In this message we want to cover two examples of prayer uttered by the Lord Jesus, the first God-man. The first prayer is concerning the harassed and cast-away sheep of God in Matthew 9:36—10:4. The second prayer, accompanied by a wonderful teaching, is in Matthew 11:25-30. In this teaching the Lord charged us to take His yoke upon us. We may want to take the Lord’s yoke upon us but not know what His yoke is. The yoke of the Lord is the will of the Father. The Lord cared for nothing but the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, 42) according to His economy. The Lord also extolled the Father for His economy.
We must remember that we are still looking at the divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man. Every part of the Lord’s living on this earth is a divine fact. Whatever God does is a divine fact, and the divine facts were lived in a human life, making that human life mystical. Something divine in humanity is mystical. All the examples of the Lord’s prayer are divine facts uttered by Him in His flesh as the man Jesus. A mere human being could not utter such divine sentences. Jesus was a God-man, and all that He said and did are divine facts accomplished in His human life mystically.
This is the third case of prayer in the first God-man’s human life. The first case is in Matthew 4 concerning the Lord’s fasting. The second is in Matthew 6 and 7 in the Lord’s supreme teaching on the mount.
The first God-man as the Shepherd of God’s elect, seeing that God’s elect were harassed and cast away as sheep not having a shepherd and being moved with compassion, charged His disciples to beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest (Matt. 9:36-38). Prayer is general; beseeching is particular. The Lord of the harvest here is God the Father. We know this because of the parallel record in Luke 6:12-18, which says that the Lord spent the whole night in prayer. If He were the unique Lord of the harvest, He would not have needed to pray to the Father. His prayer indicates that He considered Himself a sent One. He referred to the Father as the One who sent Him (John 8:29) and considered the Father to be the Lord of the harvest.
He charged His disciples to ask the Father not just to send, but to thrust out workers into the harvest. To thrust out is much more forceful than to send. The dear saints who went to Moscow for the Lord’s recovery beginning in 1991 were thrust out by the Lord.
Then He sent His twelve disciples, who were appointed by Him as the twelve apostles, and gave them authority to cast out unclean spirits and heal all kinds of diseases (Matt. 10:1-4). Actually, the Lord’s sheep were being harassed not merely by men but by the unclean spirits. On the one hand, the demons were harassing them. On the other hand, the Jewish leaders were casting them away. So the Lord sent the twelve apostles to take care of the sheep of God who were under the harassing of evil spirits, demons, and the casting away of the hypocritical Jewish leaders.
In Luke’s parallel record of this case, we are told that the Lord Himself “went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” The next day He established the twelve apostles to visit and take care of the people who were troubled by unclean spirits and heal them (Luke 6:12-18). Luke reveals that the Lord’s sending was according to the Father’s answering of His prayer. He asked the Father who among His followers would be qualified to be apostles. Even Judas, the betrayer, was appointed by the Father’s decision for the carrying out of His will.
The Lord went to the mountain completely apart from human society to contact His Father in prayer, and He prayed the whole night. The next day He established the twelve apostles, so His appointment of the twelve apostles should have been according to the Father’s answer, decision, and instruction. Matthew did not record this point because Matthew unveils Christ as the King of the kingdom of the heavens. As the King of the kingdom of the heavens, surely He was the Lord of the harvest. But actually, the real Lord of the harvest was the King’s Father. Luke’s record is on Christ as a proper human, not the King. In Luke this human being went to God the Father to pray.
Now we need to consider what we should learn from the Lord’s example. If we saw that a certain brother was harassed, troubled, or sick, what would we do? Perhaps we would not have the heart to care for him. On the other hand, we might care for him and want to do something for him in his need. As a result, we might hurry to see this brother and do things for him. This is our natural doing; it is not divine. Instead, we should learn of the Lord Jesus. We should go to the Lord and pray, “Lord, my brother is very sick. What would You do, Lord? Would You burden me to take care of him? If so, I will bear the burden. If not, I will not do anything by myself as a human being. I want to take care of him with You, to make this care not a human doing but a divine doing.” Sometimes when we go to the Lord about a certain needy brother, He may ask us not to contact him at that time, because this brother is in His hand.
All of us who love the church want to help the saints when we see that they are troubled. But if we do this apart from God, it is not divine. To be divine is to do everything with God, by God, in God, and through God. When someone comes to us with a burden or a problem, we should always bring it to the Lord. The Lord may say, “Leave this matter to Me. You stand aside. This is not the thing that you should do.” On the other hand, if the Lord burdens us to do something, our doing will be divine.
When the Lord saw God’s elect as God’s flock harassed and cast away, His heart was moved with compassion. But He did not charge the disciples to directly take care of them. Instead, He told them to pray to the Lord of the harvest and ask Him to thrust out the laborers. The Lord Himself practiced this principle. He saw the need of shepherds for God’s elect, so He spent the whole night in prayer to God. He did not act without prayer. He brought this case to His Father, so He got the Father’s decision.