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Are there
Conditions to Prayer? Prayer can be
stated in many different ways in Tanakh: pray, pardon, intercede,
utterance, prayer, judge, whisper/charm, plead, cry out, supplication,
desire, request, seek, sought, search, inquire, entreat, ask, consult,
concern, call, invoke, and worship. Prayer can be
made by anyone, but to receive a favorable answer, I think that there
are conditions to the prayer made and the whole being (mental as well as
physical) of the person making the prayer. Let's start by
looking at the definitions of the terms for prayer: pray llp Palal VERB to intervene, interpose, pray (Piel) to mediate, judge (Hithpael) to intercede to pray I Samuel 1:10, 12, 26, 27 : in her wretchedness, she prayed to YHWH, weeping all the while ; she kept on praying ; she said: '...I am the woman that stood here beside you and prayed to YHWH ; it was this boy I prayed for. I Samuel 2:25 : if a man sins against a man, YHWH may pardon him; but if a man offends against God, who can obtain pardon for him? II Kings 19:15, 20 (Isaiah 35:17, 21) : Hezekiah prayed to YHWH ; Isaiah sent message to Hezekiah "Thus says YHWH, Elohim of Israel: I have heard the prayer you have offered to me prayer hllpt Taphillah NOUN feminine -- from the root Palal prayer prayer pray a prayer house of prayer hear prayer in Ps titles (of poetic or liturgical prayer) I
Kings 9:3 : I have heard the prayer and the supplication which you have
offered to Me (later verses show the conditions) Isaiah
1:15 : And when you lift up your hands, I will turn My eyes away from
you; though you pray at length, I will not listen. Your hands are
stained with crime-- Ps 80:5 : O YHWH,
God of hosts, how long will You be wrathful toward the prayers of Your
people? An interesting use: vxl Lachash whispering, charming serpent-charming charms, amulets (worn by women) whisper (of prayer) Is 26:16 : O YHWH! In their distress, they sought You; Your chastisement reduced them to anguished whispered prayer (like a woman with child approaching childbirth) pray rt[ Athar to pray, entreat, supplicate (Qal) to pray, entreat (Niphal) to be supplicated, be entreated (Hiphil) to make supplication, plead Gen 25:21 : Isaac
pleaded with YHWH on behalf of his wife, because she was barren ; and
YHWH responded to his plea... Judges 13:8 :
Manoah pleaded with YHWH.... "..let him instruct us how to act with
the child..." ( God heeded Manoah's plea)
desire hlavm Mish'alah request, petition, desire Psalms 37:4 : seek the favor of YHWH and He will grant you the desires of your heart
request hlav Sh@'elah request, thing asked for, demand request, petition thing asked for Psalms 106:15 : He gave them what they asked for, then made them waste away
seek vqb Baqash to seek, require, desire, exact, request (Piel) to seek to find to seek to secure to seek the face to desire, demand to require, exact to ask, request (Pual) to be sought II
Samuel 12:16 : David entreated YHWH for the boy; David fasted,
and he went in and spend the night lying on the ground Psalms 105:3, 4 :
Exult in His holy name; let all who seek YHWH rejoice ; turn to YHWH, to
His might; seek His presence constantly ask lav Sha'al to ask, enquire, borrow, beg (Qal) to ask, ask for to ask (as a favour), borrow to enquire, enquire of to enquire of, consult (of deity, oracle) to seek (Niphal) to ask for oneself, ask leave of absence (Piel) to enquire, enquire carefully to beg, practise beggary (Hiphil) to be given on request to grant, make over to, let (one) ask (successfully) or give or lend on request (then) grant or make over to I
Samuel 14:37 : Saul ((Note - very similar to sha'al is the name saul))
inquired of YHWH... but He did not respond I
Samuel 23:2, 4 : David consulted YHWH... YHWH said to David ; David
consulted YHWH again, and YHWH answered him
seek vrd darash to resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require (Qal) to resort to, frequent (a place), (tread a place) to consult, enquire of, seek 1a of God 1a of heathen gods, necromancers to seek deity in prayer and worship 1a God 1a heathen deities to seek (with a demand), demand, require to investigate, enquire to ask for, require, demand to practice, study, follow, seek with application to seek with care, care for (Niphal) to allow oneself to be enquired of, consulted (only of God) to be sought, be sought out to be required (of blood) Gen
25:22 : But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, "If
so, why do I exist: She went to inquire of YHWH Psalms
9:11,13 : THose who know Your name trust You, for You do not abandon
those who turn to You, O YHWH ; for He does not ignore the cry
of the afflicted; He who requites bloodshed is mindful of them
seek rxv shachar to seek, seek early or earnestly, look early or diligently for (Qal) to look for diligently, seek (Piel) to seek, seek early Ps
