Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord.  And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame.     Judges 13:19-20

Gideon’s offering in Judges 6 was a tough one to make, it was a family bull when his family was starving.  Abraham’s offering in Genesis 22 was bordering on impossible, laying down his promised son.  Paul’s offerings were innumerable and steeped in suffering (Acts 9:16).  Elijah’s offering in I Kings 18 bore his very life blood on it’s flames.  

It is in the offering of Manoah, the father of the judge Samson, that I’m moved today.  I believe there is a truth in his story that speaks to the offerings of saints through all the ages and that speaks encouragement, excitement, and persistence to me.  

Manoah and his wife put their offering on the altar.  They laid down before the Father something of value, something they felt led to relinquish, something that- in their futile human ability- they had to give to Someone who needs nothing.  

We have opportunities to do this every day.

In all of life, there is a rock on which we must choose.  Harsh situations, hard people, sacrificial callings, testing challenges, disappointing moments, unexpected hardships, all have their own rocks.  We have to choose: will I pick this one up, add it to my load and attempt to trudge on under the burden; wilI I cast it at the one who brought me to this place, hoping to spread my hurt on to them; will I lay my offering upon it and watch for the Lord to set ablaze what little I have to give.

Manoah laid his offering upon the rock of a difficult and burdensome calling, to raise a chosen son who would be Israel’s deliverer from the Philistines, and to do so with utmost purity.  Under the weight of such a call, he made the choice to use the rock as an altar.

Here’s where it gets really good.  With that offering, “the Lord did an amazing thing while” they watched.  

As followers of an Almighty God, we do not need to carry the burden of doing amazing things ourselves.  We are just the ones who bring the offerings.

In such a dramatic display of unfairness though, we do the smallest part of the work and the One who does the most blesses us for it!  The Lord did the amazing thing and He did it as they watched.  They enjoyed the benefit of seeing the miraculous.  They laid down their offering and stood aside to watch and the Lord gave them a show they would dream of for the rest of their lives.  

On the mission field recently, I laid my offering on the rock.  Now I must trust that “amazing things” will be done with what has been offered.  Sometimes we see glimpses of the blaze, and sometimes we must simply trust that there’s a great show going on somewhere in the flames.

You do your part.  Choose to use the rocks in your life as altars on which to make an offering to a God who can do something amazing with them.  Lay it down and stand in rapt attention as you await the miraculous thing that God might do with what you’ve brought.