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At this point in the narrative we see Manoah wishing to give hospitality to the Angel of the Lord. We then hear the Angel of the Lord saying he would not eat of the food Manoah was offering him, but telling Manoah, instead of preparing a young goat for a meal, to prepare it as a burnt offering, and offer it to God.

We have a similar situation in the life of Gideon when the Angel of the Lord came to him to call him to be a Judge in Israel. It is recorded in Judges chapter 6 and verses 20 and 21. There, in a similar way, Gideon was preparing hospitality for the Angel of the Lord, but the Angel tells him to take the meat and bread and place it on a rock with the broth. The Angel of the Lord then touches the food with the tip of his staff, and it is consumed by fire as an offering to God as the Angel of the Lord disappears.

In the Revised Version Translation of the Bible, which is a more literal translation than any other, our text before us becomes, "If thou wilt make ready a burnt offering, thou must offer it to the Lord." Notice the word 'must'; I believe this is very significant. Surely it tells us the utmost necessity of sacrifice as we come to God. The necessity of sacrifice before the grace of God can be bestowed upon us.

Surely we have portrayed before us in this incident, and the incident in the life of Gideon, our need for sacrifice and atonement. That without it we can not come before God, and that without it all our worship and service is valueless. In both cases the Angel of the Lord brought a burnt offering to God into the situation, just as God was preparing in grace to bring a deliverer to Israel. The Angel of the Lord and the offering are identified together, pointing forward to the one great all-sufficient sacrifice of atonement he, Christ, would make in the future.

Firstly let us notice how the importance of sacrifice is emphasised by this instruction of the Angel of the Lord to prepare a burnt offering and offer it to God.

Manoah was very likely, in this act of providing hospitality, playing for time, and seeking to keep the Angel of the Lord with him a little longer. He could not cope with the situation on his own, and did not want the Angel to leave.

But also it was natural, and no doubt good, for Manoah to offer hospitality to the one he simply thought was a man of God, whom he did not recognise at this time as the divine messenger. He wanted to show his gratitude for the honour placed upon him and for the good news they had received.

It was natural for him to want to know the name of the one he thought of simply as a man of God. Verse 17 of Judges 13 indicates how Manoah was thinking. He was thinking towards the time when the baby would be born, and he wanted then to be able to contact this man, and bring some expression of thanks in repayment for the honour and blessing bestowed upon him and his wife.

We human beings find our pride unwilling to let us accept gifts without repayment. We do not want to be beholden to anyone, or feel any obligation. We feel that we are as good as the giver, and we don't want to feel inferior by receiving gifts from them without some return. Our pride makes us feel we have something worthwhile to offer. This expression of pride has become, in our social culture, an expression of good manners and good social practice. If we are invited out, we will bring some offering or gift with us. This is the accepted practice. If we receive some gift or service, we feel that some expression in return is needed. We call it an expression of thanks, which it is, but thanks can be given verbally and still be valid and real. It does not need the gift as well. In the gift we are asserting our independent pride. Perhaps we don't realise this but it is true.

Why did the Angel of the Lord refuse the hospitality of Manoah. He seemed to do it in a very abrupt and impolite way. Surely it was to emphasise how impossible it is for us, sinful and fallen creatures, to contribute anything towards our acceptance with God, and the grace of deliverance and salvation that he gives. There must be no suggestion in any way that Manoah contributed, or would contribute anything, towards the blessing of the gift of a deliverer for Israel.

This is very important in the spiritual realm. We are so prone to reserve to ourselves some little thing which we can say we have contributed. If we can't say that we have any good work, either morally or spiritually, which is of any value before God to win his favour, we rely on our repentance, or even the faith by which we appropriate Christ's merits for us, and make this a meritorious act. We need to face and remember, that in our fallen state, we are polluted, and until we are cleansed by the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus, we can never be fit for the presence of God.

Manoah was being taught, through this action and instruction which the Angel of the Lord gave to him, this truth that sinful human beings can contribute nothing towards their acceptance before God. Apart from the fact that we can do nothing to atone for past sins, there is no act which we do that is free from sin, and the imperfection that falls short of the glory of God.

Further we are being taught that if we are to be blessed by God we must receive that blessing, with empty hands out-stretched, as a gift of pure grace. God's deliverance can not be paid for in any way, and we must not attempt to do so. There must not be any suggestion that we are contributing. Manoah must not in anyway give the idea, or have reason to believe afterwards, that there had been any contribution which prompted God to feel that Israel should be given deliverance.

