Prayer

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”
John 12:13,14

I began a study on prayer a while back. I decided I was going to study the prayer life of Jesus in complete depth. I was, as usual, quickly amazed at what I found in the roots of prayer in the OT. First, I found that prayer is not nearly as formal as some people make it out to be (and that actually people that make prayer very formal or showy are really not praying, but displaying.) Second, I found out that everyone prays. Everyone.

There are ten words translated as pray or prayer in the OT and all of them  mean to ask, entreat, or petition someone in some way (except in Jonah 4:2 in which the original Hebrew is actually a statement of frustration much like our modern, “Oh, come on!” and in Psalm 55:17 in which the word is more of a meditating). This seeking someone out. This petitioning them or asking something of them is really all that prayer is and nothing more. I found that it is not uncommon for people to not seek, ask, or petition God, but instead seek and petition man.

In looking at the first instances of prayer here is what I found:

1. Gen. 12.13 Abram asked “prays” to his wife to lie to Pharaoh and say she was his sister. It was a poor call as Pharaoh tried to take Sarai as his own wife.

2. Gen. 13.8 “And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.” Abram sought his peace through Lot. A poor call also.

3. Gen. 13.9 “Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.” Again Abram “prays” to and seeks his solution through Lot. Another bad decision.

4. Gen. 16.2 “And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai” Uhh, duh!! Are you noticing a theme here? An irrationality and fundamental insanity when people seek “pray” to other people?

5. Gen. 18.3 “And said, My LORD, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant” This is the first beseeching prayer to the “LORD appeared” Gen. 18.1.
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6. Gen. 18.4 “Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.” Many believe this “LORD appeared” to be the preincarnate Jesus Christ. As you may well have guessed this act of beseeching “prayer” directed to the LORD turned out well. If you read verses 9-18 you will see that this is when the LORD gives Abram the promise of children and that he will be the father of many nations.

7. Gen. 19.2 Lot beseeches “prays” of the two angels to come in his house. This is a most interesting “prayer”. Because they are sent of the Lord there is not the insanity that you see when people beseech “pray” to men. Still, there is no benefit either. The “prayer” seemed to neither help or hurt. The difference is, I think, that Lot knew these men were sent from the Lord and God was gracious to Lot’s oversight. Worshipping anything other than God is wrong: “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God” Rev. 19.10

8. Gen. 19.7,8 Here we return to beseeching “praying” to men. And with very predictable results. “And said, I pray you, brethren (the men of the town), do not so wickedly (try to have sex with these angels). Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.” What is this but pure insanity?

Many people are disturbed at this behavior of Lot’s. And it is certainly disturbing. I consider the central theme of this blog to be the concept of focus. What is our focus on? Lot’s focus was on appeasing these men not being Godly. Want something more amazing? As crazy as Lot’s actions were he was still the one righteous man in the city. See, again, how gracious and merciful God is toward our sin and failure?

9. Gen. 20.7 “Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.” Here God assures Abimilech that Abraham will pray for him. The first mention of intercessory (praying for others) prayer.

10. Gen. 20.17 “So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.”

This is the first mention of prayer toward God and guess what? Something good. The very next thing to happen (actually the very next verse in Chapter 21) was the birth of  Isaac.

Question.
Who do you seek first?
Who do you petition first?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 8:31 am and is filed under Prayer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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