Mat 6:5-8; The Invisible Praying Man.Wednesday July 31, 2024
Idea: Proper prayer to the Father is not seen by others nor admired by yourself and it will lead you to know Him deeper.
Mat 6:5-8 "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 8 "So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Vs. 5: Standing in either God’s righteousness or your own.
Stand is in the perfect tense - refers to a set manner or way that they love, i.e. they’ve done it before and they keep on doing it.
Standing is often used metaphorically for a position taken on an issue. Of the most important issue is where we stand on the issue of righteousness. Is it our own or God’s righteousness on which we stand?
Rom 10:1-4
1Co 10:12 [context is Exodus and temptation - they fell for lack of faith] Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
God’s desire for us to pursue Him in order to know Him and live closely with Him is further accentuated by the Lord’s warning against “meaningless repetition.”
Vs. 6: Praying to God invisibly.
Cultural conditions: The most private room is probably an inner storeroom which was likely the only room that as lockable in an ordinary Palestinian house.
It is likely that the prayers were said out loud, not just that they were visibly engaged in prayer. And even in the house of worship, certain worshipers did not want to take a backseat to someone else.
1Co 14:30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.
On the street corner they were very likely praying out loud, something more obtrusive than silent prayer on a mat.
Looking to Christ rather than to ourselves: We should have such love for God that we have no time to think about ourselves. We shall never get rid of self by concentrating on self. The only hope is to be so consumed by the Lord and love that we have no room to think about ourselves.
Vs. 6: God is invisible: The double warning: impressing others and self.
The Lord wants us to find God, not more self-love. We were made to depend upon Him and to rest in Him. Find Him in your worship of Him.
Worship is not only church music. The worship of God includes any spiritual discipline – not only the song service.
God is invisible: There is an extraordinary phrase in vs. 6 that is easily overlooked. “Your Father who is in secret,” and then Jesus states that He “sees in secret.”
He is in secret is a remarkable phrase used also in vs.18. It suggests that God is not only omnipresent but that He is also invisible, which is in stark contrast to the ostentatious worshipers who are only too visible.
What does the invisibility of God in the world say about Him?
God said of Israel that they had eyes but could not see. Jesus repeated this to the generation He revealed Himself to. They saw Jesus as a man, a rabbi, a carpenter’s son from Galilee, but they did not see Him. With God, we have to see something that is more, much more, than a physical object, even a spectacular one (burning bush, pillar of fire, fantastic storm … God was the small voice to Elijah that had to be heard and believed and understood, and then we see).
The enthroned Jesus, King of Israel, will be visible on earth for 1000 years, but many will only see Him as a powerful man.
When we become enamored with ourselves or hope that others will, we are only looking at the surface. We need to look deeper, into the Spirit and heart of God, and God wants us to. He invites us every day to do so.
God manipulates our lives for the purpose of helping us see Him. God will even make His presence, or the feeling of His presence scarce at times so you will learn to look harder for Him and not just settle for some surface knowledge or feeling (Psa 77).
Mat 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
However, this passage is not intended to prohibit public prayer. Jesus prayed in private and He prayed aloud in public (Mat 11:25; 14:19; 26:39, 42; Luk 11:1). The issue is not the prayer but the motive.
What has happened in the age of the church is that we can pursue God’s very heart while we confidently stand in His presence, every day and every hour of every day.
Vv. 7-8 Speaking words without thinking
The Lord makes a slight transition from the hypocrites to the Gentiles or pagans who instead of trying to impress others, try to impress the god whose attention they’re trying to get.
battalogeo = repeat idly, vain repetitions, to speak in a way that images the kind of speech pattern of one who stammers, use the same words again and again, speak without thinking. (onomatopoeic coinage).
It is an approach to prayer with values quantity (and perhaps volume?) rather than quality. [the persistent widow (Luk 18:1-8) and the priests of baal (1Ki 18:29).]
Illustration: Praying in tongues (1Co 14).
KJV has an unfortunate interpretation as “vain repetitions” which seems to suggest that formulated prayers (Lord’s prayer) and repeated prayers of persistence are prohibited. That is a poor translation and they are not prohibited. Jesus prayed the same thing three times over in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The admonition not to be like them is followed by a reason that has mystified humanity since the words were stated. It is not the first time they were said, but no one ever put them in this context.
Isa 65:24 “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
But if God does not need to be informed of our needs, why does He expect us to tell Him about them?
It will help us to continue on to the way in which He tells us to pray. All the petitions in the Lord’s prayer are things that God has promised to do in light of what He has already done through Christ’s death and resurrection. [That is where we will travel next time]
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