GOD, JESUS AND THE BEGINNING OF PRAYER – AN EPIC STORY

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Surprise may not be that for which we signed on, as we look closely at God’s love in the Old Testament. I will admit that, for me, decades of Bible study have not adequately prepared me for the overwhelming and transcendent love of God in what was referred to as the “Old Book,” when, as a child, I first began to learn about it. As Michael and I have written in the last few blogs, some people have characterized the Old Testament as a heavy read and one full of God’s wrath and judgment. I will say that, at times, I was at least a distant cousin – if not an even closer relative than this – to these same people’s views.

 

That is why this blog has two authors! Michael is not the least bit surprised to find a deeply loving and highly sensitive God in the first half of Scripture. His firm belief in a God of love in the Old Book and his idea for us to write about THIS benevolent Old Testament God, is why our blog is taking the direction it is.

 

For those of us, for whom surprise is a fact, we have even more reassuring surprises ahead. For those already of Michael’s faith, what deep peace you know! For you, these upcoming blogs will be a review of your seasoned and and long-held understanding. For all of us, it will be a journey of immense, spiritual importance, an insight into the mind of God Himself.

 

Without a doubt, while pondering this very subject of surprise, it was the Holy Spirit Who took us to the New Testament for a quick detour out of the Old. I felt like He was saying, “Why are you so astonished? Do you not recall the words of Jesus, whom you rightly revere as the epitome of love?” The following is Jesus speaking:

 

“If you really know me, you will know my Father as well…’ Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us…’ ‘Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?”

(John 14:7-8) NIV

 

What extraordinary words! Jesus says that not only is the Father in him but that HE IS IN THE FATHER!” Is this a recent development? Not at all. It was true during Old Testament times as well. The Trinity is three in one and was then, also. During all the events we have discussed in the past few blogs – Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel – and in all that Michael and I will be writing about in the foreseeable future, by the grace of God, JESUS WAS IN THE FATHER. They did not take a sabbatical from each other for purposes of God the Father’s actions in the Old Testament.”

Jesus goes on:

 

“The words I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me, (Jesus is emphasizing what he is about to say, casting a center stage spotlight on it. In short, he is telegraphing, ‘Listen up! I am going to tell you, something very, very important.’  So, again, he says, ‘Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”

(John:10-11) NIV

 

This is solidified in unequivocal language below:

 

“I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE.”

(emphasis added)

John 10:30) NIV

 

SO, back in Old Testament times, there was no dissension between God the Father and Jesus, just because it was an earlier era. At every turn, they were ONE. For sure and certain, I needed these verses to illuminate the ancient times and the Ancient of Days in them. Truly, they have the signature of Jesus on the theological dotted line of this history. Now, as we move back to the Old Testament, may we do so looking through the lenses of the Father and Jesus together, collaborative in every way – in BOTH Testaments.

 

We begin where we left off in our last blog. Abel was dead at the hands of his brother, Cain. Cain, whose life God spared, was gone to a place, East of Eden. (Genesis 4:16) NIV. God did not save his life for him to just exist, all alone. As we have already seen in this first Book of the Bible, that is not at all how our God operates. What was Cain’s world now like?

 

“Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son, Enoch.”

(Genesis 4:17) NIV

 

Cain was given another chance, a real opportunity to live.

 

Concerning Adam and Eve, with one son dead and the other gone, what did God do for them?

 

“Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel…’ Seth had a son and he named him Enosh.”

(Genesis 4:25-26) NIV

 

This God of the Old Testament is a God of second chances and of restoration. He benevolently gave us free will and then, even more graciously, granted true absolution and life reinstatement when, through our own or others’ sinful exercise of this free will, loss is suffered. It is a pattern firmly established in Genesis, the beginning of the story unfolding before us.

 

Momentously, the verse that follows the births of Seth and Enosh, is a pivotal point in Scripture:

 

“AT THAt TIME, PEOPLE BEGAN TO CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD.”

(emphasis added)

Genesis 4:26) NIV

 

It is highly significant that, FOR THE FIRST TIME, Scripture records this vast and historic moment. What brought about the very attitude of mankind that God so greatly desired then and still desires today?

 

Michael and I believe that there are three powerful reasons. First, certainly Eve’s influence was a factor, as she had become a person who had begun to realize that every good gift is from God. You recall these previously-cited verses:

 

“WITH THE HELP OF THE LORD, I have brought forth a man.”

(emphasis added)

(Genesis 4:1) NIV

 

“GOD HAS GRANTED ME another child in place of Abel…”

(emphasis added)

(Genesis 4:25) NIV

 

Secondly, we are made in the likeness of God, of the Trinity. (Genesis 1:26; 5:1) NIV. In an essential way, we look like them and, in the better angels of our days, we think like them. Within the Trinity itself, while on Earth, Jesus turned to his Father. In Gethsemane, he CALLED UPON Him. Therefore, when mankind began to call upon the name of the LORD, they were doing what they were designed to do when firing on all spiritual cylinders.

 

Finally, to borrow a verse from the New Testament, Paul writes,

 

“God’s KINDNESS is intended to lead you to repentance.” 

(emphasis added)

(Romans 2:4) NIV

 

How misunderstood God often is, as some attribute repentance to being a direct result of divine threats. It is so reassuring to remember that it is His amazing kindness that makes us not want to let Him down or to in some way to fail Him.

 

These three reasons surely had their impact on mankind. How God must have been filled with delight, the first time a person, finally, called upon His name!

 

What is actually happening when calling on the name of the LORD? Scripture doesn’t make this transparent in Genesis 4:26, but when we consider the Bible as a whole, the most reasonable inference to draw is spellbinding: that is, it marks the first time MANKIND BEGAN TO PRAY TO GOD! For this first time, after Eden, after the Fall and after life outside the Garden, God’s beloved Creation reached out to Him, like a child, who reaches up to a parent, his or her arms outstretched and initiating a connection, embracing relationship! It is that thrilling moment when all the love poured into caring for and nurturing this child is rewarded, a moment etched into the memory of that parent for all time. How God the Father must have been touched, must have been overjoyed! It was a turning point at which every vestige of momentum, racing in the wrong direction, came screeching to a halt and then, slowly at first, began to strain itself in the right direction, this time toward the God whose everlasting arms opened wide to receive them!

 

How beautiful it all was, how epic! We wonder what could possibly go wrong now in this idyllic moment. Next week’s blog will answer this question with the story of Noah and the Flood. Michael and I believe that this upcoming blog will reveal God to you in a way that even some of you who are Bible scholars may never have seen Him.

 

Postscript:

Yes, as you have supposed, I was chosen as a juror. I served on an 11 day, civil trial. At the end, I was the foreperson or, as now termed, the presiding juror.

Many things were extraordinary about this trial. After trying 84 jury trials as a lawyer, I had never served as a juror. It is unusual for a lawyer to be left on a jury. The lawyers trying this case left three lawyers on this jury!

After a day and a half of deliberations, we awarded just under two million dollars to a traffic collision victim. The plaintiffs’ attorney asked for much more. The defense attorneys asked for the plaintiffs to receive nothing. We decided the truth lay somewhere in between.

I have always believed in the jury system. This experience reaffirmed that belief. We were thoughtful, careful and followed where the evidence and the law led. This was a fine group of jurors, all of whom I will not soon forget – likewise the experience of service to the best judicial system in the world.