Matthew 6:7: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”
I recall an old story about two little farm boys, an older brother and a younger brother who were contemplating the nasty temperament of their goat. Finally the older brother said to the younger brother: “You know that old goat is really stupid. I bet if you take a stick and swat him on the head and then I take a stick and swat him in the rear at the same time that old goat would not know who to chase and would just lay down totally confused.” Well, this seemed to be a good experiment for the younger brother and they decided to try it out on the old goat. At the count of three the little brother would hit the goat in the head with a stick while at the same time the big brother would hit the goat in the rear with a stick. They counted to three and at the same time hit the old goat in the head and the rear. The old goat was not at all confused, in fact he knew just what he was going to do and took off after the first person he saw which was the little brother. The little brother dropped his stick and began to run. The old brother shouted: “Run little brother run.” The little guy ran for all he was worth but the goat was catching up with him so the older brother cried again: “Run faster little brother run faster.” The little brother put all he had into it but what was about to happen appeared to be inevitable, so the older brother cried out: “Pray little brother, pray.” The poor tyke, the only prayer he knew was the one his father said before every meal, so he just threw back his head and cried out: “Father, we thank thee for this we are about to receive.”
Do you suppose that is what Jesus was referring to as vain repetitions? This is quite a curious expression, vain repetitions, and yet is very important to our prayer life. It is likely that multitudes of Christian could very well be praying using vain repetitions. But who am I to condemn, I learned how to pray from a vain repetition. How many of us said our nightly prayers as a child just before going to bed: “Now, I lay me down to sleep…” There is an old Dennis the Menace cartoon where he is praying his nightly prayers and says: “So until tomorrow, same time, same place this is Dennis saying, Amen.” That writer had enough of an idea of vain repetition to make fun of it. How about if your church practices the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday. Is that not a vain repetition?
First let’s take a look at the cultural context of this statement that Jesus was addressing. It was believed by many pagan religions that just the recitation of certain words would bring an event to pass. Note II Chronicles 18:12: “And the messenger that went to call Micaiah spake to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets [declare] good to the king with one assent; let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good.” What is going on here is that it was believed that by repeating certain prophesies over and over a prophet had the power in his speech to bring an event about. Thus, if he spoke good, good would happen, if he spoke bad, bad would happen. There is still a belief today that there is some power in words and if you speak the magic word, something will happen. I have heard people wanting to learn how to pray in Hebrew as they felt there was greater power and God would be more incline to grant their prayers if they prayed in the original Hebrew. I heard on person hawking CD’s with Hebrew prayers saying that it is not necessary to understand the words, the words themselves have power. Frankly, I think Jesus is addressing this very thing in Matthew 6:8.
Others believe you must use words as an incantation. If you use the right words and repeat the incantation over and over it will bring up the right spirit to perform a task for you. Obvious, this is something else Jesus was addressing. The word in Greek for vain repetition is battlogesete. The word battos is to stammer and the word logos is of course words. Thus vain repetition is stammering words. It also means to stutter. When you stutter or stammer you are not communicating anything, your words are pure nonsensical.
In the Aramaic Bible, the Pershitta, the language that Jesus and the disciples spoke we find a rather unusual word used here. It is paq. It has no equivalent in the Hebrew and I had to go to extra Biblical literature to really discover its root meaning. As it turns out in its very root form it means to imitate.
Let me be clear, Jesus is definitely speaking of prayer that involves just reciting words over and over as if there were some magic in those words. They are words not spoken from the heart but just repeating what someone else has repeated. This fits the Aramaic word paq but paq goes much deeper, it is also to imitate another person’s style as if the way the prayer is said, the force by which it is said, the tone of the voice will have great impact on God, if not at least the brethren who will be awed by the power in the prayer. I have heard people say; “Boy can he pray, he doesn’t say one of those mealy mouth, timid prayers, he prays with power and force.” What Jesus is trying to say is that God does not listen to your words, the force of your words, the tone of your voice, He hears your heart cry.
There is one other thing about paq, however, and that it ultimately means to imitate. You see or hear someone pray who seems to get great results in their prayers. You are impressed, you would like to be that person, get the honor and praise like that person. So you study that person, you notice how he stands, sits or kneels when he prays, you listen to his tone of voice, and the words he uses and then you try to paq imitate him. You try to sound like him. You imitate him. Then after you pray over someone with that powerful, forceful prayer you stand back and think: “That’s right, that’s it, look out, I’m bad, I know how to shake the gates of heaven, look how everyone looks up to me and praises my ability to pray.”
Jesus is saying in Matthew 6:8, “I am not into theatrics, I am not into good acting, oratory or impressive prayers, I am into one’s heart and what his heart is saying.”
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