Wilderness Kingdom
The Wilderness Kingdom
Image by Krist Adams from Creation Swap
Hidden Righteousness
“Make sure you don’t practice your righteous deeds in front of people to be seen by them. If you do, you won’t have any reward with your Father in heaven.
“So when you give to those in need, don’t blow a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so people will praise them. I tell you the truth. They’ve received their full reward. But you give in a way that your left hand won’t know what your right hand is doing so your giving may be hidden. Then your Father, who sees what’s hidden, will reward you.”
Image by Piyapong Saydaung from Pixabay
Jesus called his followers to a righteousness that comes from the heart and mirrors the Father’s perfection.1 But he then warned against trying to prove their righteousness through showy deeds designed to win the approval of people. Hypocrites do good to please humanity, while the righteous care only about pleasing God.
As an example, Jesus described those who publicly announce their giving. There’s no historical evidence that this literally involved trumpets blown in the streets, yet that image vividly captures the fanfare used by attention seekers.2 Since they receive the human praise they desire, they should expect no further reward. Those who seek to please the Father should give secretly so only the Father will see. Then he will reward us.
Private Prayer
“And when you pray, don’t act like the hypocrites, who love to pray while standing in the synagogues and on street corners so people will see them. I tell you the truth. They have received their full reward. But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut the door, and pray to your Father, who is hidden. Then your Father, who sees what is hidden, will reward you.
“When you pray, don’t rattle on like the nations. They think they’ll be heard because they use many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Another area where hypocrites practice showy religion is prayer. By praying where others will see them, they reduce the privilege of intimate fellowship with the Father to a petty means of gaining self-glory. They want and receive the praise of people. They’ll get nothing more from God. Instead, Jesus commanded his followers to pray in private behind a closed door.
Jesus also condemned a practice more common among the other nations of the ancient Near East than among the Israelites. They used long prayers and repetitive incantations designed to manipulate their gods into giving them what they wanted. They prayed not to a loving father but to capricious tyrants who craved accolades and responded to flattery. Jesus’s followers should remember that our Father already knows what we need and is just waiting for us to ask.
These commands focus on prayers that are showy or manipulative. Jesus did not condemn group prayer or long prayers. Multiple brothers and sisters can pray to the Father together without anyone seeking personal glory. Likewise, someone can pray for a long time without trying to manipulate God. God answers sincere prayers of any length because he loves his children.
Heaven on Earth
“So pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be made holy!
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done
on earth, just like in heaven.”
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
After telling his followers how not to pray, Jesus gave us a sample prayer showing the kinds of things they should pray for, called the Lord’s Prayer. Like the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer focuses on the coming of God’s kingdom. While the kingdom began with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, its full realization awaits Jesus’s future return. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus presented the time in between as parallel to Israel’s time in the wilderness, between their freedom from slavery and their entry into the promised land.
Appropriately, the prayer begins with the Father’s holiness. But it doesn’t praise God for his holiness. It asks for God’s name to be made holy, even though it already is. However, most people fail to recognize this. Believers should pray for more and more people to join us in the kingdom, glorifying the Father. So the prayer for the Father’s name to be made holy is a prayer for his kingdom to grow.
Jesus then defined the coming of the kingdom as the accomplishment of God’s will “on earth, just like in heaven.”3 Jesus promised the earth to the humble.4 Then, he taught his followers to pray for the coming kingdom, when the Father will bring his heavenly authority to earth. As David L. Turner says, “The disciples’ hope is not escapism—they do not look to leave the earth for an ethereal heavenly existence. Rather, they look for a concrete existence in which heaven comes to earth.”5
Bread for Today
“Give us the bread we need today.”
After the prayer for the Father’s glorification through the coming of the kingdom, Jesus addressed three aspects of life the believer should pray for. The first of these covers the believer’s needs. But while most prayers revolve around personal needs and wants, Jesus deemphasized them. He asked only for “bread,” representing basic needs like food, water, and shelter. Moreover, he prayed only for what “we need today.” Believers should ask for present needs and not expect long-term security.
“The bread we need today” clearly parallels the daily manna Yahweh provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. God promised abundance when they entered the promise land. But while they remained in the wilderness, they could gather only enough bread for each day (except the day before the Sabbath). If they hoarded more than needed, it would rot overnight.6
Like the Israelites, Jesus’s followers await a kingdom where God promises abundance. But we haven’t arrived yet. During this “wilderness” period, we can expect God to provide for our daily needs. We have no need to hoard extra resources.
Forgiveness and Testing
“Forgive our debts
as we have also forgiven our debtors.
Don’t lead us into testing,
but save us from the evil one.
“Because if you forgive others for the wrongs they commit, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father won’t forgive you for the wrongs you commit either.”
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Jesus ended the Lord’s Prayer with two more requests addressing the believer’s life—one for forgiveness and one for protection against testing.7 Both deal with sin, metaphorically pictured as a debt.8 The citizens of the kingdom cannot expect to imitate the Father’s perfection through our own strength.9 We must pray for God’s mercy to cleanse us of our past wrongs and rescue us from Satan’s traps—not all testing and trials but what comes from “the evil one.”
These two requests parallel the testing of the Israelites in the wilderness, a test they failed miserably. After God proved his power by freeing them from Egypt, they should have recognized the great debt of gratitude they owed him. Instead, they acted as if he owed them, continually making demands and even threatening Moses.10 Ultimately, they rebelled against God by refusing to enter and conquer Canaan. As a result, that generation lost the kingdom God had promised them.11
Jesus warned his followers that we can also lose the kingdom. Unlike the exodus generation, believers must recognize the great debt we owe God for saving us and forgive others in return. Those who refuse to forgive will not receive the Father’s forgiveness. Without it, we won’t be able to enter the kingdom of the redeemed.
- See Perfection.
- France, Gospel of Matthew, 236; Keener, Bible Background Commentary, Matthew 6:2–4.
- See Parallelism.
- See The Humble.
- Turner, “Matthew,” 103.
- See Bread.
- The traditional end of the Lord’s Prayer, “for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever,” appears only in late copies of Matthew. It was likely used in the liturgy of the early church but never spoken by Jesus.
- See Metaphor.
- See Perfection.
- See Marah; A Test of Blessing; Testing Yahweh.
- Numbers 13:25–14:35.