The other day I saw a post on Facebook about the wife of one of the 21 Coptic Christians, recently slain for their faith by ISIS. In that article the writer was marveling at the woman's ability to forgive the murderers who took her husband's life. A picture showed her holding her infant, now fatherless.
If you are like me it is extremely repugnant to pray for my "enemies". Who are our "enemies" anyway? There is a continuum, it seems to me - - - on the one end is "he/she hurt my feelings" and on the other is "he/she robbed me of my dearest friend/possession". Then, there are those who actively oppose the cause of Jesus Christ. The Bible calls the latter group our "enemies", if we are Christ's. When we, in our sin, consciously or unintentionally frustrate the will of God, we act like His enemies as well.
You are probably familiar with Job, the most prominent man of the East in his day.
In Job 42, the last chapter of that oldest book of the Bible, we see Job restored. Part of his restoration involves praying for his friends, who had acted like enemies during the course of his trouble. Grab your Bibles, and let's walk through this chapter.
Job begins by affirming (vs.2) that God's plans are going to "roll on", regardless of Job's desires to the contrary. Job is acknowledging the sovereignty of God.
No plan of yours can be thwarted.
There is a mysterious (to me, unfathomable) relationship between the will of God and our prayers. I truly don't understand how our prayers can affect His will; but, we see later on in this chapter that they do.
Job then tries to explain his sins by stating in humility and wonderment:
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
Haven't we all been guilty of this? Sometimes, my sons say things that cause me to roll my eyes, either flagrantly, right in front of them, or figuratively, in my own mind. I'm sure that nothing surprises God, but that He does more than his "fair share" of eye-rolling. Here, Job is confessing that he has spoken things about which he had no clue. There was a lot of that going on in this book. A lot of that goes on unintentionally in my study of the Scriptures and blogging too, I'd imagine. We all think we have it so right, don't we? When confronted by God concerning His error, Job rightly repented.
Then, we have an interesting passage, verses 7-9:
After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite,
"I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."
So, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.
One commentator pointed out that all four men spoke erroneous things about God's intentions and works. However, Job focused on his relationship with God, knowing God, while the others spoke out of their arrogant assumptions/knowledge about God, divorced from any real relationship with Him.
Still, the focus this morning is on the fact that God directed Job to pray for his friends, so that they, too, would be restored. This was after the three friends demonstrated their desire to be forgiven and restored, by their acts of sacrificing the animals. It was not their sacrifice that restored them, however; it was their submission to God and Job's prayer on their behalf.
As Christians involved in a thriving community, we are often asked to pray for someone. I think that we often take that lightly. It is not a trivial thing, to intercede for someone else. My friends often tell me that they are interceding on my behalf, and that means more than the world to me! It is rare, though, that our "enemies" ask us to pray for them. That is irrelevant. We are still commanded to do it.
Jesus issues this command, carrying forward the principle found in Job 42, in Matthew 5:43-44 - - -
But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you...
And Paul echoes this in Romans 12:14.
What do we often do instead? We talk about our enemies to our friends, rant and rave about the injustices done to us. That is our flesh talking, and this type of venting accomplishes nothing productive in the spiritual realm. But, when we pray for them - - - oh, we have no idea!
Look at what happened to Job after he prayed for his friends (vs. 9c-10):
...and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. After Job had prayed for his friends the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.
Dear Lord Jesus, you prayed for us, for whom you were about to lay down your life. At that time, we were God's spiritual enemies. Because of You and Your holy sacrifice of Your life, ...through You, we can become God's friends. May we, following Your example, pray for our enemies, regardless of their behavior toward us. "By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35) In Jesus' name, amen.
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