CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
James 5:17. Prayed earnestly.—Margin, “prayed in his prayer.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— James 5:17-18
Prayer affecting Natural Law.—The statement is made, in support of the advice to “pray for one another,” that “the supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.” This is a strong statement. It is supported by a well-known but very striking instance of effectual prayer, which even influenced the course of nature. Elijah prayed, and the order of the rains was changed. Elijah prayed again, and the order of the rains was restored.
I. It may be fully recognised that all events in nature follow ordered laws.—But these things have to be taken into account:
1. Laws are constantly qualifying laws and changing results.
2. The natural laws which man has traced may not be the entire circle of natural laws. The qualifying power of unknown laws (which we therefore call “supernatural”) may be the real explanation of phenomena. We have no right to say that a thing cannot be until we have mastered all the possible co-workings of all natural laws, known to us and unknown. No man has a right to deny miracle.
II. It must be recognised that He who fixed the laws keeps control over the relative working of the laws.—If God could make the relative conditions and the rules ordering the relations, it is inconceivable that He did not reserve His right of interference. He made the conditions for the accomplishment of His purpose; He must be able to bring His will to bear on the adjustment of the working of rules that necessarily cross and qualify one another.
III. If then God is a being with will, that will must be subject to influence.—Man’s prayer may be one of the influences affecting it. Our prayer may be an element in the formation of Divine judgments and decisions; and so may, not directly, but indirectly, affect the order of nature, and the relative working of natural laws. It should be borne in mind that Christian prayer is never more than the submission of our need and wish to the consideration of the Divine Father.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
James 5:17-18. Elijah’s Effectual Prayer.—The necessity of prayer in order that the blessing come. Prayer is the cause intermediate which compels the blessing down. This interlinking and efficient place of prayer, between the Divine promise and the actualisation of that promise, is very significant and wonderful. God had promised the rain, but Elijah must pray for the rain. Ezekiel 26 another illustration of the same principle: “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel.” Acts 1:2 also illustration of the same principle. Christ had promised the descent of the Spirit, but the disciples must pray for His enduement. Apply this principle to prayer about personal need, to the coming of a revival, etc., etc. This effectual prayer of Elijah’s was a prayer of faith. He had for argument in prayer the unequivocal Divine promise, “I will send rain upon the earth.” Upon this promise his faith laid hold, and this weapon of promise he wielded valiantly in his audience with Deity. You can almost hear him pressing the promise as you read of him lying prone there on Mount Carmel. This is the prayer of faith, and so the effectual prayer—a prayer which takes God at His word, and then reverently but really holds Him to it. We do not need to stretch and strain in a spasmodic attempt at more faith. The ground for faith is the Divine word. That is something upon which we can lay hold. And the prayer of faith is simply this—that when we pray we fully believe that God will be true to all that He has promised. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you,” etc. This effectual prayer of Elijah’s was a prayer out of a consecrated heart. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James brings forth Elijah as a specimen of such a righteous man. One thing Elijah was intent on; to one thing all his powers were consecrated—the Divine service. He was a man given up to God, and so, in the highest sense, righteous. The test of his consecrated righteousness is his obedience. Mark Elijah’s exact obedience to the Divine commands in the whole Old Testament story. This effectual prayer of Elijah’s was specific prayer. It was for a definite thing. We pray too much generally, not enough specifically. This effectual prayer of Elijah’s was untiring prayer. Though the cloud did not immediately appear, he kept on praying. This effectual prayer of Elijah’s was expectant prayer. Notice in the story how many times he sent his servant. He was on the look-out for answer.—Anon.
