Bible Geek Word Nerd - Samson - MALAK

 

Manoah Can’t Handle the Truth

 Last time in our discussion of Samson, we talked about his father, Manoah, who does not come off very well in the story, if we’re being honest.  His name, meaning “rest” or “resting place”, might be a sort of a foreshadowing for his parenting approach: resting and passive.  Not only that, Manoah appears befuddled by the events transpiring around him, while his wife appears capable and ready.  Perhaps this explains why the angel of the LORD visited Manoah’s wife instead of Manoah.  Like Jack Nicholson’s character, Col Nathan Jessep, in “A Few Good Men”, the Angel seems to say to Manoah, “You can’t handle the truth!”

Let’s talk about that angel.

His appearance in verse 3 of Chapter 13 is sudden, startling, and strange.  He greets Manoah’s wife with the Big Reveal of the story:

The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, ‘You are barren (AQAR) and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.

The Hebrew word for “angel” is MALAK (מֲלְאָךְ).  It means “messenger”, and sometimes it refers merely to someone bringing a message to someone else, as in Numbers, when Moses sends messengers to the king of Edom:

Moses sent MESSENGERS from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: ‘This is what your brother Israel says: you know about all the hardships that have come on us.
Numbers 20:14

Or in Nahum 2, where the LORD Himself pronounces doom for Ninevah (hey, Jonah tried…a little):

‘I am against you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.  ‘I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions.  I will leave you no prey on the earth.  The voices of your MESSENGERS will no longer be heard.’
Nahum 2:13

However, most of MALAK’s 213 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible are references to angels of G-d.  Angels of the LORD are a class of heavenly (that is, spiritual) beings.  In nearly every physical manifestation of angels of G-d, they appear in human form, from the angels who told Abraham that Sarah would conceive a son, the angel who wrestled Jacob, or the angel who called Gideon. 

Angels do not have wings.  Ever.  Sorry, Clarence.  Zuzu and “It’s a Wonderful Life” are charming but wrong.  You do not get your wings when the bell rings (This will be teased out in a future series called “The Bible Nerd Ruins Christmas”.)  The two classes of heavenly beings who do have wings are called CHERUBIM and SERAPHIM (more about them in another post).  The late Michael Heiser has written extensively on the supernatural world of the Bible, including the profoundly edifying “The Unseen Realm”.

What sort of heavenly being is the Angel of the LORD in Judges 13?

Manoah’s wife describes him with awe-struck terms:

Then the woman went to her husband and told him, ‘A man of God came to me.  He looked like an angel of God, very awesome.  I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.
Judges 13:6

The NIV translation is working through a challenging Hebrew passage.  The woman told her husband that a man of G-d (ISH HA-ELOHIM) had come to her, and that he looked like a MALAK of G-d.  In Hebrew, she said his “appearance” was the appearance of the MALAK of HA-ELOHIM.

The Hebrew word behind “appearance” is MAREH (מַרְאֶה), a word that’s used over 100 times in the Text and means “sight”, “appearance”, or “vision”.  For example, in Genesis 39, Potiphar’s infamous wife is smitten with Joseph’s fair MAREH.  In Genesis 41, MAREH is used five times to describe the corn and the cows from Pharaoh’s dreams.  In Exodus 3, Moses was startled by the MAREH of the Burning Bush.  MAREH derives from the verb RAAH (רָאָה), which means “to see”. 

Later in the chapter, Manoah asks the angel for his name, to which the angel replies:

And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”
Judges 13:18

“Wonderful” is a solid translation of the word PILI (פִלְאִי) an adjective that’s used only twice in the Hebrew Bible.  The other time is Psalm 139:6, where the poet writes,

Such knowledge is too WONDERFUL for me, too lofty for me to attain.

PILI comes from PELE (פֶלֶא), which we wrote about in December on the death of the soccer great from Brazil, Pele.  PELE is from PALA (פָלָא), which means “to be surpassing or extraordinary”.  These words are almost always used to describe wonders or miracles performed by the LORD.  When the angel says his name is PILI, who is he claiming to be?

And as if to erase any doubts, the Text makes it plain:

Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord.  And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: as the flame blazed up from the altar towards heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame.  Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.
Judges 13:19-20

Most Jewish and Christian commentators agree that the angel is divine.  Many Christian commentators call the angel a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus the Messiah.  Whatever his identity, this MALAK has a divine mission and a divine message for Manoah and his wife about their coming son.

Can Manoah handle the truth?  Can you?