Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during October 2021]

At strategic points around our house we have some video cameras which transmit an image to a monitor indoors. These cameras generate a very small amount of warmth and this has proved popular with a range of nocturnal insects. With the insects come spiders and a close-up of a spider’s legs walking across the lens is something worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Were there spiders in the Garden of Eden? Did Eve ever turn over a leaf and run to Adam, shrieking for protection? Was Adam ever able to admire the ethereal beauty of a well-constructed web sparkling in the dew of an autumn morning?

For the spider the web represents the effort required to obtain its food, to a hapless insect the web is a trap but to us a spider’s web is fragile and inconvenient. Consider the words of Bildad the Shuhite:

A man without God is trusting in a spider’s web. Everything he counts on will collapse.
[Job 8 v14 Living Bible]

At least anecdotally, spiders can have an influence on world affairs. According to the story, in an earlier quest for Scottish independence the then leader of the Scots, Robert the Bruce, was hiding in a cave during a setback in his campaign. He observed a spider attempting to build a web. Six times the spider started to string out the fibres and six times they collapsed but on the seventh attempt the spider succeeded. This encouraged Robert the Bruce to redouble his efforts and eventually he was more successful than recent efforts have been.

The Bible also has accounts of success after seven attempts. Perhaps one of the best known is the capture of Jericho which fell to the Israelites after they had marched around the city on seven consecutive days.^[1]

During the reign of king Ahab there was a severe drought, brought about by the people’s sinfulness. The prophet Elijah had forecast an end to the drought once the people turned back to God. After defeating the priests of Baal he sent his servant to look for signs of the promised rain. Six times he saw nothing but on the seventh he observed a cloud forming over the sea.^[2]

Later we find the account of Naaman, an officer in the court of the king of Aram. This man was seeking a cure for his leprosy and in due course the prophet Elisha told him to bathe seven times in the river of Jordan. Initially, Naaman was repugnant at the idea but after some persuasion he complied. After the seventh immersion he was cured.^[3]

What is the common theme? In each case, success comes through persistence. Can we carry this through into our prayers? We might argue that God is not deaf and he is not forgetful; once we have prayed for some situation we can leave it in his hands and patiently await the outcome. Whilst this is true we should also remember that Jesus himself spent many hours in prayer. With that example we should endeavour to follow the advice that Paul gave to the Thessalonians:

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIVUK]

[1] Joshua ch 6.
[2] 1 Kings ch 18.
[3] 2 Kings ch 5.

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