Elijah’s waiting on his Prayer.—St. James suggests an historical illustration of the power that lies in fervent and believing prayer. The Jews had a great admiration for the prophet Elijah, and were never tired of hearing of his doings. They lived in constant expectation of his reappearing as the precursor of Messiah. James finds in his story impressive illustration of the power of prayer; but we have no record of Elijah’s acts of prayer when he would have the rains kept away. His prayer for the rains to return is a part of the grandest day in his career. The witnessing fire of God had descended upon Elijah’s sacrifice; and at the sight a sudden shout had risen from the vast watching crowd, “Jehovah, He is the God! Jehovah, He is the God!” So intense was the excitement, and so absolute, for the moment, was the authority of the Jehovah-prophet, that only a word was needed to make that crowd seize the four hundred false prophets of discomfited Baal, hurry them down to the stream of the Kishon, and slay them there, that their bodies might be swept out to sea on the coming floods. But the day’s work was not then complete. The return of the rain showers upon the thirsty earth was virtually pledged in this return of the nation to Jehovah; and he who had prayed for the fire, and knew that he was praying according to the will of God, and had been graciously answered, must pray again for the rain, pray with the assurance that sending the rain was the will of God, and he must wait upon his prayer with the confident expectancy of hope. But the sight is a strange and a striking one. Elijah now goes away from the crowd and from the king, finds a sheltered spot under the crest of the hill, and there he might have been seen, crouching on the ground, his head bent upon his knees, and his cloak thrown over his head, as if to hide everything away that might disturb his intense supplications, absorbed in prayer until the youth sent to look out from the highest point could tell of a little cloud rising on the western edge of the sea. Then Elijah knew that the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Prayer availing in its Working.—“The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.” These familiar words are somewhat puzzling when careful thought is directed to them. To speak of effectual prayer that avails is an evident repetition, and unnecessary. If it is effectual, it does avail. And the combination “effectual fervent” is unusual. It seems to be two words, and to describe prayer as both effectual and fervent; but there is only one word in the original, and it neither means “effectual” nor “fervent,” nor both terms as combined. The word means “working,” and St. James speaks of the “working prayer of a righteous man” as “availing much.” The Revised Version gives a precise rendering of his meaning thus—“The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.” Then the appropriateness of the illustration from Elijah comes at once into view. Elijah’s prayer did something in its working. It held the rain off; it brought the rain back again. It will be seen that this working power of prayer is precisely what St. James is speaking about in these closing words of his epistle. “Is any afflicted? let him pray,” for prayer can work him both strength to bear, and wisdom to guide him through, his difficulties. “The prayer of faith” can work a blessing for the sick. It “shall save the sick.” Whatever may be the faults and failings spoiling Christian fellowship, “pray for one another,” for prayer can work wondrous healings of broken relations; the supplications even of one good man in a Church can avail much in its working. We may well be thankful to the Revisers for giving us so important and so suggestive a change. It brings before us quite a fresh view of prayer. We had hardly thought of it as, in its very nature, a thing that works. We know that it brings down to us Divine blessings. We know that it has a gracious influence upon the man who prays. But prayer as really an active force, as having in it an actual power of working—prayer as a kind of holy leaven, moving, influencing, wherever it goes—has hardly come into our thought. If it did, and could be worthily apprehended, it would give us a new joy in prayer, and the consciousness of possessing a tool, an instrument, a force, which we might more worthily use for God and for men. We might more constantly set prayer upon doing its work, its own precise, appropriate, and gracious work.
I. We are in the presence of a general truth, which has a wide application.—It always has been true, it always must be true, in the very nature of things, that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much in its working. It would not be true to say that all prayer works; for unless the man who prays is a “righteous” man, he provides conditions that prevent his prayer from working. Prayer is not its effective self, save as it is the prayer of the righteous, right-minded, man. The man who is not right-minded can only pray the prayer of fear, or of brag, or of demand; and no such prayers can avail with God, or work blessing for the man himself, or for others.
