If my people, who are called by my name

2 Chronicles 7:11-22 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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.’”

In today’s text from 2 Chronicles 7, it says:  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. 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 peoplewho 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.  Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to theprayer offered in this place.”  More often verse 14 is quoted from another translation which says:  If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.   Surely our nation is in a place and time which requires healing.  What we must understand though is that it is not our government, not congress, the senate or the supreme court, that must humble themselves and pray. It is the people of God, those that are called by His name, it is the church collectively and Christians individually who must humble ourselves; who must turn from our wicked ways. 1 Peter 4:12-19 says:   Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.If you are reviled ^[j]for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of thegodless man and the sinner? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.   Judgment indeed begins with the household of God. In Luke 12:47-48 Jesus says:  That slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes,but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.   We who have been entrusted with so much, with the indwelling Spirit of God and with the keys to the kingdom of heaven, of we who have been given much, much will be required.

We have a tendency in the church today to quote and claim the promises of God; to expect that God will hold true to His word and of course He will, so we should. If we look at the rest of what God says in today’s text, we will understand and acknowledge that He has.  “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, 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. 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?’ 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.’”   It is not only our government, our society and our culture which have turned away from the statutes and commandments of God. Christians too; the church has also forsaken God and His commandments. We, the church, are responsible for the adversity that our nation is experiencing because we have become silent and allowed the culture of the world to dictate the morals of our nation. Worse yet, much of the church has allowed the culture and the morals of the world to become the culture of the church. Regarding many of the social and moral issues of our day, much of the church is barely distinguishable from the world. In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says:  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”     If we expect God to fulfill His promises of good, we need to repent and fulfill the conditions He has set forth for our prosperity.

We as individuals and corporately as the church; as those called by the name of God, need to humble ourselves and pray. If we truly want God to heal our nation, then in humility we need to repent of the sins of our nation. 1 John 1:9 says:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  What is true for each of us individually is also true corporately. That means that if we want God to hear our prayer and heal our land, we need to humbly confess the sins of our nation. We need to confess and turn from sins, even the sins we may have had no part in. Even if we have never been unjust to another person based on race, color or ethnicity, we need to confess that there has been injustice. If we have lived righteously, not embracing the immorality of the culture, we still need to confess that immorality has reigned in our culture and in our nation. We need to not speak condemnation to the world, but rather humbly lead the world in confession and repentance.

God has kept His word. He has done exactly what He said He would. The adversity that we are experiencing in our nation is a result of what we have done. God always gives us a choice and He still says, as He did to Solomon: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  

Amen heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, Your promises are yes and amen. You are faithful to do all that You promised. May we, those who are called by Your name, be found faithful to keep Your commandments. May we truly humble ourselves and pray, may we confess and repent of the sins of our nation, so that You will heal our land.  Amen.