Studies in the Lord’s Prayer by Philip Foster
Part One: "Our Father"
People often ask themselves or ask: Teach us to pray. Books teach how to pray, courses are run, methods suggested. But as always let’s go back to the Word of God and see what it has to tell us.
Luke 11:1-4 : One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say: "‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. ’ "
Here the disciples ask Jesus this very question, prefacing it with just as John taught his disciples.
It is not clear whether this means ‘teach us what John taught’ or ‘John taught his disciples so please teach us.’
We do not have any example of what John taught his disciples about prayer - though we know that some of Jesus disciples had been John’s disciples (Andrew and John - Jn 1:40).
But also the question follows the disciples seeing Jesus himself praying and wanted instruction also. By the way, this is not a case of Jesus breaking his own ban on praying in public ‘to be seen by men’. Public praying is appropriate in fellowship in the church where we are not in the business (or should not be in the business) of trying to impress anyone! Public prayer can also serve as teaching about prayer as was the case for example with the recorded prayers of Nehemiah and Daniel.
What follows is Jesus’ prayer pattern for us and it is this that we will be looking at in sections over the next two or three Vanguards. I want to start by looking just at the the first two words: Our Father.
God as Father
The first time Scripture uses the term Father for God occurs at a very crucial place in the OT: the Song of Moses as it is called - we sing a bit of it as a chorus. It is actually less of a song than a prophecy of the future of Israel:
Deut 32: Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. They have acted corruptly towards him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
Is He not your Father?
This implies an intimate relationship. Father:child. Much has been made of it in this century. ‘God as father’, that God is ‘Daddy’ - referring to the NT use of ABBA father. This in some ways is good, as long as some vital facts about the Fatherhood of God are kept to mind. That God the father is HOLY. The title ‘holy father’ born by the pope is blasphemy. God alone is Holy. Perhaps too we need to remember the biblical picture of fatherhood - which differs somewhat from that of our own time (certainly in the West):
Eph 3:14-15 : For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Fathers, even human fathers, were held in reverance, for they had the right and responsibility to discipline their offspring.
Proverbs 3:12: My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
Heb 12:7-11: Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Further, this parental discipline could reach extremes:
Deut 21:18-21: If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
I am not suggesting that this be re-instituted! But I quote it to put the word ‘father’ into context. God is our Father and Him we should reverently fear. When we are approaching Him in prayer let us first and formost keep this reverence in place. It is not to some sugar-daddy indulgent of our wishes that we come but to our Creator, Judge and Redeemer. Yet this was the very mistake that Israel made towards God - as Moses makes clear:
A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
They have acted corruptly towards him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.
Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people?
Hear too what Jesus says in a very practical context:
Luke 9:41 : "O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here."
It may sound strange to speak of God losing patience - for his is patient and slow to anger: but angry He can become if we persist in treating Him disrepectfully. But God is no tyrant: He does pity his children:
Psalm 103:13 : As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
Hosea 11: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realise it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.
"Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them. "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man- the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.
Phil 2:15: Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life- in order that I may boast on the day of Messiah that I did not run or labour for nothing.
So the first thing we must hold in view when we come to God in prayer is that He is holy, just, righteous, slow to anger and of great mercy. We must know to whom we come, we must be sure that He IS our Father: for this is never automatic: the hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’ is misleading: he is not mankind’s father, he is their Creator: Israel is His son, but when they turn away they may lose that sonship. This is not pleasing to God to lose his children, as Hosea has made clear - so once more ‘out of Egypt He calls his son’ (Abram had come out of Egypt, Israel had come out of Egypt - and back from Babylon, but still Israel was rebellious - now for a third time out of Egypt have I called my Son: Jesus.
Matt 2:14 : So he [Joseph] got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son.")
Here is the truly obedient Son of the Father: He is obedient in place of those who are disobedient - which includes us: through the Cross we are adopted as sons of God given of His Holy Spirit that we too might cry, "Abba, Father." But note that Jesus, when he used this intimate term, was facing the crucifixion. When we use this term we too must go the way of the Cross.
Rom 8:13-17 : For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Gal 4:4-9: But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God- or rather are known by God- how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
This by the bye puts out of the window all those sorts of prayer which ‘bind the devil’ or whatever. Such people do not understand the true nature of fatherhood or of sonship or of what is called ‘spiritual warfare’ (an unbiblical term by the way). What is meant by that is properly shown by Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane - when he was cetainly enduring great temptation and testing - his Prayer is directly solely to His Father in Heaven.
So as we start out on this analysis of Jesus’ prayer pattern for us, we start with the the Fatherhood of God, who is Holy just and to be held in awe -
Luke 12:4: "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. "I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.
Hallowed be Your Name
Isaiah 6 : In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go and tell this people: "‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
Luke 19: Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. "It is written," he said to them, "‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’." Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.
Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
Revelation 1 : On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea." I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man", dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever
The second phrase, like the first (Our Father in heaven) directs to who God is. At first sight this petition is strange. By definition surely God IS holy? Of course He is! He is from Eternity to Eternity the Holy God, awesome in majesty. Why do we need to ask for his name to be hallowed?
Some suggest that this is worship - there is an element of it of course - declaring the holiness of God. But it is clearly not the prime purpose of this phrase - the end of the Lord’s praise contains the praise: "Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory for ever."