1. A right-minded man’s prayers work as a persuasion upon God. We need not hesitate to recognise that God permits Himself to be influenced by the considerations which His people present in their prayers. If we stand hard and fast by notions of Divine absoluteness and sovereignty, all idea of God’s being open to persuasions must be abandoned; and we must look for the value of prayer in its gracious influence only on us, and on those around us. But, if we sit at the feet of Christ, and learn of Him to cry, “Abba, Father,” and see in God the infinite of our finite fatherhood, then we shall readily apprehend how He can be interested in the wishes as well as in the wants of His children. Our prayer availing much in its working on God! The thought is almost overwhelming; but it must not be dismissed. The picture-teaching of it is Jacob’s prevailing at Peniel. And nothing could make prayer more serious, nothing could make us more cautious, reverent, anxious, than to feel that our prayers are to work on God, our Father, and to avail with God in their working. Our prayers will work with God according to their contents, and according to their character. The working may be very different to our expectations. There may even be cross-workings, as in the early praying of St. Augustine, “Lord, convert me, but not yet.” God’s dealings with humanity, with any race, any nation, any church, any generation, any family, can never be read aright unless due account is taken of all that followed the influences and persuasions of the prayers of righteous men. The prophet represents God as refusing at a particular time what He usually admits—the influence and persuasion of human intercessions. “Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be towards this people” (Jeremiah 15:1). To the righteous man is entrusted a prayer-power with God. Our prayers work by making material for His judgments and decisions.
2. A right-minded man’s prayers work in a way of sanctifying himself. It is a familiar thought that prayer proves a blessing to the man who prays; and F. W. Robertson, of Brighton, gives this particular efficacy of prayer a great prominence. He says: “All prayer is to change the will human into submission to the will Divine. That prayer which does not succeed in moderating our wish, in changing the passionate desire into still submission, the anxious, tumultuous expectation into silent surrender, is no true prayer, and proves that we have not the spirit of true prayer. That life is most holy in which there is least of petition and desire, and most of waiting upon God—that in which petition most often passes into thanksgiving.” Perhaps we have been accustomed to think chiefly of the spiritual grace which comes to us in answer to prayer. “Every good gift and every perfect gift,” for the spiritual life, “cometh down from the Father of lights,” and cometh in response to the openness, receptiveness, indicated in our prayers. But it gives a freshness to the familiar thought, if we regard our prayers as positively exerting an active power upon ourselves. Every time we pray we set a force to work, which will work upon ourselves. Our prayers are some of the workmen who are busy at the building and decorating of the spiritual house that we are—that we are raising. Our prayers are positive forces in the culture of the spiritual character—active influences affecting the tone and temper of our daily conduct. We begin the day with prayer; then that prayer is actually to be at work all through the day, and availing much in its working. Arrest life for a moment during the day, and you may trace its working in temper, tone, habit, spirit. It is at work to secure and establish the better self, a Christ-like self. Pray in connection with special difficulties and anxieties; the prayer will work, not merely in bringing Divine light and guidance, but also in fitting us to deal with the difficulties, in lifting us above the anxieties. Pray in relation to the Christian work you undertake, and the prayer works the furbishing of your sword, the spiritual ability for the service. We think too much of the getting by prayer. We need to think much more of the doing of prayer. In all our lives we want the activity and energy of the prayer-power, and so may wisely be “praying without ceasing,” that we may be wholly sanctified.
3. A right-minded man’s prayers work by exerting a moral influence on others. Here again we are wont to think chiefly of the good things for others that can be obtained in answer to the good man’s prayers. And we may easily miss the answering truth, that the prayers themselves work good things. The point of distinction is at once seen if we think of family life. With a holy persistency, for long years, the father supplicates both general and special blessings for his family as he gathers them round the family altar; and, in answer, heavenly benedictions, in gracious abundance and adaptation, do descend, and the family is blessed by the prayer-answering God. But is that all? Is that indeed the best? Perhaps when we can estimate things aright, we shall see, that what the prayers actually did in their working were the truest and best answers the prayers received. Those prayers worked the healing of many a family division; those prayers quickened many a nobler resolve; those prayers kept hearts together in an ever-helpful unity; those prayers saved from sin over and over again. They availed much in their working. Why, some of us can say that the family prayers of our early home life have never ceased to work their gracious work on us, and are even doing their work to-day. What is so evidently true of family prayer is true of all prayer—of private intercessory prayer, of public prayer, of special prayer in relation to Christian ministry and service. It is a power for good. It does influence, inspire, direct, bless. Pray, and you set moving a force that blesses others. Will this help to put a new interest into our prayer; to make us feel afresh the responsibility of our power to pray; and to renew our faith in prayer, as, in a double sense, God’s way of securing spiritual blessings? Shall we estimate again our use of this prayer-power?
