Unconventional praying

Here are a few thoughts on prayer, inspired mostly by the interaction between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30). Let me say at the outset that this is by no means meant to be a manual on prayer. There are many good books on prayer, such as the one by Tim Keller. This is just looking at one particular aspect of prayer.

Let’s begin by reminding ourselves of the story. As often happened, Jesus was seeking some solitude, and so had entered a house in Tyre. However, as usual the people still managed to find Him. One of these was the Syro-Phoenician woman, whose daughter was possessed by an impure spirit, she enters the house and pleads with Jesus to drive out the demon from her daughter.

It is worth noting that this incident comes immediately after the one where Jesus castigates the Pharisees for being so obsessed with their traditions (Mark 7:1-23). The Pharisees knew so much, had such a reputation for being devout, yet what they ended up doing was setting aside the Law of God for the sake of their traditions (Mark 7:9). This woman had so many apparent disadvantages. First, she was a woman! What could anyone possibly learn from her? Then to make matters worse she was Greek, not Jewish. Yet we see that she was actually closer to God than the Pharisees would ever be.

Now Jesus does not adopt a direct approach, nor even a “loving” approach (Mark 7:26), “loving” here defined in our shallow Western terms. Jesus points out that it is Israel first. He has come first to the children of Israel. He even then uses the common derogatory term for Gentiles, “dogs”, that was used by the Jews. Now, this does not mean that Jesus approved of this term! What He is doing is drawing faith out of the woman. He is reflecting the common attitude, asking her why she still believes that He can do something for her, given the prevalent attitude in society, and that He is the Jewish Messiah. Being “nice” is not always the best way to win people over!

The woman then refers to Jesus as Lord, and gives a very clever answer (Mark 7:27). “Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”. First, she is not to be deterred. This is something that all of us should take hold of. Elsewhere Jesus commended persistent prayer, even cheeky prayer. Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord. God likes persistence! Then she knows that what she is asking for, while it is obviously big in terms of her life, in terms of all that Jesus can do is just one more miracle. In that sense it is no big deal!

Jesus approves of her reply. Sometimes prayer is an interaction with God. We sometimes say that prayer is not a matter of persuading God or changing His mind, but more a matter of Him changing our minds, and to a large extent this is true, and it is vital that we do not view prayer as a slot machine. However, sometimes prayer involves wrestling with God, and from a human perspective it might seem as if we have indeed “changed God’s mind”. If we could view it from an eternal perspective this won’t be what happened, but from our limited perspective this will be how it seems. We need to appreciate the limitations of seeking to interpret eternal matters from our limited temporal perspective. If we do not do this then prayer, or any other aspects of the Christian life, can become very sterile and stale. Indeed, if one was to take a purely logical approach, one could say that God already knows what we need (which He does), therefore there is no point, or no need, to prayer. But we know this is wrong, for God is forever exhorting us to pray!

Finally we should note that the woman’s “cheek” worked,  for Jesus told her that the demon had left her child, and when she went home she found that it was so.

Prayer is an interaction between God and a man or a woman, and sometimes that interaction can take a most irreligious form, and can seem to involve a tussle with God.

Galatians 3:6,7 - It is those of faith

3:6

The Judaisers were fond of referring back to the Law and to Moses, the Jews were also proud of being children of Abraham. This latter pride was something that was often misplaced (Matt 3:9). Paul refers back to what the Bible actually says, and Gen 15:6 says that it was Abraham’s faith that was counted as righteousness (Gen 15:6), and this occurred before circumcision came in (Gen 17). Works of the Law were never counted as righteousness, indeed their righteous acts were as filthy rags (Is 64:6).

3:7

In John 8:39 and following the Jews claimed to be children of Abraham, and Jesus proceeded to tell them that they were actually children of the devil! Jesus also said that if they were actually children of Abraham they would do what Abraham did. Paul here says that the true children of Abraham are those who put their faith in God. So while the Judaisers may even have claimed that to be true children of Abraham they needed to be circumcised, what they said was not actually true. We need to appreciate the force of the Judaisers argument, for circumcision was an important part of the Law, and Abraham himself was circumcised (Gen 17). However, it would seem that the Judaisers focused on the Law aspect of being circumcised.

To be light to our world we need to walk in the light of the Lord

In the Old Testament part of my blog we are coming towards the end of the Minor Prophets. We are currently in the latter half of Zechariah, and then there is just Malachi to do. After that I am going to move on to the major prophets, starting with Isaiah. I write these things a few weeks or months in advance, so am already working on Isaiah. Before the verse by verse stuff starts to appear you may get one or two taster blogs, of which this is one where I will look at Chapter 2:1-5. Chapter 1 has consisted mostly of a damning indictment of the state of Judah and Jerusalem, but also including promises of salvation. In Isaiah 2:1-5 we get one of primary motivating reasons for why the people should return to the Lord.

