A Brief History of the Prayer Movement

Session 2: Biblical Expressions of Night and Day Prayer

I.The Beginning of a Nation:

In the time when God launched the nation of Israel out of slavery and into political sovereignty Moses was the man He chose to lead the people. As would be the case in modern day if a new nation came into being the leadership of this new nation began to dictate national policy and define acceptable social behavior. In the months following their Exodus from Egypt God spoke to Moses about how to govern the people, He defined what was right and wrong for Israel and He described the roles and responsibilities of the 12 tribes. Among these requirements God outlined a sacrificial system that was required for Israel to stay in right standing with God. At the very center of this system was a priesthood that was ordered to minister before the Lord day and night. In doing this God was defining a characteristic of what it meant to be God’s people, set apart from the other nations. This distinction was to be more than a mere tradition; it was prescribed as part of Jewish Law.

  1. The Tent of Meeting:

Moses began his relationship with God in an encounter (Ex. 3), which would forever mark his walk with God. All the days of his life he would continue to pursue not only a life of holiness but a life filled with encountering the living God. It was this motivation that drove him to set up a small tent outside the camp whenever the Israelites would set up camp. Hewould go there to meet with the Lord and it was such a place of divine encounter that Joshua would linger there in the presence of the Lord long after Moses would leave. This served as the first house of prayer for Israel as a nation; a place where people could come and inquire of God.

“Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp…As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses…The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent (Ex. 33:7-11).”

  1. God was Unwilling to Wait for Night and Day Worship:

It would be 40 years before Israel would settle into a permanent place and God knew that it would be quite some time before they nation would have the ability to build anything permanent as a center of worship. God was quite unwilling to wait so He commanded Moses to havea tabernacle built while they were still wandering around in the dessert. This became a mobile house of prayer for Israel to be able to maintain a night and day prayer expression before Him.

“I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling (2Sa. 7:6).”

  1. The First Corporate Expression of the House of Prayer:

Moses’ personal tent of meeting was a very limited expression of the house of prayer, but God was not content with this so He instructed Moses to have Israel build an ornate tabernacle for the priests to minister to the Lord and for all the Israelites to be able to meet with God and minister before Him. This became the first corporate house of prayer, and from this point on the corporate dynamic would foremost expression of prayer where God would come to meet with His people.

“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them (Ex. 25:8).”

“Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman (Ex. 26:1).”

  1. The Fire on the Altar:

Moses was given explicit instructions from the Lord that the fire on this newly built altar must be kept burning perpetually. This required that the priests tend to the fire unceasingly, taking shifts to see to the certainty that the flame never went out. This was only possible through a corporate priesthood that relied on many priests being trained and working together for this common purpose. This was the purpose of the commandment about the fire never going out, it wasn’t so that there would be constant light at the altar it was so that there would be people ministering to God constantly at the altar. It was for His pleasure that this fellowship would be unbroken with His people and also to instill understanding about the constant nature of our relationship with Him and need for Him.

"The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out (Le. 6:12-13).”

  1. The Most Important Priestly Tasks:

The priests had many specific responsibilities but the two primary functions of the priesthood was to make intercession (Le. 14:31) and to offer praise and worship (Ex. 24:1). The priests wouldoffersacrifices on behalf of the community at the altar of worship. The prerequisite of the fire on this altar being kept burning perpetually was a symbol of the continual praise, worship and intercession that was to rise to the Lord from the community. The priests were put into place to stand before the Lord day and night praying to and worshiping God; this was the expressed purpose of the tabernacle. God instituted a system that required the involvement of an entire tribe to bring forth night and day prayer and worship. What does this tell us about how serious God is about night and day prayer?

  1. Mandated Throughout the Generations:

We should not think of the tabernacle of Moses as one expression of night and day prayer; it was a lasting reality throughout the generations of Israel’s history where night and day worship continued. This is the oldest, the most prominent and the most consistent expression of night and day prayer in human history. Look at a few of the seasons that the tabernacle worship touched or was fully operative through.

  1. During the 40 years Israel wandered in the dessert.
  2. Throughout the military campaign of taking over the land.
  3. It was established in the newly conquered land of Canaan at Shiloh.
  4. For hundreds of years during the period of the judges.
  5. Most of the time that the kings ruled over Israel and Judah.

