Thursday, February 13, 2020

Genesis 33:1-20 “Jacob and Esau - Reconnecting With The Past”



OUTLINE:
33:1-2 Final Preparations
33: 3-7 The Meeting
33:8-11 The Gifts
33:12-17 The Separation
33:18-20  Settled in Canaan

This is the story of two brothers who had no contact with one another for 20 years. Their common history is one of lying, cheating and abusing. Jacob took Esau’s birth-right deceitfully. He cheated  Esau out of their father’s blessing and then he fled from  his brother to his uncle Laban, some 800 kilometres away. With so much bad history between them, can such brothers ever be reconciled?  Well, it’s time to face the music.

Going back home was always a part of Jacob’s desire (28:20,21).  Living for 20 years under the regime of his manipulative uncle Laban in Ch. 31 provides the impulse for the return home.

From ch.32 we learn that Jacob had dreaded the thought of meeting his tough hunter brother, Esau (32:7). True to himself, he schemed and planned in his own strength and according to his own wisdom. Then, in the last section of Chapter 32: 22-32, the LORD met him in a wonderful way. This encounter is described in terms of a wrestling match, in which God (in the form of a man) allowed Jacob to wrestle him to the point of Jacob’s exhaustion, disabling  Jacob in the process. When Jacob realised that he had been wrestling with God, it turned out to be a life changing event for him. He had seen God face to face, and yet his life had been delivered (32:30).  All dangers and all fears of the future become an anti-climax after we have encountered the LORD, the One we must really fear.  

33:1-2  Final Preparations

"Esau was coming and 400 men with him.”  In his preparation for the meeting he had divided his family in two groups. First the female servants, Bilhah and Zilpah and their children, and then Leah and Rachel and their children in the second group, behind.  Joseph in particular needs to be protected. He will be the key to the preservation of God’s covenant family in the future, as recorded at the end of Genesis.   Now, Jacob’s careful planning here is not necessarily  reflective of a lack of faith.  
The Puritan military leader, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), a God fearing man during the English civil war, used the dictum, “pray and keep your gunpowder dry.”  We may use legitimate precautions for our safety.  It is no good to pray, ‘Lord keep me healthy’ and then neglect the proper care of your body. It is no good to pray, ’Lord keep us safe on the road’, and neglect the vehicle’s proper maintenance. It is no good to pray for financial provision, if we are not financially prudent. It is no good to pray  to get good grades in an examination, if  we haven’t studied diligently for  them.

We saw  in 32: 13 – 21 that  Jacob  prepared  for this meeting by  giving  Esau extravagant gifts, sending  them ahead  with the servants. Was he hoping to buy Esau’s favour? We are going to have to think about this for a moment.  Remember that before this meeting Jacob had been in a titanic struggle with the LORD, who had wrestled with him  and who had thoroughly humbled him (32:30). It is hard to imagine that with this great and overwhelming experience of the fearsome presence of God, that Jacob would feel the need to fear Esau.  So, what was this all about? In all likelihood Jacob  wanted to make up to his brother for the bad past.

33: 3-7  The Meeting

33:3 “He himself  went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times  until he came near to his brother." The bowing down seven  times  was apparently a customary homage  given to kings,  according to the el-Armana  tablets, historical  clay tablets, which  relate to this period.  The expression, "at the feet of the king my lord, seven times do I fall” [1] – is apparently found   more than 50 times on these tablets.  

By doing this Jacob put himself in Esau’s control. In  another sense  he was  confessing his sin to Esau.  But more so,  Jacob is also confessing his own  repentance  before  the LORD.  Although  God had promised him from the beginning that he would be the heir of the covenant (25:23), he had  used very fleshly means  (taught by his manipulative mother Rachel)  to obtain the promise.  

  • He had taken the birth-right from Esau  by  deceit (25:29-34). 
  • He obtained the blessing  of the firstborn of his father by deceit (27:27- 30). 
  • He needed not have done all of that. 

