Continuing from last week)
HAVING ENERGETICALLY considered the three Adoration Petitions which constitute the invocative acknowledgment of the Deityship of our Father in heaven, in our Lord’s model prayer called the Lord’s prayer, attention is now turned to the Request- Petitions in the prayer.
As a general observation, it must be stated that efforts at an exposition on the Lord’s prayer is often beset with difficulties. To some extent and in a sense, it is almost presumptuous to discourse it exegetically. Perhaps one might just simply repeat the phrases and meditate upon them, for they themselves say all that needs be said about them. If only Christians or believers would use the phrases the way the Lord, Jesus Christ intended them to be applied, there would really be nothing more to be said about them. However, man being frail, fallible and sinful creature, it becomes necessary to analyze and enforce them.
The three last Request – petitions in Matt. 6:11-15 have reference to ourselves – supplicants – and our needs and our desires. It is interesting to note the all inclusiveness of these three Request – Petitions synthesized to give a whole meaning to them collectively, without loss of individual import of all man’s great needs summed up in them. “Give us this day our daily bread” “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us”. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” Man’s whole life is found in these three petitions and this makes the Lord’s prayer utterly amazing. In such a small compass, our Lord, covered the whole human life of the believer. Man’s physical needs, mental needs and of course his spiritual needs are all included. The body, the soul and the spirit are remembered – this is the whole man – body, soul and spirit. Think of all human activities going on in this world at this moment the organizing, the planning and the legislating etc.
etc are for the most part concerned solely with the body of man, his life and existence in this world of time.
The tragedy of the world outlook in relation to the foregoing, is that there is another ream – the realm of relationships – the soul through which man makes contact with his fellow-men, the means of communication with one another, and, all social life and activity. And above this, is the spiritual realm which links man to God, and reminds him that he is something other than dust. With these facts exposed to us, we should associate them in our prayer with the model the Lord has made available in these petitions. To say we can exceed them borders on spiritual presumption.
The wonderful order in which our Lord sets out these petitions is worthy of comments. After the opening in vocative adorations in the first three petitions – “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven one would have expected this to be followed by the spiritual needs of man, followed in a descending order by the needs of the soul and at the last by the needs of the body. But the Lord immediately after the invocative adorations went straight to the petition ((Give us this day, our daily bread” He starts with the body. This is obvious because, He considers that the first thing necessary for the existence of man after his position with God, is that man must be enabled to continue existing in this world. He must be kept alive. The very fact of his existence and being are involved, so the first petition on man’s needs and desires deals with the needs of his physical frame. He then goes on to the need of cleansing from the defilement and guilt of sin; and lastly, with the need of being kept away from sin and its power.
Life in a physical sense, or in a biological sense, is the basis upon which everything – situation and condition – depends, so we pray about our existence, but the moment we do this we realize that the physical is only one side of life: There is another side. We then must remember that Jesus said “This life is eternal, that hey might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3) He further declare that He had come “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10b). Having been concerned with our bare physical existence, we now begin to learn what really makes life, and the meaning of life which is that we should be walking in fellowship and communion with God. Real living is having fellowship with God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ. And according to Apostle John in John 1:4, he wrote his epistles on that theme that our “joy may be full99 in spite of all contradictions and difficulties. And on realizing this, then arise certain things that tend to interrupt our fellowship with God. We are sinful, therefore we need forgiveness of sins in order that we may enjoy the life God has set before us. And, when our communion with God has been restored, the only thing we need is to continue to enjoy that fellowship without interruption, without anything ever coming between us and the face of God who has become our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The foregoing, is the order daily bread; forgiveness, of sin; to be kept from anything that might cast us again into sin, to be delivered from everything that is opposed to our higher interests and to our true life in Christ Jesus. The sum of it all is that, ultimately there is nothing in the whole realm of Scripture which so plainly shows us our entire dependence upon God as does the Lord’s prayer, and, especially these three petitions. The only thing that should really matter to the Christian or believer, is that he should know God as his Father. If only we know Him as such, all our problems would have been solved already, and we realize our utter dependence upon Him and go to Him daily as children to their father. Now let us take a look at the Request- petitions separately.
