160703 The God Who Heals the Broken Land

David had been denied the privilege of building the temple because he had lived such a violent life. God said he could not build the temple because he had shed so much blood and waged great wars. God did not want his temple associated with the concept of death, destruction and warfare. So, He allowed Solomon, David son, with Bathsheba, to be the builder of the magnificent temple. Let’s look at the description of the result found in…

2 Chronicles 7:11–16 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. ¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if 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 and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

These words recorded for our instruction came from the very throne of heaven. In the chapter before this, Solomon, king of Israel, son of David, poured out his heart in prayer, on his knees, asking God to honor His people by occupying the temple they had built. A large part of that prayer of dedication was thanking God and reminding God of his promises. Then Solomon outlined a series of examples when the people would need God’s forgiveness.

In Solomon’s prayer he asked God for forgiveness for the man who sinned against his neighbor, for the nation when they sinned and were therefore defeated in battle, when the people sinned and God brought famine and other examples of the need for correction and forgiveness.

Solomon’s prayer opens with God’s own words. Let’s look at 2 Chronicles 6:14-17 “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, ¹⁵ who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. ¹⁶ Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ ¹⁷ Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David.

Here we are given another example of beginning prayer proclaiming the glory of God’s name. Solomon recognized that there was no God other than Jehovah! Solomon prayed just as Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 5:9b) Later Isaiah would expand on the concept of there being no God like Jehovah. In fact, God’s words, through Isaiah, were, “I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.” (Isaiah 43:11)  

Solomon knew they would need to repent. Let’s move further down to 2 Chronicles 6:36-39. If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, ³⁷ yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’ ³⁸ if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, ³⁹ then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

Solomon recognized that we all sin. And he also recognized that the wrath of God will always be released against sin. Because God is a God of justice He must act against sin. There are those who would like to cut out of the Bible all the references to the wrath of God and leave behind the love of God. It is true that wrath seems to be a very negative concept and by itself would cause us to live in fear of God. God’s love would be meaningless if He were not just. We need to ask what God would be like if he did not hate sin. He would then be a God who either delighted in sin or at least was not troubled by it. “Such a God would not be worthy of our worship, for sin is hateful and it is worthy of being hated.” Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, page 206. To hate evil and sin is a virtue that should be cultivated.

Solomon continued that if sin causes God’s people to be carried away in captivity his prayer for them would be that they repent with all their mind and all their heart. And if they repented in such a way then God should hear from heaven and maintain their cause and forgive His people. And then he asked God to keep His eyes open and His ears attentive to the prayers offered in this Temple. With the conclusion of Solomon’s prayer…

The dedication of the Temple was amazing. Let’s look ahead to 2 Chronicles 7:1-3. As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. ² And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. ³ When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

It is difficult to imagine the scene. It was a repeat of what had happened in the wilderness when they dedicated the tabernacle. Moses and Aaron blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering that had been placed before the tent of meeting (Leviticus 9:23-24). Later, a similar event would occur on Mount Carmel. Elijah had demonstrated the power of God by withholding rain for three and half years. When he had the people’s attention he called for a contest between Jehovah and Baal, the false god worshiped by the wicked king and queen, Ahab and Jezebel! Two altars were erected and prepared for sacrifice. The priests of Baal spent the day calling out to their god to no avail. At the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah prepared the altar for Jehovah and placed the wood with the sacrifice on it and then dug a trench around it. He had water poured on it until the sacrifice was soaked along with the altar and the trench was filled with water. With a simple prayer Elijah called for God to respond so the people would know that Jehovah is God alone. When he prayed fire fell and consumed the offering, the wood, the stones and licked up the dust around as well as the water in the trench. No doubt the people could see, “The Lord, He is God”.

Perhaps it’s time for God’s fire to fall again. After this magnificent demonstration…

God came to Solomon in the night. God seems to use a nighttime visit often. When it was time to announce the coming of the Messiah God did the same thing. Let’s turn to Matthew 1:20-21. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Joseph was pondering the problem of what to do about the fact that his fiancée, Mary, was pregnant and they were not married yet! God appeared to him in a dream. It seems to me that such night visits are common because it is a good time to get a person’s attention. Joseph was visited at night at least two more times in the process of protecting the infant Jesus.

