I called our current sermon series—which wraps up this Sunday—Claiming the Promises: A Series on Prayer because I wanted to highlight something essential about prayer as we see it in the Bible. If you’ve heard any of the sermons in this series, you’ll know that our approach has been to “listen in” as the men and women of the Bible pray. When they came to God in prayer, what did they say? Why did they say it? And what were they expecting from God? Two themes emerge.
First, the men and women of the Bible based their prayers on the character of God. You see this in how they speak to God and how they address Him. Generally, the way they address God relates to what they’re going to ask of Him. Consider how the apostles prayed in Acts 4: “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them…” Or Daniel, who stresses God’s covenant faithfulness: “O Lord…who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments…”
Second, the people of the Bible ask for that which God has already promised. Daniel prays for God to fulfill the prophecy he reads in Jeremiah. The apostles ask God to fulfill His words in Psalm 2. Earlier prayers appeal to more general promises—like Hannah, who draws upon the promise of God to overcome the curse of sin in the world.
That leads to an application I would love for our church to embrace regarding prayer—and one that has undergirded this entire series. It will also be a central theme in the final sermon. As the Scriptures progress, and God reveals more of His character and makes His promises more explicit, we see that prayers increasingly focus on the enactment of those promises. The apostles use the Scriptures themselves to form and shape their prayers. They approach God on the basis of His Word and ask Him to fulfill it.
The question is: if the men and women of the Bible prayed this way, do we?
The founder of the Navigators (the organization I used to work for), a man named Dawson Trotman, referred to this as claiming the promises of God. He viewed the Scriptures as a kind of treasure house of promises, just waiting to be raided for the material of prayer. One example of how he prayed is his use of Isaiah 60:22:
The least one shall become a thousand,
The smallest a mighty nation;
I am the Lord;
In its time, I will do this swiftly.
This final verse of Isaiah 60 comes at the end of a long, glorious vision of the people of God following their return from exile and the re-establishment of the kingdom. It is full of magnificent declarations about the condition of God’s people in that day. Their light will shine among the nations, and all will turn to them, bringing tribute. The “sons and daughters” will be gathered from every nation. Zion will overflow with the wealth of the nations. Violence will disappear, and there will be no need for the light of the sun, for God Himself will illumine the city. Much of this imagery reappears in Revelation’s vision of the heavenly city of Zion after the final judgment.
This final statement—“the least one shall become a thousand”—conveys that even the lowliest member of God’s people will become a clan leader (a “thousand” being a generic term for a clan, as the ESV translates it). The promise hearkens back to God’s original command to humanity: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Genesis is full of men blessed by God so that entire nations emerge from them—such as the twelve sons of Jacob, who become the fathers of Israel’s tribes. This is a common rhetorical pattern in the prophets, especially Isaiah: hyperbolic blessing, where the future glory of God’s people is described by taking a promise of blessing and amplifying it to its highest possible degree.
Dawson Trotman was a layman who knew the Bible as intimately as any person in history. He may not have used terms like hyperbolic blessing or creation mandate, but he knew a promise when he saw one. What he saw in Isaiah 60:22 was a vision of God extending His kingdom to the ends of the earth—and doing so through His people. Even the smallest, most insignificant member of God’s kingdom could become a mighty nation through spiritual multiplication. By proclaiming the gospel and discipling others, even a humble layperson could leave behind a spiritual legacy that echoes for generations.
So how should we respond to this verse—this promise from God? By seeking it from Him! If He has promised to do this for the least one—and I am the least one—then I should pray and ask God to fulfill it in me and through me. Earnest, persistent prayer would bring this promise to life. Just as the apostles found the promise in Psalm 2 and called upon God to fulfill it, so we can take Isaiah 60:22 and plead with God to make it true in us.
And this is just one of hundreds—thousands, even—of promises in Scripture.
What promises can we, as a church, claim from God?
What promises will you claim from God?