Pointers From The Patriarchs

by VILES, D. | Category: Old Testament Insights Into Prayer | Feb 2003

Genesis is a book of beginnings. In Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God's purposes widen steadily over the decades - from individual through to family to eventually a sizeable nation.

The initiative for this developing relationship lay entirely with God. The process began with His command to Abram to move outside his comfort zone,(1) accompanied by a matchless promise.(2) The same pattern of prompting and promise was instrumental in God's revelation to Abraham's successors.(3) In a relationship where God so obviously led and provided, we might question how far there was scope for the Patriarchs to develop a real prayer life of their own. Yet during their long lives God was not always providing direction in explicit detail. Scripture clearly demonstrates that He had for them the same purpose that He has for us in moulding and forming character - to develop the key spiritual quality of faith through our own ongoing experience of Him.

As in our own lives, there were hard lessons along the way. When the lack of evidence of a personal prayer life in the scriptural record indicates an actual absence of prayer, we can learn from this deficiency. An example is the Patriarchs' experience with the kings of Gerar,(4) where a lack of recourse to prayer led repeatedly to discreditable subterfuge. By contrast, there is the example of Job, that righteous man,(5) whom we may consider as contemporary with the patriarchal era. The scriptural record of Job's dramatic life is punctuated by prayer. The first record we have of Job is his habitual concern for the spiritual purity of his sons, expressed through daily sacrifice and (presumably) accompanying prayer.(6)

With the exception of Job therefore, the record of the prayer life of these characters is patchy. However, there are some shining examples that demonstrate the Patriarchs' growing experience of God's purposes for them, forged through the vicissitudes of their personal experience as God developed and extended their faith. At the same time, God in His grace and forbearance was forming, of sometimes very unprepossessing material, individuals whose lives would ultimately be to His glory. If it was so with them, it will be so with us, as through experience of Him we 'become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ'.(7)

Abraham: the prayer of faith in intercession

Coming as it does immediately after the unforgettable experience of the aged Patriarch and his wife at the oaks of Mamre,(8) the account of Abraham's pleading for the men of Sodom(9) is startling in its robust faith. We may sometimes feel on a similar exalted spiritual plane after a notable experience of God's work in our lives; it's something to treasure in our hearts. But how like our own experience, too, that this incident is immediately followed in the scriptural account by Abraham's deceitful behaviour at Gerar.(10) From this succession of events, we can gain comfort and learn important lessons for the future - in particular, that our loving heavenly Father never abandons us, even though we may sometimes exhibit only scant faith.

There are several aspects of Abraham's intercession that are important pointers to prayer:

Understanding God's purpose and will: Abraham's attitude here touchingly reflects his unique scriptural status as the friend of God.(11) Although, again, the initiative for such a mature relationship lay wholly with God,(12) Abraham's understanding of His will is truly profound. We are struck by his insight into the essential balance and harmony in the Divine nature between love and grace on one side and righteousness and justice on the other. These are qualities that we often struggle with in prayer because, in our own experience, they seem mutually inconsistent. Others, too, (notably the apostle Paul) knew the secret of discerning God's 'good and acceptable and perfect will' and it galvanized their prayer lives. As Abraham, the hill-walker, found, the secret lies in not being 'conformed', but being 'transformed'.(13)

Persistence in prayer: The principles underlying Abraham's dogged dialogue with God are pointers to the Lord Jesus' teaching that 'men always ought to pray and not lose heart'.(14) Do we get discouraged when we seem to receive no answer to prayer? Provided we know we are asking according to the will of the Lord, let us pray on - the Lord Himself said that even 'impossible' spiritual problems can be resolved by prayer.(15) But then, like faithful Abraham, we must cultivate the spiritual maturity to accept the answer, even when it is "no".

