Bible Prayers
Study of the Old
Testament shows that men then had as
keen of right and wrong as men do
now. They knew what repentance and
redemption meant, and most of them
were aware that their sacrificial
system was merely a temporary
arrangement which would eventually be
abrogated and that peace with God
required more than bringing an
offering to the sanctuary. A few
examples will illustrate their grasp
of religion and prayer.
The book of Job is
generally recognized as the oldest
book in the Bible, yet we find that
Job had a clear perception of God and
of His requirements.
Job was the richest
man in the East and was signally
blessed of God. He had seven thousand
sheep, three thousand camels, five
hundred yoke of oxen, and a very
great household. He also had seven
sons and three daughters. Job 1.
The children did not
follow in the footsteps of their
father and, when they established
their own households, spent their
time feasting and drinking. There
being ten of them, they took turns in
entertaining, “and feasted in
their houses, every one his day; and
sent and called for their three
sisters to eat and drink with
them.” Verse 4.
This caused great
concern to their father, and each
time when they had gone the rounds,
Job sent and sanctified them and
offered burnt offerings in their
behalf; for Job said, “It may be
that my sons have sinned, and cursed
God in their hearts. Thus did Job
continually.” Verse 5.
The fact that Job sent
for them and that they came shows
that he had not lost control of them
entirely. In addition, the fact that
he surmised that they might have
sinned and cursed God shows that they
had departed from the faith of their
father. Job could not do much for
them, but he did what he could.
Satan’s
Challenges
Following this opening
account comes the story of Job’s
trials. When God called Job a good
man and said, “There is none
like him in the earth, a perfect and
upright man, one that feareth God,
and escheweth evil,” Satan
responded to God’s challenge.
Verse 8. He sneeringly replied,
“Doth Job fear God for
nought?” Verse 9.
He insisted that Job
was just like other men and served
God because it paid him to do so. God
had blessed and prospered Job; so why
should he not serve Him? If God would
remove His blessing from him, Job
would soon lose his religion. Satan
said, “Put forth Thine hand now
and touch all that he hath, and he
will curse Thee to Thy face.”
Verse 11.
God accepted the
proposal and Satan immediately began
to deprive Job of all his
possessions, including the children.
However, none of these things moved
Job. He did not curse God as Satan
said he would, but “fell down
upon the ground, and worshiped, and
said, Naked came I out of my
mother’s womb, and naked shall I
return thither: the Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be
the name of the Lord. In all this Job
sinned not, nor charged God
foolishly.” Verse 20-22.
Job’s second
trial was harder than the first. To
excuse his first failure, Satan
claimed that God had not permitted
him to touch Job, but only his
possessions. If God would only let
him touch Job’s body, Satan
said, “He will curse Thee to Thy
face.” Job 2:5. With this
admonition, “Save his
life,” God permitted this
proposal also, and Satan lost no time
in attacking Job. However, Satan
again lost out. Patiently Job endured
the torments of Satan and when
counseled to curse God and die, he
replied, “What? Shall we receive
good at the hand of God, and shall we
not receive evil? In all this did not
Job sin with his lips.” Verse
10.
Intending to comfort
Job, three of his friends came to
visit him. They were so astonished
when they saw the calamity that had
overtaken him that they judged it to
be a punishment from God for some
hidden wickedness. They counseled him
to repent so that God would again
bless him. This stirred up Job to
defend himself. The friends made so
many unjust charges that Job called
them “miserable
comforters.” Where Satan had
been defeated, Job’s friends
were about to succeed.
However, Job came to
himself, and instead of bringing
countercharges, he began to pray for
his friends. “And the Lord
turned the captivity of Job, when he
prayed for his friends: also the Lord
gave Job twice as much as he had
before.” Job 42:10.
The book of Job begins
with Job praying for his children. It
ends with Job praying for his
friends. Moreover, in prayer Job
found victory. It is interesting that
this oldest book in the Bible
stresses prayer. In addition, the
prayers are not for Job himself, but
for others.
It was no easy task
God appointed Moses when He asked him
to become the leader of Israel. The
people were rebellious and
continually murmured and complained,
wishing that they had never left the
fleshpots of Egypt. Somewhat
bitterly, Moses said, “Ye have
been rebellious against the Lord from
the day that I knew you.”
Deuteronomy 9:24.
However, the
rebellious attitude of the people did
not deter Moses from praying
continually for them. “Oh, this
people have sinned a great sin,”
he said to God, “and have made
them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou
wilt forgive their sin; and if not,
blot me I pray Thee, out of Thy book
which Thou hast written.” Exodus
32:31,32.
To test Moses, God
made him a wonderful proposition.
“Let Me alone,” He said,
“that my wrath may wax hot
against them, and that I may consume
them: and I will make of thee a great
nation.” Verse 10. Instead of
accepting God’s offer, Moses
began to reason with God, saying that
the Egyptians would conclude that God
has led Israel out of the wilderness
“to slay them in the mountains,
and to consume them from the face of
the earth.” He counseled God,
“Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and
repent of this evil against Thy
people.” Verse 12. “And the
Lord repented of the evil which He
thought to do unto His people.”
Verse 14.