II. We are in the presence of a specific truth, with a limited application.—St. James is speaking of one particular matter in our text, and urging on the attention of disciples the working power of prayer in relation to it. Sins of frailty, faults, and failings are sure to appear in Church life. Men and women never do dwell together in any life associations without difficulties, misunderstandings, complex circumstances arising, and they generally come from somebody’s faults, somebody’s failing from the Christian charity, or purity, or duty. Given then a case of failure and inconsistency, something that disturbs relations, and might easily bring in contentions and enmities, what should be done? How would the Spirit of Christ lead the members to act? St. James says, “Confess therefore your sins one to another”; be willing to acknowledge it if you have done wrong or felt wrong; “and pray one for another”: that is the very best way to heal up breaches, to restore pleasant relations, and to cure the faulty one of his faults. It is in this precise connection that St. James says, “The prayer of the righteous man availeth much in its working.” Nothing heals the broken relations of Christ’s disciples like prayer together. And the more spiritually minded members of a Church, the “righteous ones,” have this special power—they can deal effectively with faults, failings, inconsistencies, misunderstandings, by their prayer which avails much in its working. When faults, involving misunderstanding, remain, depend upon it there has been no prayer for one another which avails much. This subject has its yet more special application for us to-day. Throughout the world, wherever care is being taken of the children for Christ’s sake, the minds of Christian workers are being occupied with the power of prayer, and the hearts of Christian workers are being united in the acts of prayer. The tens of thousands are meeting in spirit and sending up a great cry for a blessing on the Sunday schools. And God’s reviving grace will come as an answer to the cry. But there is something more for us to think of. The prayers of to-day will be a new power set to work, and will be working to secure the very things which they will be asking to be sent from God. Think of it; the prayers of to-day, if prayers of the right-hearted and believing, will be availing much in their working on the children, will be availing much in their working on the parents and teachers, will be availing much in their working on the Church, will be availing much in their working on the world. Prayer as an actual moral and spiritual force! Have we rightly thought of that? Is that force active, strong, vigorous, availing—in our personal religious life, in our family life, in our Sunday-school life, in our Church life? The hymnist seems to have had this thought of prayer when he wrote,—
“Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
Prayer makes the Christian armour bright.”
Restraining prayer! Binding fast the worker! Is there any sense in which we have been doing that? Then let this day of universal and united prayer be the day for loosening the bonds, and letting it go free to do its gracious work. Give prayer full liberty to do its work. Pray for one another, for the “supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.” How much it may avail, let us fully prove.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
James 5:17-18. Rain in Answer to Prayer.—An interesting coincidence in connection with this reference to Elijah’s history presents itself in the narrative given in Josephus (Ant., XVIII. viii. 6) of the troubles caused by Caligula’s insane attempt to set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem. Petronius, the then governor of Judæa, was moved by the passionate entreaties of the people, and supported the efforts made by Agrippa I., who remained in Rome, to turn the emperor from his purpose. It was one of the years of drought that brought about the great famine foretold by Agabus (Acts 11:28). No rain had fallen for many weeks, and the people—Christians, we may well believe, as well as Jews, though Josephus of course makes no mention of the former—were “instant in prayer,” calling upon the Lord God of Israel to send rain upon the earth. Suddenly rain fell in a plenteous shower from an almost cloudless sky. The earth was refreshed, and the pressing danger averted. Petronius, Josephus relates, was much moved by this manifestation, this Epiphany, of the Divine power, and looked upon it partly as an answer to the prayers of the people, partly as the reward of the equity which he had shown in dealing with them. According to the date which, on independent grounds, has been assigned to St. James’s epistle, the event referred to must have happened but a few months before or but a few months after it. If before, he may well have had it in his thoughts. If after, it may well have been in part the effect of his teaching. Students of Church history will remember the strikingly parallel instance of the prayers of the soldiers of the Thundering Legion in the expedition of Marcus Aurelius against the Marcomanni (Euseb., Hist., James 5:5; Tertul., Apol., c. 5).—Dean Plumptre.