Impossible Prayer
“If one goes to defile himself, openings are made for him; and he who goes to purify himself, help is afforded him.” Tractate Shabbat 104a
Openings – Recently a man in China asked me to pray for him. He was having violent dreams and he was afraid that those dreams would cause him to act violently. He was convinced that the dreams portended terrible things that he would do. He wanted me to pray that the dreams would be taken away. I thought of this statement in the Talmud.
Tractate Shabbat is one of the works of the Talmud, the compilation of Torah commentary, interpretation, opinion and application usually called the “oral Torah.” Yeshua often made remarks that either directly or indirectly referenced this material. Paul clearly used it. Jews of the first century considered this collection a part of their religious heritage and understanding. Perhaps we should spend a bit more time with this material too. After all, it gives us insight into the thinking of the Master and His disciples.
This particular statement from the Talmud strikes at the heart of culpable obedience. How often have we prayed, “Lord, prevent me from acting in this sinful way. Make me strong to resist this temptation. Keep all these thoughts away from me”? Like the Chinese man, we want God to take away our choice. We want Him to remove the opportunity so that we will not have to struggle with the possibility. The Talmud clarifies our cowardice. God will not remove what we will not deny. The power is in our choice, not in God overriding our options. Sometimes our prayers sound like petulant children crying for our Daddy to make us behave, but every good father knows that obedience comes from choosing among real possibilities. The rabbis realized that it is the attitude and orientation of the heart that makes the difference. If we start the process of disobedience, the steps toward sin will become available to us. James says essentially the same thing. There is no use in crying out to God to prevent me from doing what I am contemplating if I don’t take measures to stop myself. God will not lift a finger. My prayer is pointless unless and until I choose to seek another way. God’s sovereignty allows us full discretion. We choose and He makes the pathway apparent. The only salvation from temptation is the choice to refuse.
Our lives are filled with real consequences. The path of the yetzer ha’ra is no less available, no less engaging, no less executable than the path of the yetzer ha’tov. Both ways are open. Both lead to easier subsequent choices. Only one is the way of life, the other the way of death. At the crossroad, you and I must decide. God will never force you down the path He has shown you. But once you step in His direction, He will help you take the next step along the way. Next time you think you must pray for God to prevent you from acting, remember what it means to be human—to choose. God will not strip away your humanity to save you from yourself. Some things are entirely left up to you.
Topical Index: yetzer ha’ra, choice, prayer, Tractate Shabbat 104a, Talmud
You just answered a question that I have for many months.
Making the right choice or Choosing the correct road, Obedience is
the way, trusting Him always, He will give us the courage.
Amen.
This Today’s Word articulates quite sufficiently a principle I’ve shared with others during counseling sessions. In particular with those struggling with temptations that threatens their relationship with G-d and others.
These temptations are much like a hood ornament, perched front and center at the front end of your automobile. As long as it captivates your attention, you will find yourself wrestling the steering wheel and weaving between the lines. The fact is, the object of your distress will never go away. Whatever internet filters you have in place, no matter who holds the passwords, no matter who holds the keys to the cabinet, and no matter how many times you look away, the temptation will always be calling out to you.
How shall we then live?
I offer the same advice that my driving instructor gave me when I was 16 years old. Roderick, if you want to drive straight, then lift your eyes and look down the road. It’s all about your gaze motion. As one rowing backwards into the future, looking down the road is about remembering and recounting the LORD’s purpose and provision for His community. As I lift my eyes, His redemption will arise.
Thanks, Roderick. Very useful. A vision just in time.
Very good analogy Roderick. Thank you.
This has been the very topic of my house several times in the last year. Things that people try to overcome by works, or just “believing” Jesus took care of it on the cross continue to plague them. So the answer would be, you just don’t “believe”. Quote Paul, “You have to reckon yourself dead to be dead indeed to sin….” yet they are still held in its vice. Some would give up. Some would try deliverance ministry (not there isn’t a place for it. I certainly believe there is, in the right context). But what we have found in the lives of those closest to us and even our own lives is, as you walk this path of faithfulness to YHWH’s commands, transformation begins to take place. Things that you once desired you don’t desire anymore. You lose site of that “specific” sin that you are talking about Roderick and your life becomes consumed with pleasing Him in the areas that you can obey in, then as you do, all the sudden you wake up and realize that appetite you once had, you don’t have any more. Thank YHWH and His Son Yeshua for showing us the way! It truly is the Word that sanctifies!
