Judges 13:1-25 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD… Here is the head of the house in gloom. Is he not always more or less in gloom, this same head of the house all the world over? Who ever knew a head of the house that was not more or less low-spirited, worried by a hundred anxieties, tormented by sudden fear? Perhaps naturally so: after all he is the head of the house; and probably the lightning conductor, being higher than any other part of the building, may have experience of thunder-storms and lightning discharges that lower parts of the structure know nothing about. Here we have a wife comforting her husband. Like a true woman, she let Manoah have his groan out. There is a beautiful cunning in love. It lets the groan get right out, and then it offers its gentle consolation. If we had heard Manoah alone, we should have said, A terrible thunder-storm has burst upon this house, and God has come down upon it with awful vengeance; and not until we heard his wife's statement of the case should we have any clear idea of the reality of the circumstances. The husband does not know all the case. Perhaps the wife would read the case a little too hopefully. You must hear both the statements, put them both together, and draw your con clusions from the twofold statement. People are the complement of each other. Woe to that man who thinks he combines all populations and all personalities in himself. Here we have a husband and wife talking over a difficult case. Is not that a rare thing in these days of rush and tumult and noise, when a man never sees his little children, his very little ones, except in bed? He leaves home so early in the morning, and gets back so late at night, that he never sees his little ones but in slumber. Is it not now a rare thing for a husband and wife to sit down and talk a difficulty over in all its bearings? If we lived in more domestic confidence our houses would be homes, our homes would be churches, and those churches would be in the very vicinity of heaven. Let us now look at the incident as showing some methods of reading Divine Providence. There we have the timid and distrustful method. Manoah looks at the case, reads it, spells where he cannot read plainly, and then, looking up from his book, he says to his wife, "There is bad news for you; God is about to destroy us." It is possible so to read God's ways among men as to bring upon ourselves great distress. Is a man, therefore, to exclaim, "This is a punishment sent from heaven for some inscrutable reason, and I must endure it as well as I can; I shall never see the sky when not a cloud bedims its dome"? No, you are to struggle against this, you are to believe other people; that is to say, you are to live in other people's lives, to get out of other people the piece that is wanting in your life. This is the inductive and hopeful method of reading Divine Providence. I think that Manoah's wife was in very deed learned in what we called the inductive method of reasoning, for she stated her case with wonderful simplicity and clearness. "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands," etc. That is logic! That is the inductive method! — the method, namely, of putting things together and drawing a conclusion from the aggregate. Thank God if you have a wife who can talk like that. Manoah's wife was of a hopeful turn of mind. She had the eye which sees flecks of blue in the darkest skies. She had the ear which hears the softest goings of the Eternal. She was an interpreter of the Divine thought. Oh, to have such an interpreter in every house, to have such an interpreter in every pulpit in England, to have such a companion on the highway of venture and enterprise! This is the eye that sees further than the dull eye of criticism can ever see, that sees God's heart, that reads meanings that seem to be written afar. Have we this method of reading Divine Providence? I call it the appreciative and thankful method. Put together your mercies, look at them as a whole and say, Can this mean death, or does it mean life? and I know what the glad answer will be. There are some sources of consolation amid the distractions and mysteries of the present world. Every life has some blessings. Men eagerly count up their misfortunes and trials, but how few remember their mercies! Every life has some blessing, and we must find what that blessing or those blessings are. We must put them together, and reason from the goodness towards the glory of God. Amid these blessings religious privileges are sure signs of the Divine favour. We have religious privileges: we can go into the sanctuary; we can take counsel toether; we can kneel side by side in prayer; we can go to the very best sources for religious instruction and religious comfort. Does God mean to kill when He has given us such proofs of favour as these? Let us learn from this family scene that great joys often succeed great fears. Manoah said, The Lord intends to kill us: his wife said, Not so, or He would not have received a burnt-offering at our hands. And behold Samson was born, a judge of Israel, an avenger of mighty wrongs. Is it ever so dark as just before the dawn? Are you not witnesses that a great darkness always precedes a great light — that some peculiar misery comes to prepare the way for some unusual joy? Let us read the goodness of God in others. Many a time I have been recovered from practical atheism by reading other people's experience. When things seem to have been going wrong with myself, I have looked over into my neighbour's garden and seen his flowers, and my heart has been cheered by the vision. Oh, woman, talk of your mission! Here is your mission described and exemplified in the case of the wife of Manoah. Here is your field of operation. Cheer those who are dispirited; read the Word of God in its spirit to those who can only read its cold, meagre letter, and the strongest of us will bless you for your gentle ministry. Who was it in the days of Scottish persecution? Was it not Helen Stirk — a braver Helen than the fiend Macgregor — who said to her husband as they were carried forth both to be executed, "Husband, rejoice, for we have lived together many joyful days; but this day wherein we die together ought to be most joyful to us both, because we must have joy forever; therefore I will not bid you good-night, for we shall suddenly meet within the kingdom of heaven"? Who was it when Whitefield was mobbed and threatened, and when even he was about to give way — who was it but his wife who took hold of his robe and said, "George, play the man for your God"? Oh, woman, talk of your rights, and your sphere, and your having nothing to do! Have a sphere of labour at home, go into sick chambers and speak as only a woman can speak. Counsel your sons as if you were not dictating to them. Read Providence to your husband in an incidental manner, as if you were not reproaching him for his dulness, but simply hinting that you had seen unexpected light. Women have always said the finest things that have ever been said in the Bible. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. |
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