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.)
Manoah wants to keep his visitor longer and set food before Him, because he does not know who stands in front of him. The answer redirects everything: no meal, and the offering must go to the LORD.
The refusal of a meal
Manoah's instinct was generous, and it was religious. But he was treating his guest as an equal — a good man to be thanked and fed.
Samuel RidoutWhen he comes you notice Manoah is very anxious to know all about it over again. He gets no more than his wife had got before, simple instructions about Nazariteship. Then he bustles about to do something religious. There has to be a feast. He is going to bring this messenger, though he calls him a man of God, onto his own level. He will share his hospitality. He wants to know the name of his guest, so that he may honour him after all this comes true.
The refusal was not rudeness. It guarded a line that must never be crossed.
Leslie M. GrantManoah 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 his food, yet if he wanted to offer a burnt offering he must offer it to the LORD. The Angel was the Lord Himself, but Manoah did not know this, and an offering must not be made to a mere man nor a mere angel.
Turned from man to God
The correction did more than stop Manoah. It moved him nearer to God than he had aimed.
Numerical Bible NotesManoah as yet recognises only a human messenger, even while recognising the message. The angel insists only on obedience to the word already given. When Manoah wants to entertain Him, He will not accept anything from him as a man. He tells him instead to offer a burnt offering to Jehovah. Like Gideon, Manoah is made a priest to the Lord in this way. God rebukes the believer's unbelief by bringing him into closer intimacy. He turns him from man to God, and puts him in a place where he may approach God as a priest.
From a table to an altar
The offering named here explains why the meal was refused.
The Christian's FriendThis offering of Manoah and his wife sets the burnt offering before us. It is Christ in all His blessed perfection, wholly burnt, a sweet savour to God (Leviticus 1). The burnt offering was all for God, and no one could eat any of it. But along with it God provided a grain offering (vv. 19, 23), and the priest might eat of that.
And the place the food ended up was not the one Manoah had in mind.
Samuel RidoutManoah meant it as a simple act of hospitality, religious no doubt. Now it becomes a sacrifice to lay on the rock. That rock reminds us of the Rock of ages, the only Rock, the only firm thing 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. So the feast is not spread on Manoah's table. It is laid on the enduring Rock, the only basis of relationship, and the only basis of power for anyone who is to be a Nazarite and a witness for God.
The One Manoah did not recognise
The verse ends by telling us Manoah was in the dark. Commentators see the Son of God Himself in this visitor. Their proof is what He did with the sacrifice.
VariousWho but the Son of God would have dared to identify Himself with the burnt offering, rising to God in its smoke and fragrance? This name "Secret" (pahlah) (v. 18) identifies Him with the Son, who was to be called "Wonderful" (pahlah) (Isaiah 9:6). As John found, it is a serious error to mistake an angel for the Lord (Revelation 19:10; 22:9). It is far worse to mistake the Son of God for an angel!
Summary
- Refused. The visitor would not eat Manoah's bread. An offering may go to no one but the LORD — not to a man, not to an angel.
- Redirected. The visitor turned Manoah's hospitality from man to God, and drew him nearer — into a priest's place before God.
- Replaced. The intended meal became a sacrifice: a burnt offering is wholly for God, with none of it eaten by man.
- Relocated. The food went onto the rock, not onto Manoah's table. Christ is the only firm basis of relationship with God in an unstable world.
- Revealed. Manoah did not know who stood there. The One who rises to God in the flame of the offering bears the name "Wonderful" — never to be mistaken for an angel.