The LORD had promised him that he would be  the heir of the covenant.  NO shortcuts were needed. That was the great lesson that Jacob needed to learn essentially. 
We all need to learn that lesson.  

But God had humbled Jacob, and now  he could humble himself before his estranged brother. There was no sense of self exaltation here. “I am in your hands- do as you will”. This was a different Jacob. He was a humbled Jacob. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6- Prov. 3:34)
Jacob’s humbling encounter with God prepared him for his encounter with his estranged brother Esau. His humility  won the day.

33:4 “But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and  fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.”  What a positive statement. What a meeting! And so Jacob’s nightmare and worst case scenario never came true. Haven’t we met this situation so very often in our lives? We feared something very much... and after committing ourselves to God in prayer, nothing  of what we feared came true. In fact, it all turned out much better than expected.

33:8-11 The Gifts

Esau saw these gifts, in fact waves of gifts arriving (32:13-15),  and he asks, “What do you mean by all this company that I met ?” (33:8). Jacob  answers, “To find favour in your eyes, my lord”. Again, this wasn’t an act  of trying  to  buy Esau off.  Jacob has passed that stage by now. No, this is an act of restoration. These gifts are the proof that he is repentant, and he desires the mercy of Esau for what he did to him.  In that sense we also understand  what  happened at  Bethel in 28:22.  God had once made wonderful promises to Jacob, and so Jacob gave a tenth of all he had to God. He was not buying favour from God. He was responding to God’s grace.  So, these  gifts to Esau were Jacob’s response to God’s grace to him.  Esau does not really need all these gifts. He has enough wealth of his own (33:9). 
But Jacob insists,“ No please, if I have found favour in your  sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and  you have accepted me. Please accept my blessings that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously  with me …” (33:10,11).  
In other words Jacob says, “They are gifts, Esau. . . please take them. I realise that they are not needed to win your love. You have shown your affection for me so sincerely, but  please- take these gifts as an expression of my love  affection for you. I am so sorry what has happened  in the past. 

Esau’s forgiveness, acceptance and embrace  was a sign to Jacob that God had forgiven him. He was ready to move on.  This is a great theme in the book of Genesis and  of the Bible.  The mark of loving God is that we love one another. Being reconciled to God means that  we strive to be reconciled to one another. In Genesis 50, we  shall find another reconciliation, namely that of Joseph and his brothers, who had treated him so very  horribly. They had once hated one another so much that they couldn’t even speak to one another. This gives us great hope. God in His grace  can bring about a reconciliation  in family relationships that we never thought would be  possible. When  God  is at  work in humbling  us,  the  vital ingredient   for reconciliation  becomes possible.

Don’t give up  the hope of reconciliation from estranged  family members. Jacob  must trust in God’s providence in this matter. That is what God requires of us as well. As Jacob had to learn to trust God, especially when going into the unknown, uncertain of what  sort of reception  he was  going to meet, we too  must go, trusting  God  in terms of working out the details.  

33:12-17 The Separation

And now comes a complicate twist in the story. Esau thinks that he will call the shots in this brotherhood from now on, and he says to Jacob, “Let us journey on our  way and I will  go ahead of you” (33:12). Esau was assuming that they  were  now on the same wavelength, with identical ambitions and plans for the future.  But here is the problem. Esau’s land, Seir  or Edom is not in the Promised Land. Jacob had no intention of going to  Seir. He had lived outside of the Promised Land for two decades, and that was enough. Seir  is away from the promise  and presence of God. Esau is not a man of faith.  

So, what will Jacob do?
He declines Esau’s offer, but it is a very lame  sort of argumentation that he uses (see 33:13,14). Well we know about this, don’t we?  We  have just made peace in our family  and  now this great invitation from them comes as an invitation to abandon God’s  plan and purposes, and so  he tells  his brother  not quite the truth.  

