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In the Worldwide Bible Class we’ve been studying the life of Jacob with Martin Luther’s Genesis Lectures. A few months back it occurred to me, “This is really a study on prayer.” As Luther considers the life of Jacob and all his struggles, he sees an example of faith fighting despair, and holding on to the promises of God.
Here are some excerpts from the Genesis commentary (volumes 5 and 6 of Luther’s Works, Genesis 26-37) selected under the theme “Genesis: A Handbook of Prayer.”
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Hence in order that you may overcome those difficulties and annoyances, whether in marriage or in the government, take care first of all that you have meditated well on the Word of God, in which the government is richly established, as we see in Rom. 12:8 and 13:1–4. Likewise in marriage, whether one is a manservant or a maidservant, whether a teacher or a pupil, they are sure of their station and the will of God. Just take hold of the Word, and bring forth fruits worthy of the Word, and you will see that affliction and trials follow at once. But prayer follows these. Deliverance follows prayer. The sacrifice of praise follows deliverance. Thus at the same time you will be able to bear your cross and to offer a sacrifice of praise, which the monks neither want nor are able to do. They are interested only in peace, the belly, and pleasure.
This is how Moses describes the life of this saintly father in accordance with this one chief point, namely, that he spent his life in many tribulations. (LW 5:6)
But here there is an outstanding example of faith that struggles and cries out to God; for where the Word is, there prayer follows. (LW 5:14)
I know that I have often done many things foolishly and very rashly, so much so that I thought: “Why has God called me to preach when I do not have as much knowledge, discretion, and judgment as the importance of the office demands?” Although I performed everything with a pious and sincere heart, with pious devotion and zeal, yet a great deal of nonsense and many failures arose, with the result that heaven and the whole world seemed about to go to ruin. Then I was compelled to fall on my knees and to ask for help and counsel from God, who is powerful and turns a denouement in a tragedy into a catastrophe in a comedy while we are sleeping. Thus He creates Eve while Adam is sleeping. He takes a rib from him while he is sleeping, closes the place with flesh, and builds the rib which he took from Adam23 into flesh. Here someone may say that God had silken fingers, because He performs such a great work so nimbly and so easily.
In the same manner He also governs His saints. Even if they have erred seriously in their thinking and have been guilty of great folly and rashness, from which countless evils can arise, yet He brings about a happy outcome, like the denouement in a comedy.
So great is the power of faith and prayer. Indeed, prayer is truly all-powerful. Therefore Isaac is deceived knowingly, purposely, and visibly, so to speak; for he says: “The voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s,” and yet allows himself to be deceived, just as we see in the books of the heathen that masters are deceived by slaves, as the well-known character in the comedy says: “If I were not a stone, I could have seen clearly.”24 God deals with His saints in such a way that they are not aware that anything foolish and rash has happened.
Accordingly, we should be careful to remember this example. It reminds us that the power of faith is so great that it makes those who have very keen sight or hearing blind and deaf, with the result that they are deceived even though they hear and see. And the question can be answered in this way, that although Rebecca acted rashly, yet on account of her outstanding faith she had divine providence as her guide, so that although father Isaac heard Jacob’s voice, he, filled as he was with confidence and unconcern, was deceived in spite of this. (LW 5:119-120)
Notes:
23 All the editions of the Lectures on Genesis read de muliere, “from the woman,” here; clearly “from the man” or “from Adam” is the sense of the passage.
24 Terence, Heautontimorumenos, V, 1, 43.