When D. L. Moody, the great American evangelist, was in Edinburgh in the 1880’s, he was asked one morning to speak to a room filled with children. In order to get their attention, he began with a question. He asked them, “What is prayer?” Now he didn’t really expect an answer — he was going to answer this question himself — but to his astonishment, hands shot up all over the room. He called on one young boy to give the answer, and the boy stood up and said in a strong voice: “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.” Moody’s response was, “Thank God, my boy, that you were born in Scotland!”

Job prayed quite a bit especially in contrast to his three friends who do not have one recorded prayer in all of their conversations. Not such a good thing was that there was no real tangible expression of any of Job’s prayers being answered.

Then I read this —

 After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant Job did. Now take seven bulls and seven rams to Job and offer them as a sacrifice for yourselves. Job will pray for you, and I will answer his prayer and not disgrace you the way you deserve. You did not speak the truth about me as he did.”

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did what the Lord had told them to do, and the Lord answered Job’s prayer.

Then, after Job had prayed for his three friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had had before. – Job 42:7-10 GNT

What an amazing example of interceding prayer.

“They had attempted to restore Job by philosophy. They had failed. He was now to restore them by prayer. The bands of his own captivity were broken, moreover, in the activity of prayer on behalf of others.” Morgan

It is remarkable that God would not simply accept the repentant prayers of these three friends for themselves. They had to get Job to pray for them. God would hear Job’s prayer not theirs.

I would think that the Lord’s prayer indicated the power of forgiveness illustrated here. Job needed forgiveness (did he not have animosity towards his friends?)  and he needed to forgive (pray for those who persecute you). His friends needed God’s forgiveness too. What is noted is that it does not just need a human element of patching things up, it’s more than human forgiveness. There is a vertical intervention of Job that transcends the horizontal reconciliation with his friends. Job’s prayer was essential in establishing a right relationship between God and his friends.

I am already looking differently at how I pray for others. Maybe when God puts someone on my heart I need to go further and deeper into how I move in prayer for them. Maybe I am the way for them to escape the path they have foolishly chosen.

The ending of this situation had one more insight for me – Satan had no more power over Job and the presence of God was with him. Everything he had was given to Job from God and he enjoyed it through the way of prayer and reaped the benefit of spending time with God.

These things it is our duty to ask without hesitation for ourselves and for our friends, and for strangers — yea, even for enemies; although in the heart of the person praying, desire for one and for another may arise, differing in nature or in strength according to the more immediate or more remote relationship. But he who says in prayer such words as, O Lord, multiply my riches; or, Give me as much wealth as You have given to this or that man; or, Increase my honours, make me eminent for power and fame in this world, or something else of this sort, and who asks merely from a desire for these things, and not in order through them to benefit men agreeably to God’s will, I do not think that he will find any part of the Lord’s Prayer in connection with which he could fit in these requests. Wherefore let us be ashamed at least to ask these things, if we be not ashamed to desire them. If, however, we are ashamed of even desiring them, but feel ourselves overcome by the desire, how much better would it be to ask to be freed from this plague of desire by Him to whom we say, Deliver us from evil! – Augustine