In the same manner, the apostle Paul was visited at night at least three times to be guided on the direction of his ministry (Acts 16:9; 18:9; 23:11).

After all the excitement of the dedication of the Temple Solomon must have been emotionally exhausted. He went to his house, went to bed and was soon fast asleep. Then God appeared to him and then pointed out…

God did the choosing — as always. Let’s look ahead to 2 Chronicles 7:12. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.   

It must have been very reassuring to hear the words, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place.” We need to remember that is God who does the choosing in our lives. Solomon can build the temple and dedicate it to the glory of God but he cannot require God to choose the place as a house of sacrifice. Let’s look ahead to verse 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

This is an amazing statement that God makes. “I have chosen… That my name may be there forever.” Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount are very important because God has chosen and dedicated that place to his name forever. We don’t begin to have time to unravel all that might mean. But one thing for sure no matter who claims to own the Temple Mount — Muslim or Jew — it is the place where God’s eyes and heart are forever. There Christ will return to bring an end to all the foolishness that we called history.

God does not forgive our sins simply because we confess them. God forgives our sin because we repent. Because we turn from our wicked ways. God forgives when we turn not just when we ask. One must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. That means turning from sin and turning to Christ in faith.

Repentance calls for humility. Let’s turn to 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. ¹⁰ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

The church at Corinth had allowed open sin and needed to repent. They needed a godly repentance not the world’s kind of repentance. Just as God told Solomon His people must turn from their wicked ways while seeking His face. Then, and only then, would God hear from heaven and heal their land.

It is important that we seek. Let’s look to the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:7-8. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

We have often looked to these words as guidance in our prayer time. Ask and go on asking; seek and go on seeking; knock and go knocking! Such asking results in receiving. Such seeking results in finding. Such knocking results in it being opened. Whatever “it” is. It will be received — it will be found — and it will be opened. We should be very serious about prayer. Because…

God promised He would be attentive to prayer. Let’s turn to 2 Chronicles 16:9a. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

Asa the King of Judah had relied on Syria rather than God. The preacher (seer) Hanani recounted to him some of the times that God had rescued Israel. The victory had come because they had relied on the Lord. And then, these words, “the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him”. God is constantly looking for people who put him first in all their seeking. God will meet the needs of his people…

When God’s people meet His conditions. Let’s look to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“These things” that Jesus refers to are the basic needs of life: what we eat, what we drink and what we wear. But, before we seek our needs we should first seek God’s kingdom. Faith in the Lord Jesus brings us salvation. Trust in the Lord Jesus provides for all our needs. The words of God to Solomon, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,” provide the conditions whereby he will forgive their sin and…

He will heal the land. In the days of Joel God’s people were suffering and in need of real revival. Let’s look to Joel 2:23-25. Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. ²⁴ “The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. ²⁵ I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.

Immediately before God spoke these words to Joel he had said that they must return to the Lord their God. God pointed out that he was slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He called for the people to consecrate a fast and come together to call on God. Then and only then would he begin to restore what had been taken away. Not only does God promise Joel that he would resume meeting the needs of people he said that with their repentance he would give back to them everything that was taken away.

There needs to be a repentance in America today. This nation was founded on the principles of the Judeo-Christian religion. The United States Constitution and that of every state in the nation is based on the Bible. We now live in a time when many people are committed to wipe out all memory of real religion. All over America there are attempts being made to remove any reference to God.

The evil consequences of the current social experimentation in America is to see ruined lives, hatred, violence, sexual sin openly practiced and all other kinds of evil not only seen but commended as a normal way of life. I know that God will intervene and ultimately He will win out in the struggle. But first, His people must repent and call on him to intervene.

For those of us who wonder why God is not acting more forcefully in the events unfolding around us we need to remember the words of James. “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:2b-3) We need to recognize that failure to ask might deprive us of what God would otherwise give us. Jesus gave a similar statement in Luke 11:9-10. There he makes a clear connection between our seeking and God’s giving them to us. When we ask, God responds. Our mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, is prepared to hear our prayers and heal our land.

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.