II.The Tabernacle of David:

King David wasn’t just the King of Israel; he was a man whose deepest desire was to live out a life of prayer in God’s presence all his days. He longed for a version of the house of prayer in Jerusalem where he and others could encounter the Lord in a devotional way (Ps. 27:4). The greatest expression of his love for God was realized in a well-organized, multigenerational, order of worship, which he established as national policy soon after becoming king over all the tribes of Israel. We commonly refer to this as the Tabernacle of David.

  1. Establishing a Worship Order:

The Tabernacle of Moses continued to stay in operation but around the year 1000 BC, Bible History shows us clearly that David established a second tabernacle on Mt. Zion during the early part of his rule. In this tent he placed the Ark of the Covenant and he positioned singers and musicians around it. Initially he appointed two hundred and eighty-eight prophetic singers to minister with music before the Lord, to make petition, give thanks and praise to the Lord day and night (1Ch. Chapters 15-17).

“They brought the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it…He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to extol, thank, and praise the Lord, the God of Israel…They were to play the lyres and harps, Asaph was to sound the cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow the trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God. That day David first appointed Asaph and his associates to give praise to the Lord in this manner…David left Asaph and his associates before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister there regularly,according to each day’s requirements. He also left Obed-Edom and his sixty-eight associates to minister with them (1Ch. 16:1-7, 37-38).”

  1. The Vision Grew:

This wild new worship order never waned, in fact by the end of David’s life he had increased that number to 4000 worship leaders along with thousands of others who tended to the workings of this extravagant worship ministry. This was unlike anything that had ever been done in Israel’s history; God’s plan for His people to become the House of Prayer (Is. 56:7) was being realized at that time.

“When David was old and full of years, he…gathered together all the leaders of Israel, as well as the priests and Levites. The Levites thirty years old or more were counted, and the total number of men was thirty-eight thousand. David said, “Of these…Four thousand are to be gatekeepers and four thousand are to praise the Lord with the musical instruments I have provided for that purpose (1Ch. 23:1-5).”

  1. God Commanded the Tabernacle to Continue:

When David established the night and day worship ministry he set it in place to last; God must have loved this plan because the Lord then commanded that it continue. After David’s time there would therefore be several others who would reinstate the Davidic worship order by setting up singers and musicians around the ark night and day as David had done.

“He stationed the Levites in the temple of the LORD with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the LORD through his prophets. So the Levites stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets (2Ch. 29:25-26).”

III.The Kings of Judah Who Revived the Tabernacle Worship:

The Tabernacle was later replaced by the Temple built in Jerusalem and there the Davidic order of worship continued. Of the dozens of Kings that followed David there were a handful of leaders in Israel’s history that embraced the Tabernacle of David and instituted it’s practice during their reign. Most of the leaders of Judah would follow in the footsteps of their father, so if the king who realigned before them had the tabernacle worship in place they most times would keep it in place and if their father had done away with it or not reinstated it then they too would for the most part also not reinstate it. The exceptions to this rule however are some of the most remarkable seasons of revival in Israel’s history; when a king who had grown up with no Temple worship in the order of King David would become king and see the lack and so establish it in his day. Whenever the Davidic model was put into practice this represented a different generation of people embracing it. Doubtlessly, each of these expressions had some unique features because it’s management was under different human leadership; both by a new king and the new priests of that generation. We would be best served as thinking of each of these expressions as different houses of prayer entirely because while they took place in the same city the house of prayer is about people not places and the people where all different in each new generation.

  1. David:

In approximately 1050 B.C. (1Ch. 15-16) David pioneered the work of night and day prayer in Jerusalem. The Lord had given him divine insights as to how worship and prayer would flow together and how this new model of the priestly ministry would function. David had it in mind to establish a heavenly order of worship and he went to great lengths to put his vision into place and offer the Lord an extravagant sacrifice. David’s model of worship became the pattern that many future leaders of Israel would seek to implement.

