Then Manoah took the kid and the oblation, and offered it up to Jehovah upon the rock. And he did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on.
Manoah has just asked his visitor for a name and heard the answer "Wonderful." The meal he planned now becomes a sacrifice, and the guest who would not eat acts out that name while the couple watch.
Manoah's first instinct was to feed his guest. The Angel turned that aside: such a gift belongs to God alone.
Manoah was clearly a God-fearing man, and he wanted to prepare a meal for the Angel. But the Angel told him He would not eat of his food, yet if he wanted to offer a burnt offering he must offer it to the Lord (vv. 15-16). The Angel was the Lord Himself, but Manoah did not know this, and an offering must not be made to a mere man nor to a mere angel.
The food goes on bare stone instead of a table. Commentators see in that rock a picture of the one foundation for drawing near to God.
Manoah meant it as a simple act of hospitality, no doubt with a religious character to it. Now it becomes a sacrifice to be put on the rock. That rock reminds us of the Rock of ages, of the only Rock, the only thing firm in a world as weak and unstable as water... It is on the Rock Christ Jesus. That is the only basis of communion with God. The feast is not spread on Manoah's table. It is put on the lasting Rock — the only basis of relationship, and the only basis of power, for anyone who is to be a Nazirite and a witness for God.
A Nazirite was someone set apart to God by a special vow — Samson, the son promised here, was one from birth. And the stone Manoah used was not rejected as unofficial:
The rock on which they placed their offerings is accepted as an altar by the Lord.
Manoah brings two gifts. Older translations call the second a "meat offering"; the ESV calls it a grain offering. Each one does something different:
The burnt offering is before us in this offering of Manoah and his wife. It is Christ in all His blessed perfection, wholly burnt, a sweet savour to God (Leviticus 1). The burnt offering was all for God; none of it could be eaten by man. But along with it we find God provided a grain offering (vv. 19, 23), and of this the priest might eat.
The same writer shows what that second gift means for the worshipper.
God has called us in to share, in our measure, in His own delight in Christ and His work. There is a grain offering. He has given to the believer that same blessed Christ to be the continual food of his soul.
Manoah was told the name was "Wonderful," and the next thing recorded is wonderful action. The name and the deed match.
The messenger acts according to the name He has given... He is that wondrous Stranger who came again and again in the Old Testament, with His face veiled and His identity hidden. Yet He gave enough hints to remind us that Jehovah and the angel of the Old Testament is, after all, our Jesus, who is Jehovah the Saviour... It is as if He would say to this lowly, weak, helpless couple: if you are to be true Nazirites, you must follow Me by faith where I am. You must see Me as I am, first identified with the Rock, as the altar.
after fix reason placeholder This shows us the Person of Christ. Then the sacrifice upon it... speaks of the work of Christ.
Manoah's questions went unanswered until he had offered. The wonder came after the sacrifice.
The starting point of these truths is the sacrifice... The cross is the foundation of all our knowledge as children of God. Manoah wanted to know many things which the Lord could not reveal to him before the sacrifice. But once this foundation was laid, the angel did wonderfully.
This offering happens on a rock, not at God's appointed place of worship. Writers count it, with two other cases, as true worship even so.
Manoah turns what he had supposed to be a meal into a sacrifice, because the Lord had revealed His wish that it should be so (Judges 13:15, 19)... All three were cases of true worship, even though they clearly departed from God's own established worship.
- Redirected. The Angel refused the food as a meal and took it as a sacrifice. An offering belongs to God alone.
- Rock. The altar was bare stone — Christ as the one firm basis of communion, relationship and power.
- Twofold. The burnt offering went up wholly to God. The grain offering gave the worshipper a share in what delights Him.
- Wonderful. The act of verse 19 proves the name given in verse 18 — the veiled visitor is the Lord Himself.
- Order. The sacrifice came first, the revelation after. The cross is the foundation of all a believer learns later.
