When God Showed Up For Manoah
God is saying: You may know Me but you will never contain Me. You may walk with Me but you will never shrink Me to your size.
When God Showed Up For Manoah
Judges 13
There are moments in Scripture when God steps so close to humanity that the air itself seems charged. Manoah and his wife stand in one of those moments.
An angel has appeared. A promise has been spoken. Their barren home has suddenly been filled with hope. They are not dealing with theology anymore. They are dealing with Presence.
They do what we any of us would do when God draws near—asks for a name.
Names feel safe. Names make things manageable. Names help us organize what we don’t understand. So he asks, “What is Your name?” But the answer is not what he expects.
“Why do you ask my name, seeing it is Wonderful?”
That is not a label or a title. It’s a revelation. The Hebrew word “pele” means beyond comprehension. Too marvelous for language. Too glorious to reduce.
God is saying: You may know Me but you will never contain Me. You may walk with Me but you will never shrink Me to your size.
Then the fire falls. The angel rises in the flame and suddenly Manoah knows:This was God, not a messenger. The fear is overwhelming. But his wife sees something deeper: God didn’t come here to destroy us. He came to bless us.
This isn’t the first time someone asked God for His name. Moses stood before a burning bush and asked the same question. God answered, “I AM.”
Not a description. A declaration.
And then there was Jacob. He wrestled with God through the night. Clung to Him and demanded, “Tell me your name.”
God refused.
Why? Because God will not be possessed. He will not be controlled. He will not be reduced. Instead, He blessed Jacob and renamed him.
Three encounters.
Three requests.
Three responses.
Not contradictions but revelations. God is showing us something about Himself: He is holy. He is vast. He is greater than man can understand or comprehend.
So He gives enough to draw us close—but never so much that we can shrink Him into a concept. We want to categorize Him or label Him but He gives awe and wonder in its place.
When God shows up, He reminds us He cannot be contained.
Not by a name.
Not by a system.
Not by our understanding.
Yet, The God who is too great to define is close enough to encounter. And that is Wonderful.
