verse 18 the answer of the
angel of the Lord to Manoah's question when he asks what is
thy name? why askest thou thus after my
name? seeing it is secret, seeing it
is wonderful and why wonderful? well It's the name that's given
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that name tells us something
with regards to Christ in His person and Christ in His work. And I want us to consider these
two things, the wonder of His name and the wonder of His work. His name declaring to us something
of Himself, something of His person. when back in Exodus we
read of the deliverance of the children of Israel out of the
bondage which was Egypt remember how God promises that he will
lead them through the wilderness and lead them into the possession
of the land that he had promised unto their fathers and In Exodus
chapter 23 he says he will lead them by the angel. There in Exodus 23 at verse 20. Behold, I send an angel before
thee, says God, to keep thee in the way and to bring thee
into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him. and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him." Here
God promises him the angel and God says concerning the angel,
my name is in him. Isn't this the Lord Jesus? He says himself in the course
of his ministry there in John 14, I am in the Father, and the
Father in me. He is one with the Father. Again
he says in John chapter 10, I and my Father are one. And many times
in the course of his great high priestly prayer in John chapter
17, he speaks of the union that he has with the Father. Or when God says concerning that
angel back in Exodus chapter 23, my name is in him. It indicates
to us that this is really the eternal son of the eternal father. Was he not the Lord himself that
went before the children of Israel? He speaks, remember, in terms
of leading and directing them by the cloudy fiery pillar. the pillar of a cloud in the
day, the pillar of a fire in the night, to lead them in the
way. But the Lord himself is clearly
in that pillar. As we see at the end of Exodus
13, it says there, the Lord went before them. That is Jehovah,
the Great I Am. The Lord went before them. by
day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night
in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.
He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar
of fire by night from before the people." That angel then
that we just observed, promised in Exodus 23, is the angel of
the Lord. It is the Lord Himself. and there
in that 23rd chapter the Lord God doesn't only say my name
is in him but he says also if they obey not his voice he will
not forgive their sins all this angel of the Lord is able to
forgive sins now who can forgive sins but God only We have the
record there in Mark chapter 2 of that miracle that the Lord
Jesus performs on the man who is paralyzed when his friends
bring him. And there's a great crush, a
great crowd of people and they cannot gain easy access and they
climb onto the top of the house, it's a flat-roofed house, and
they find a way whereby they let their paralyzed friend down
into the midst where the Lord Jesus is. And the Lord Jesus,
seeing that man, says, Son, thy sins be forgiven. And we read
about the scribes and the Pharisees begin to murmur, who can forgive
sins but God alone? And then the Lord simply says
to the man, take up thy bed and walk. And the paralysed is cured. All the Lord demonstrates is
his deity in healing the man. in the great miracle that he
performed, but he demonstrates his deity also as that one who
is able to forgive sins. The angel of the Lord, whose
name is wonderful. Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ
that we see? The person of the Savior. And how, ultimately, Manoah is
brought to recognize who it was that had appeared. In verse 22 he says unto his
wife we shall surely die because we have seen God. This is God. God appearing as
a man. As I said many times in the Old
Testament we have these particular incidents recorded, these theophanies. The most striking, I suppose,
in many ways is that that we have in Genesis 18, where Abraham
entertains his three strangers. Paul speaks of some entertaining
angels unawares. And these three men come to Abraham
in the plains of Mamre. And we know that two of them
are angels, because in the next chapter, chapter 19, they go
on to Sodom and Gomorrah, they're going to destroy the cities. This is a mission they've come
on. And it's two angels that arrive there in Sodom at even. But Abram is left standing before
the third. And who is the third? It's none
other than the Lord himself. Christ says to the Jews in John
chapter 8 before Abraham was I am he is the Lord your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad the
angel of the Lord he appears to Abraham later in Genesis chapter
32 we read of Jacob at Peniel and the man that he wrestles
with and who it is that he is wrestling with is a stranger
again this is the angel of the Lord the one who is able to bless
Jacob several times then we have incidents recorded in which we
have the appearance of a man, the angel of the Lord. I say
again, it's all anticipating what would come in the fullness
of the time when God would send his only begotten son, made of
a woman, a real man. Isn't the Lord Jesus that one
who comes to reveal God? There can be no knowledge of
God apart from the Lord Jesus no man has seen God at any time
the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He
hath declared Him, He is the image of the invisible God and
that's true in the Old Testament as in the New Testament where
there is any revealing of God to men it is through Him who
is the Eternal Son, who is the Eternal Word of God that's that we see in the Incarnation. John says, "...we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth, the Word made flesh." And again Paul speaks
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Or this angel
of the Lord We direct it to the person then, of him who would
come. And what do we read? We see that
here is a man. As we said, he's a man of God.
