More Christophanies in today's reading...evidence of God the Son in the Old Testament.

Manoah's wife was sterile until she was visited by an angel of the Lord. When his wife saw the man of God she thought He looked like an angel. In Manoah's encounter with this same man of God, Manoah recognized that this man of God was the angel of the Lord. Manoah inquired of Him, “Are you the one who talked to my wife.”

The angel identified Himself just as He did with Moses at the burning bush, as “I am.”

Then Manoah asked His name, just as Jacob did in the “wrestling” incident with the man.

Then this most wonderful of images…Manoah and his wife witnessed the ascension. They knew they had seen God because they thought they were doomed to die…same thing that Gideon said when he saw the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Son of God!

Oh, and the son born of the sterile wife of Manoah? None other than the man Samson.