with meditations
by my mother, Poetess Gertrude Sanborn
March 23
Judges
13:1–Judges 16:20
THOU
BAREST NOT
Judges
13:2-3a
"And there was a
certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites,
whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare
not. And the angel of THE LORD appeared unto the woman.
. ."
Have you ever met a woman who wanted
a baby but could not conceive? I have. It is most sad.
How she and her husband yearn for a child! They try
every possible way they can think of to get pregnant, to
no avail. There are tears of grief many-a-day. There is
unbelief that their heart-desire to be parents is
unfulfilled. THIS IS HOW IT WAS WITH MANOAH’S WIFE.
One day the barren woman, in our
verse today was going about doing her daily duties when
the angel of the LORD appeared unto her. His appearance
was like an "angel of God." I do not know how she
knew he was "of God."--except many times in the Bible
when an"angel" appeared, the people seeing the
"angel" recognized Him for who He was. Her
descriptive word for this "angel" was
"TERRIBLE!"
Right there before her was a
CHRISTOPHANY. Jesus Christ had manifested Himself to her
with a message. His name was "SECRET"! "SECRET" in
Hebrew means "WONDERFUL." And as you probably know,
"Wonderful" is one of the names for Jesus Christ
that we read about in Isaiah 9:6-7. The message as that
important!
What a shock, it must have been, to
have an angel come to her side and speak to her! Perhaps
more shocking were the words that "the angel"
spoke. She seemed to be more shocked at His words than
at His appearing. The message was that she would have a
baby. What good news! How could this be? She and her
husband had tried and tried to have a baby with no
success. How do I know this? I think the words "thou
art barren, and barest not." To me the "barest
not" shows they tried and tried.
The exciting news of a future child
came with special instructions. This child would be
named SAMSON, and he was to be a NAZARITE. His hair was
never to be cut, and he was never to drink of the fruit
of the vine. In fact, she was not to drink wine or
strong drink during the time she was carrying her baby.
What a joy was this news to Manoah’s
wife! Her child would become a judge and die a horrible
death; but all of this future grief was unknown to this
mother-to-be. This nameless woman and her baby were very
important to the plan of God for Israel. His name would
be SAMSON.
So, the same for you and me. We do
not know the future. We only know today. It behooves us
to live godly and follow the will of Him "with whom
we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). Perhaps some
wonderful future work is forthcoming because we are
willing to let the LORD use us in our daily walk with
Him today. (ysw)
"OUR
SPEECH"
(Colossians 4:6)
"LET YOUR SPEECH
BE ALWAYS WITH GRACE, SEASONED WITH SALT. . ."
GRACE, GRACIOUS,
UNMERITED KINDNESS (perhaps)!
Yet, never
compromise on doctrine
Only a truly
spiritual Christian’s speech
is always with
grace--yet seasoned with salt.
THE LORD JESUS
HAD GRACIOUS WORDS; YET ALWAYS TRUE.
And
Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he
said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly
return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo,
Sarah thy wife shall have a son. (Genesis 18:10)
Under God's Care,
Yvonne S. Waite
What Wondrous Love Is This
Bible For Today Baptist Church
Collingswood, NJ 08108
Phone: 856-854-4747
