If the terms used to constitute the title seem contradictory, they nevertheless reflect a spiritual reality of the relationship between God and his people.
God, in his sovereignty and goodness, very often does good to both good and bad, sending rain on all, making his sun to rise on all, literally and figuratively (Matthew 5:44-45). However, there are also works that God accomplishes in our favor in response to a prayer raised to him, as a reward for a good work that we have done. It is this second category of God's benefits, those which are stimulated by our attitude, that we want to address in this article.
Prayer for the gift of a child, prayer for divine help
Two main forms of fervent intercessory prayer appear throughout the Scriptures: At the community level, this is prayer for help. It is a prayer that was generally raised by God's people when they were in distress: famine (lack of rain), slavery or foreign domination; in the New Testament this translates into prayer to proclaim the Gospel and see the world saved from the domination of sin and Satan, and therefore saved from hell. At the cellular level, it has generally been prayers for couples to have children: we see this particularly in the old covenant, from Abraham and Sarah to Zacharias and Elisabeth who gave birth to John the Baptist. Passing through Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Manoah and his wife who gave birth to Samson; Elkanah and Hannah who became parents of a certain Samuel.
But here we see the regular combination that God makes of these requests of the community on the one hand and of individuals on the other. While the people are in need for which they cry out to God, God chooses to use a godly couple who at the same time cry out to Him for a child and who therefore will more humbly acknowledge the sovereign hand of God in the coming of a son and will be more able to dedicate him to God in all respects. At least, this is what appears more or less with each of the cases cited above and reproduced here:
Abraham and Sarah: Never before had the world known God, as that of a community, of a people; but also God prepared a way for the coming of the Messiah through Mary, wife of Joseph, who must have had a very particular genealogy. Isaac and Rebekah can more or less be placed in the same case as Abraham and Sarah in terms of genealogy and inheritance of the promise.
Jacob and Rachel: Without knowing it, they were going to give birth to Joseph, the one whom God will use to save his own family, but also all people from a global famine announced in the Scriptures. But let us note, this was a prophetic act of who Christ would be, for Joseph is one of his images in the old covenant. On the one hand by his position as Governor just below Pharaoh (image of God) and on the other hand by his position as “messiah” of his people and the whole world.
Manoah and his wife: Typical case of what we are trying to illustrate. The people groaned under the weight of Philistine rule. God, as punishment for allowing this to force his people to repent and return to Him. And even if the Scriptures do not echo a prayer of the couple for the obtaining of a child, the emphasis here being placed on the condition of the people, it nevertheless seems natural that this pious couple who after a first appearance of the angel to the woman, prayed for a second apparition and was granted, it therefore seems natural that this couple had at a given moment raised fervent prayers to God for the grace of childbirth. But whatever the case, we see God blessing a barren couple with a child who he will use to bless the community, his People.
Elkanah and Hannah: Here we see the woman pining after a child, to the point that it is she who offers God a “deal”. The initiative of the vow, of the consecration of a son, is not even a divine claim, but a proposal from the servant of the Lord. And her husband hearing this, approved of it; since not canceling it on the same day. Indeed, according to Scripture, he could denounce his wife's wish in case of disapproval (Numbers 30:7-9), but he instead stood with her in this process and God blessed them with other children after Samuel , the subject of answered prayer has been dedicated to God.
Zacharias and Elizabeth: God now seeks to send someone to prepare the way for His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, absolute Savior of Humanity.
The lesson we can learn here is that, more often than we think, the trials through which God allows us to pass, aim for him, beyond our "little" person to prepare us as a vessel to be used for his people, for a much larger community. It could be our local Church, it could be our neighborhood, ... Already as in the previous cases, the test could relate to the long wait for a first child, for whom very quickly recognizing the incredible Grace of God, we let God make this child his servant according to the full measure of his calling. This could be through the miraculous deliverance from a situation of extreme precariousness to a situation of certain comfort, allowing us to realize that this money is not ours, to satisfy our senseless lusts, but for those he has placed around us or in our hearts, following the revelation that he will have clearly made to us on this subject. But you do not become greedy like the king Saul, but remain humble like David. And with the new dispensation of the Holy Spirit, you have the vocation to do better, by not falling as in the case of Uriah.
When your works plead in your favor
Cornelius and Tabitha Two wonderful stories of grace told in the Acts of the Apostles allow us to perfectly illustrate the second aspect of our message. It is that of Tabitha , then later of Cornelius.
Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.
There was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
In each of these stories, Luke, the author of the book, takes care from the start to specify that the person who was about to benefit from an incredible grace from the Lord “gave a lot of alms”. So, Luke does not limit himself to presenting Tabitha as a disciple of the Lord, but he specifies that "she was full of good works and almsdeeds " And we see how impressive was the almost silent request of the widows who surrounded Peter, crying, once called urgently, he was taken to the upper room where the body of this formidable disciple was placed. Yes, these widows simply, just, “showed him the tunics and clothes that Dorcas made while she was with them. » The apostle, who had been led by the Holy Spirit to be not far from the scene at the time of this death, certainly understood why the Lord had allowed him to be not far away.
The story repeats itself almost word for word with Cornelius. Here again, Cornelius, as in the previous chapter with parents in search of a child, “prayed to God alway”. But the author does not limit himself to this description, he also emphasizes that he shared his goods with the people. How impressive it is then to hear the words of the angel. Which thus reveals to us that not only the prayers raised to God had reached him, but also, even the alms given to the people. And that God had remembered it. Yes, my dear brother, every time we come to the aid of our fellow man in need, it is indeed to God that we do it, and in his faithfulness, he will certainly remember it, yes, he will remember it.
Far from us, the idea of insinuating or even pretending that the Grace of God is purchased by persistent prayers or good works done beforehand. Since God sends the rain and makes the sun to rise on both the good and the bad. On the other hand, we affirm that through fervent prayer, through good works and alms done towards our fellow human beings, we can indeed bring about divine Grace in our favor, that of our family.
Add comment