He whose name is Wonderful

It’s amazing how often Jesus seems to appear in the Old Testament.

This appears to be another case of Jesus appearing as a messenger for his Father. (The word “angel” basically means “messenger”.)

This time he appears to a woman and tells her that she will have a child and that he is to belong to the Lord.

He was to belong to a special group of people called the Nazirites who dedicated themselves to the Lord’s service, not cutting their hair or drinking wine, and doing a number of other things to set them apart from the rest of the people.

But while most people took a Nazirite vow for a certain period of time, this child was to be a lifelong Nazirite. (For more information on Nazirites, see Numbers 6. I’ve also written more on the subject here.)

When the woman told her husband Manoah of this, he prayed that God would send this messenger again to confirm what his wife said.

God in his grace sent the messenger again. And when he came, Manoah asked him his name.

The messenger replied,

Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding. (Judges 13:18)

The NLT puts it,

Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful for you to understand.

Seeing this reminds me of the passage in Isaiah prophesying the coming of Jesus as Messiah.

It says,

And His name will be called Wonderful… Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)

Think of how wonderful Jesus was in this passage.

1. He took away the shame of Manoah’s wife.

In that time, it was a great shame for a married woman to be childless. People probably wondered if there was something wrong with her. But with one word from Jesus, that shame was taken away.

In the same way, Jesus takes away our shame. All of us have sinned and are soiled with the shame that comes from sin.

Yet through his blood, the Bible says that our sins are washed away and are made as white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18)

2. He showed mercy to them.

Though Manoah and his wife were sinners, he didn’t strike them down. Instead, he accepted their offerings and blessed them with the promise of a child.

In the same way, Jesus shows mercy to us. We don’t deserve anything from God because all of us have sinned. And yet he doesn’t strike us down for our every failing.

Rather, he accepts our prayers and offerings and gives us the promise of eternal life if we’ll put our trust in him.

3. He gave them the hope of a savior.

The Israelites were under the rule of the Philistines who treated them harshly. But now a savior was coming that would deliver the Israelites from the Philistines.

And in the same way, Jesus became a savior to us. We were lost in our sin, trapped in the kingdom of Satan. But now, it says in Colossians 1,

The Father… has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. (Colossians 1:12–13)

Truly, his name is Wonderful.