Jeremiah 11:20: “O Lord of Host, That judges righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I revealed my cause.”

I grew up in a Baptist church and spent my life in the church and I have listened to thousands and thousands of prayers.   Some were loud, some were soft, some were sincere, some where “listen to me ain’t I something.”  Some were sweet and poetic, some were full of thee’s and thou’s and some were sort of like: “How ya doin’ old boy.”  I have heard so called anointed prayers and some not so anointed prayers. I, myself,  have been called upon to open in prayer, lead in prayer, close in prayer.  Now really who listens to these spot loyalty oaths anyways, if you were God would you?  Most the time the only thing I accomplished when I pray in public is to decide whether or not my shoes needed a shine. Yet, among the thousands of people I have heard pray, if I had my choice of any one of them to pray over me when I really need a touch God,  it would be a little lady known as Miss Betty.

I worked with Miss Betty in a mail room many many years ago. Now she was not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, but she really loved the Lord and it seemed like when she prayed, God would sit back, smile and say: “That’s my girl.”  One day I found the source of her powerful prayers.  I came upon her during a break when she was reading a newspaper.  This was at the time back in the Bush Administration when the president of the United States announced a plan for a manned trip to Mars.  Miss Betty was livid.  “Do you see this,”  said a provoked Miss Betty, “What right have we got going to Mars.”   I agreed and said: “None, that money could be put to much better use.”   Miss Betty continued: “You don’t seem them coming down here bothering us do you?  We will just turn them into slaves.  I say it is their planet, let them have it”  “Right” I said getting into the mood, “ It’s their planet let them…Let who have it?” Miss Betty looked at me as if talking to a child: “The Martians, of course.   It ‘s their planet, we have no right to bother them.  You don’t see them coming down here bothering us do you?”  I had to admit I had not seen any Martians walking down Michigan Avenue lately.   I realized then the secret to Miss Betty’s powerful prayers.  Anyone who can not only believe in unseen Martians and care about their welfare has the kind of faith and compassion that I need when I want someone to pray over me.

I was recently reading an ancient Jewish text on Jeremiah 11:20 and I was amazed at how differently they handled the syntax than we Christians do.  We read this to be God examining the hearts of motives of the people who oppose Jeremiah.  The word test is bogan which literally means a watch tower.  The word for reigns is kalah which is the inner workings or secret places.  The rabbis would render this “O lord of host that closely guards his heart and makes a righteous decision from the secrets of His heart.”  The reference is to the secrets of the Heart of God rather than the heart of man.  “Let me see” is in an imperfect form and not really cohortative.    It could be rendered as this Jewish rabbis did as: “I will see,”  Jeremiah will see the vengeance of God.  The word vengeance is nakam. In this article the rabbi pointed out that nakam would represent  prophecy, sacrifice and destructive passion.  In other words God’s vengeance is sacrificing the people to their destructive passion.   Jeremiah is saying that he sees prophetically that God is sacrificing his people to their destructive passion, allowing them to suffer the consequence of their passions and he has revealed his cause to Him.  The word revealed is galah which has the idea of lying bare, or being in total subjection to his cause.  The word cause is rayav  which is more of a contention or argument or disagreement.  Once Jeremiah saw ra’ah the heart of God and how it was grieved, any disagreement  he had with God over God’s plan to let Israel suffer the consequences of their sin, vanished.

You see the rabbis use of the syntax here shows just the opposite of how we read it.  We read, “God go get ‘em.”  But instead Jeremiah was praying on behalf of Israel, however when he saw God’s heart and the pain it was to bring him Jeremiah’s prayer turned to that of one directed toward the need of God..

There are no Martians, Betty never saw a Martian, yet she felt compassion for something that she could not see and that did not exist.  Is it any wonder that she felt compassion for a God she could not see but does exist.   She saw God through simple eyes like Jeremiah and saw a  God with a broken heart.  Thus, when she prayed, she prayed for that which would minister to the heart of God and not to what she wanted.  That was the secret to the power in her prayers.