Thanks again Roderick
What I like, appreciate and am drawn to about this particular rendition of understanding about life is that it has substance unlike my former frame of reference from my christian upbringing. This parcel of understanding emanates a reference of the solid, tangible and workable. It is real. I appreciate it in that it is something that I can wrap myself around and allocate in direct use. It has substance. It is simple, clear and digestible without a lot of hoop jumping. It meets me where I know I’m at on the road in front of me. It helps me understand more respect and awe for YHWH in the way he treats me, guides me and helps me live his life.
Thanks, again, Skip.
Hope that made some sense. It seemed to for me.
By the way, I just noticed my regular routine of reading these TW’s in a new way. Normally, I assume I just do this mechanically, but this morning I was somehow cognizant of my physical posture and actions and mannerisms immediately after finishing today’s TW.
Apparently, as I daily sit in front of my computer to read the TW, I lean forward, tilt my head back somewhat to align my eyes through my bifocals in my glasses to properly focus on the screen. I seem to hold my breath to a degree or lessen my breathing rhythm while reading because I noticed when I finished this morning, I relaxed, leaned back in my chair to a normal sitting position with my back up against the chair. And then, while still gazing or staring at the screen and unfocused on the text anymore being done reading, I did a quick inhale and exhale slumping a little in my chair. It was like the content, in a quick and efficient manner invaded my mind, heart and being all at once completing its intended goal of enlightening, edifying and engaging me sufficiently. It left me full, appreciative and nodding with a bit of understanding. A satisfying understanding of the things that billow about me day in and day out.
It was something I needed just then. But the temporal-ness of it instantly flooded all the events of my life as my memory rummaged through my past experiences. It produced a settledness in me as if it fit snugly and properly and accurately.
What a great experience. It fit. It helped me. It encouraged me.
Amazing.
This one struck a nerve as I have been “struggling” with something….the way you teach causes my eyes to completely open instead of squinting at things….I now see and can’t go back to sleep….Thank you Skip!
It is all about WILLPOWER: my will exercised to be obedient to His Will and then He gives me the power to carry through.
Is it not wonderful that we humans have been created, “in His likeness, after His image”? Not as the animals which were to be ruled over by man. And because of our free choice, man messed up. But our Father exercised His free choice by sending His only Begotten Son to save from the wages of sin, all those who would exercise their free will in choosing Him as their Saviour. Thank you, Yahshua.
Skip, may our Father bless you in all wisdom and understanding as you seek to conform your life to His. Thank you for the time you take in researching TW.
Shalom
This is very timely. I have nearly finished reading ‘The Beast that Crouches at the Door’ by Rabbi David Fohrman. In it he relates one view from the Sages suggesting that after we die, we will see our path of the yetzer ha’ra as either a mountain or a small hill. If we have lived a righteous life we see the mountain, because of the potential for wrong choices that we never (or rarely) took. For the ‘wicked’, we see the hill – the mountain having been worn down by all the wrong paths we took. This rings of truth, but I for one find this very depressing considering all the wrongs paths I have taken in this nearly 65 years of life, with (presumably) so few years left to make the right ones! I know that we can choose life, but the image of the mountain stays with me. I fear that I have eroded my ability to choose the right, so that an almost superhuman effort will be required to do so after so long.
I am right there on the path with you John, only a few years less to build a mountain.
There’s hope John, if by walking the wrong path we can wear down a mountain, than we can wear down the plain in the same way by walking right. Doesn’t that make the mountain higher?
YHWH bless you and keep you…….
Haha – relativity! Thanks for the encouragement, Robert. 🙂
I would like to encourage you with this truth: “You will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” -Matthew 17:20 We have the power of the risen Messiah in us to speak to our mountains in faith and in His name, so we do not have to rely only on our own human efforts. “If we are weak, we are strong” – we have to surrender more and die more to self. In faith, we are more than conquerors through Y’shua our Messiah. I am also reminded of Is 40:3-5 “A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the YHWH in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the YHWH will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the YHWH has spoken.” May you be blessed and encouraged through this TS
AMEN! This one of the ways we pray that frustrates us (and God) because God doesn’t answer prayers that ask Him to do what He has told us to do for ourselves.