This is directed back to ourselves - do we ‘hallow’ his Name. If so how, if not why not? If we do not understand to the very depth of our beings the holiness of God, then every prayer we prayer will be off beam, indeed will be quite worthless. When we see His holiness, then some of our petitioning will be silenced and instead we shall be still to know what He would require of us.
Let us look at Isaiah the prophet - have you ever wondered why his great meeting with God and his ‘call’ is in ch.6 and not in chapter 1? (As it is for Ezekiel and Jeremiah) Is it merely that the collectors of the Bible got things out of order in some way? I think not. Isaiah was a priest and possibly of royal blood, he was also a prophet of God as ch.1-5 make quite clear. He was all this BEFORE he reaches ch.6. He understood the things of God, he was tutored in the Scriptures and could see the looming disaster that was to befall Israel because of their unfaithfulness to the Covenant. Despite his position there is no evidence to suggest that he had fallen into the trap of self-righteousness, he was aware of sin and knew that God is Holy.
Isaiah 1:4 : Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.
He was deeply aware of the irreverance of the people:
Isaiah 5:18 : Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so that we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so that we may know it."
Then one day he enters the Temple.
The daily routine, as it presumably was, is interrupted. He sees the Lord. And he is undone.
Woe is me... ! I am a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips.
There are two levels at which we need consider the hallowing of God’s Name.
1. In the wider sphere.
2. In our own lives.
I put them in this order because the 1st often affects the second
Let us look at the situation in Isaiah’s day. There was much religious activity, God was spoken about as ‘holy’ as we saw above. There was even evidence of much religious festivity:
Isaiah 5:12 : They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.
echoed much later in 24:7 : The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan. The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the revellers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred.
Isaiah 29:13 : The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
But it was all superficial and doomed. Today we live (in the West at any rate) in a world which among many things has become very ‘informal’ and relaxed in all kinds of ways. This of course is merely change and I suppose is neither good nor bad in itself. Formality can of course lead to pomposity and hypocrisy. But none the less it has its place (Lord Reith insisted that all those broadcast on radio had to wear formal clothes). Today however informality is the rule. But it too has terrible dangers. Informality in speech or dress is all very well, but it can easily become cheap familiarity. Notice how politicians use this in interviews when dealing with a tricky question, "Well, now Jeremy...." by introducing familiarity real issues can be evaded.
‘Woe to those who are at ease in Zion’. As Amos prophesied. It is certain that Christians are affected by this informality. In old times even where there was liberty in the Spirit to bring a hymn a psalm etc to the church (such as the Brethren or the Pentecostals), there should be (and was) a genuine reverance. Just because there was no formal liturgy did not mean that God could be treated ‘informally’ and familiarily. As I pointed out when dealing with ‘Abba Father’, the use of the diminuative ‘Abba’ was not the excuse for over-familiarity. A father, even as ABBA, had life and death powers over his children. Today we are in danger of pushing the family analogy too far - simply because today we are perhaps a little lax in our own families.
If the Holiness - the separateness, otherness and total distinction of God as opposed to men as well as his total burning righteousness, judgment and love is not permantly etched in our minds we are in trouble.
Why do we find the story of Uzzah and Ark so disturbing (why indeed did David find it so?). Because we (and he) are suddenly presented with the terrifying holiness of God.
What does it say?
2 Sam 6:6 : When they came to the threshing-floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, "How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?"
The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.
Why is the story of Ananias and Saphira so troubling? Once again because of the Holiness of God is thrust before our eyes. Holiness means separateness, being different and we are called to be holy. The danger today is the opposite: of being so relaxed about the things of God that we are no different from the World.
As the Psalmist says:
Psalm 26:3 (NIV) : for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.
Psalm 16 : I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
In an interesting interview with a respected historian of the Early Church (R.L.Wilken), he was asked if the Early Church sought to be ‘user friendly’. He replied, "No, quite the opposite." He went on to explain that the Pagan temples used to tout their wares in public - the temple ‘altars’ were outside the Temples, people could pick up whatever they wanted as they walked passed - it was a true pick’n’mix situation. The believers on the other hand in effect put their ‘altar’ inside (though they might not have had buildings as such of course).
Hebrews 13:10 : We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
The early church had little user friendly material to offer anyway. They could offer people ,if they repented and turned to Christ, nothing in this life but the possibility of torture and death (possibly in public) and that was hardly an attractive proposition. If we do not tell people what to expect if they become Christians then we could be held accountable. Paul reminds Timothy that one thing is certain, "all who seek to live a godly life will be persecuted." Jesus tells people to ‘count the cost’.
Non-believers who entered a church fellowship would immediately become conscious that they had entered a very different world - they would indeed feel like fish out of water and be challenged about it.
As Paul said in 1 Cor 14: But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"
God calls his people to take up the cross and follow Jesus and therefore to be holy, different and not necessarily ‘user friendly’. Indeed Jesus warns his disciples several times that the world will hate you. If you would see the Lord as did Isaiah and as did John on Patmos then "be holy even as I am holy" Lev 19:2. For without holiness no one will see the Lord.
And if we would have our prayers heard, let us not presume and be over-familiar with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor over-familiar with Jesus: he condescends to us, he does gently lead those that with young and carry lambs in his arms. But even there the picture is not always quite as cosy as we think - a shepherd would occasionally break the leg of a wayward lamb and that was why they had to be carried!
May your Name be Holy.
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Appeared in Issue 5 -- February 1999
"...contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" -- Jude v3
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