“But if you turn away ...

2 Chronicles 7 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The Shekinah Glory

7 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. ² The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. ³ All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord, saying, “Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Sacrifices Offered

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. ⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶ The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites also, with the instruments of music to the Lord, which King David had made for giving praise to the Lord—“for His lovingkindness is everlasting”—whenever he gave praise by their means, while the priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing.

⁷ Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat.

The Feast of Dedication

⁸ So Solomon observed the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly who came from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt. ⁹ On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar they observed seven days and the feast seven days. ¹⁰ Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and happy of heart because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and to His people Israel.

God’s Promise and Warning

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. ¹⁷ As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, ¹⁸ then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘ You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’

¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ²¹ As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ²² And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’”

I mentioned this portion of scripture a couple of days ago, saying of verses 13- 14,   If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,  and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land, that the church needs to recognize that the repenting, humbling and praying is the churches responsibility. The U.S. is not God’s people. We have indeed, so far been a nation that has been blessed by God. The founding fathers may indeed have established this nation to be “under God” , but as a nation we are not God’s chosen people.

 As individuals, we as believers do inherit  the promises of God to His people, we are His chosen through Christ. 1 Peter 2:9 says:  you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
  So again, it is the responsibility of believers to pray for their land. A nation though cannot be saved. Salvation, redemption, is for individuals. One person at a time receiving the revelation that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. Romans 8:3 says:   For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin…     The law, God’s law, neither the Ten Commandments, nor the 600+ Levitical laws, could change the hearts of men. Neither can we through legislation, change the hearts of men. That is not to say that we shouldn’t encourage our political leaders to change the current direction of our government from it’s course of turning from God. In the end though it is only through Christ that either one individual or our entire nation can be restored to God.

Jesus says:  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6) If that is true, and I believe that it is, then what we need to realize is the other side of the equation in today’s text and throughout scripture applies. God speaks of blessing and curses. No one seems to like to hear the part of today’s text that says:  

¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ²¹ As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ²² And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’”

In truth it is not really God who brings adversity on our nation. We bring adversity on ourselves by turning from God. We do live in the age of grace, under the new covenant established by Christ. If we are in Christ, following Him, Romans 8:1 says: Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  

God says,  ¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,  Jesus says: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

The greatest commandment according to Jesus:  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Neither the law or the Prophets were able to change the hearts of men. But if we will follow Jesus commandment, love God and love others, if we will seek the face of God to know and walk in His will, He will accomplish all that He desires.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

Repentance, seeking God’s face, following Him and His statutes is only possible through Christ. No work or law  of man can change a heart.

May we live our lives in such a way that people would see and be drawn to the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ. Jesus will come again to judge the world. But now He says:

'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.…(Revelation 3:19-21)     Amen, so be it.