One of God’s
Habits
In the beginning of
the Bible we have the account of
creation, and how “out of the
ground the Lord God formed every
beast of the field, and every fowl of
the air; and brought them unto Adam
to see what he would call them.”
Genesis 2:19. Note the reading: God
brought the beasts and the fowls to
Adam, “to see what he would
call them.” Each beast had
its particular characteristics, and
had been given a name corresponding
to its character. As God had tested
Adam’s obedience at the
tree of knowledge of good and evil,
so now He tests his intellectual knowledge,
his powers of discernment. God wanted
“to see what he would call
them.” Could he discern
character, was he observant? In
addition, Adam stood the test.
“Whatsoever Adam called every
living creature, that was the name
thereof.” Verse 19. Not, it
became the name; it was the name
already. Adam’s judgment
corresponded to God’s, and thus
Adam received the credit for naming
the animals. Verse 20. He could read
character.
When God decided to
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of
their wickedness, He followed His
usual practice of communicating His
intent to His servants the prophets.
Amos 3:7. Therefore, He talked the
matter over with Abraham to get his
reaction. Abraham evidently had
misunderstood God’s intent, for
he thought God would destroy both the
good and the wicked. Abraham did not
think God should do this, so he
rebuked God for intending to do such
a thing. He said, “That be far
from Thee to do after this
manner… Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do right? Genesis
18:25. God, of course, had no such
intention. He wanted to get the
reaction of Abraham; and He got it.
Therefore, it was in
the case of Moses. God tested him,
but not for a moment did Moses
consider God’s proposition to
make of him a great nation. He does
not even refer to the matter.
Christ followed the
same procedure as God. After His
resurrection two men were on the way
to Emmaus, and Jesus joined them,
“But their eyes were holden that
they should not know Him.” Luke
24:16. They had the impression that
Jesus was a stranger and proceeded to
tell Him of the things that had
happened, after He had asked,
“What things?” Verses
19-24. Even when He answered them, He
had so changed His voice that they
did not recognize Him. When they came
to the village, “He made as
though He would have gone
further.” As they invited Him to
come in, He evidently remonstrated
with them, and only when they
persisted and “constrained”
Him, did He agree to stay. Verses
28,29.
Why did Christ do
this? To test them, as God had tested
Adam, Abraham, Moses, and others.
Christ wanted to visit with these two
men, yet “He made as though He
would have gone further.” Did
they really want Him to stay, or was
it a courteous invitation that was
not really meant? Christ tested them,
and they demonstrated that the
invitation came from the heart. Many
times afterward, the two recalled
this incident and thought: What a
loss it would have been had we not
insisted on Christ’s staying
with us! This experience holds a deep
lesson for the praying man today.
David
David was a man after
God’s heart. Naively he says of
God, “Among the sons of my
father He liked me.” 1
Chronicles 28:4.
From all accounts,
David must have been a man of great
physical charm, and also a wonderful
character. For years, he endured the
unjust persecution of Saul, and when
he had the opportunity to kill him,
refused to do so, “seeing he is
the anointed of the Lord.” 1
Samuel 24:6.
It was this man who
was so sensitive that he felt
condemned for having cut off
Saul’s skirt (1 Samuel 24:5),
that had not the least compunction of
conscience in killing a faithful
husband whose wife he had violated!
This made his sin so much greater.
How could God ever forgive and
forget?
Hear David’s
confession: “Have mercy upon
me…. Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions:
and my sin is ever before me….
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot
out all mine iniquities….
Deliver me from blood
guiltiness.”
Hear his prayers:
“Create in me a clean heart;
… renew a right spirit within
me. Cast me not away; …take not
Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto
me the joy of Thy salvation; and
uphold me with Thy free Spirit.”
Whatever view we take
of David’s sin, we are assured
that he repented deeply. He knew that
he had sinned, and he knew what are
the wages of sin. He was willing to
have God dispose of the case as He
thought best.
If David was ever
forgiven, and he was, his heartfelt
repentance, as expressed in his
prayers, availed much. David’s
confessions give evidence of his
change of heart. That he recorded
them, so that they have become a part
of the Bible, shows that he did not
intend to hide anything. What would
one not give to have such a record
forgotten? David was willing to have
it published, as it would give hope
to the vilest of sinners and show God
to be the merciful God that He is.
Therefore, what David suffered in
reputation has been a source of help
to many another poor soul. David did
all he could to repair the loss.
From these examples of
men who prayed, we may learn much.
The men of old understood as much as
we do of prayer, perhaps more. From
all of them we may learn to be
unselfish in prayer, to pray for
others, to be persistent in prayer.
There may be times even now, when
Christ will do as He did to the two
men on the way to Emmaus, making
“as though He would go further,
“ when He is merely testing us
to see if we really want Him to stay?
It would be dreadful to have Christ
go on His way, when He is anxious
that we invite Him, and will come in
if we only constrain Him.
Memory Verse:
“Create in me
a pure heart, O God, and renew a
steadfast spirit within me. Do not
cast me from your presence or take
your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to
me the joy of your salvation and
grant me a willing spirit, to sustain
me. Psalm 51: 10-12
Questions:
1. Can a
mere mortal reason with Almighty God
to change a particular situation?
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2. Is
there any type of sin that the Lord
cannot forgive us of. Explain.
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