Yeshua told us that when we pray, we are to pray in his name- not to him, but in his name, meaning to use him as a sort of reference when praying (which is assumed to be directly to God) so that God knows we are one of Yeshua’s flock.

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But when we pray in Yeshua’s name, does that mean he hears our prayers?

First off, let’s get something straight, once and for all: the use of the word “name” in the Bible, unless it specifically is used to identify one person from another, refers to the reputation and renown of the one being mentioned. For example, the term “name of the Lord” doesn’t refer to the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew letters Yud-Heh-Vuv-Heh (יהוה) but rather to God’s reputation and power. Calling on the name of the Lord means to look to God for help, to ask for his power and strength to be given to you. It isn’t calling to him like you would call to a friend (“Yo! Hey, Harry- how ya doin?“), but to ask for intercession.

That being said, the next issue is the idea of Trinitarianism- if God and Yeshua are one and the same entity, then praying to God or to Yeshua is the same thing, so then the answer is “Yes- Yeshua hears our prayers.” OK, but what about the fact that the Bible tells us they are separate beings? Stephen, when getting stoned to death (Acts 7) says he sees Yeshua sitting at the right hand of God. So, nu? If Yeshua is sitting next to God, then they are not one and the same entity- at least, not at the moment.

And what about the fact that praying to anything other than God, the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is continually considered idolatry throughout the Bible? I have often said that Yeshua is the Intercessor of prayer, not the Interceptor of it, meaning that when we pray in his name, we do not pray to him, we only refer to him, sort of like name-dropping.

Think back to the early 20th Century in the United States, when they passed that crazy legislation called the Prohibition Act, which made public sale of alcohol a federal offence. Many places, called “Speakeasy’s”, were where people could go to get a drink in secret. They used to have a small window in the main entrance which had a sliding panel, so when someone came to get into the building, the panel slid away so the guard inside could see if it was the police. And you would give a password, such as “Joe sent me” to gain entrance.

Well, I see praying in Yeshua’s name as sort of the same thing- Yeshua isn’t there when we come to God in prayer, but we use his name to “gain entrance”. Not that God will refuse a prayer not in Yeshua’s name, but that name has power and authority that other prayers may not have.

Yeshua said the only way to the father is through him (John 14:6), and I believe that he is not talking about prayer, at all, but about being able to be forgiven of our sins, which is really going to help when we come before God at Judgement Day if we want to find ourselves written in the Book of Life.

Yeshua’s substitutionary death was just that- a substitution, which replaced the need to sacrifice an animal at the temple in Jerusalem to receive forgiveness. The Torah states that the only place we can sacrifice to God is where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:5), which was (of course) the temple Solomon built, but that temple was destroyed in 73 A.D., so …now what?

Yeshua is what- because his sacrificial death replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple, the only way to be forgiven now is through Yeshua’s sacrifice, which can only be valid if and when you accept that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send.

If you haven’t guessed by now, my answer to my own question whether or not Yeshua hears our prayers is that he probably doesn’t, but to be honest, I don’t know for sure. The Bible doesn’t give us even a hint about this. He does sit at God’s right hand, and he does intercede for us, although I believe that his intercession, as I already pointed out, is not related to our prayer but to our salvation.

In either case, whether he hears prayers or not and whether he is God or not (which is NOT a topic for this discussion), the best thing to do is always pray directly to God, for he is the ultimate power and the only one who can forgive sins, despite what the Roman Catholic church says (I am sorry, but some human being wearing a silly collar cannot forgive your sins, and why pray to some saint when Yeshua says we can pray directly to God?)

What do you think?

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and let me wish you an early Shabbat Shalom!