Now the woman comes in verse 6 to her husband and says, 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 he me his name. And then, when Manoah arises
and goes after his wife, he comes to the man, we're told in verse
11. And says unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the
woman? Oh, this is the man. This is
him who is the last Adam. The first Adam
of the earth, earthly, is a typical man. He is a type of him who
we see in 1 Corinthians 15 as the last Adam, the Lord from
heaven. This is the true man. This is
that man of whom the psalmist speaks in Psalm 24, who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord. who shall stand in his holy presence. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully." This is the man. Oh, the only sinless man,
though Adam was created sinless, he was created sinless, but our
first parents, they transgressed, they fell, they're sinners. Oh,
but this man never sinned. This is him who is free from
every taint of sin. No original sin, no actual sin. He is holy, harmless, undefiled
and separate from sinners. He is truly a man of God. He is a man of God. It is God
manifest in the flesh. Oh, remember the language of
the apostle writing there in 1 Timothy chapter 3. Without
controversy it says, great is the mystery of godliness. Here
is the mystery of all religion, all real religion. That's what
godliness is there, real religion. What is the mystery of godliness?
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit. seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. All real religion centers in
this person. The Lord Jesus Christ. All the
wonder of His person. The great mystery. God's manifest
in the flesh. what the theologians call that
hypothetical union, how that there are two natures, he is
God and he is man, and yet he is one person. And he is never
anything less than one person, he is always God, man. All the wonder of it. That great 6th verse that we
read there in the 9th chapter of Isaiah unto us, A child is
born unto us, a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful. Oh friends,
is he not wonderful in his person? The child, the child that is
born, born of a virgin, But the Son is not born, the Son is given.
How important it is when we read the Word of God that we read
it carefully and deliberately and ponder the words that we're
reading. Unto us a child is born, the
human nature that was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb
of a virgin. Unto us a Son is given, the Son
is given. It's the Eternal Son of the Eternal
Father. Oh, this is a great thing. The
wonder of it though, it's all wonderful, it's all mystery.
We could have read those words in Isaiah chapter 7, Behold a
virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name
Immanuel, God with us. How is it that a virgin can conceive? It's the work of the Spirit.
As the angel says to Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon them.
The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also
that holy thing, that human nature that shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God, that human nature joined to the eternal
Son of God. I was drawn in many ways to this
particular text when I read that sermon in the December Gospel
Standard by Mr. Popham on Christ's name being
wonderful. You may recall it in the December
Gospel Standard, Christ's name, wonderful. and he makes a statement
there, he says this, vital religion consists in contemplating this
man, this God, one person. Or what do we know of vital religion,
spiritual religion, real religion? Mr. Popham said it consists in
contemplating this man, this God. One person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The wonder of it, you see. These things that are unfolding
to us, revealed to us here in God's words. The wonder of the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why askest thou thus after my
name, seeing it is wonderful. But as his name is wonderful,
so we see in the second place that what he does is also wonderful. Here in verse 19 it says, "...the
angel did wondrously. Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord, and the
angel did wondrously. The angel, who is none other
than the Lord, Manoah and his wife looked on." is not God our
God a God of wonders? There are so many scriptures
that declare that truth to us. Psalm 77 verse 14, Thou art the
God that doest wonders. Again, turning to Isaiah 25 and
verse 1, Thou hast done wonderful things. There are a multitude
of verses that declare that God's works are all wonderful works. Now, what are these wonderful
works? Well, they are multitude. But we often think in terms of
God's works of creation, God's works of providence. Oh, what
a remarkable work is the work of creation. We know that God
could have created everything in one moment of time. That's
how God could have done it. Nothing is impossible. He could
have created everything instantaneously. But in his wisdom, God was pleased
not to work in that manner. But as we see from the opening
