A few weeks back I asked, “How is your Prayer Life going?” I don’t know how you answered, but in the post I mentioned and gave a short overview of the Lord’s prayer. I thought I would take some time to look more deeply at what Jesus taught about prayer, even before the Lord’s prayer. This comes in a section in Matthew 6 that begins with a warning not to practice acts of righteousness for the sake of people-pleasing because then, there would be no reward from our heavenly Father (6:1). By this opening, we learn that prayer is part and parcel of a righteous life. It is part of a life lived to please the Lord. Prayer is so obvious for a follower of Jesus that Jesus starts, “when you pray”.
Before modelling prayer for us, Jesus highlights two things on prayer in Matthew 6:5-13. He highlights the need for clarity on why we pray, and how we are to pray. He begins, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (6:5-6) The first thing to consider when we pray is why we pray.
We are not to put on a show “like the hypocrites”. The word translated hypocrite was used in the ancient world to apply to actors in a play. Here Jesus is using it to highlight the lack of genuineness and sincerity; they worked to be perceived as righteous, without actually being righteous. These ‘hypocrites’ prayed for the sake of being seen – to earn religious points before others. Their focus is on how many they can get to look at them, like those who stand at street corners for the sake of being seen by people down two streets! Prayer, to them, is not a solemn and serious affair done to the Lord, but a performance for the applause and notice of people. Instead, Jesus directs His disciples to seek the Lord in the privacy of their rooms. Rather than seek the attention of others, the faithful disciple is to seek the Lord “who is in secret”, and to trust that He has seen (and heard) their effort and will respond favorably (6:6). They are to seek the audience of One and trust in His faithful attention upon them and their prayer.
Jesus then adds, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (6:7-8). The second thing Jesus addresses is how we pray. Jesus specifically addresses the amount of words we use in a bid to have God hear us. The problem is not long prayers, but long prayers with the thought that their length is what will make the prayer compelling to God. This, Jesus reveals, is the thinking that unbelievers have because of how they think about god. Jesus points His followers to consider God their Father – One with whom they are in kind relationship with and who intends to do them good. In fact, they do not need long prayers, as if to inform God of what they need. He already knows what they need – they therefore only need ask simply and trustingly, because the One who cares for them knows what they need.
I think 1 Kings 18:20-40 really exemplifies for us what Jesus means as He teaches on prayer. To set the context for you, the incident told to us within this passage happens in the reign of King Ahab of the Northern kingdom of Israel (16:29). The united kingdom under Solomon split up in the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam (12:19-20), and now the covenant people of God are under two different nations. Unfortunately, idolatry has become a part of the life of those who were to worship Yahweh exclusively. The Lord raises up prophets to call back His people to covenant faithfulness and in this time Elijah is that prophet. He is a prophet who does miracles and signs: declaring a drought upon the land (17:1), multiplying food for himself and the widow of Zarephath (17:14), as well as raising this widow’s son from death (17:22). The story climaxes in a showdown between Elijah, God’s prophet and the prophets of Baal, endorsed by King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. In a sense, it is a showdown between the God of Israel and Baal. Elijah gathers the people of Israel and tells them to choose whom they will follow (18:21)!
This showdown is set up in a way that the True God will prove Himself by sending fire to consume a sacrifice set up by His prophet/s. On the one hand, we have 450 prophets of Baal with a bull that they were to prepare on an altar, on the other we have Elijah who was to do the same. They were each to pray (calling on name of god/God), until there was an answer by fire, marking the acceptance of the offering that had been made (18:22-24). Elijah let the prophets of Baal go first. They prepare their bull and start making a spectacle of their praying. We are told that they prayed for hours and “limped around the altar that they had made” (18:26b). Elijah mocks them that they need to get louder to get their god’s attention and they get louder and “rave on” till about three in the afternoon (18:27-29). The narrator emphasizes for us how they expend their effort, how they make a spectacle of themselves and how they use many words to ‘move’ their God. Twice the narrator tells us, “there was no voice, and no one answered” (18:26, 29). Despite the effort and theater of the prophets of Baal, nothing happens.
Then comes Elijah’s turn. He prepares an altar according to the specifications of the law (18:31, cf. Ex. 20:24-25) and sets the offering up at the appointed time (the time of the offering of the oblation, 18:29a, 36, cf. Ex. 29:39). After preparing the burnt offering and wood, adds a trench to which he requests that the water be poured on “the burnt offering and the wood” (18:32b-35). He ensures everything that is supposed to be set on fire is extremely wet! The seemingly impossible task, is made even worse. And yet, Elijah remains confident in the LORD and prays a simple prayer which the LORD answers in incredible power and might. Elijah’s prayer is simple: he acknowledges who God is, and asks Him to prove who He is so that the people’s hearts can be won back to Him (18:36-37). God answers in power, “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” (18:38). When the people see this, they respond in worship to the LORD, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” (18:39). God’s answer further reveals who He is and draws people to Himself in exclusive worship.
As we compare how Elijah and the prophets of Baal prayed, we can get a clear picture of what they thought about their god versus what Elijah thought of the LORD. The prophets of Baal clearly thought that their god required coaxing and persuading because as Elijah revealed, “Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” (18:27b). Their god is easily distracted and pre-occupied and needs to be hollered at to move. On the other hand, Elijah speaks simply, confidently and calmly to the LORD. He addresses Him as the God of history and the God of covenant, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel” (18:36). Elijah knows God by His personal name, Yahweh (the LORD), the name that is mentioned in regards to His kind dealings with those He graciously calls into relationship, and to whom He made promises, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). This is a simple and clear acknowledgement of God’s choice to draw near to people and to do them good. He is the God who has revealed Himself in history and is capable of revealing Himself again, so that people can be built up to put their faith in Him. Elijah’s intention is that Yahweh gets the glory. Any acknowledgement Elijah is to get is in order that he might continue to serve as Yahweh’s prophet – calling the people to return to faithfully live in right relationship with and worship of Yahweh.
Unfortunately, some of us who claim to pray to the only True God, the LORD, pray as though He is like Baal. We think that we somehow need to get His attention and then persuade Him to do our bidding. We offer a show with many words, but that simply will not do! We are called to consider the God to whom we pray so that we can be rightly motivated in our praying as well as rightly engage in prayer. Who God is, in His grace and kindness, ought to move us to pray seeking His glory and our good (chiefly, growth in our knowledge of Him as God, for the sake of worshiping Him exclusively and rightly). We are not to be motivated by a desire to be seen as holy without actually being holy. We are to approach God with trust in His kindness as our Father. May God help us to pray as Jesus directs us and Elijah exemplifies.
