Daily Devotion

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.

You Should Eat

Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Allow us to detain you, and prepare a kid for you." The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "If you detain me, I will not eat your food; but if you want to prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.) Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?" But the angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful."
So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to him who works wonders. When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, for we have seen God." But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these." - Judges 13:15-23 NRSV

God is not a computer that can't find the file just because you mistyped. God knows what you meant.

Samson's father, Manoah, was from the tribe of Dan. His wife was unable to have children. But then an angel promised that she would have a son who would be a Nazirite from birth. Manoah then asked God to send the angel back to repeat everything he had said to his wife.

The angel refused Manoah's offer of a nice meal. Instead, the angel told him to offer God a sacrifice. Although Manoah was not a descendant of Aaron, God accepted his offering. Realizing that the angel was actually God, Manoah was afraid that he would drop dead for having seen him. His wife pointed out that they'd already be dead if that had been God's intent. Besides, God had accepted the offering and had given them a promise about having a son that wouldn't come true if they died.

God seemed more concerned with attitude and sincerity than he did with the details of the law. The law boils down to two things: loving God and loving people. Do that, and the details will take care of themselves.