Required reading
A Call to United Extraordinary Prayer in Vol 2 of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Part I.
My summary
Today we start a new work by Edwards calling for united prayer.
Edwards gives some observations on Zechariah 8:20-22:
1. The duty, with the attendance on which the glorious event foretold shall be brought on;
2. The good, that shall be sought by prayer; which is God himself.
3. Who they are, that shall be united in thus seeking the Lord of hosts: the inhabitants of many cities, and of many countries, yea, many people, and strong nations, great multitudes in different parts of the world shall conspire in this business.
4. The mode of their union in this duty.
5. The manner of prayer agreed on, or the manner in which they agree, to engage in and perform the duty.
6. The tenor of this prophecy, together with the context, that this union in such prayer is foretold as a becoming and happy thing, what would be acceptable to God, and attended with glorious success.
Then Edwards gives an account of how the call to extraordinary prayer came about and who is involved.
What grabbed me
I liked the encouragement to pray in order to have God himself:
'It is said once and again, “They shall go to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.” This is the good they ask for, and seek by prayer, The Lord of hosts himself. To seek God, as the expression may perhaps be sometimes used in Scripture, may signify no more than seeking the favour or mercy of God. And if it be taken so here, praying before the Lord, and seeking the Lord of hosts, must be synonymous expressions. And it must be confessed to be a common thing in Scripture, to signify the same thing repeatedly, by various expressions of the same import, for the greater emphasis.
But certainly that expression of seeking the Lord, is very commonly used to signify something more; it implies that God himself is the great good desired and sought after; that the blessings pursued are God’s gracious presence, the blessed manifestations of him, union and intercourse with him; or, in short, God’s manifestations and communications of himself by his Holy Spirit. Thus the psalmist desired God, thirsted after him, and sought him. (Psal. lxiii. 1, 2, 8.) “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee. My flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. My soul followeth hard after thee. ” (Psal. lxxiii. 25.) “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” The psalmist earnestly pursued after GOD, his soul thirsted after him, he stretched forth his hands unto him, &c. (Psal. cxliii. 6.) And therefore it is in Scripture the peculiar character of the saints, that they are those who seek God. (Psal. xxiv. 6.) “This is the generation of them that seek him.” (Psal. lxix. 32.) “Your heart shall live that seek God.“ If the expression in the text be understood agreeably to this sense, then by seeking the Lord of hosts, we must understand a seeking, that God who had withdrawn, or as it were hid himself for a long time, would return to his church, and grant the tokens and fruits of his gracious presence, and those blessed communications of his Spirit to his people, and to mankind on earth, which he had often promised, and which his church had long waited for.'
We want God, and so we pray.
Next week's reading
Read Sections I to IV of Part II.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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