63:2 : God, You are my God; I search for You, my soul thirsts for You,
my body yearns for You, as a parched and thirsty land that has no water
call/cry arq qara to call, call out, recite, read, cry out, proclaim (Qal) to call, cry, utter a loud sound to call unto, cry (for help), call (with name of God) to proclaim to read aloud, read (to oneself), read to summon, invite, call for, call and commission, appoint, call and endow to call, name, give name to, call by (Niphal) to call oneself to be called, be proclaimed, be read aloud, be summoned, be named (Pual) to be called, be named, be called out, be chosen Gen
4:26 : .. it was then that men began to invoke YHWH by name. Deut
4:7 : For what great nation is there that has a god so close at hand as
is YHWH our Elohim whenever we call upon Him? Is
43:22 : But you have not worshiped Me, O Jacob... (not brought Me
your ..burnt offerings, nor.. sacrifices.. -- you have wearied Me with
your iniquities) Jer
29:12 : When you call Me, and come and pray to Me, I will give heed to
you
supplication hnnxt t@chinnah favour, supplication, supplication for favour favour supplication for favour Psalms
119:170 : May my petition come before You Jeremiah
42:9 : thus said YHWH .. to whom you sent me to present your
supplication before Him
As
you'll note, the basic use for prayer is to ask for something. Just as
we, in our modern world, condition our requests -- even more so should
we do for YHWH. For example -- if you are going to ask your boss for a
day off, you will most likely take care to approach your boss at a
convenient time. When you have your boss' attention, you will most
likely soften the request with a little small talk, and of course a
smile. When it is clear that the time is right, you will use a proper
tone of voice and proper speech to make your request - perhaps adding a
bit of clarification to show why you'll need the time off. Don't
get me wrong - I certainly don't think we should use this same approach
to prayer, rather, I am showing an example of how we'll approach and
carry out a modern request with certain conditions. Keep this in mind as
we delve further into proposed conditions of prayer. Prayer on shabbat/Acceptable time I believe that we
should not approach YHWH on shabbat with requests/prayers. This is
purely my opinion, but I think that it has merit. I would not go to
my boss on her day off to make a request, plain and simple. By Holy
standards, unless confronted with a dire and emergency situation, I feel
that YHWH should not be approached on His Shabbat. Ex 20:8, 11
Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy... ; ... He rested on the
seventh day; therefore YHWH blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. Here are examples
of favorable/acceptable times: Psalms 69:14 May
my prayer come to You O YHWH at a favorable moment... Isaiah 49:8 Thus
said YHWH: In an hour of favor I answer you, and on a day of salvation I
help you.. Isaiah 58:5 Do
you call that a fast, a day when YHWH is favorable? From the verses
above, we know that the sabbath day is hallowed - set aside; YHWH's day
of rest. I think that it is not a favorable day for requests. Rather, it
is a day during which we should be most thankful and show our love and
reverance for YHWH -- through praise and song. Intercessors I believe that
most of the time, the majority of people would be best represented by an
intercessor. Throughout
Tanakh, the people asked others - particularly the prophets - to pray to
YHWH or inquire of YHWH for them. My thought is that the people were so
often in a state of uncleanness and/or quite simply did not know how to
correctly approach YHWH. There are specific instances where a prophet is
told to pray for another person, or the entire nation -- and also
specific instances where a prophet is told to refrain from prayer for
others. Without prophets
today, we do not have anyone to pray on our behalf, but here are some
examples: Gen 20:7, 17 YHWH
tells king Abimelech, regarding Abraham "since he is a prophet he
will intercede for you -- to save your life" ; Abraham then prayed
to YHWH and YHWH healed Abimelech and his wife and his slave girls Numbers 11:2 :
the people cried out to Moses and Moses prayed to YHWH and the fire died
down I Samuel 12:19 :
the people said to Samuel " Intercede for your servants with YHWH
your Elohim that we may not die.. I Samuel 12:23-24
: (Samuel) far be it from me to sin against YHWH and refrain from
praying for you.... above all you must revere YHWH and serve Him
faithfully with all your heart; and consider how grandly He has dealt
with you Jeremiah 14:11 :
And YHWH said to me, "Do not pray for the benefit of this people
--- when they fast, I will not listen to their outcry, and then they
present burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them Prayer and
intercession came from those who had the closest relationship with YHWH.