chapter of Genesis, he created over a period of six days. And he created in that period
all the vastness of the universe. Everything. And now creation
has a voice. The heavens declare the glory
of God, says the psalmist. The firmament showeth his handiwork,
day unto day uttereth voice. The night unto night showeth
knowledge. And his line goes out into all the world, and men
are without any excuse. There is that in creation that
reveals something of the greatness and the glory that belongs unto
God. But then there's God's works. of Providence also. He governs
the world. We know how that he visited a
terrible judgment upon that ancient world because of the sins of
men. How he destroyed the world by
a flood and preserved Noah and his wife and his sons and their
wives. But he promised he would never
send such a flood again. There have been floods but never
a universal flood. And what is God's promise, as
long as the earth remaineth seed, time and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. He governs all
the seasons. Or do we recognize it, friends,
every returning day? Reminds us of the wonderful works
of God. Even when the dusk comes on,
and as we pass through the various seasons, here are God's wonderful
works. He governs all things. He takes
account of us and our poor lives. You know, the 107th Psalm is
a wonderful celebration of God and His providential care of
man in the various circumstances and situations of life. And what
does the Psalmist say when we come to the end? Do so is wise.
And we'll observe these things. Or do we observe the providences
of God? His wonderful works, the mystery
of His providence. Whoso is wise and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness
of the Lord. His works of creation and of
providence are but supreme, that great work of grace. How wondrous
are the works of God displayed through all the world abroad,
immensely great, immensely small. Yet one great work exceeds them
all. Almighty God, side human breath,
the Lord of life experienced death, and it was done, we can't
discuss, but this we know. It was done for us. He is the
greatest, the most glorious of all the works of God, the work
that He accomplished in the coming of His Son. And that's what Christ
did by the obedience of his sinless life and the great oblation that
he makes when he offers the one sacrifice for sins. Oh, it's
a wondrous work of God. See how it's spoken of there
in the 40th Psalm. at verse 5 and the following
verses. David says, Many, O LORD my God,
are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts
which are to us wards. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire, My ears, as they are open, burnt, offering
and sin offering as they are not required. Then said I, Lo,
I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God, yea, thy Lord is within my heart. Look at what David
is saying. He is speaking of the wonderful
works of God and God's thoughts towards him, towards him as a
sinner. And then he begins to speak of
the Lord Jesus. Because what he says there at
verse 6 following has to do with Christ. It's quoted by Paul in
Hebrews chapter 10. Here is the most wondrous of
all the works that God did when Christ came and made that great
sacrifice, that one sacrifice for sins forever. And do we not
see it even here in the Old Testament in what's recorded concerning
Moab Manoah and his wife, how this angel of the Lord directs
them to make an offering. They wanted to entertain him,
to present food to him. But what does he say in verse
16? Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread, and if
thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord.
He directs them to make a sacrifice, an offering. And then what do
we see? Now the angel identifies himself
with what's offered. 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. For it came to pass, when the flame 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." Or the angel is identified with
the sacrifice. And it's not only here, we see
it previously in chapter 6 where we read of the experience of
another of the judges, Gideon, raised to deliver the children
of Israel from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord also
appears unto Gideon. And what do we have there in
chapter 6? Something very similar to what
Manoah and his wife experience. Verse 20 in chapter 6, The angel
of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes,
lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did
so. Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff
that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened
cakes. And there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed
the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the
Lord departed out of his sight. And when Gideon perceived that
he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God,
for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face, And
the Lord said unto him, Pleased be unto thee, fear not, thou
shalt not die. Oh, he had seen God just like
Manoah. And he was fearful he was going to die, but not so.
