The first time praying for others is mentioned in the Bible is in the book of Genesis.
God told Abram that he would be the father of many nations and he needed to go from where he was living. Abram did what God said. He traveled until God told him to stop. There he built an altar and set up his household. Then there was a famine in the land so Abram and everyone decided to go live in Egypt for a while. Before they got there Abram told Sarai to pretend she was his sister. He figured that he’d be spared and they’d take Sarai and that was a good deal. He was right! Pharaoh took Sarai and gave Abram an HD tv and a lot of other cool stuff. Great deal right? Not so fast Pharaoh…the Bible says in Genesis 12:17 (NIV)
“But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.”
Pharaoh got mad and told Abram to take Sarai and his HD tv and get out.
Abram has his new name by now. He’s now Abraham and Sarai got a new name too. She is now Sarah. Abraham hasn’t abandoned his foolish ways. He was really fond of trying to pass off his wife as his sister. Instead of trusting God, he liked to implement his own plan. Here we go again. He moved to another area and told King Abimelek that his wife was actually his sister. Abimelek is just the title of King. It isn’t his real name. I was an adult before I knew that King Herod was just a title. His birth name could have been Bob (although I doubt it was that easy to spell) but when he became king, he took on the name Herod. The same with Abimelek. He was a Philistine king. Does Philistine ring a bell? What about Goliath? Yep, he was a Philistine.
Imagine Abraham being questioned about Sarah….“Sarah? My wife? That hag? No, she’s my sister.” So Abimelek took her. God came to Abimelek in a dream and said make out your will. Sarah isn’t his sister. She’s his wife. But Abimelek only took her. I guess he put her up in a five-star tent but the Bible says he didn’t go “near her” I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.
This is God talking to Abimilek “ Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.” Genesis 20:7 (NIV)
So Abimilek held a staff meeting and everyone got scared. They all went to Abraham and Abimilek asked why did you do this? Abraham said well, I figured you all were going to kill me and take my wife anyway so I thought I’d just tell you that she’s my sister. But she really is my sister, but only my step-sister. But I made her do it, so it isn’t her fault. Abimilek gave Abraham a bunch of animals and a new car and his wife back.
“Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah. Genesis 20:17 (NIV)
Do you remember the first time you ever prayed? I’m sure it was a lot different than Abraham.
I find it interesting that the first time prayer was offered, God asked for it and the prayer was for someone else.
Think about people that you know that are in need of prayer. Add them to your prayer list and make it a habit to pray for them.