And it came to pass, as the flame went up from off the altar towards the heavens, that the Angel of Jehovah ascended in the flame of the altar; and Manoah and his wife looked on, and fell on their faces to the ground.
Manoah had asked the stranger's name and got no answer. Instead he got a sight: the flame of his own offering carried the visitor up to heaven, and that sight told him who the stranger was.
This visitor was no created messenger. No servant of God would take the place of the sacrifice:
Only the Son of God would have dared to identify Himself with the burnt offering, going up to God in its smoke and fragrance. The name "Secret" (pahlah) in verse 18 links Him with the Son who would be called "Wonderful" (pahlah) in Isaiah 9:6. It is a serious error, as John found, to mistake an angel for the Lord; but much more to mistake the Son of God for an angel!
Real angels act differently. Gabriel stood at an altar in the temple, and he did nothing of the kind:
Gabriel the messenger stands at the altar, but he will not go up in the flame of the altar, as the angel-Jehovah did long ago (Judges 13:20). He stands in the temple, but he will not speak of himself as greater than the temple, as Jesus-Jehovah did later. He fills his place as a servant, and takes no higher.
The order of the chapter matters. The offering comes first; only then does heaven open:
The cross is the foundation of all our knowledge as children of God. Manoah wanted to know many things which Jehovah could not reveal to him before the sacrifice. But with that foundation in place, the angel did wonderfully... In the fire of the sacrifice they found a new way, never opened before — a way for the representative of Jehovah to go up to Him. Their gaze was fixed on the angel, and they saw a glorious person. Only when he had disappeared from before their eyes did they know where his home was.
The scene has three parts, and each one says something about Christ:
You must see Me as I am, first of all identified with the Rock, as the altar. This shows us the Person of Christ. Then the sacrifice on it... speaks of the work of Christ. So as He goes up in the smoke of the sacrifice, He says to them, in effect: You must identify Me with One on high. He has linked you with His sacrifice and the Rock.
The couple did nothing but watch; older translations read "looked on." One writer explains what the fire meant:
The fire is judgment. But what need was there of the judgment of God on Him? Though the burnt offering shows Christ in all His absolute perfection, the fire proclaims that He took the place of judgment. The sin and the sinner needed this, and the holiness of God demanded it. But then God has accepted that work. Yes, He finds His delight in it.
Nobody can measure what that offering is worth to God — but watching is within reach of anyone:
Can you fathom what that blessed Christ is to God — the burnt-offering? No, you cannot; but you can do what Manoah and his wife did. You can "look on" and see what God's estimate is... And note that it is God's WISH for me to be occupied in this way. It will be the theme of eternal occupation in heaven, and if so it is fitting that it should be my theme on earth.
What they saw drove them to the ground. The same sight should still do that in us, and more deeply, because God has shown us more:
This wonderful act revealed something else, not for Manoah, but for us: the separation to God that the angel had spoken about is now heavenly in character. The angel, in parting from them, went up into heaven... Set apart in heaven, He draws us after Himself and fixes our eyes on Himself. His purpose is that the heavenly character of the One whom the world has rejected may be reproduced in us here below. Manoah and his wife had only a faint glimpse of this revelation, though it teaches us much. They "fell on their faces to the ground." Darkness is increasing. Shall we not adore in fuller measure the God who has revealed to us not only a heavenly and glorified Christ, but our place in Him?
- Sacrifice first. Manoah got no answers until the offering lay on the rock. The cross is the foundation of everything God shows His children.
- Fire. The flame that burned up the offering is judgment. God's holiness demanded it, and God has accepted the work and delights in it.
- The Person. No servant would take the place of the burnt offering. The One who rose in its flame bears the name Wonderful of Isaiah 9:6.
- A way up. In that fire they saw a road not opened before, and a Person now at the end of it, linked to them by His sacrifice.
- Watching and worship. They could not measure the offering, but they could look on and fall on their faces. That is still the believer's occupation, on earth and in heaven.