  1. Solomon:
    In approximately 1010 B.C. (2Ch. 5-7, 8:14-15) Solomon ordered that worship in the Temple should continue as it had in the tabernacle under his father’s leadership. He gave detailed instructions about the purpose of the Temple as the place of God’s presence and the place of man’s worship. In Solomon’s inauguration speech during the Temple dedication the presence of God fell into the Temple so thick that the priests couldn’t get up off the floor to perform their duties (2Ch. 5:14).
  1. Abijah:

From 913-910 B.C. (2Ch. 13:10-15, 14:1-3) Abijah ruled as the king over Judah in the divided kingdom. Abijah grew up under the wicked leadership of his father Rehoboam and was not entirely committed to the Lord. But when it was time for him to become king he seemingly did follow his grandfather Solomon and his great grandfather David in establishing the Davidic worship order as it was said that the priests were in place observing the requirements of the Lord (2Ch. 13:11 reference also 2Ch. 29:25-26). During this time the Lord granted him remarkable military success as was the case with the other leaders of Judah who put the Davidic model in place (2Ch. 13:13-19).

  1. Asa:

In 910 B.C. (2Ch. 15:12-17) Asa,son of Abijah, became king of Judah and reformedmany of the evil practices his father had permitted and so he set the nation on the right course spiritually. While it doesn’t clearly state that Asa kept the Tabernacle of David worship going during his lifetime the evidence seems clear that he did. The worship order was already in place when he became king, his heart was fully committed to the Lord (2Ch. 15:1-19), he loved the Lord with all his heart and called the nation to total abandonment (2Ch. 15:12-15) and the protection of God rested on the nation (2Ch. 14:6; 15:19) as it had been with David when David instituted the original night and day order of worship.

  1. Jehoshaphat:

In 896 B.C. (2Ch. 20) Jehoshaphat defeats Moab and Ammon in perhaps the most astounding battle in all of the Bible. As king he gathers the nation at the Temple in a solemn assembly (2Ch. 20:4) and appeals to the Lord to do that which He promised through Solomon; that is to respond to the people on basis of the fact of the Temple worship, which was being done in the Davidic order. From this assembly Jehoshaphat so believes that God will honor this that he takes the singers out of the Temple and places them at the front of the army the next day. The Lord then slays 183,000 enemy troops while they slept so that the army was destroyed. After the battle the singers and musicians come back into the Temple (2Ch. 20:20-28) to continue David’sorder of worship.

  1. Jehoiada and Joash:

In approximately 835 B.C. (2Ch. 23-24) Joash was made king and he ruled Judah under the spiritual guidance of Jehoiada the priest. With the help of the priesthood Joash resurrected the Davidic worship model according to the commands of David. From this time on and all the days of Jehoiada’s life the order of worship continued uninterrupted.

  1. Hezekiah:

In 726 B.C. (2Ch. 29-30) Hezekiah cleansed and re-consecrated the Temple after a period of great spiritual decline in the nation. He served the Lord wholeheartedly and he reinstituted the Davidic Order of worship according to the principles that had been laid down by David and the prophets.

  1. Josiah:

In 622 (2Ki. 22-23, 2Ch. 35) B.C. Josiah became King in Judah and when he was shown the Book of the Law he saw that long ago the Lord had commanded the Davidic worship model and so he put it back into practice in accordance with what was written. He then proceeded to take the nation through a spiritual overhaul, which arguably marked the season of the greatest revival in Israel’s history.

IV.The Returning Exiles:

The Prophet Jeremiah (Je. 25:12) prophesied that Israel would be exiled and then return to their land 70 years later. The Prophet Daniel who found himself living toward the end of that 70 years prayed in agreement for this prophecy to come to pass (Da. 9:2-19). When the appointed time had come the Lord spoke to His people about making return to Jerusalem. At the same time He began moving on the hearts of the governmental leaders who were oppressing Israel in order to help make this transition possible.

  1. The Original Temple:

Solomon had built the original Temple in Jerusalem on the heals of King David his father. It was covered with gold and silver and was probably the most expensive structure ever to be built. But the reason it’s existence wasn’t so that Israel could feel a sense of national pride or as a mark of their culture achievements. The Temple existed to house the night and day prayer ministry of King David, and that’s what it did until the time of the exile.