Our Wondrous God: Beyond Names with Samson
Our Wondrous God: Beyond Names with Samson.
“O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! What a deep wealth of wisdom and knowledge He has! How incomprehensible are His decisions, how unsearchable His judgments! How undiscoverable are His paths, how mysterious His ways, beyond finding out! Who has understood the mind of Yahweh? Who knows how the LORD thinks, or what His thoughts are? Can anyone discern the LORD’s intentions, His motivations? Who knows enough to give Him advice? Is there anyone qualified to be His counselor? Who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? Who could ever have a claim against Him? For everything was created by Him, everything lives through Him, and everything exists for Him; So to Him must be given the glory forever! Amen!” (Romans 11:33-36, also Isaiah 40:12-14).
Hallowing God’s name, keeping His name holy, is a dangerous business. We could easily delude ourselves into thinking that we are on a strictly first-name basis with the eternal Godhead! Surely we know that God is an unfathomable mystery to us mere mortals. If we try to remove the mystery hidden within God’s vast Being, our quest for the transcendent Truth of the world disappears. God is a Person with inspired biblical names, to be sure, names that are helpful, descriptive, rich, and they are necessary to begin our understanding of Him. Descriptions understandable to humans, though, cannot fully represent an eternal Creator Spirit. His names in Scripture are merely snapshots of a handful of facets of a diamond larger than the universe.
“And Samson’s father asks the Angel of Yahweh, ‘What is your name, that we may honor you when your words come true?’ The Angel replied, ‘Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding. It is a name of wonder (“pili”).’” (Judges 13:17-18).
Pili (pil-ee) = the Hebrew word which means: wondrous; miraculous; unsurpassed; something so wonderful that it is beyond comprehension; remarkable, extraordinary, marvelous; so awesome it cannot be understood by humans; so amazing that it seems impossible or too difficult to accomplish; so uniquely set apart from human understanding that it is God’s secret. The two related forms of “pili” which mean the same thing are ”pala” and “pele.”
Samson and Jesus. The wondrous presence and name of God are revealed in Judges 13 as we read that Israel had once again done evil in the sight of the Lord. The cycle of idolatry has once again surfaced in the lives of the Israelites. The consequences were severe. Yahweh delivered the Israelites into the hands of their sworn enemy, the Philistines. This punishment was no light matter, because the Philistines dominated Israel for 40 long years during this time. In the midst of the judgment was a woman who was childless with her husband Manoah. This unknown woman was paid a visit by none other than the mysterious Angel of Yahweh. The first time this Messenger appeared, she ran to her husband and reported to him, “A Man of God appeared to me! He looked like one of God’s Angels, very awesome to see – terror laced with glory!” (13:6). The Angel told her that she would conceive a son, this son will live his life in service to God, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines.
The Wondrous Name. Manoah then prayed that this Man would come a second time to offer more instructions regarding this puzzling message. Sure enough, the Messenger, Jesus, returned to the couple and gave her specific instructions. Manoah was not aware of who this Man was yet, so He asked the Angel for His name. Jesus answered that it’s no use asking for His Name. It is too wonderful to comprehend. His Name is so extraordinary and awesome that it is beyond human understanding. God’s name is wondrous (13:18). Manoah decided to honor this special Messenger, and respectfully offered to sacrifice a burnt offering and a grain offering, and the Angel accepted the idea. And then an amazing thing happened. “As the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the Angel of the Lord ascended from within the flame.” (13:20). Manoah and his wife immediately fell to the ground in awe and worship and fear. Manoah knew that this was the unique Man representing Yahweh, and he thought they would surely die, “because we have seen God!” (13:22). His wife disagreed. How else can we give birth to the special son, she says. We will not die.
Face to Face. “So the barren woman bore a son, and called his name Samson, and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.” (13:24). Samson’s extraordinary story is told in Judges 13-16. Manoah was right, they really had seen God, in the form of God’s Son. And His name is indeed wonderful, the name above all names. The Angel of Yahweh, that mysterious heavenly Messenger that appears and then disappears in many stories in the Hebrew Bible, has long been considered by many scholars to be none other than Jesus Christ. Early Church theologians, and many others since then, have recognized that this unique Angel not only represents Yahweh, but also speaks for Yahweh, and is seen by witnesses as being Yahweh Himself. We do know that Scripture is clear… no one can see God face-to-face and survive the experience. And we do know that God is a Spirit. So, logically, any manifestation of God in the form of man is Jesus in His pre-incarnate state.
Remembering the Wonder of God. God is who He is. God will be who He will be…. beyond our comprehension; the Center of creation on whom all things depend; a mystery surpassing the reach of our minds; greater than all reason and knowledge; impossible to define in His divine nature. Anything we are blessed to see of Him are the merest of hints, barely audible echoes. As Job once said, we are merely on the borders of his ways.
Both Hands. So let us lift both hands to honor and revere our ineffable God. On the one hand, it would be disobedient to refrain from keeping His Name holy. We are instructed to make sure his Name is kept sacred. We are asked to pay close attention to those qualities of His that are within our reach. But on the other hand, it is also true that we need to trust in God’s holy and mysterious namelessness, to surrender to His wonderful transcendent nature. While concentrating on God’s known particulars, we acknowledge and rest in the unknowable Whole of His Being.
Relaxed Vision. Trained wilderness trackers call this wide-angled view the “relaxed vision.” This is the perspective that is able to scan the whole field of vision. Relaxed vision sacrifices sharpened clarity on the details in order to enjoy a breadth of awareness that is able to get the big picture. In God-centered prayer, both “focused vision” on His revealed Personhood and the “relaxed vision” of His ultimate Being is vital. Sometimes words are adequate during relaxed vision, but often it seems that we can only echo Job’s words, “I am unworthy. My words have been frivolous, what can I say? I had better lay my hand over my mouth.” (Job 40:4). Whether with words or without, relaxed vision involves a child-like trust in the Big Picture of God’s Personhood. Assuming that words might be inadequate to the task, may this prayer nonetheless lead into a faithful union with the nameless and wondrous God, in whom we live and move and have our being.
A Prayer to the God Who Is Beyond Names:
O God, Ground of Being, Ancient of Days. What a glorious and wonderful mystery You are! In Your mercy You have revealed Yourself to us in names and places and people, through word and experience and Scripture. Yet there is so much more of Your life that is hidden, and I kneel in awe before You. You are a marvel, marvelous beyond my understanding, Your name is full of unspeakable wonder. I accept that I am only on the outermost borders of Your ways, Lord, the mere fringes of Your eternal existence. Even so, this is enough for me. My limited glimpse of Your power and purity is sufficient to seek You. The faintest whisper of Your eternal voice is enough to guide me to Your love. And so, Triune God, I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a little child resting in his mother’s arms. Like a weaned child is my soul within me. I know only the smallest fraction of the wondrous Reality of Your Being, God, but I put my hope in You, from this time forth and forevermore. Amen.