A Mysterious Vocabulary

Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him  Genesis 25:21

Prayed – Prayer is mysterious.  It hardly seems possible to speak to an invisible, perfect and holy God.  But every religion embraces prayer.  For the Hebrews, prayer is so much an integral part of their worldview that Man is often called “the praying being.”  No part of Hebrew culture or history is removed from the concept of conversing with God.  Paul is being entirely Hebrew when he says, “Pray without ceasing,” for he intends prayer to be woven into the very fabric of life. 

That’s why this particular word is so strange.  ‘Athar is the normative Hebrew word that specifically means “to pray”, but it is found only 20 times in Scripture.  If prayer is so much a part of the ethos of being Hebrew, why does ‘athar occur so rarely?  The answer is simple, but profound.  For the Hebrew, prayer is not found as much in a deliberate ritual or formal expression as it is in dozens of ordinary, life-situation words like ask, shout, sing, praise, thank, weep, reflect, groan, cry and meditate.  In other words, for the Hebrew, prayer is the air he breathes.

Therefore, this example in Genesis is not typical prayer.  Typical prayer is found in cries for help, in supplications and thanksgiving, in the life world of pregnancy, famine, harvest, education, conflict and compassion.  Prayer is everywhere.

We just don’t think like this.  We are the product of a different kind of world.  As a result, we treat prayer as though it requires a special occasion or a special ritual or a sanctified environment.  We couldn’t imagine praying as part of paying bills, driving to work, cooking, cutting grass, taking a shower or making love.  We breathe a different air.  For some of us, it is the air of prosperity-seeking.  For others, pleasure.  For most people in the world, the air is just survival thinking.  But it is definitely not prayer air.

It takes a different point of view to breathe the air of prayer.  For the Hebrew, it begins with a personal God who hears.  Why pray if there is no one to listen?  Why pray if the one who listens doesn’t care?  I cannot pray to the God.  I can only pray to my God.  The first assumption of prayer is that God breathes the same air.  Then prayer becomes nothing more than the child-like expression of sharing life together.

That’s how you pray.  Right?