Summary:
There are many instances where men of faith woke up early in the morning.

1. Jesus woke up early to pray
2. Job arose early to intercede for his children
3. Abraham rose early to carry out the matters of God
   Do we put the matters of God first in our life? Are we willing to arise early in the morning to seek God?

Psa 119:147
I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word.

We know that people in the past used to wake up at daybreak to start the day. The psalmist wakes up before daybreak.

Why does he wake up so early?

To cry out to God for help, to hope in God’s word.

How many of us wake up before the breaking of the dawn? Not many of us, unless it is absolutely necessary. The invention of the lightbulb allowed us to sleep later than before. The smartphone revolution caused us to sleep even later.

Today, many of us wake up just in time. For students, we wake up just in time to get ready for school. The speaker had to leave the house at 6.20 in order to reach school on time. So he woke up at 6.10. For those working, we wake up just in time to get to work.

Interestingly, there are many instances where men of faith, like the psalmist here, woke up early in the morning. It was not because everyone else also woke up earlier to start the day. These men of faith didn’t just wake up just in time to go about the day’s business. They woke up earlier than necessary. What did they wake up early in the morning to do?

Let’s take a look at a few characters to see what we may learn from them rising early.

1. Example of Jesus

Jesus also woke up before the dawning of the morning.

Mk 1:35
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.

To be precise, Jesus didn’t just wake up early in the morning to pray. The word used in English is “he rose a long while before daylight”. In other words, he woke up SUPER early in the morning. In Israel, day breaks between 5 or 6, depending on the time of the year. But whatever the time of the year this was, Jesus woke up before 5 to pray, because it was a long while before daybreak.

Why did he wake up so early to pray? If we had done what Jesus had done the previous day, we would all have been fast asleep. What had Jesus been doing the previous day?

If we take a look at the earlier passage, the previous day had been the sabbath day. He went into the synagogue and taught. Anyone who is a teacher or who has spoken a sermon knows that it takes a lot of energy. In v23, we read that He also heals a man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue. But his work was not merely restricted to the synagogue. Jesus also went visiting - He entered the house of Peter’s mother in law and healed her.

Then, the Sabbath ended. Did his work end? No. The city brought all the sick for Him to heal them. It was the Sabbath day but Jesus did not have a good rest.

If we were in Jesus’ shoes, we would tell ourselves we need a good rest. We would most likely be fast asleep in the morning. Yet, here tells us that Jesus rose up a long while before daybreak to pray. And Jesus didn’t have the luxury to go back to sleep after prayer.

V38,
But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”

There was more travelling, more work for Jesus to do. The more divine work that Jesus did, the more time He put in prayers.

The opposite is sometimes true for us. We have the misunderstanding that prayer is passive - we often think the effort should be in the work itself. But prayer is NOT passive! It is active. Work before prayer emphasises what WE are doing. Prayer before work emphasises what God can do. That’s why we see Jesus ALWAYS made time to pray.

Mk 6:46
And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray.

There were times Jesus sent away the masses. Jesus was not always available at all times in the flesh, because Jesus knew he had to spend time connecting with God.

Today, many of us have many things to do as well. We find it difficult to cultivate a habit of having long prayers in the morning.

Therefore to help us cultivate this habit of praying in the morning, the SCB is organising morning prayers on Zoom starting from 2 August. It is not an early morning prayer at 6.30AM. It will be from 7.30-8.15AM. The first 15 min will be Bible reading and we will be following the CDBD schedule. This will be followed by a prayer from 7.45-8.15.

We all have different schedules. But as long as your schedule allows for this, we urge you to join us. It’s much easier to sustain a daily prayer when there are other people praying with us.

In Acts 3, we also see Peter and John going to the temple to pray together.

When the speaker was 15 years old, his mother said to him, we’ve not been praying together for a long time. Starting from today, we will start praying for 30min. It became like clockwork. Even after his eldest brother went overseas. Someone will definitely remind you if you’ve not prayed for the day. Even if it’s past midnight. Or if someone is already fast asleep.

Ecclesiastes says that a threefold cord is not easily broken. We know that doing it is difficult. And so we hope that doing this together as a church can help us cultivate this good habit of praying in the morning.

Isa 50:4
“The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned.

Sometimes we complain that we simply don’t have enough time. There are so many things we need to do in life. Whether it’s work, family or church. And we think that our lack of time is the cause for our lack of prayer.

Have we ever thought that it might be the other way round?
It is the lack of prayer that causes the lack of time.

If we pray every morning to start the day, as the latter portion of v4 tells us, He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned. Do you not think we would be able to make the best use of time that God has given us? Because like Jesus, we are seeking to do the things of God first thing in the morning. Prayer must always be the first movement. Because prayer was Jesus’ first movement.

We hope that everyone, if it is possible, do join us for the morning prayer starting 2 August.

2. The example of Job

Job 1:5
So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.

The custom of Job. His seven sons would feast and invite their sisters. And when the feasting ended, Job would send for his children early in the morning to sanctify them. He offered burnt offerings individually for all of his children. Can you imagine how much time it would take? 10 burnt offerings, each for his children.

Why did he do such a thing? Just in case they had sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

There is a modern equivalent. Imagine your children going out to play. “Eh son, come here. Kneel down and pray.” “Why?” “Just in case you played too much and forgot about God.” This was really the practice of Job.

Job didn’t know whether his children had sinned. He hadn’t seen his children sin. But Job would rather err on the side of caution. He was willing to go to these great lengths in order to protect his children.

Today, parents also go to great lengths to protect their children. There’s this parent at the childcare centre. The first thing she does when she picks up her child is to take off his mask, put some vaporub, and spray some nasal spray. She would rather err on the side of caution.

