On Prayer (Gen 21:17)

“God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.”” (Gen 21:17)

We’ve all heard more than one sermon about Abraham and Isaac.  How many have we heard about Hagar and Ishmael?  Was Hagar’s grief any less when she set her weakened son down under the bush in the desert and walked away, too overcome with emotion to watch him suffer any longer?

God heard the boy crying, but it was Hagar who was sobbing.  The original Hebrew indicates that she raised her voice in weeping.  This was no subtle shedding of a tear, no quiet moaning under the breath.  This was a woman in the midst of her worst fears.  She had lost it all – the noble position and honor of being Abraham’s wife was gone, the security of knowing she had a son who would be well cared for - gone.  She was rejected – and worse, she was sent into the desert without so much as a beast of burden to carry water and supplies.  Sent off by the man she should’ve been able to rely on – the father of her son.  Divorced, discarded, destitute and dehydrated, she had no mental or emotional capacity left to tend to her dying son.  She was lost in the desert, and lost in grief. 

The Bible doesn’t even say that she prayed.  How can anyone pray when they are in such a state? Yet God spoke to her.  The Bible doesn’t say He somehow noticed her or only then heard her- He had been watching over her all this time.  He called to her.  He had words of comfort for her, words of courage.  He had a gift of sight for her - that she might see the things He had providentially provided.  She was going to be OK, and her son was going to be OK.  More that than – all she thought was lost would be reclaimed. 

Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  There are times when our most meaningful prayers don’t start out as prayers at all, but simple expressions of our deepest pain.  Never forget that God is with you, watching over you, and providentially providing for you.   If you listen, you might yet hear Him calling to you.

On Prayer (Gen 20:17-18)

“Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again, for the Lord had closed up every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.”  (Gen 20:17-18)

In the summer of 1881, AB Simpson found through personal experience that God can miraculously heal.  His personal healing would become a foundation stone in the movement that he began just 6 years later. Today, that movement has within it 6 million believers and works in 80 countries around the world.  It still holds to a central tenet of Christ as Healer.

That doesn’t mean however, that all of the members of that movement (now called the Christian and Missionary Alliance) are, or have been, divinely healed.  Indeed, most have not.  So what stops them from receiving such healing?  Is it that they just don’t have enough faith?  Is it that they haven’t prayed the right words?  Is it that they haven’t had someone else pray for them, or that the people praying for them aren’t godly enough?   What is the secret to praying healing for someone else?  Such questions come bubbling to mind when we consider the supernatural and our own lack of experience.  All the while, the answer to such questions is right in front of us in the Bible. 

In Abraham’s day, anyone who had control of large flocks and a large family was effectively a man to be reckoned with – and if such a man shows up in your neck of the woods, one way to make sure you have an ally on your hands instead of an enemy is by taking a wife from his family.  This is exactly what Abimelech does.  Now Sarah would’ve been about 90, so he might well have married her by adding her to his household for political reasons, but not have planned to immediately consummate the marriage.  Some time passes, and Abimelech notices that his harem is not producing children.  Perhaps he himself had some problems in this respect  - we are not told that, just that later he is healed (v17).   Abraham prayed, and Abimelech and his household were subsequently healed.  That’s a great summary, but it’s not the whole story. 

The whole story is that Abimelech was only healed after Abraham testified about God’s own work in his life – how He feared God and how God had told him to go (v11-13), and after that, when Abraham prayed.  Effectively, Abraham brought him the blessing of God as God had instructed in Gen 12:3.  But Abraham only brought that blessing under duress, and only after God had divinely prepared Abimelech and his household to receive it.  Indeed, as long as Abraham acted out of fear, and spoke only of what was his (his wife and his rather unique way of seeing his relationship with his wife), there was no blessing – only trouble.  It is when Abimelech confronts Abraham with divinely given words of knowledge of the prophet’s own disobedience & lack of faith that the path to restoration begins. 

It was God who gave those words of knowledge.  It was God who told Abraham to go to start with.  It was God who long ago commissioned Abraham and spoke the blessing to him by which he might bless others.  It was God who told Abraham to pray, and it was God who gave Abimelech the words that Abraham should pray.

Simpson wrote, “There is no power in prayer unless it is the prayer of God Himself. Unless you are in contact with Christ the living Healer, there is no healing. Christ's healing is by His own Divine touch. It is not prayer cure, but Christ-healing.”  (The Fourfold Gospel)   It is not the prayer that Abraham prays that heals.  It is the will of God that moves the providence of God to move us to pray to God that moves the Spirit of God to exercise the power of God that heals.  Such is the mystery of prayer.   

On Prayer (Gen 19:29)

“So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived."  (Gen 19:29 NIV)

The story of Abraham’s involvement with Sodom and Gomorrah covers a significant part of Scripture.  Way back in chapter 13, Abram gives Lot the choice of land, and Lot chooses the plain of the Jordan, including Sodom and Gomorrah (13:10-13).  With his nephew there, Abram would’ve been concerned about it, and in fact he goes to war in the very next chapter to rescue Lot (14:1-16).  Abram then has an interaction with the king of Sodom, who he now knows personally (14:17-24).  Then of course, there’s the story of his intercession on behalf of the cities (18:16-19:29).  Together, these stories cover over 20% of the Abrahamic account! 