He never  came to Seir, if the truth be told (33:17)

The chapter ends sadly, not with a report of Jacob finally returning to Bethel where God had told him to go, to the place where he had set up the memorial stone after seeing a vision of the staircase and hearing the voice of God and receiving his promises in Chapter 28. 
We are told that he  journeyed to  Succoth and built himself a house and made booth for his livestock (33:17). It is not Seir, but it is  not Bethel. It  is on the wrong side of the Jordan river.

Then some time later Jacob crossed the Jordan and moved on again to Shechem, and there he settled. He bought land there (33:18-19).   How sad. We shall see that  this would become a place of compromise. It was in Canaan in the Promised Land, but it wasn't in Bethel, which was only a days journey away. So near- and yet so far! 

Genesis 33 is followed by Genesis 34 and that chapter  tell us  of  the terrible cost to Jacob of not going to Bethel, but this will have  to wait for next time. 




[1] H.C. Leupoldt : Genesis Vol 2  p.886; The el Amarna tablets  (1360-1332BC)  give us insight into ancient Canaanite practices

Sunday, January 26, 2020

BEARING FRUIT IN 2020 - 1 Timothy 1:17: “The Discipline Of Committing Ourselves To Public Worship”


1. Disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness
2. The discipline of hearing God’s Word regularly
3. The discipline of  Public Prayer

4. The Discipline of Public Worship

“To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17). 

This is a great statement, made by a worshipping heart, the apostle Paul, to his son in the faith, Timothy, who is pastor of the church at Ephesus.

In this, the  last of our January series, we meditate on the nature of corporate worship.What is worship? What does the word mean? 

The word is derived from the English word ‘worth-ship‘.  It means to ascribe ‘worth’ to someone.
The human heart longs to worship. 
The reason for that is that the human race was designed and created by God to worship Him alone (Genesis 1&2).  However, the fall in Genesis 3 has turned every person from a God- worshipper into an idol-worshipper.  John Calvin observed that every human heart is an idol factory[1]. Solomon comments, “See this alone I have found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”  (Eccl. 7:29)

Whilst the world now worships in many different ways (mainly that, which itself creates), we Christians are primarily interested in the recovery of the worth-ship of God. For the Christian, God is of the highest worth. Therefore the Christian pursues the worship of God as his or her highest goal. But where shall we learn how to worship God?   The Bible informs us concerning the essence and nature of true worship. It also exposes the nature and folly and consequences of false worship. Our pulpit ministry at Eastside, in tandem with all the true church in history,   deliberately aims to align our thinking with the Scriptures, and so aims to help us to worship God. This is hard work. It requires, as we have seen, robust training in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7 – see first sermon[2])

Paul’s letters to Timothy are essentially instructions on how the church ought to worship. The church at Ephesus, of which Timothy was the pastor, was born in an environment of strong idol worship. The temple of Artemis or Diana was found right here, in Ephesus. It was once considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.[3] But here in Ephesus the gospel had taken root and people were brought back to the worship of the true Creator God. It one thing for people to get out of that environment, but it is never easy to get the environment out of people. The enemy of our souls, the tempter, prowls around like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). Paul  frequently draws attention to his work in his letters to Timothy.[4] 

In order to deal with that perpetual problem, namely   allowing our hearts to worship  that which cannot save us,  we have chosen to take   counsel  from Paul’s first letter to Timothy. There we have considered,

1.     The importance of training ourselves in godliness (1 Tim.  4:7-8). By disciplining  ourselves in godliness,  we  honour God; we learn  to  worship God.
2.     The discipline of hearing and reading God’s Word regularly (1 Tim 4:13). The Bible   teaches us  to worship God according to the pattern given to us, and not just according to the fancies of our own thinking.  
3.     The Discipline of Prayer (1 Tim 2:1-4). Prayer is the highest act of worship, for in prayer we declare our dependence upon God.  
4.     The Discipline of Worship. (1 Tim 1:17). This is what we shall consider now

Paul’s statement in1 Timothy 1:17
a.     A statement  that expresses the heart of worship (1:17)
b.     How Paul is lead to make that  statement:  How he became a worshipper  (1:12-16)
c.      What that statement leads to: A life of worship,  expressed in  the corporate life of the church   (2: 1-15 and the rest of the letter)

