When Your Family Tree is Sick: Part II

These are the people I am most thankful for.  My husband. My parents. My children.

Given the chance, I would willingly exchange my own life for theirs, and in many small ways, I do that already each time I devote minutes, hours, days, and years to express my love to them. A true love is sacrifice.  Yet, that love can only go so far, do so much.

Last week, we began a two-part glimpse into a Christian's role in others' salvation.

In Part I, we looked at those in our family tree who are hopelessly lost and how we are unable to save them with either our own righteous, loving obedience to God or our prayers on their behalf. Although we who are Christians want to save the entire world and especially our loved ones, each person is ultimately accountable for his or her own soul.

As God said through the prophet Ezekiel, "'if a country sins against Me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch our My hand against it...even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,' declares the Lord GOD" (Ez. 14:13-14)*.

Part II of the question asks what the Christian's response should be if he can't pray someone into heaven.  Does he just give up and stop praying for them entirely?

In the previous verse and in verse twenty of the same chapter from Ezekiel, God mentions three pillars of faith who give insight into this part of the question.  Noah, Daniel, and Job interceded for those around them.

Noah is recorded as "a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God" (Gen. 6:9).  Later, Peter refers to him as "a preacher of righteousness" (Gen. 6:9, 2 Pet. 2:5). While I don't find a specific example of Noah praying for the people before the flood, the word "preacher" in the previous verse means "God's ambassador, and the herald or proclaimer of the divine word"**  

Throughout The Old Testament, a pattern appears of God's ambassadors interceding for the unrighteous after they receive a divine warning of impending wrath.  Moses repeatedly interceded for Israel while Abraham interceded for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Surely after God's warning and throughout the 90+ years it took him to build the ark, Noah not only shared with everyone what was going to happen but also prayed to God for their deliverance.

Sadly, as history records, not one repented; not one was delivered.

Unlike Noah, in the cases of Daniel and Job, it is more obvious that they interceded for their people.

In the story of Job, Scripture specifically records him praying for family and friends.  

For his children, he continually prayed: "Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, 'Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus Job did continually" (Job. 1:5).

Job also "prayed for his friends" (Job 42:10).  But neither his children's deliverance nor his friends' deliverance came through his intercession.  

Instead, his friends' deliverance came from their own actions of offering a burnt offering in repentance before the Lord. As the Lord said to them, "My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly" (Job. 42: 8).  They obeyed and were spared by their own actions.

Daniel, as well, prayed for his people.  

In a quite lengthy prayer, Daniel "prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, 'Alas, O Lord we. . .have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.  Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land" (Dan. 9:4-6).  

He requested God to relent in His wrath on Israel: "let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us" 

Yet, even Daniel could not save the city of Jerusalem because of the people's sin.

 What, then, should a Christian's response be?  

The answer is clear--the Word of God demonstrates that the righteous must still stand in the gap, must still intercede for those who do not know Christ. 

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul encouraged us to do likewise: "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men" (1 Tim 2:1).

May we be able to say with conviction that "my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation" (Rom 10:1).



*I wanted to note that some commentators believe that the Daniel mentioned here is not the same man who wrote the book of Daniel.  Although I humbly disagree, the idea that the righteous intercede for others is a sound tenet found throughout scripture.  I can't help but believe if this text does refer to another Daniel, he, too, would have interceded for his people.

**Blue Letter Bible Online.  

Praying It Forward

My children know mommy demands immediate obedience. And yet they struggle daily to balance the desire to be independent and do it their way with the desire to make mommy happy by obeying her.

Sadly, all too often, I’ve played out the same scenario with my heavenly Father. On a spiritual high, I will become totally engrossed with in-depth Bible study and prayer, rooting myself so deeply by His life-giving river that I feel I cannot possibly be drawn away from His presence again.

And then step by wayward step, I allow the cares of this world to draw me from the water’s edge. Disobedience, apathy, children, friends, job, household chores, spouse, sheer laziness, exhaustion—they all beckon me away from His presence until His Holy Spirit convicts me, sending me humble, repentant, ashamed, parched as I crawl face-down to Him for a long drink.

In Scripture, King Solomon was on one of the biggest spiritual highs of his life—what God had not allowed his father, David, to accomplish, he had been able to complete. After seven years, the temple, the house of the Lord, was finally finished. The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the holies of holies. The people of God were “sacrificing so many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered” (1 Kings 8:5). The glory of the Lord Almighty had descended upon earth to fill the temple with a cloud so thick that “the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud” (1 Kings 8:11).

And yet when Solomon prayed to dedicate the temple, he did not merely rejoice over how close he and Israel were to God at that present moment. Instead, his prayer looked ahead to those times when God’s people would not be walking in obedience to Him:

“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin …. And send rain on Your land” (I Kings 8:35-36).

