Mind the Significant

Judges 13:6-7 Then the woman went and told her husband, saying, A Man of God came to me and his face was like the face of the Angel of God, to be greatly and reverently feared. I did not ask him from where he came, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, Behold, you shall become pregnant and bear a son, and now drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.

As I read this portion of Scripture, God revealed to me the fact that Samson’s mother reacted in a very mature way. She didn’t ask the Man of God where he came from, nor did she ask for his name. But, she didn’t forget what the man said! In today’s setting, we do the opposite.

When the guest preacher comes to visit a church, many congregants observe the ‘cheap car’ he drove, and switch off. They criticise his or her dress code, and accent, and moving style, and the ability she or he has to speak eloquently. Some of us even point out at the words he or she pronounced wrongly.

It’d be a ‘man of God’ sent to decree that that lady would have a son after years of waiting, or to that man that he’d receive the long awaited house, but those particular proclamations are snatched by the wind as the recipient minds the insignificant!

This could flip the other way. Perhaps the preacher could be dressed in such an attractive way that the recipient is super enthralled … but in the end, when this person is asked what they picked from the speech/sermon, one realizes they stopped at admiration and didn’t pick anything of absolute importance!

This is the enemy doing a lot of stealing from us!

Yes, even in dreams! Through Joseph’s story, we realize that dreams could be conveying significant warnings of the future to come. Many of us awake from sleep, and either we choose to forget what we dreamt, or stop at the fact that we had peculiar dreams!

Imagine pharaoh reacted in the same way! The world would have perished when the famine came! We need to learn the art of minding the significant. Notice the unusual. Don’t miss it! Imagine Jesus had scrutinized John the Baptist’s camel clothing! Would the Holy Spirit have come down upon him!

Sadly, many of us hear about the John the Baptists God has sent us to today and wear supercilious looks! We go to be fed by Jesus’ bread and fish, and when He begins to preach sermons on the mount we pack leftover fish and bread and flee from the outdoor auditorium!

Judges 13:17-18 And Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true, we may do you honor? And the Angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?

Manoah tried to ask for the name of the man of God. He didn’t tell it. He was trying to tell him that it wasn’t as significant as the prophecy he had brought.

May God help you and I to reach out and heed the significant!

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Mark 4:4 And it happened, as he sowed, [that] some [seed] fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.

Mark 4:15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.