THE FIRST HUMAN REQUEST PETITION is “Give us this day our daily bread”. What is really meant by “daily bread” This phrase is said to be one of the most difficult terms in the whole Bible. What is the exact meaning of the expression? There are a lot of different meanings ascribed to the term, but at least it must have as one of this varied meanings. “Give us this day what is necessary for us” Some say it should read “Give us this day for tomorrow” In any case all we are to ask is sufficient or what is necessary for each day. It is a petition for necessities. Bread is the staff of life, even though this request should never be restricted or limited to the matter of food. It is meant to cover all other material needs, everything that is necessary for the life of man in this world.
This request is a most extraordinary and wonderful connection to the previous request which is adjudged to be one of the most wonderful acts of benevolence on the part of our God in the whole Scriptures, that, God who is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the God who is forming His eternal kingdom, and who will usher it in at the end, the God to whom all the nations are as but “a small dust of the balance” – that such a mighty God should be prepared to consider our little needs, even down to the minutest details in this matter of daily bread ! This is the teaching of our Lord everywhere. He tells us that even a “sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Father” and that “the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matt. 10:29, 30). If only we could grasp this fact, that the Almighty Lord of the universe is interested in every part and portion of us. The smallest and most trivial details of our life are known to Him on His everlasting throne. This is something you find only in Scripture. You go straight from “Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven” to “Give us this day our daily bread” This can only be the way of God “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy” who “dwells with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit” (see Isa. 57:15). This is the whole miracle of redemption; this the whole meaning of the incarnation which tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ takes hold of us here on earth and links us with the Almighty God of glory. The kingdom of God and our daily bread!
It must be emphasized, of course, that all we pray for must be absolute necessity. We are not told to pray for luxuries or superabundance nor are we promised such things. But we are promised that we shall have enough. David looking back in his old age said in Psalm 37:25 “J have been young and now am old, yet have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” The promises of God never fail. But they refer to necessities only.
There appears to the mind of Christians, the perplexing, but seeming contradiction that we should pray for our daily bread or needs, where as God has said that we should not be like the heathen who think that they shall be heard for their much speaking for “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before you ask Him” (Matt. 6:8). Someone might then ask ‘if God knows before we ask Him; why then do we tell him about the things we need’. This question touches on the heart of the meaning of prayer. We do not tell God our needs because He is unaware of them, No ! We must think of prayer more as a relationship between father and child; and the value of prayer is that it keeps us in touch with God, which will be lost if He gave us all we need in one lump or package. This would be dangerous not only to our relationship with God, but also, to our spiritual growth; as we could access all we need and proceed to enjoy the gift and forget all about God and consequently get careless with our approach to things of God and the church, which is the sustainer of our spiritual growth. Although we may not understand and appreciate the fact that God as our Father likes us to be in constant touch with Him and commune with Him. Like our earthly father, He will be grievously “wounded” by us as His children who are content to enjoy His gifts to us but never seek His company or communion until we need more.
God does not release His gifts to His people in needless quantum, but does so in necessary and related installments to our needs. He is there in grace offering His guarantee to supply our needs, and, not our luxuries for ostentatious living.
It is indeed a marvelous thing that God desires that we come to Him. The God who is self-existent, the great Jehovah, the God who is not dependent upon anybody, who is from eternity to eternity, it is an astounding thing that He should desire that we come and commune with Him. The God who made the heavens and the earth, and orders the stars in their courses likes to hear our lisping praises, likes to hear our petitions. This is because “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16). And in Christianity, love is outstanding and implies the mutual and reciprocal affections of God and His people. Other religions make the gods so far above men that no such relation is possible. Christianity does not detract from God’s superiority to man.
There is also, the important issue of our being entirely defendant upon God, even for our daily bread. Every believer ought to base his faith – saving faith – on the understanding that, he would not come by his daily bread, try he as he might, if God so willed it. God could withhold the sun, stop the rain, make the land absolutely barren so that the farmer with all his modern farming implements and chemicals can not raise any crop, He could blast the crop and make them fail if He wanted to. Man is absolutely in the hand of God and the supreme folly of this century is the thinking that because we have acquired a certain amount of knowledge of the laws of God, we are independent of Him.
The truth is that no man can live for a day without God. Therefore it is a very apt prayer for children of God, at least once a day, the oftener, the better, to remind themselves that our times, our health, and our very existent are in God’s hands. Our food and all necessities of life come from Him, and we depend upon His grace and mercy for them all.
(To be continued)