THE HEART OF WORSHIP (1:17)

Here we find Paul sinking on to his knees before God in worship as he makes this statement  (cf. Romans 11:33-36)

WHAT LEADS HIM TO WORSHIP? (1:12-16)

It is very clear! Here it is the thought of what Jesus Christ (not only his Lord but OUR Lord) has done for him! Paul here thanks God for giving him the strength (Gr.dunamis) for this service of being an apostle (1:1).  The phrase ’because he judged me faithful’ (pistis) needs to be understood in a passive sense. It was not that Paul was a faithful man and that upon this merit God judged him to be faithful, appointing him to this service. No, it is God that empowered him (i.e. gave him that dunamis) to be faithful and THAT is why Paul is  a faithful servant and apostle of the church. The glory and worship therefore belong to God and not to Paul.  Paul knows himself only too well. As he recites his history, he writes ”formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor and insolent[5]  opponent”. He knows that he was anything but faithful to God in himself.  He  knows that it was on the basis of God’s  grace  and love and mercy  in Jesus ALONE that He became what he was – the apostle  by command of God  our Saviour and  of Christ Jesus our hope (1:1).  It is that thought of God’s free, loving, unmerited grace and mercy to him, the foremost of sinners (1:15) ,  that leads  him to express this great  doxology- this utterance of praise  and worship to God. True worship of God begins when we know that we are made by God and kept by God.    

Let us rehearse this question again:  Why can we truly worship the one true God of the Universe?  We can worship Him  because He makes Himself known to us. Paul writes to the Galatians and says that “it pleased God to reveal his Son in me” (Gal. 1:16).   We see that in our text. In his letter to Timothy Paul thinks about the way in which Jesus saved him, despite the fact that he was once a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent opponent of the gospel.  And he bursts into that great statement of worship. 

At the extreme end of our  experience of worship  there  can  be  a falling down,  and even  an experience of fear, and even losing consciousness,  or  the ability to see.   The apostle Paul experienced that in Acts 9:3-9. The apostle Peter experienced that in Lk 5:8. The apostle Thomas experienced that in John 20:21[6]. The apostle John experience that in Revelation 1:17.

But many more times we find people just simply dropping on to their knees when they encounter Jesus. The ESV  and NIV  describe this act  simply as kneeling before Jesus, but the  KJV captures the sense of gravitas  better when it  says  that they  worshipped  (proskuneo – lit. to bow down before)  Jesus.  In this sense Jesus is frequently worshipped or bowed down to.  Each time, Jesus accepted the worship.  Here are some examples from Matthew,
·       Matthew 8:2  -   A healed leper knelt before- i.e.  worshipped Jesus.
·       Matthew  9:18- A ruler knelt before (worshipped)  Jesus after He had healed his Son.
·      Matthew 14:33- The disciples worshipped Jesus after He had walked on water. "Those in the boat worshipped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.'" (Here the ESV  translates proskuneo as  worship)
·       Matthew 15:25: “A Canaanite woman came and knelt before him (worshipped), saying, 'Lord, help me.'"
·       Matthew 20:20, "Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling (worshipping) before him she asked him for something."

Do we  still worship God when we do not feel  anything?

The giving of  the glory  God,  when  His felt presence is near  is  our best experience, and   yet there may be  times when  we need to worship  in a principled fashion, like...

·       Habakkuk 3:17,18
·        Job  13:15a  “Though he slay me, I will hope in him”
·       Matthew   26: 39,42,44 -  Jesus, now forsaken of the Father  in the Garden, and yet  praying, "Your will be done".

We can worship, because the truth still remains the  truth. I may not feel  God’s love, but that does not prove that He does not love me and care for me. I still worship Him. He is still my Father.  Following the devastating news  of the death of his baby boy, David, sore depressed,  got up from his bed, washed his  face and went to the sanctuary to worship God  (2 Sam 12:20).

