40 Days Blog - Day 15
“
I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.”
“
And the roads.”
“
Well, yeah. Obviously, the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads …”
From the Monty Python film, ‘The Life of Brian’
The Romans understood the importance of having good roads. At the end of our last reading, we were left with an image of a Roman soldier in full armour, taking up his helmet and his sword and heading out to do his duty. That might have been crowd control, quelling an uprising, border duty or defending the empire against a foreign power. Getting to where he needed to go would have required a good road network, particularly when a war was being waged. Supply lines to the battle front are hugely important in warfare; both Napoleon and Hitler came undone in Russia, due in large part to overstretched supply lines. Getting adequate support to those at the battle front is essential.
Paul concludes his piece about spiritual warfare with an exhortation to pray, “
Through all prayer and entreaty…” (
v18). It might be of interest that the word for ‘through’ in the original Greek is
dia, which is equivalent to via in Latin, meaning road. So, prayer may be understood as a pathway which fast tracks us to the battle front. Just as it was said that ‘All roads lead to Rome’, so all prayer is directed to God. It could equally be said that all roads lead away from Rome: prayer is the pathway that enables us to stand by all our brothers and sisters in their hour of need, whether they are across the street or halfway round the world. Paul has prayed twice for the Ephesians in this letter from his prison home in Rome, and he asks them to pray for him.
Prayer in itself is a spiritual battle; unlike in the Monty Python sketch above, it does not simply ‘Go without saying.’ In any war, supply lines become prime targets for the enemy and robust measures are needed to defend them and keep them open; Paul says “
…look to it with all perseverance and entreaty for all the saints” (
v18). The adversary has many ploys in his armoury to keep us from praying.
We might be tempted to think that prayer is superfluous when we have an all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful God. So, when we become apathetic, it’s worth reminding ourselves that when the children of Israel were fighting the Amalek, the sworn enemy of Israel, as long as Moses held his hands up, Israel prevailed, but when he let them drop, Amalek prevailed (
Exodus 17:8-13).
Prayer is not the only means by which we can stand alongside our brothers and sisters; a personal visit might be appropriate, and if that’s not possible, as in Paul’s case, a letter is another option. In our generation we have so many channels of communication open to us, including a blog!
A Prayer
Lord Jesus, You offered strong prayers to God in Your time of need. Help me to pray with and for my brothers and sisters in the faith in their time of need. Teach me how to pray all prayer, on all occasions, for all Your people with all perseverance. Just as You now ever live to make intercession.
Amen.
Listen to today's reading and blog post below...