I believe that He requires that people have a very special commitment to
Him in order for prayer/requests for others to be acceptable. Acceptable prayer I believe that
there are things that should definitely not be asked for or prayed for
-- things like "the 2005 Hummer with the tow package and aluminum
wheels - in metallic blue", for instance. Additionally, the
physical condition of the praying person should be such that it is
acceptable. Compare prayer to sacrifices -- no blemish, nothing torn,
etc. By the same token, when we are approaching YHWH - which is exactly
what we do in prayer - we should be clean. We should not be in menstrual
cycle, or have skin eruptions, or be in a state of uncleanness due to
sexual relations, etc... Let's look at
terms for acceptable/favorable: acceptable hcr ratsah to be pleased with, be favourable to, accept favourably (Qal) to be pleased with, be favourable to to accept to be pleased, be determined to make acceptable, satisfy to please (Niphal) to be accepted, be pleased with (Piel) to seek favour of (Hiphil) to please, pay off (Hithpael) to make oneself acceptable or pleasing favor nwcr Ratsown pleasure, delight, favour, goodwill, acceptance, will goodwill, favour acceptance will, desire, pleasure, self-will Lev
7:18 : if any of the flesh of his sacrific of well-being is eaten on the
third day, it shall not be acceptable; it shall not count for him who
offered it. It is an offensive thing, and the person who eats of it
shall bear his guilt This verse
demonstrates that something which is not acceptable may be considered to
be an offensive thing to YHWH. I would certainly not want to be guilty
of presenting an offensive thing to Him. Lev
26:41, 43 when I, in turn, have been hostile to them and have removed
them into the land of their enemies, then at last shall their obdurate
heart humble itself, and they shall atone for the iniquity ; ..
while they atone.. In this instance,
I believe that atone is defined as to accept favorably. This leaves me
with the impression that part of the atoning is to accept the punishment
that comes with it and not ask that it be taken away. Rather, I think
that we should quietly accept that our punishment is most likely less
punishment than we truly deserve, and we should "take our
beating" so to speak. Psalms
147:11 : but YHWH values those who fear Him, those who depend on His
faithful care Jeremiah
14:10, 12 : .. so YHWH has no pleasure in them... ; ... I will not
accept them ... (speaking of the people of Ex
28:38 : ... to win acceptance for them before YHWH (speaking of the
frontlet for the headdress which Aaron was to wear at all times - that
Aaron might take away any sin arising from the holy things that the
Israelites consecrated) Psalms
19:14 : may the words of my mouth and the prayer of my heart, be acceptable
to You, O YHWH In essence, as
YHWH is Holy, so we should make special consideration of our physical
state and the words we use to approach Him when we make
requests/petitions and prayers - so that we and our words might be found
acceptable and not offensive. Next week we will look at what
might be considered an acceptable character and attitude,
and then we will look at requests that were not heard and
requests that were heard. |