Oh, the angel, he identifies himself with that sacrifice that
is being made. It's a type, is it not? Surely
it is a type. And it is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The angel did wondrously. The
angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. All is identified with this sacrifice,
the mystery of it, the wonder of it. And when we come to see
the glorious fulfillment of it in the sacrifice that the Lord
Jesus himself makes, what a mystery. What a wonder, when he cries
in all the agony of his human soul, my God, my God, why? Has thou forsaken me? Oh, how can it be? As I said,
this is God-man. One person is never anything
less than God, even when he dies, he's God, in human form. Surely there can be no division
between the persons in the Godhead. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God
is one. Lord God is one, undivided, indivisible. What a mystery!
What a wonder! When Christ makes that great
sacrifice, one sacrifice for sins forever. And God is in it. God was in
Christ, says Paul, reconciling the world unto himself. He does wondrously, and we are
to remember. Oh friends, we ought to remember
all His wonderful works. As we are told in the 111th Psalm,
He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. Now we have
to remember that great work of redemption, how the children
of Israel were certainly to remember that, how the Lord had redeemed
them, and brought them out from all that bondage that was Egypt. When we come to Exodus chapter
15, the son of Moses. Oh God had brought them out,
God had brought them through the Red Sea, the pursuing armies
of the Pharaoh had been destroyed in the sea and God had made a
way through for his people. And here is Moses now, singing
the praises of his God. What does he say? Verse 11 of
Exodus 15, "...who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods,
who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,
doing wonders." Doing wonders. "...thou stretchest out thy right
hand, the earth swallowed them, Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth
the people which Thou hast redeemed, Thou hast guided them in Thy
strength unto Thy holy habitation." Or the God of Israel did wonders
in redeeming His people. And they were to remember that.
That was the significance of the Feast of the Passover. And
when the Lord Jesus celebrates that last Passover with His disciples,
He makes it so clear that that Passover has now changed to what
we know as the Lord's Supper and it's a feast of remembrance.
This do, he says, in remembrance of Mary, or the broken bread,
the cup of blessing. It all speaks to us of Christ
and we're to remember this wonderful work how the angel of the Lord
does wondrously it says. He is wonderful in his person. All the mystery of godliness,
God's, manifests in the flesh. He is wonderful in his work,
the mystery of that great cry of dereliction, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? But as we conclude, just to come
to say something with regards to Manoah and his wife. What did they do? Well, we're
told here at the end of verse 19, Manoah and his wife looked
on. They looked on. It's all the
work of God, you see. Salvation is altogether the work
of God. It is the work of the triune
God, the purpose of the Father. the redemption accomplished by
the Son, the blessed application, the work of the gracious Spirit
of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Manoah and his wife looked on.
For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from
off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame
of the fire, and Manoah and his wife looked on it and fell on
their faces. to the ground. Oh, they looked! But what a sight! They saw the
angel ascend to heaven. They saw the ascension of the
angel. And it reminds us of the experience
of the Lord's apostles after His resurrection, how He for
40 days showed Himself by so many infallible proofs, the reality
of His resurrection. But then in Acts chapter 1 we're
told that the day comes when He returns, He ascends unto the
Father, and there they are, they behold. They see the ascension
of Christ. He speaks to them. Here in Acts chapter 1 verse
9, when He had spoken these things, while they beheld He was taken
up. and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye
men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same
Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come
in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. All but the
Scythians They beheld, it says, and the
crowd received him out of their sight, and they looked steadfastly,
they looked steadfastly toward heaven. It's one word that's
translated by those two words, look steadfastly. They fixed
their eyes, they gazed, they gazed with wonder. And this is what Manoah and his
wife are doing, they're looking on with wonder. It affects them,
they fall on their faces to the ground, they're prostrate. You
see this looking on, it's no passive thing. It's no passive,
it's the look of faith. It's the look of faith. Doesn't
the Lord say, look unto me all the ends of the earth and be
sighed? for I am God and there is none
else. Isn't faith likened to a looking
onto Jesus? The author and finisher of our
faith. Remember when the children of
Israel were bitten by the fiery serpents there in the book of
Numbers. Now Moses was commanded to make
a brazen serpent and to hold it up and they were to look to
the serpent and look and live was the cross. And now this is
taken up in the Gospel. We see it there in the third
chapter of John. John chapter 3 and verses 14
and 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal
life. You see the connection. The serpent,
the brazen serpent was lifted up and they looked and they lived.
