Useless Prayers

Hos. 7:14

Jay Horsley

Prayer is always good, right? Not necessarily. Some prayers are directly contrary to the will of God and some people who offer them are so openly rebellious to Him that their prayers are an abomination. “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.” (Prov. 28:9)

Hosea worked at a time in Israel's history when the people certainly did not give their ears to the law. Hosea chapter 7 describes this sorry state of affairs. “When I would heal Israel, The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, And the evil deeds of Samaria, For they deal falsely; The thief enters in, Bandits raid outside, And they do not consider in their hearts That I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds are all around them; They are before My face.” (vss. 1,2)

As a result of their wickedness, the people offered many useless prayers. “And they do not cry to Me from their heart When they wail on their beds; For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves, They turn away from Me.” (vs. 14) Yes they prayed with “wailing” (“howling” KJV) to God, but it was totally useless. Why did God completely refuse them?

IT WAS DEFERRED PRAYER. They wailed from “their beds.” We should not think of this nightly or bed time prayers, but prayers from the sick-bed. We certainly should pray from the sick-bed – but here's the important thing – this was when their prayers began. In good times and health they spend their strength and gave their devotion to idols. “For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves, They turn away from Me.” (vs. 14) Now that travails had come and death seemed near, they prayed to God. It was a death-bed conversion.

Fortunately for us delay is not the singular condition that disqualifies our prayers, or we might all find ourselves disqualified. The prodigal son waited until his hunger overtook him; David waited until Nathan exposed him; Manasseh was on his death-bed; and thief on the cross did not express faith and repentance and pray to Jesus until he was, well, “on the cross.” Yet we know that all of these were heard and received in their prayers.

IT WAS PRAYER OF DESPERATION. They “wailed” (“howled” KJV). They cried out in dread and agony, not sorrow, repentance or faith. They did not fear God or have any sorrow for their sins, but were simply in agony and suffering because of punishments brought on by their sins. Like children whose tears are not for sorrow over the disobedience done, or from conscience due to the remonstrations of their parents, but the wailing starts when the board meets the bottom. Are these cries to be taken as evidence of a lesson learned or simply pleas for the the punishment to stop? And so was Israel, simply wailing over the punishments that they were receiving.

IT WAS DOULBE-MINDED PRAYER. When the people finally did call on the Lord it was not with any expression of true faith. “And they do not cry to Me from their heart When they wail...” (vs. 14) This fact alone was enough to get their prayers rejected. To go effectively to God is must be will a whole heart. “But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (Jas. 1:6-8) For Israel to be in such clear need of God and yet to come to Him so feebly and halfheartedly is contemptible. The next verses clearly shows that this is the right, although harsh, assessment of their character. “They turn away from Me..they devise evil against Me...they turn, but not upward...” (vss. 14-16) As soon as they had the strength, they would be back to their idolatry and revelry.

SO IT WAS PRAYER DENIED. Why would God answer the prayers of those who are continuing in their sins and yet want to be spared from punishment? Can He forgive them on the basis of their faith and repentance? No. Will God relent of the on the punishment because it is harsher than deserved? No. Should He be patient on account of a hope of future goodness? No. Then on what basis should their prayers heard?

THE RESULT IS A PEOPLE DESTROYED. Sinful Israel continued to have their prayers go unheeded. “Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.” (vs. 13) How needlessly tragic. God's law instructed them in what was right and the consequence of doing wrong. Also, circumstances should have compelled them to do better. Even more, providence and punishments should have led them to seek the Lord. No other hope would avail. All the promises of God and His good character should have encouraged them to repent will all their heart, but they would not. They had only the form of prayer and religion with none of the substance. They were hardened in the deceitfulness of sin. To think that God would save them as they made such weak attempts at prayer was destructive self-deception.