{"id":85863,"date":"2021-01-03T15:08:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T13:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=85863"},"modified":"2021-01-03T15:08:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T13:08:26","slug":"unanswered-prayers-rejected-or-simply-ignored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/unanswered-prayers-rejected-or-simply-ignored\/","title":{"rendered":"Unanswered Prayers: Rejected, Or Simply Ignored?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"85863","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":62571,"related_cahpter":"647","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"On the exasperating ambivalence of human communication with the Divine\r\n\r\n","content":"

When a religious person is beset by troubles, they usually reach out to God in prayer, asking for Divine intervention to alleviate the troubles. Many examples of such prayers can be found in the Bible:<\/span><\/p>\n

Exodus 2:23 \u201c\u2026<\/span>The Israelites were groaning under the bondage and cried out; and their cry for help from the bondage rose up to God.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Numbers 12:13 \u201c<\/span>So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, \u201cO God, pray heal her!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 3:25 \u201cLet me go over, I pray Thee, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly hill-country, and Lebanon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The pray-er assumes that God has the capacity to resolve any difficult situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what does this individual think when salvation is <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>forthcoming? The prayer has either fallen on \u201cdeaf ears,\u201d or, worse still, it has been sullenly rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n

The psalmist expresses such a sensibility in v. 5: \u201cOh Lord, God of hosts, how long <\/span>\u2018Ashanta<\/span><\/i>\u2019 (<\/span>will You be wrathful<\/span><\/i>) toward the prayers of Your people?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the translators do their best to capture the nuance of the Hebrew word, \u201cAshanta,\u201d the Hebrew word appears to be far more lyrical. The root is \u201c<\/span>a-sh-n<\/span><\/i>\u201d, or \u201csmoke.\u201d The noun either summons up an image of divine anger, as in II Samuel 22:9 \u201c<\/span>\u2019Ashan\u2019 <\/span><\/i>went up from His nostrils, from His mouth came devouring fire;\u201d or a reference to <\/span>innumerable particles that, despite initially powerfully wafting into the air, rapidly dissipate over a short amount of time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is difficult to fathom why God might react angrily towards a person directing heartfelt prayer towards Him. But it is more understandable if the pray-er thinks that their appeals have simply been ignored.\u00a0 \u201cGod must be displeased with me or those whom I am praying for, if He opts to not respond.\u201d Such thinking is the result of our tendency to project human attitudes to explain the dynamics of our interactions with God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as the Song of Songs is considered to reflect the paradigm of love, not only between human lovers, but also between God and Israel, so too the psalmist conveys the ambivalence entailed in the human attempts to communicate with the Divine. And when that communication is perceived as being rejected when one\u2019s prayer goes unanswered, the disappointment, frustration, and infinite questions become difficult to address.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another possible explanation for a divine response of anger to prayer could be divine \u201cexasperation\u201d over failure to comply with the commandments of the Torah and the morality it sets forth, a prerequisite for salvation that God iterates many times throughout Tanach. At a certain point in time, asking for \u201cone more chance\u201d results in angry rejection rather than optimistic forbearance\u2014see Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56754,"id":56754,"title":"isam1-prayer abstract","filename":"isam1-prayer-abstract.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-prayer-abstract.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/unyearned-for-blessings-unuttered-prayers\/isam1-prayer-abstract\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam1-prayer-abstract","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56750,"date":"2019-06-03 16:28:11","modified":"2023-05-08 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