And here it says, so must the son of man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him. All to look is to believe. And
this is what we see in these two. Why do we not see in Manoah's
wife something of the language of faith? In verse 23, she says
to her husband, 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,
as at this time, have told us such things as these. Oh, it's
the language of faith. And I like the way that text
is taken up, really, in that hymn that we just sang, 981.
At the head of that hymn, of course, we have that text, if
the Lord were pleased to kill us. how often we are guilty so
many times of misjudging the Lord when the Lord deals with
us in strange ways and what a strange experience this was that these
people are passing through as it's recorded here to see such
a sight as this a man and evidently a real man and
yet the angel of the Lord oh this woman she has faith She
speaks the language of faith. She knows that the Lord has been
pleased to receive the sacrifice. Surely the Lord will not destroy
them. Or the Lord had respect unto Abel and his sacrifice,
did he not? He's there in Hebrews chapter
11 amongst those of faith, by faith. Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being
dead yet speaketh." All this woman, as she looks, it's not
passive. It's not just an idle look. A passing glance. Or there's all the exercise of
faith here. But also we see it in her husband. He was fearful. She seems to be much bolder.
She has a greater assurance of her faith. But let us not dismiss
Manoah. Here is a man of faith. Here
is a man of prayer. Look at verse 8 how when his
wife comes and says she's seen this man of God. And the man
has told her she's going to have a child. She's going to have a child,
and she's been barren. Manoah, it says, entreated the
Lord and said, O 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. Oh, it's the language of faith.
It's the language of appropriation. He doesn't just say, O Lord, Let the man of God which thou
didst send come again unto us." No, he says, my Lord, my Lord. Why? We see the same in doubting
Thomas. When the Lord appears to those
disciples on that resurrection day and Thomas is not present,
he cannot believe, he will not believe, he wants to see the
Lord himself, he wants to put his finger into the nail prints,
he wants to thrust his hand into the pierced side and then the
following Lord's Day Christ is pleased to appear again there
in the upper room and this time Thomas is with them and what
is Thomas's response as he sees the Lord? He says, my Lord and
my God. It's the language of appropriation. Can we say it? my Lords, my Gods,
my Saviour. Oh, certainly this man is a man
of faith, is a man of prayer. Manoah, it says, entreated, entreated
the Lord. The wise man tells us in the
book of Proverbs, the poor use entreaties. It's poor people
who have to entreat. What is entreating? It's begging.
He has nothing, this man, he has to beg. He comes entreating
the Lord. Oh my Lord, let the man of God
which Thou didst send come again unto us and teach us. Oh, is that our prayer sometimes? We want the Lord to come and
teach us. He must come, He must bless us. Again, think of Jacob
and his experience here at Pena. Again, as I said, it's the angel
of the Lord. And we see him, first of all,
wrestling with the angel, but then the angel touches him in
the hollow of his thigh, and now he can no longer wrestle. But what does he do? He clings,
he clings. Oh, but what prayer. I will not
let thee go, he says to the angel. I will not let thee go except
thou bless. But more than that, he says to
that stranger, that mysterious man, tell me, I pray thee thy
name. And he said, wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name? Now doubtless, Manoah was aware
of the experience of Jacob. He would have had the five books
of Moses. He would have had the Torah.
This is the book of Judges, the period after Joshua has exercised
his ministry and they're in the Promised Land. He would be familiar.
He would have had his Bible, the Torah. He would have known
of the experience of Jacob there at Pena and the question that
he put to that strange man. And he puts exactly the same
question. Why? He wants to know the name. of this mysterious man. What is thy name? He says. That
when thy sayings come to pass, we may do the honor. And the
angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my
name, seeing it is secret? Seeing it is wonderful. Oh, friends,
what is this wonderful name? Oh, when we have the fulfillment
of it, with the coming of Christ what is the nine that is to be
given? oh Joseph is told thou shall call his name Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sins the wonder of it the
wonder of it that nine that person his work it's all wonderful It's
wonderful to sinners because in it is the salvation of the
sinner. Oh God grant, friends, that we
might be those who would seek to enter into the wonder of it,
to know the secret, the secret of the Lord. It's with them that
fear Him. He will show them His covenant. Amen.