In the last days Jerusalem will be the dominant nation in the world. Other nations, and many peoples will stream to it and want to go to the mountain of the Lord to receive wisdom and guidance. The Law will go out from Zion, and peace will come upon the earth, with the famous promise of swords being beaten into ploughshares.

Now we should remember the state of the nation at the time Isaiah gave this prophecy. Judah was not powerful. Assyria was the dominant nation, and would soon threaten Jerusalem herself. Later on Babylon would come and decimate Jerusalem. After this a series of nations would dominate Israel. So far we have not seen a literal fulfilment of this prophecy, but we have seen the firstfruits of this. The gospel of Jesus Christ has gone, and is going, out to all the world. Peoples from all cultures and backgrounds are turning to Christ and seeking to learn His ways. But there is a greater fulfilment to come, one that will only happen when Israel herself turns to Christ, recognising her own need of a saviour, and recognising that Jesus Christ is that Saviour.

The section closes with Isaiah urging the people to “walk in the light of the Lord”, for they have such a great future in Him, and only in Him.  

How can we apply this to the West? The gospel has influenced the West in more ways than we care to admit. Sadly, Western societies are seeking to divest themselves of all Christian influence as quickly as they can. But they do this not realising that in doing so they are digging away at the very foundations on which our society is built. There can only be one result of this, that is the collapse of society. We are already seeing this, perhaps the most visible and costly example is the breakdown of family life.

And what is the church doing? Tragically much of the church is adopting the ways of the world. But God’s promises that are found in Isaiah 2:1-5 still stand. The ungodly structures and influences that we see in the West will pass away, “the mighty man will become tinder, and his work a spark; both will burn together with no one to quench the fire” (Isaiah 1:31). If the West continues in the direction it is going it will at some point set fire to itself and burn to become nothing at all. Only a most foolish church would think it wise to back such a society, A wise church would follow Isaiah’s call to “walk in the the light of the Lord”, only then can we offer light to our society.

We should walk in the light of the Lord, not the darkness of the world. For it is God’s ways that will prevail, it is His ways that will bring true peace and well being to the world.

Galatians 3:4,5 - Did you suffer so many things

3:4

It wasn’t only that the “method” would not work, they had started out by faith and suffered “so many things” for doing so. We do not know in detail what these were, but we know from Acts that Christians regularly experienced opposition, sometimes violent, from Gentiles, from Jews, from the rulers. The word “suffer” can also be translated “experience”. Paul wants to know if this was all for nothing.

3:5

The focus is now put on God. Again note that there were very real and tangible experiences of the Holy Spirit, including miracles. In John’s gospel we are told explicitly that he recorded only a few of the miracles that Jesus did. In Acts we have records of several miracles, but verses like this remind us that again only a selection of miracles are recorded in Acts. So they knew that God had done these things among them, now Paul asks why do they think God did them, why did He give them the Holy Spirit? Was it because of their doing works of the Law, or because of their faith in the word of the gospel? It was clearly the latter, not the former. So why would God have changed His way of working now? It is faith that gains us “approval” from God.

Zechariah 8:22,23 - We have heard that God is with you

8:22

Those who would come to seek the Lord would even include strong nations. So even nations that seemed to be powerful and in control of their destinies would turn to the Lord. Notice that it is nations, not just individuals who would turn to God. There is a great tendency to look in awe at those who seem to be so much stronger than ourselves, so much more able. But the need of every man is for God, and if we walk in step with the Spirit then God can work through us to bring about the most amazing things. Conversely, it is a great mistake to give in to fear.

8:23

The prophecy is expanded further. We see the global reach of the gospel. People from every tribe and tongue will want to know the Lord. Moreover, they will seek help from God’s people. What is it that attracts them to the Jews? It is that they have heard that God is with them. We are such fools when we seek to imitate the ways of the world under the delusion that this will somehow make us more attractive to them, or make the gospel more attractive. The world does not need us to tell it how to live as the world, it already very good at that. It does need us to show it what living as God’s people means.

Galatians 3:2,3 - Are you so foolish?

3:2

So Paul reminds them of what they had heard, and is urging them to come to their senses. Now he calls on their experience. When they heard the word they received the Spirit. How and why had this happened? Was it by observing the works of the Law, or was it by hearing the gospel with faith. Clearly it was the latter. Note the implication that receiving the Spirit was something that had a tangible effect, it was not a mere theological truth, but a real experience with observable effects. Based on Acts this would probably include speaking in tongues and prophecy. Whatever the case, they knew they had received the Holy Spirit.

3:3

“Are you so foolish”. Again Paul is very direct. It wasn’t just an alternative way of looking at things, it was completely wrong, and this was over what might be called a “theological issue”. There is a time to be direct. They had begun “by the Spirit”, but now they were living by the “flesh”, seeking to be perfected by the flesh. This is the same flesh which had manifestly failed prior to their conversion, and which had manifestly failed to make the Jews perfect! Why follow a failed method?

Notes on Acts 21-28 are now available on Dundee Believer

Notes on Acts 21-28 are now available on Dundee Believer.