Isaac prayed to God for his son Jacob, but
he did not ask the mediation of his father Abraham in his behalf; and
when Jacob in his turn supplicated an especial blessing upon his
grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh, though he called with gratitude to his
mind, and expressed with his tongue, the devotedness both of Abraham and
of Isaac to the Almighty, yet we do not find him appealing to them, or
invoking their intercession with Jehovah.
When the conscience-struck Israelites felt that they had exposed
themselves to the wrath of Almighty God, whose sovereign power, put
forth at the prayer of Samuel, they then witnessed, distrusting the
efficacy of their own supplication, and confiding in the intercession of
that man of God, they implored him to intercede for them; and Samuel
emphatically responded to their appeal, with an assurance of his
earnestly undertaking to plead their cause with heaven: "And all the
people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God,
that we die not. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not.... The Lord
will not forsake his people, for his great name's {25} sake....
Moreover, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to
pray for you." [1 Sam. (1 Kings Vulg.) xii. 19.] Samuel is one whom the
Holy Spirit numbers among those "who called upon God's name;" and when
Samuel died, all Israel gathered together to lament and to bury
him,--but we read of no petition being offered to him to carry on the
same intercessory office, when he was once removed from them.
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