Salvation is wholly and totally God's gift of grace. We find this hard to accept. The original covenant which God built into creation before Adam sinned is still rooted deep in our hearts. Satan is continually deceiving us with the idea that before we can know God's smile we must prove ourselves worthy. There is no way we can make ourselves worthy. Only Christ by his imputed righteousness can make us sinners just in the eyes of God. Toplady in his well known hymn expresses so well what is the one and only attitude we can have as we come to God. "Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling". We hold out our empty hands for them to be filled with all the grace of salvation provided by God in Jesus Christ.

Then why did the Angel of the Lord so clearly press upon Manoah the need to offer a sacrifice to God, rather than to offer a gift to himself?

Manoah, and we through him, was being taught his need for atonement for sin through sacrifice. The Angel of the Lord made perfectly clear that the young goat was not to be prepared as a gift of food, but was to be prepared for a sacrifice, and must be the sin bearer for the sins of Manoah and his wife, and indeed all Israel. Manoah was being taught that the goat's death was to be in the place of his death.

Later when the Angel of the Lord ascends in the flame of the sacrifice, Manoah expresses his understanding that in the presence of God, our sins bring upon us the just sentence of death. Manoah says in Judges chapter 13 and verse 22, "We are doomed to die! We have seen God!" Manoah knew that the sinner cannot stand in the presence of a holy God and live. The Angel of the Lord was telling Manoah that he must offer the sacrifice to God, because he needed atonement for his sin, and that God could only send the deliverer - this child he has promised - if justice had been met for sins.

Every sacrifice in the Old Testament is proclaiming this and pointing us to Christ. The Apostle in the letter to the Hebrews makes this clear, but points out that the sacrifices in the Old Testament were never able to achieve the end for which they were offered, but that they were accepted of God until the perfect and effective sacrifice, to which they bore witness, was made, even the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

The action of Manoah to give a gift to the Angel of the Lord is the expression in us all of the feeling of giving and working to earn our acceptance before God. The command of the Angel of the Lord to offer a burnt offering to God speaks of our need for atonement. The animal bore the guilt and death of the offerer. Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, bears our guilt and death.

The other great lesson of this incident is the assurance of acceptance and salvation which came through the sacrifice. Jesus - the Angel of the Lord - particularly acts to make this clear to Manoah and his wife.

The important thing about this sacrifice is not that Manoah gave it. This was necessary for any animal sacrifice to be made, and was one of the weaknesses bound up in the offering of such a sacrifice. When Christ offered himself, we who are blessed through his sacrifice have no part in providing him for sacrifice. It was God, in infinite love, who gave his only begotten Son. No! the important thing about this sacrifice that Manoah offered was that animal gave it's life in Manoah's place, and in the place of his wife and the people of Israel. He took Manoah's place before God and became his substitute.

The efficacy and blessing of the sacrifice is marvellously sealed for Manoah in the gracious act of the Angel of the Lord ascending in the flame of the sacrifice. There could be no greater assurance that God accepted the sacrifice, though Manoah at first could not understand this. Further, for the Angel of the Lord to ascend in the flame of the sacrifice revealed how he identified himself with the sacrifice, making it his own. Surely this is a vivid picture that he was to be the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, which animal sacrifices never could be.

Manoah realised the divinity of the Angel of the Lord when he ascended in the flame. He cried, "We have seen God, we are doomed". It took his wife to teach him and help him to realise the grace of God in this action of ascending in the flame. Manoah's wife expresses the truth with real understanding. "If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering." Notice she understands that the act of the Angel ascending in the flame was a mark that God accepted the offering, and so she further understood that rather than receiving death, which sin deserves, they were being given life and blessing. She began to see that the gift of the child she was to have was because sin had been atoned for, and so a deliverer could be justly provided in grace by God.

We see Christ portrayed in all this. The Angel of the Lord is Christ. Even in these Old Testament times, so long before his incarnation and death, he is present with his people, to bring the power and blessing of his great atonement to his people. The provision of Samson as the deliverer is thus seen to be made possible because of the atonement of Jesus still to be made in the future, but so sure and certain was that atonement that its benefit could be applied at this time. As far as God is concerned, as the Bible declares, Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world.

The ascending of the Angel of the Lord in the flame points us to the Ascension of Jesus after his death and resurrection, and reminds us of the fact that by the Ascension, and God accepting his Son back into glory, God was declaring and proclaiming that Christ's death fully atoned for the sin of the world, that Christ had fulfilled all that he had come into the world to do, and fulfilled it perfectly and completely.

What have we been reminded of in this incident of the offering? It is our need for atonement, and that it is through atonement that deliverance comes from God. All that is left for us is to be ready to humbly accept Christ's sacrifice for us, then we are accepted of God, and salvation has come and remains upon us.