I Will Lift My Eyes Unto the Hills

C. Kaiser Walter

Description

All Christian desire to pray more effectively. What better way to learn how to pray than to study the great prayers of the Old Testament. This volume, written by a recognized Old Testament scholar and author of numerous books, explores 11 such prayers-e.g., Abraham interceding for Sodom, David praising God for his kingly dynasty, Solomon asking for a listening heart, Hezekiah pleading for help against an arrogant army, and Daniel confessing sins on behalf of the entire nation of Israel. This book is an answer to the prayer, "Lord, teach us to pray."

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Prayer in Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lexham Press
• Date de parution: 28 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683591832
• Langue: English

Extrait

I WILL LIFT MY EYES UNTO THE HILLS
WALTER C. KAISER JR.
I WILL LIFT MY EYES UNTO THE HILLS

LEARNING FROM THE GREAT PRAYERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
I Will Lift My Eyes Unto the Hills :
Learning from the Great Prayers of the Old Testament
© 2015 by Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225 LexhamPress.com
First edition by Weaver Book Company
All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [e-mail].
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations noted as NASB are from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
Print ISBN 9781683591825 Digital ISBN 9781683591832
Cover design: Frank Gutbrod
Editorial, design, and production:
{ In a Word } www.inawordbooks.com /edited by Rick Matt/
CONTENTS
Introduction
1 The Prayer of Abraham
for a Wicked City
2 The Prayer of Moses
for Pardon for Israel
3 The Prayer of Hannah
in Thanksgiving for Her Son
4 The Prayer of David
in Thanks to God for His Dynasty
5 The Prayer of Solomon
for a Listening Heart
6 The Prayer of Solomon
at the Dedication of the Temple
7 The Prayer of Jonah
in Thanksgiving for His Rescue from Drowning
8 The Prayer of Hezekiah
for Dealing with an Arrogant Enemy
9 The Prayer of Nehemiah
in a Time of Distress
10 The Prayer of Ezra
for Confession of Corporate Sin
11 The Prayer of Daniel
in Confession of National Sin
Bibliography
Name Index
Subject Index
Scripture Index
INTRODUCTION
THE POWER AND VALUE OF PRAYER IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Prayer has always been the way God has chosen to show himself strong on behalf of those who called upon him. Thus it happened that when the sermons of a certain man of God seemed to be most effective in the conversion of many new believers in one local church, it became known to him and to others that these conversions were not the direct result of his preaching. Instead, while God certainly used the man’s preaching to bring many souls to Christ, the conversions also were influenced by the prayers of a faithful lay person who pleaded with God for the success of the preaching of the Word of God in that particular setting—and many responded to the call to faith. So it may be revealed in the Final Day that all the honor and praise for the supposed accomplishments of many whom we had thought were responsible for such success may not belong to them alone. Rather, the honor will belong as well to those who held up the arms of God’s workers in constant and faith-believing prayer.
It is a rather remarkable feature of prayer that so many who are not themselves believers, or are backslidden in the work of prayer, have such faith in others whom they recognize as being men or women of influence with the Lord that in times of trouble they turn to those whose prayers can bring deliverance from evil or avert God’s wrath. Often, these who are themselves deep in unrighteousness or sin will come to persons whom they recognize as real prayer warriors to beg them to intervene with the Lord above on their behalf, asking for his gracious mercy. The troubled souls feel that they cannot pray to God themselves, either because they do not know him, or because they have fallen away from him, but they instinctively recognize the power, value, and need for prayer. In fact, even an atheist in a foxhole under enemy fire will often suddenly cry out to God for his own deliverance, even though he has never offered one prayer to God previously. Thus, even wicked men and women, while verbally denying the existence of the living God who hears and answers prayer, will often in the extreme crises of life suddenly call out to him.
Likewise, the beneficial influence of a group of believers can be seen on other occasions when a sinner will beg believers, “Pray for me, for I need God and his help in this time of crisis.” Seldom does the church realize or appreciate the full impact of her praying for the unconverted or those who are in distress; only eternity will reveal how critical such involvement had been for the deliverance of so many. If God’s people do not uphold the cause of Christ and pray that the unsaved multitudes would turn to the Savior, how shall we answer to our Lord for our complacency in that final day? Such praying for the masses of humanity who are without the knowledge of Christ’s redemptive work must not be done in a cold, heartless, and formal way, for that kind of praying goes nowhere. True revival will begin when sinners have heard about the effectiveness of the prayers of God’s people and as a result seek out such praying persons for their own needy lives.
