Author: gccadmin

The book of 1 Samuel begins with the story surrounding the birth of Samuel himself. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah the Ephraimite, is childless. She has reached a point of despair, and earnestly seeks God’s mercy in prayer while at “the Lord’s house”. This is in the town of Shiloh, where the tabernacle was kept during the days of the judges.

Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

1 Samuel 1: 9-16

Most of us have uttered silent prayers, but this is the first record in the bible of someone uttering such a prayer. As we will read, the Lord hears Hannah’s prayer and opens her womb, blessing her with a son. In chapter 2, we read that Hannah responds with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.

Then Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high.

My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.

There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.

Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance,

for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.

The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.

Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more.

She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.

The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.

The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.

For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them he has set the world.

He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.

It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be broken.

The Most High will thunder from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

1 Samuel 2: 1-10

The period of Israel’s history following the conquest of Canaan was characterized by a repeating cycle where the people would do evil by following false idols, the Lord would deliver them into the hands of their enemies, they would repent and cry out for mercy, and the Lord would raise up a judge to deliver them from their oppression. One of the most memorable of the judges was the man Samson, and it is the story of Samson where we again see godly men seek out the Lord in prayer.

The story of Samson begins with the circumstances of his birth. Manoah and his wife, members of the tribe of Dan, are childless. The Israelites are in the midst of forty years of suffering at the hands of the Philistines, when God visits Manoah’s wife.

The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Judges 13:3-5

When Manoah’s wife recounts this encounter, Manoah’s reaction is significant, especially in light of the general lack of faithfulness of the nation.

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

Judges 13:8

Consider the faith and humility of Manoah! He receives the news from his wife about her supernatural visit, and his first response is to seek God to ask for guidance on how to raise up this promised son. This is a gift from God, and Manoah’s actions reflect his realization of what Jeremiah would later write, “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps”. (Jeremiah 10:23)

With respect to Samson himself, it is noteworthy that his life story begins with the prayer of his father Manoah, and ends with his own prayer. Samson’s tale is full of deeds of great strength, riddles and challenges, and never-ending frustration to the Philistines. But at the end, Samson has been deceived, captured, and robbed of his strength and eyesight. He has nothing left to him but his faith in God. So in the midst of this lowest point in his life, Samson turns to prayer.

Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

Judges 16:28-30

There are few men in Bible history of more significance than Moses. Deliverer of Israel, giver of the law, a man whose face had to be veiled because he physically reflected God’s glory after being in his presence (Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:7-18). And though we read that “the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11), there were many times Moses would pray to the Lord. During the time of the ten plagues, Pharaoh pled with Moses to pray to Lord to remove the plagues, and he would do so. Moses also prayed to the Lord on behalf of Israel (Numbers 11:1-3, 21:6-8) and his brother Aaron (Deuteronomy 9:19-21) for God to show his mercy.

But the only prayer we have recorded in the scriptures by Moses is his supplication to God after the sin of the people and Aaron with the golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the stone tablets with the words of the covenant. Remember that Moses had been on the mountain for forty days and nights, neither eating nor drinking. And when he had received the tablets, he was told by God about the idol that the people had made for themselves.

What is perhaps not as well known is that after Moses broke the tablets, he fasted for another forty days and nights before praying to God on behalf of Israel and Aaron!

Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger.  I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me. And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.

I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights because the Lord had said he would destroy you. I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin. Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’ But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”

Deuteronomy 9:18-20, 25-29

In Moses’ plea to God, we see his recognition that we do not deserve the forgiveness we seek. His plea with God was to “overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin”. And his primary reason for the request was ultimately for the glory of God! His fear was that the nation of Egypt would somehow look upon God as a failure, if he were to destroy the people that he had performed such mighty works to deliver.

Similarly, our supplications to God should reflect the same attitudes. We should recognize that we are not deserving of the rich blessings we receive from God, nor of the mercy he shows to us. And our requests should always be those that would give glory to God, because that is why we are here!

Prayer in the Bible – the search for Rebekah

Abraham is one of the key figures in the Bible, having been mentioned 235 times! And as we read in Galatians chapter 3, even the law of Moses does not nullify the promise God made to Abraham, through which all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and which was fulfilled by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we read in the book of Genesis about the story of Abraham and his relationship with God, we come to understand how serious Abraham regarded this covenant God had made with him. He began by taking all his possessions and people and moving to a land he didn’t know, led only by God’s direction. Later, he showed his faith in God by being willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac, even though God had already told him that through Isaac his promise would be fulfilled.

In Chapter 24 Isaac is now fully grown, about 40 years old, and Abraham is addressing the matter of finding a wife for Isaac. There are a couple of reasons why Abraham would not want Isaac to marry a woman from the local area: it was customary in that time to choose a wife from one’s own “tribe”, but more importantly, Abraham must have recognized the importance of choosing a wife who would not bring pagan beliefs into the marriage and pull Isaac away from his relationship with God.

Abraham entrusts the matter to his senior servant, but he treats the matter so seriously as to place his servant under an oath. Although not named in this chapter, Abraham had referred to his servant as Eliezer of Damascus (Genesis 15:2), so these two may be one and the same.

There are two notable conditions of this oath: (1) if the woman was unwilling to be Isaac’s wife, the servant was released from the oath, and (2) Isaac must not travel back to their home country. We can see how seriously Abraham regarded his covenant with God. Since he was directed to come to this “promised land”, not even Isaac should return from it, lest the covenant be broken.

When the servant of Abraham reaches his destination and arrives at the well outside of town, he demonstrates both his faith in God, and his devotion to Abraham as he prays to God:

Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”

Genesis 24:12-14

We learn that the servant’s prayer was answered “before he had finished praying”, and Rebekah appears with the other women of the town. She offers the servant water, and also offers to water his camels. When the servant learns that she is also the daughter of Abraham’s relatives, he realizes his prayers have been answered, and he immediately worships God:

Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

Genesis 24: 26-27