Matthew Henry remarks, “The name of Christ is not now like ointment sealed up, as it had been long (Judges 13:8)… but like ointment poured forth, which denotes both the freeness and the fulness of the communication of his grace by the gospel.”
In Judges 13:18, the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah and his wife. When “the angel of the LORD” appears to someone in the Old Testament, this is often referred to as a Christophany. It is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Manoah knew the angel was God after the angel ascended in the smoke of the sacrifice Manoah had offered. This frightened Manoah, who said, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” (Judges 13:22)
Manoah did not have a full understanding of whom he was seeing, for this was hidden from him. “Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name…?” But “the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?” (See Judges 13:17,18) Some things were hidden form the Old Testament saints. However, the name of Christ is no longer hidden. It is now open to the saints and poured forth freely so that its sweet savour fills all the saint’s heart and life. We now know who the Messiah is. We now understand the gospel, the good news that the grace of God is available to us because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ through His finished work on the cross. Christ’s name is open to us and His love is shed abroad in our hearts, filling our hearts with His good savour. Therefore, do we love Him because He first loved us.
“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:5)
“We love him, because he first loved us.” (I John 4:19)
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