#DailyDevotion The Lord Jesus’ Name Is Wonderful
July 13th
Read Judg 13:1–25
Jdg 13:16-23 And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.) (17) And Manoah 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 Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. (20) And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. (21) The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. (22) And Manoah 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 grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”
Yes, the Israelites are at it again. But don’t look down on them. You can be just as stubborn, stiff-necked and rebellious at times. Entering into the discipline of the Lord they cry out and the Lord hears him.
We enter the account of the beginning of Samsun. Sometime I wonder if he were the actual basis for Hercules, except Hercules was even less moral than Samsun. In any case, the Lord is having mercy on his people by giving them a judge. He would be dedicated to the Lord through the Nazarite vow. The Angel of the Lord appears to his mother who is barren and announces his future birth. Going to her husband they seek him out again and find him.
When they meet him they ask him his name. “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” He replies. Now true the name here is in its adjectival form but we are given a further clue a few hundred years later. Isa 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Hey wait a minute, that’s predicting another future barren woman, well not exactly barren, virgin (but as long as they’re virgin they can’t conceive, don’t get me started on modern fertility clinics). So the Angel of the Lord is Wonderful and the future child of the Virgin is Wonderful.
And that takes us to one more thing, the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord is God the Lord in a form we can handle. Angels are messengers and The Angle of the Lord is the supreme messenger. He is the Word of God. John 1:1ff. In other words, this is Jesus, the Lord pre-conception/birth from the Virgin Mary. There is a difference between “an” angel of the Lord and “The” angel of the Lord. “The” angel of the Lord is the Lord, the God of Israel. When we confess Jesus is Lord we mean that he is this Angel of the Lord who is the Lord. And he means to be gracious to us just like he was to Samsun’s mom and dad. That is why he came. And the fact that he is gracious and merciful to us who are undeserving is why his name is Wonderful.
Lord Jesus Christ, your name if Wonderful because in your name we have salvation and life. Grant us the same faith as Zorah and Manoah that we may trust in your mercy. Amen.