The possibility that Job’s children had sinned was sufficient justification for Job. He didn’t wait for the afternoon to wait for them to get up from their sleep. He could have allowed them to sleep more. But Job would get up early in the morning. And he did this regularly! His children’s spiritual state was of paramount importance to Job. Are we like Job? Do we place paramount importance on the spiritual state of our children?

Psa 127:3
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.

Job really understood what it meant that children were a heritage from God. As parents we are not only meant to give them food and educate them. But also to nurture them and bring them up in the Lord. We are not trying to disparage secular education. Secular education is also important, because you need to be literate to read the Bible.

Sometimes when the speaker reads the Bible to her daughter, she says stop and tries to read. She’ll try for a moment, then she’ll look at him in defeat. “I cannot read.” “Then you said you wanted to read?”

We need education to read the Bible. We need to be fluent in languages to be able to interpret. Secular education is also a necessary part of our children’s growth in the Lord.

But the question is really one of emphasis.

We take interest in so many other things in our children’s lives. Do we also take charge of our children’s spiritual life? Or do we leave them to make their own independent decisions about their faith? Oh, we’ll leave them to make their own decisions about faith when they grow up. But if we think about it, we don’t let them make their own decisions whether to go to school or not. How will the child know? A child doesn’t know any better.

Job also didn’t leave it to his children’s own independent choices. His children were most likely young adults. He didn’t leave them to wake up on their own accord to sacrifice for themselves. But he took a personal interest in this matter. He took the lead in this matter.

What about us? Do we take an interest? Do we take the lead in the spiritual lives of our children? If they’ve not received the Holy Spirit, do we care? Or do we think it’s the work of the preachers and counsellors to motivate them to pray during Theolo? Of course they need to establish their own personal relationship with God. And they need to pray very hard for the Holy Spirit themselves. But this really is a matter of life and death. Will we just leave our children to their own devices?

We know the famous story of Abraham pleading for sodom and Gomorrah. We know he was really pleading for the life of Lot. Have we interceded for our children as Abraham interceded for Lot? Abraham could have given up on Lot. Because Lot had made a stupid choice. Abraham had even saved him from being a prisoner. But Lot went straight back to Sodom. If we were in Abraham’s shoes, we might give up on him. But we see that Abraham interceded for Lot again and again. His concern for Lot is not just shown in his intercession, but what he did the next morning.

Gen 19:27-29
27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

Abraham was so concerned about what had happened that he arose early in the morning to the same place where he had interceded with God, to take a look at what had happened. Of course sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed.

From Abraham’s perspective, it seemed that his prayer had gone up in smoke. But v29 tells us that it was not for nothing. God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. This is something Abraham would not have known when he took a look at sodom and Gomorrah. But God had remembered Abraham.

Sometimes we may not see results. But let us not be discouraged. Our concern and earnest intercession will be remembered by God. The more important question is whether we have placed paramount importance on the spiritual state of our children, like Job. Are we as anxious for their spiritual life, as Abraham was for the life of Lot?

Both Abraham and Job rose early in the morning to show concern for their loved ones. What have we risen up early for?

Finally, in matters concerning God, we must rise up early. We will look at three stories briefly. These stories are in Genesis 20-22. From Genesis 19-22, someone always woke up early in the morning.

Gen 20:8
So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid.

Why did Abimelech rise up early in the morning?

Because God had appeared to him in a dream to warn him, because he had taken Sarah. And God told him, if you don’t restore Sarah, you and your household will be destroyed. Of course we know this was not his fault. Abraham had said that she was his sister. Abimelech had done it in the integrity of his heart. Still he wakes up early in the morning because it is a matter of life and death. Now he knew, he had to make it right before God. So he rose up early in the morning, to quickly settle this matter before God.

In spiritual matters of life and death, do we also rise up early in the morning to make matters right before God? If we have not received the Holy Spirit, is this matter at the top of our mind? Are we as anxious as Abimelech to make matters right before God?

Gen 21:14
So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

We see Abraham rising up early to send Hagar and Ishmael away. We know that Abraham was a man who esteemed kinship. Which is why he would go to great lengths to save Lot. Sarah wanted to throw out Hagar and Ishmael, but Abraham was disturbed by this request. He could not bring himself to do this. Ishmael was still his flesh and blood. But in v12, once God tells Abraham to listen to sarah, (if we read Galatians we know that this was the will of God, to throw out Ishmael and Hagar), though Abraham was unwilling, how does he respond? He wasted absolutely no time. He rose up early in the morning and sent them away. In matters relating to God, no matter how unpleasant it may be, we must rise up early in the morning to do it.

Gen 22:3
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

We know this famous story. This was the greatest test of his faith. He could have waited till noon time before setting off. He could have delayed and delayed and put it off till the next day. Often when we have work to do, we often delay and procrastinate. But Abraham did not delay even the slightest. Once God told him, he rose up early in the morning to complete it. In matters relating to God, no matter how difficult it may be, we must rise up early in the morning to accomplish it.

What about us?

In the work of God, do we rise up early in the morning to do it? Or is our reaction to push it away if possible? Or is it to delay doing the work of God? Doing the work of God is not always pleasant. Abraham had to send his own son away. There is pressure and challenges in doing the work of God. You would feel stressed sometimes. Sometimes it is very difficult. Abraham even had to offer his own son. As human beings, none of us like to be stressed. We would like to lead a good and easy life. We think, “if it is the work of God, it must be easy.”

But all three stories tell us that God’s matters may not be easy. Are we as anxious to make matters right before God? When doing the work of God is unpleasant, have we still risen up early in the morning, to carry it out? Do we put the matters of God first in our life? Do we arise up early in the morning to do it?