II Kings 22:19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD
Someone has said, “The goal of prayer is the ear of God.” The goal is not to appear spiritual, be disciplined, or have some virtuous habit. The goal is for God to hear my prayer. This is a matter of faith and submission. If I am just beating dead air with my prayers, why waste the time, but that is not the case. Prayer changes things and the person praying changes the prayer; but the goal of prayer is God hearing it.
The book for Psalms, for example, is almost formulaic. The psalmist had a problem, then he had a prayer; God heard his prayer, and then he praised. I cried; God heard; then thanks to the Lord. I randomly looked at the first chapters of Psalms for this. Psalm 3 says, “I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me.” That is the whole point. The reason we pray is for God to hear and to give guidance, direction, provision, and to be sovereign in my life. Psalm 4 says, “Hear me when I call, O God.” Psalm 5 says, “Give ear to my words, O LORD.” Later, it says, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning.” Psalm 6 says, “The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.”
So, see if we can finish this sentence. God hears when we…. Well, I think we would normally say that God hears when we pray, yet II Kings 22 doesn’t quite say that. II Kings 22 is about a king named Josiah. A wicked king came before him and wicked kings came after him, but he found a copy of God’s law. He read it, responded, and changed himself and his actions to the Word of God. In verse 19 God says, “Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake…I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.”
God said, “You heard and so I also have heard you.” In other words, the ending to the statement from before is not, “God hears when we pray.” That is true enough, but it is “God hears when we listen.” God said, “You heard and so I am going to hear.” God hears when you listen.
All of us have been in a so-called conversation when we were just listening to a monologue. There was no back and forth. There was no listening from the other person. Josiah was a man who when he found what God had said in His Word, said, “Go ye, inquire of the LORD.” He wanted to ask. He was going to be quiet, listen, and hear what God had to say. In verse 19 God said, “Because thine heart was tender… and thou hearest what I spake.” This was causal. There was a reason for it.
God hears when you listen. God hears when you pray, yes, but God hears when you listen, regardless of the culture around you or your own family history. The last part of verse 13 says, “Because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.” So, regardless of the culture and your family history, God hears when you listen.
What should we do? First, let’s listen. One of the themes you find in this chapter and the next is “the words of this book.” Here was a man who did according to the words of God’s book. So, let’s listen.
Second, let’s act. All of II Kings 22 is about Josiah’s response to God’s Word. He read in the ears of the people the words of the book. He made a covenant before the LORD and before the people. Then chapter 23 is all about what he did. He brought forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, a false god. He put down idolatrous priests. He brought out the grove from the house of the Lord and brought things out of the temple that had been defiling it. It goes on and on. The point is he heard what God said and took action. He changed his actions according to God’s precepts. So, let’s listen; let’s act.
Finally, let’s pray. Psalm 66:18-20 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me: but verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.” I don’t know what it is that God has said in His Word to you because I don’t know where in God’s Word you have been reading, but when you read God’s Word, listen, act, and then pray. Why? Because God hears when you pray, but more specifically God hears when you listen.