APPLICATION: THE CONTEXT OF WORSHIP

We have begun our meditation with the personal encounter of God  that leads to worship. But  private worship is not the highest form  or expression of worship. The highest form of worship  ends in public  worship. 

We have already noted that Paul does not privatise God or the Lord Jesus Christ.  He refers to God our Saviour and Jesus Christ our hope (1:1); Jesus our Lord (1:2, 12,14).  And so, the corporate worship service  of the church is the highest  expression of  human worship, and the highest exclamation of our worship can be   that which  1 Timothy 1:17  reveals, “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only  God,  be honour and glory  forever and ever. Amen.“ 
That is, incidentally the language of the worship of heaven. This is what  the people gathered  before the throne  from all tribes, tongues, languages and nations  are saying:   “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits  on the throne and  to the Lamb… blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen. (Rev.  7:10-12).

And so as we survey the greater context of  Paul’s letter to Timothy,  we see the corporate effect of public worship  worked out in 1 Timothy 2,  as Paul  explains  what the church  in Ephesus should be doing  corporately  in worship. The first thing is prayer (2:1-7). The second thing is and  right  and submissive attitudes in worship (2: 8-15).  Furthermore, the  church ought to  be led by  worshipping elders and deacons, leading  the church  by the examples of their own worshipping  lives (Chapter 3) etc …I trust the point is made. The thought of Godleads to practical applications of worship. 

Beloved brothers and sisters.  Let the church worship! Come together regularly and praise  the  Lord, with all that He has given you. Do this in prayer, in song, by hearing the Word together and by doing what it says. Do it in in participating in the life of this body to the glory of God. 

The common worship that we seek is biblical, reverent, joyful, edifying and filled with praise to God.   

One last plea, particularly to the younger parents. Do not let your children miss out on this worship. Let the children worship. There is plenty of biblical evidence that children are included in public worship.  Jesus wanted to see the little children not neglected in our midst. Let them  be present  in the means of grace. Let them hear the Word preached; let them see the Lord’s supper and baptism administered, and let them ask their parents, what do these things mean? Let them be prayed for publically and let them participate in prayer; let them sit with their parents in worship and let them experience what  demonstrates our weekly priority. And God will respond to your faithful worship by giving them true life. Amen.



[3] By 401 AD it had been ruined or destroyed. Only foundations and fragments  now remain at the site.
[4] 1 Tim  1:20; 3:6,7, 4:1, 5:15; 2 Tim 2:26
[5] showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect.
[6]

Sunday, January 19, 2020

BEARING FRUIT IN 2020: 1 Timothy 2:1-8 - “The Discipline Of Committing Ourselves To Public Prayer”


We now come to consider prayer- particularly public prayer, another foundational discipline for the Christian life. 
This is where wefind ourselves as we consider  vital spiritual disciplines for the church at the beginning of 2020:

1. Disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness

2. The discipline of hearing God’s Word regularly
3. The discipline of  Public Prayer
4. The discipline of Worship.


Public prayer is the habitual discipline whereby the church comes together in great numbers (whatever great means for any given church)  to ask, seek and knock and petition the Lord for matters concerning His kingdom. 

This is important! Our common welfare lies in corporately seeking first the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33). The Bible seldom speaks in reference to the single person. The Bible speaks most often to us in a corporate context – YOU, plural!  Our individualistic society misses that. The emphasis on ‘me’, ‘bless me’,   kills the spirit of public prayer and misses out on corporate blessings, such as having a well ordered society. I am afraid that the devil has led many Christians into thinking that the corporate prayer meeting of the church is  optional – and even worse;  many  think it’s legalism. It’s nothing of the kind! Public prayer to the God who created us is life giving. It leads to healing. It leads to the reversal of the rot  and decay of  our society…

