Elijah Prayed Earnestly James 5:17

James, the “servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”, continued to give his readers from the “twelve tribes scattered abroad” last exhortations as he completed his letter to them. He told them to “confess their faults one to another, and pray one for another” that they “may be healed”, and he encourage them with the idea that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”. In chapter five and verse seventeen of his letter, James used the example of “Elijah” to demonstrate the impressive nature of an “earnest prayer” where we read:

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

The verse begins, “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain:” James began with the name, “Elias” or “Elijah” whose name means “my God is Jehovah” and was “a prophet born at Thisbe and was the unflinching champion of the theocracy in the reigns of the idolatrous kings Ahab and Ahaziah” “was a man” or “male human being” “subject to like passions as” or “suffering the like with another and of like feelings and affections” “we are” which means “the same as James and his readers”, “and he prayed” or “offered prayers, supplicated and worshiped” “earnestly” which means “intensly addressed to God and set apart or suited for the offering of prayer” “that it might not rain” which in the Greek is the phrase “brecho me brecho” which means “not moistened, wet or with pouring down water”. James declared “Elijah” to be a man who had similar “feelings and affections” like we do, and he called out to God in “prayer” for a drought among the people of Israel. (See 1 Kings 17)

The verse goes on to say, “and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” James continued, “and it rained not” or “did not moisten, wet or pour down water” “on the earth” which means “arable land, ground, standing place, main land, territory or country” “by the space of three” which refers to “the number three” “years” which refers to “a fixed and definite period of time” “and six months” or “six times of the new moon”. The result of James' “earnest” prayer was God answering with a “three and one half year” drought.

When we consider these words of James, we see the effectiveness of “Elijah's prayer”. Elijah prayed and it stopped raining for three and a half years, and because this is our example, what would the Lord do should we pray in the same manner? We are to “confess our faults to” and “pray for one another” in an “earnest” manner. May the Lord Jesus through His Holy Spirit help us to understand the importance of “effective” and “earnest” prayer, and may Elijah's example be a reminder of how God listens to His believers when they “fervently” pray unto Him.

Next time James uses the example of how “Elijah prayed again”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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