Prayer in Old Testament times was marked by some of the same issues we face in our own day. For example, many Old Testament people would, when trouble arose in their midst, seek out those whom they knew were praying men and women. They wanted those intercessors to invoke prayers on their behalf so that relief and deliverance would come. These sinners may not have believed in God themselves—or at least would not have openly claimed to believe in him—but they instinctively knew that he must exist and that God is a prayer-answering God. And thank God that there were in Old Testament days men and women who maintained a life and spirit of prayer! They were ready to pray when it was convenient and when it was not convenient. And pray they did!
Some have asked: how far is the present-day church responsible for the lack of faith of the unconverted, and for the low value too many today place on the usefulness and necessity of prayer? Actually, only God knows the final answer to that question, but it is clear that more people do not respond more readily to the call to repent and follow Christ because most of our praying for the souls of men, women, and children is of such poor quality.
THE EXAMPLE OF THE ISRAELITES AND MOSES (NUMBERS 21:4–9)
The Old Testament supplies us with many vivid illustrations of cases where unrepentant men and women, in a moment of deep affliction and need, made a sudden appeal for prayer to one they trusted. In Numbers 21:4–9, for example, the Israelites grew weary of the long journey through the wilderness, so they began to complain and speak evil of God and Moses as they mouthed off to their leader by saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (v. 5). They had had enough of the times in the wilderness!
In order to get their attention, however, the Lord sent venomous snakes among them that began to bite the people, with the result that many of them died (v. 6). That did get the people’s attention, for immediately they came to Moses and changed their tune: “We sinned when we spoke against the L ORD and against you. Pray that the L ORD will take the snakes away from us” or we will all die (v. 7). So Moses graciously prayed for the people, and the serpents were removed.
It is rather amazing that despite the fact that these murmurers had departed from the Lord and complained about how he had dealt with them, they still had not lost their faith in prayer! They believed Moses had exactly the right kind of influence with God that could avert their problems right then and there. On that point they were correct.
THE EXAMPLE OF JEROBOAM AND THE PROPHET OF JUDAH (1 KINGS 13 AND 14)
Another Old Testament example is Jeroboam, the first king of the ten tribes that made up the northern kingdom of Israel after its division from the southern kingdom of Judah. The sin of Jeroboam was so notorious that, for generations to come, the sins of those who followed him in the northern kingship were measured by it. It was said of these kings that they too sinned with “the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.” Yet, despite Jeroboam’s awful record of wickedness, on one occasion, when he presumed to take the place of the high priest at the altar, an unnamed prophet of God from Judah cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the L ORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you [altar] he will sacrifice the bones of the priests who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you’” (1 Kings 13:2). With that, the altar split apart and the ashes flowed out from it (v. 3). The king ordered, “Seize him!” And as he stretched out his hand to arrest the prophet or to do violence to him, the king’s hand shriveled up so he could not pull it back again (v. 4). This was evidence of the judgment of God on King Jeroboam. Many years later, however, all that this unnamed prophet from Judah said about Josiah by the word of the Lord came true.
So astounded was King Jeroboam at the lightning swiftness of God’s retribution for his sin that he immediately cried out: “Intercede with the L ORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored” (v. 6b). And what did the prophet do? Did he say, “Forget it! Serves you right! Don’t you know that I am a prophet of Yahweh?”
On the contrary! The man of God interceded with the Lord on behalf of this most unworthy recipient. The text says that “the king’s hand was restored and became as it was” (v. 6c). What is so amazing is that this ruler in Israel, who was guilty of such reprehensible sin and who had departed from the Lord, still, when God’s judgment came suddenly like a bolt of lightning on him, without any further consideration or hesitation called on a praying prophet to intercede for him. Why is it that those who say they are atheists, or those who do not prac