And so, we should not be surprised  to learn that the society  or churches  where many pray together to  God, where many seek God  together for  blessing and favour, are societies  where all people (even non-believers)  flourish. The history of Christian revivals, where public prayer was paramount, proves that.  The more the Christian faith takes hold of a nation, the better off that nation will be.
In a recent  article by Jonathon van Maren[1]  (4th November 2019) entitled,  “Atheists sound the alarm: Decline of Christianity is seriously hurting society”, he writes:  But as Christianity fades further and further into our civilization’s rear-view mirror, many intelligent atheists are beginning to realize that the Enlightenment may have only achieved success because it wielded influence on a Christian culture.  (e.g. Christianity enables tolerance). In a truly secular society, in which men and women live their lives beneath empty heavens and expect to be recycled rather than resurrected, there is no solid moral foundation for good and evil.  Anti-theists like Christopher Hitchens mocked and reviled the idea that mankind needed God to know right from wrong, but scarcely two generations into our Great Secularization, and we no longer even know male from female. The article also notes that  Richard Dawkins has now come out and repudiated his previous belief that Christianity should be banished from society …. In fact, he told ‘The Times’, that  ending religion—once his fervent goal—would be a terrible idea, because it would “give people a license to do really bad things.” Despite the fact that Dawkins has long argued that the very idea of the God of the Bible being necessary as a basis for morality is both ridiculous and offensive, he appears to be backtracking. He said,  “People may feel free to do bad things because they feel God is no longer watching them,”  citing the example of security cameras as a deterrent to shoplifting.

Today, we are reminded from our text that corporate prayer is no side issue in the church. It ought to be a core activity in the life of the Christian church. Praying churches have far reaching   influence in this world. So, whatever we fail to   do as a church, we cannot fail in public prayer.  Let’s follow the logic of Scripture once again  as we trust that the Holy Spirit would  press this important spiritual discipline upon our hearts and consciences as we consider the  first 8 verses of 1 Timothy 2 .

(i) “First of all…” here means, as a matter of first priority, indicating that prayer is no secondary or arbitrary  activity  of the church.

(ii) The little word “then” connects Paul’s thoughts with the preceding context in 1:18–20 and gives us a reason why this kind of prayer is significant. In 1:18  Paul exhorted Timothy to "wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience"[2].  He reminds Timothy that by rejecting faith and a good conscience, one may run the risk of making shipwreck of one’s faith. This had been the sad case of men like Hymenaeus and Alexander[3] (1:20)[4].  Earlier  in 1:3 we see that the church at Ephesus  was  being undermined  by people who were teaching  a different doctrine, and therefore Paul  exhorted Timothy that  he needed  to hold  the church  to the  true gospel.  Clearly, the church is always at war. She must constantly fight for her integrity and for the integrity of her society. Societal collapse happens when truth collapses. The church with the Bible in her hand is the truth custodian. It is against this background  that Paul reminds  Timothy   concerning the importance of  prayer. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the church which Timothy pastored, reveals that prayer is a significant tool  in this spiritual battle  [Eph. 6: 10-20].

(iii) I urge[5]    indicating  that  this is a priority.  Paul urges  Timothy that  he  must lead the church  in public  prayer  for  all kinds of  people.

(iv) Note  the extent of this prayer:“pray for all people…"  (2:1)… Paul is saying to these Christians,  “put your requests, or supplications forward to God for all kinds of people;  pray for  all kinds of people; intercede for all kinds of people, and where applicable  give thanks  for all kinds of  people,  even  for the government under which you  live.  This is a remarkable exhortation, given the fact that Christians lived under precarious circumstances in the Roman world.

(v) “for kings and all those who  are in high positions…“  In this regard, the wise words of Bishop John Charles Ryle come to mind: “It is easy to criticise and find fault with the conduct of kings, and write furious articles against them in newspapers, or make violent speeches about them on platforms. Any fool can rip and rend a costly garment, but not every man can cut out and make one. To expect perfection in kings, prime ministers, or rulers of any kind, is senseless and unreasonable. We should exhibit more wisdom if we prayed for them more, and criticised less” [6].