He continued to pray that "When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy…if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and pray to You…then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You” (I Kings 8: 46, 48-50).

There is a lesson we each must learn from Solomon’s prayer. We must realize our human frailties will eventually draw us from that mountaintop, even if for a short while. Knowing this truth, in those uplifting seasons of indescribable closeness with God, we must pray, asking Him to convict us of our sin during those future times when we will undoubtedly go astray and then forgive us when we truly repent.

This week, start praying in this manner. Pray for God to never give up on you, to never just let you have your own disobedient way, to never let your heart harden to His voice, to never stop hearing your prayers and offering forgiveness, and to never cease prompting you with the Holy Spirit towards a life of complete obedience and a closer walk with Him.

(Photo: Our '05 family trip to Hawaii, looking down from the mountain at the ocean)

Posting here from the archives on this Veterans' Day weekend.

How to Love Someone Who Complains

Have you ever had a friend or relative who complained about everything big and small from the weather to the price of pasta to the depth of potholes in the highway?  Every time you get together, you know the conversation will be one-sided as you listen to her grumbling.

Chronic complaining probably put a strain on your relationship to the point where you began screening her phone calls, avoiding places you knew she frequented regularly.  Or maybe you even went so far as to duck in a store when you caught a glimpse of her face, pretending you didn't see her.

If there were no blood tie holding you two together, you probably parted ways.  And yet, such a one-sided relationship is what I see between Moses and God's chosen people.

Moses must have loved the Israelites. 

The Israelites, though, didn't deserve Moses' love.  Almost every conversation recorded in Scripture between Moses and the people involves them grumbling at him and about him.  Sometimes, they blamed God for their trials, but more often, they directed their anger and blame at Moses' feet, demanding he fix the problem he had created.

This angry grumbling began as soon as they reached the Red Sea, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?" (Ex. 14:11, my italics).

Moses did not flinch at this grumbling born out of fear.  Instead, he encouraged the people to watch God work.  Then, although Scripture doesn't record such a prayer, Moses must have prayed because the next verse reads, "Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on" (Ex. 14:15).  

Evidently, Moses prayed to the Lord on the Israelites' behalf, an action that began a pattern of the people grumbling and Moses praying, going to the Lord on their behalf.

Later, when there was no water, the Israelites again "grumbled against Moses" (Ex. 15:24).  And again, "Moses cried out to the Lord" on their behalf (v. 25).


When the people tired of walking in the wilderness as well as tired of eating quail and manna, "they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, '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!'" (Num 21:5).

In response, God sent poisonous snakes in their midst until the people repented.  And again, "Moses prayed for the people" (Num. 21:7).

Yes, there was that time when Moses lost his temper with the whole lot of them, an outburst that cost him the privilege of his feet touching the land of milk and honey.  There was the time when he chunked two God-engraved tablets at the foot of the mountain as his "anger burned" at their inconstancy (Ex. 32:19).  There were plenty of times when speaking to the Lord that he referred to the Israelites as "your people."  


And yet, Moses constantly interceded for them.


Perhaps the greatest tests of Moses' love for this people came as they danced 'round a golden calf and as they refused to enter Canaan.  With the former, God said, "Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation” (Ex. 32:10).

And when they feared Canaan's inhabitants more than Him, God said, " I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they" (Num. 14:12).

In both these instances, God expressed a desire to wipe out all His people and start over again with Moses.  Imagine!  One word and he could be free from these grumblers as well as have an eternal nation that would trace its roots all back to him!  What honor!

And yet, in both cases, Moses said no, begged God to guard His glory among the nations, to be true to His promises to Abraham, to be true to His character.  He asked, "'In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.' The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked." (Num. 14:19-20).
 

At the very end of his life, his prayer to the Lord was still for God's people: "May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community  to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd." (Num. 27:16-17).

How could Moses love these ungrateful people so very much such that they were the last thing on his mind as he prepared to die?  I believe the answer lies in Moses' prayer life.

He prayed for these people.  He interceded for them constantly, meeting with the Lord on their behalf, petitioning for their very lives at times. 



As far as I can tell, Moses' praying for this people didn't change them, didn't stop them from grumbling against him. Yet, I strongly believe his constant intercessory prayer life, face to face with God almighty, changed Moses' heart for this people.

Matthew 5:44 states, "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven."

Consider this verse in light of Moses' prayer life: when we pray for an enemy, a grumbler, a complainer--it may not change that person in the slightest.  And yet, praying for that person will change us, making us more merciful, more compassionate...more like the God we serve.