Perspective

Judges 13:23

“But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”

The foretold birth of Samson is a doozy.  An angel of the Lord comes to the wife of Manoah, who is childless and tells her that she will become pregnant, give birth to a son, and he will be holy to the Lord, a Nazirite.  She hurries and tells Manoah who prays that the man of God would come back and tell him how to raise her child to be.  Well, the Lord hears Manoah and sends the angel back to the wife.  When he gets there, the wife hurries back and tells her husband that the man of God has come again and to hurry and meet him.  Manoah meets the angel (he does not know it is an angel) and asks him to stay and eat. The angel replies to make an offering to the Lord instead.  They make an grain offering and a young goat offering. While the flames are burning the offering, the angel of the Lord ascends into the flames and disappears for good. Seeing the angel of the Lord ascending in the flames, Manoah freaks out and says that they are going to die because they have seen God.  His wife then says in verse 23 to basically to chill out. 

I know times in the past I thought I was a dead man because of what I did or what I saw as a kid.  When we get older we tend to mellow out.  Manoah’s wife was the break to his out of control behavior.  How many times have we done or seen things and we react in a way that is out of control?  We are not called to have an out of control reaction to everything. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Being out of control is simply not in God’s playbook for you. His word tells us that we should instead react with power, love and self-discipline knowing that the Father is in control and that He has not called us to fear. So in the words of Manoah’s wife, “STOP IT!”, “QUIT FEAKING OUT”!

“If the Lord meant to kill us…”  We should all take a moment and read these words every day.  Then say “he would not have accepted the sacrifice…”  Jesus sacrificed himself once and for all.  We do not need to wallow in the pit of despair fearing death saying “the Lord is going to kill us” because His son has already paid the price of our sin.  Accept Him as your savior and put your life in His hands. God has accepted Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins. God has given us His Word called the Bible.  If you catch yourself wallowing in the pit of self pity remember His Word, start reading it and studying it.  You will be surprised how it changes your perspective.  Manoah said we are going to die; one side without understanding.  His wife said we shall live because He accepted the sacrifice; the other side understanding…His Word.  Today study and read the Word because it could completely 180 your perspective.