A sweet sound...

to this mother's ear was the babbling gibberish that my second son, Chess, used to entertain me with alongside of animated facial expressions and much hand waving. He was convinced that I perfectly understood exactly what he was attempting to communicate. Probably because I indulged him with smiling and head nodding even though his language was about as clear as Farsi with a Scottish accent.

But oh, it was so sweet to see him trying to communicate with me. And it was very frustrating for him that no amount of his babbling gibberish conveyed his thoughts and wants to me. The end result was usually foot stomping and tears. Only after I taught him some basic sign language cues did the frustration end. As his mind became informed with correct words and the knowledge of language, he was able to drop the sign language cues and become effective in his communication.

"Gosmeko ne jujue penazza" became "Give me juice, please." (And I'm sure that is a paraphrase of the actual babbling.)

I was reminded this week of Chess' babbling as a toddler when I read Matthew 6:7, "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words." Investigating the meaning behind babbling uncovered some interesting applications for believers.

The Greek word is actually "battalogeo". Part of its uniqueness is that the word is not found anywhere else in biblical literature leaving it without clear derivation or meaning. William Tyndale was the first translator to choose the onomatopoetic "babble" as an English equivalent. With that choice the word came to mean a nonsense repetition of sounds. Babbling is that of making non-sense, or no sense.

Jesus is clear in His teaching that believers are not to pray like pagans, at all. He judges their babbling as only many words, not invested with any knowledge of the One True Living God. In context to God's Word look at Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." An unbeliever not having a proper fear of the Lord does not have knowledge and so makes no sense in his prayers or ideas about prayer. He despises the discipline of learning how Jesus teaches and models prayer. He despises the wisdom that comes from obedience to the Lord.

Jesus goes on to teach in verse 8: "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." He highlights the personal relationship that a believer has with God the Father that an unbeliever does not have. In light of the personal relationship that God the Father grants to His children, application insists that a believer pray within context of knowing Who God is and who she is before God. To pray in any way like a pagan with babbling of many words, with no sense, without knowledge of Who the Living God is in character and attribute, is offensive to a Holy God.

Let Christians remember that our call to prayer is as essential as our call to repent, to bear fruit, to grow in faith, to work out our salvation, to count the cross and so on through the right doctrines of living as a disciple of Christ. Let us not imitate the pagans in any way, method, or manner for the sake of sloth or feelings. Let Christians remember to humble themselves before knowledge of the Lord so that their prayers honor and exalt His hallowed name, His sovereign rule, and His perfect will.