(vi) “… that we may lead a peaceful and a quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Corporate prayer is intended to have far reaching influence.  One of the great  goals of  our corporate prayer is seen here.  By  our corporate prayer we ask God  to enter into the hearts and minds  of all kinds of people in our society, especially  kings and all those who are in high positions,  who potentially have so much power  to disrupt our lives  by causing us not to live  in peace and in quiet and with dignity. Part of our public prayer is therefore to pray for our country, our politicians and our churches so that  we may life in peace and quiet and with dignity. This is the essential foundation for the spread of the gospel. Christians desire an ordered society for the sake of all its citizens, but especially because then we can fulfil our God-given responsibilities without hindrance. Jeremiah the prophet had an understanding of this  kind of prayer when he wrote  to the Jews in Babylonia: “Seek the welfare of  the city where I have sent you in exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find welfare.” (Jer. 29:7)  Corporately praying  to God for this city meant  welfare  for the Jews  and for all.  Queen Esther and Daniel are  excellent examples of  those  through whom God worked mightily for the welfare of the Jews. Esther asked for corporate prayer (Esther 4:16). Daniel was a man of prayer and he was prayed for.

(vii) And then Paul goes even bigger  and asks  the church  to pray for, “All people, everywhere! “God, our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”(2:4). What are we to understand here? Are we to literally expect all people on earth to be saved as a result of our prayer?   As desirable as we may find this thought, it is not  likely that  this was what Paul had in mind  when he wrote this.  What Paul had in mind  was based  on  an Old Testament hope, namely  that  one day “the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”[7], namely  that all the nations  would be united  in the worship of the One True God.  It is thus not so much every person that is in mind here (although we should always work and pray as if everyone  could be saved), but the big  thought here is that  all kinds of people  from all kinds of nations  are envisaged here. Is this not what we are seeing in the book of Revelation 5:9;7:9? People  gathered before the throne in heaven,  from every tribe and language  and people and nation? Is this not what we are publicly praying for every Sunday night?

This sort of prayer  underlies  effective  biblical evangelism of our  community.  Here Paul encourages  Timothy to lead the church in prayer in the expectation that  all kinds of people would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Now here is something to chew on.  If  such prayer is good and  pleasing to God  then we can  confidently say that public prayer is a public means of grace. That means that we can expect that God will answer such prayers, because they are good and pleasing to Him. They are in accordance with God’s goals that the whole world  should hear His Word.   And  so, Paul  was saying to Timothy,

 (viii) “For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.“ (Vv.5 &6) The reason why we are praying for the whole world is because of these  words. There is not one God for the Muslims, and many gods for the Hindus. NO! Why should we pray that people from every tribe, tongue and nation should be saved? Because there is only  one  true God-only ONE Mediator. There is only one  true Saviour. He  alone is the one hope of all humanity, and  if   He is  the only  hope, then it follows  that if we don't pray for the world, what hope does the world have?  And if this is God’s  desire for the world,  then this must move us  as Christians to pray for all kinds of people. And we must expect for  God to hear and answer this  prayer.

(ix) For  this I was appointed as a preacher and an apostle ( I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth .”   Paul  includes himself in the mission of God.  He tells us here that God's desire for the world is what propelled him into the ministry. And he is the apostle who always asked the churches everywhere that they might corporately pray for him, for example 2 Corinthians  1:10,11. God  richly answered the churches prayer!

CONCLUSION
The extent, the scope, the possibilities unleashed by the discipline of corporate prayer ought to excite us. Will you not discipline yourself, to join the prayer chorus of this church as we start  this year in corporate prayer every night of this coming week?  


[2] See also 1:5
[3] Alexander is also mentioned in 2  Tim 4:14
[4] throughout this epistle,  Paul talks about those  who  have  wandered away  from the faith see also 1:6;  6:10,21
[5] Gr. parakaleo – to exhort  see also   1:3
[6] J.C. Ryle:  The Upper Room ,  Chapter 21  “For Kings”, p.264
[7]  Num,.  14:21; Ps 57:5,11; 72:19; Isa 11:9; Hab. 2:14

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