Scripture does that because Sodom and Gomorrah (and those living there, including Lot) were a large part of Abraham’s life.  He prayed for them, negotiated for them, went to war for them, interceded for them.  It’d be impossible for us to not have done likewise.  Do we not care about our relatives?  Do we not care about the towns they live in?  How can anyone not care about the town right next door?  Like us, Abraham probably visited it often – especially seeing as his relative was living there.  Yet Scripture tells us so very little about them, except to detail for us the unimaginable depravity of their citizens.  Instead, what the Bible does elaborate on is the dealings Abraham had with them and for them.  In the end we read this, “So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham.”  God remembered Abraham.  That’s interesting, because almost all of chapter 19 appears to be the story of Lot, not Abraham. 

As the chapter opens, Lot is waiting at the gateway of the city.  Perhaps he was waiting for the Lord. Perhaps he was concerned for the Lord’s people.  We do know from 2Peter 2:7 that Lot was a righteous man – he too had a relationship with God.  Yet the quality of that relationship is hard to understand, because even a skimming of the text will reveal an appalling lack of discernment on Lot’s part.  Certainly it does not say that Lot was praying for the lost all around him! But this is not the story of Lot.  Rather, all of chapter 19 is the story of the impact of Abraham’s prayer of chapter 18.   It is a story of prayer working.  Of God’s abundant grace and mercy in response to Abraham’s patient and discerning intercession.

Abraham didn’t see that answer though.  “He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.”   Abraham would’ve thought that his prayer was unanswered.  He would’ve gone to bed the previous night knowing that it was well-spent time with the Lord.  How would he have felt at that sight in the morning?   How have any of us felt when the answer we’ve hard sought in prayer eludes our sight, and we are told the very thing we’ve prayed against happened anyway?   Sadly, according to what is written, Abraham and Lot do not see each other again in the flesh. 

Of course, looking through the lens of Scripture, we know it was not unanswered prayer.  The Bible tells us that because of Abraham’s prayer, four people are saved.  In fact, two entire people groups come into being because of the lives he impacted by his intercession (v37-38).  Further, no doubt he and Lot rejoiced greatly on finding each other alive in glory! 

Was his prayer a waste of time?  Absolutely not!  Prayer – and intercession – is never a waste of time.  Our merciful God hears and answers.  That we don't see the answer physically straight away does not mean that our prayers are not answered.  Perhaps the answer is hidden from us now, that we might rejoice all the more so when we see from a fresh perspective in glory. 

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On Prayer (Gen 18:20-33)

“Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”  (Gen 18:20-23, NIV)

This passage is the first instance of intercessory prayer in the Biblical record.  That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen prior – it is well possible, for there have already been numerous instances of prayer in the Genesis already, and who knows what was left off the Scriptural record?  But this is the first case of intercession that is recorded.   That’s important, because that very fact already begins to inform us about it.  

Intercession is a profound experience in prayer.  Abraham – a man who knows God and was already in dialogue with the Lord, continues in that dialogue when the Lord got up to leave.  Verse 16 informs us, “Abraham walked along with them”.  He didn’t let the conversation end, even though the conversation about him and Sarah was over.  Rather, Abraham determined to see where the Lord was going.  On His part, the Lord is about to hold court.  Knowing that Abraham is determined to walk with Him, and knowing that it would only be proper for the man who is to direct others to understand His ways, He gives Abraham a word of knowledge.  It is at this point that Abraham is given an opportunity to intercede. 

Judgment is coming on Sodom and Gomorrah.  The angels of the Lord leave, “but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.”   Intercession is not unlike a court case.  The lawyers have to stand before the judges as the charge is read, and after it is read, they have to wait for an opportunity to present their argument as the judge allows.  This is exactly what Abraham does. “Then Abraham approached him and said…”  The intercessor must know the time and place to intercede, and also must have a Scriptural warrant to present to the Judge.  A Scriptural warrant is simply evidence of God’s prior action – usually taken from His Word, except in this case Abraham predates the written Scripture.  He relies instead of God’s revealed character. 

“Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?  Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”   Intercession requires not only a right standing and an understanding of His character and Word, but a holy boldness!  Indeed, think of how bold Abraham must have been, to present such a forceful argument.  To act this way before a King was tantamount to taking your life in your hands.  Abraham speaks such to God Most High, the King of Kings!   

Such boldness must not be based not on his own flawed character, but on the certainty and stability of God’s revealed character.  On that one can make a forceful argument, for God changes not.  Indeed, our adversary the devil makes exactly this kind of argument – that God, who alone judges sin, must and should judge and condemn those who are not righteous before Him because of their behavior.  It is the intercessor’s role to appeal to God to forgive that behaviour, that the unrighteous might have opportunity to repent before His judgment sweeps them away. 

We who live this side of heaven can make that appeal for forgiveness based on the sacrifice Christ made for us, which washes away all sin.  Abraham does not have that sacrifice yet, so he must rely instead on a community of righteous people who could represent Sodom and Gomorrah as righteous in God’s sight.  The smallest number of people who could represent a community in Abraham’s time was 10, so Abraham goes to that level in his argument.  He doesn’t start there though, because to ask that only 10 represent two towns is – even in that day – a reach.  The work of intercession is a bold work, and at times a tedious work.  It requires perseverance.  

That God walks away then is witness to Abraham that there is not even 10 righteous available.   Judgment will come on Sodom and Gomorrah in spite of Abraham’s intercession. This final fact teaches us one of the most profound things about intercession.   It has value in God’s sight – so much so that He thinks it’s worth recording in His Book, even when our case is lost.  Actually, the value of  intercession is never lost.  It reaches down across the centuries.  You just realized the value of this one act of intercession - it spoke into your life today.

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