The time of Isaac: the prayer of faith in service

Records of prayer are scant in the life of Isaac,(16) but the prayer of Abraham's servant, sent to find a wife for his son, is a gem of its kind.(17) The unnamed servant, surely one of the unsung prayer heroes of Scripture, demonstrates some cardinal pointers to faithful prayer:

The Master's glory: the focus of the servant's attention was not on himself or his arduous journey but only on the interests of his master. In this, the servant points to that greater Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ.(18) But his prayer is also a pointer to what must be the mainspring of our own prayer lives - that God may be glorified. It exalts the power of prayer to a new and thrilling level when we realize that the purpose of faithful prayer is to glorify God, and that this is why the risen Christ is so focused on responding to it.(19)

Never doubting: does the problem seem too insuperable for God to resolve? If so, our faith is at fault - we're over-valuing the opposition and under-valuing the power of God. This servant had no doubt that he was praying in line with God's will and that God was going to answer his prayer. Scripture insists - repeatedly - that it should be the same for us.(20) Only too often, it isn't. The reason is very simple - lack of faith: 'you do not have because you do not ask'.(21)

Jacob: the prayer of faith in vulnerability

Of all three Patriarchs, Jacob offers the clearest example of the grace and patience of God in building faith in Himself through the mill of experience. Jacob's long exile in Haran saw material prosperity, but little evidence of an active prayer life. All this was to change at Mahanaim and The Jabbok. Here was a trembling, vulnerable man, haunted by fear of the brother whom he had treated so disingenuously. Jacob's experience in this situation leaves us some key, practical pointers to prayer at times when the going gets tough:

Helplessness: the comfortable protection of wealth and self-confidence had been stripped away. At Mahanaim,(22) Jacob prayed to God with complete frankness. In complying with God's command to return, despite the dangers, he had done all that was humanly possible to prepare for meeting Esau.(23) Now it was over to God. God in His grace does respond, even if He is not the first recourse. His ears are always open to the cry of the righteous.(24) And Jacob's faith was immeasurably strengthened, as is ours, by the manifest fact that Divine strength is made perfect in our weakness.(25)

Openness: For once in his life, Jacob had no plan. All his strength was useless as he wrestled with this Man on Jabbok's banks. He could do no more than cling in simple faith for a blessing that could not be stolen - this meant everything.(26) He had learned at last not to make the mistake so often made in prayer - to suggest to God how He should resolve the particular problems that afflict us. How difficult it is to relinquish control and be open to God's working in response to prayer. We do well to take a leaf out of the book of Mary at the Cana wedding feast. Knowing her Son so well, she just laid the problem at His feet � '"They have no wine."'(27) The 'how' and 'when' was His responsibility!

Thankfulness: supplication and thanksgiving are two sides of the same coin.(28) At Mahanaim, Jacob's prayer begins by recalling God's continuing faithfulness to his dynasty and blessings to himself. An attitude of thankfulness in prayer - praise for all that is past - is crucial to developing a robust faith and trust in all that is to come.(29)

Holiness: this was, perhaps, the hardest lesson for Jacob to learn. In wrestling with the Divine Visitor at The Jabbok, Jacob was not struggling to wrest a blessing from a reluctant Deity; God's blessings are not administered so grudgingly.(30) In wrestling with God, Jacob was struggling to break free of his old self. It took him all night to realize that God was ready to bless him just whenever he was in the right state to be blessed; after that, his walk was changed for ever. This is a lesson which is fundamental to availing prayer, and which Jacob had to learn the hard way:

'"On this one will I look:

On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,

And who trembles at My word."' (31)

(1) Heb.11:8 (2) Gen.12: 2-3 (3) Gen.26:2-5;35:9-12 (4) Gen.20:1-17, 26:7-16 (5) Ezek.14:14 (6) Job 1: 4-5 (7) Eph.4:13 NIV (8) Gen.18:1-15 (9) Gen.18:22-33 (10) Gen.20:1-17 (11) Is.41:8 (12) Gen.18:17-19 (13) Rom.12:2 (14) Luke 18:1-8 (15) Mat.17:21; Mark.9:29 (16) Gen.25:21;26:25;27:28,29 (17) Gen.24:12-14,27

(18) John 17:4 (19) John 14:13 (20) e.g. 1 John 5:14 (21) James 4:2 (22) Gen.32:9-12 (23) Gen.32:7 (24) Psalm 34:15 (25) 2 Cor.12:9 (26) Gen.32:24-27 (27) John 2:3 (28) Phil.4:6 (29) Lam.3:22-23 (30) Jas.1:5 and ref. (15) above (31) Is.66:2b

VILES, D. | Feb 2003
Old Testament Insights Into Prayer