Elijah’s taunt on Mount Carmel comes to mind. “Maybe he cannot hear you.” Look at this passage from 1 Kings 18:
26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. (1 Kings 18:26-29–ESV)
See the style with which the prophets of the non-gods attempted to connect with their god? That was their context. Raving, crying, cutting, pain. No answer.
Read the rest of that chapter to see how God was glorified. Elijah’s efforts leading up to calling upon God seemed to be focused on making God’s job the more difficult and the more miraculous. Those verses will point out his steps if you are curious and don’t know them already. God heard Elijah that day giving a great testimony of himself.
About a thousand years later God gave the greatest testimony of himself by sending his son to live among us as Savior of the world. Now we all can hear. John reminded his readers that God easily hears. No ritual. It is not about our extreme preparations for him to hear, our reaching out to him, but his reaching out to us that has enabled this.
The easy things are taken for granted
The child raised under the influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ gains a very valuable blessing. When we grow up under the influence of the resurrected Christ we do not get infused with ritual as a prerequisite. God is already listening. We merely need to call out to him. We don’t need to call out to a priest or a saint, but directly to an interested, hearing God.
My needs are different than the needs of John’s first and second-century readers. They needed to have their sense of ritual diminished. We do well to remember the majesty of God when we pray. It is inconceivable that billions of people have immediate and free access to God. Yet, that is what God chose to assemble. If we ask then he hears us.
Praise God, thank God, for his listening ear.
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