Most Misused Verses - 2 Chronicles 7:14

Intro

We come to another “step on your toes” verse

This is a one of those verses that you might hear under several different circumstances

The first time I heard it misused was again as a newer believer listening to BOTT radio

It was a commercial quoting this verse along with some quotes by Billy Graham on prayer

The commercial was for... the National Day of Prayer

I don’t really listen to the radio anymore but when I did, I would hear this verse about 5-6 times per day for 3 weeks leading up to the 1st Thursday in May

It got to a point where I would turn the station to anything else when that commercial came on - I wasn’t sure if I was more annoyed by the commercial or constantly hearing that verse pulled out of context and grossly misused

Then I attended a church with a few highly patriotic believers and they would quote this verse as though it was a promise to America

At least with this I could have conversations with them and try to point them to some of the things we will talk about

Sometime the conversations were fruitful, others not so much

I can’t say if I changed any of their minds in those discussions, but I can say that none of them used that verse in front of me again

As we have established, context is important, both historical context and biblical context

Historical Background

1 Ki and 2 Chr have a significant amount of overlap in the timeline of Isr

It’s sort of an OT equivalent of the Gospels in that it accounts the history of the kings of Isr and you can create a harmony between the two

Just like the Gospels 1 Ki and 2 Chr covers similar items but from different perspectives

By the time we get to 2 Chr 7, David’s dead and Solomon ascends to the throne (1 Ki 1-2)

Once he officially ascends to the throne he determines to build a temple for God - which fulfilled what God had told David (1 Chr 17)

In 2 Chr 2-5 we see the building of the temple and ch 5 ends with the Ark of the Covenant being placed in the temple(which symbolized God’s presence)

Ch 6 (cf. 1 Ki 8) opens with Solomon blessing the temple and recounting the conversation between God and David regarding the new temple

Ch 6 ends with Solomon standing before the people giving an amazing prayer to God (vv 12-42)

His prayer is one of humility and looks for God to act as judge when the people sin, but also would provide forgiveness and healing when the people repent

Solomon asks God the listen to his prayer and the prayer of His people as well as the Lord’s blessing on the nation in times of war

He closes with an appeal to God to bless the temple, the priests, the nation and the king

And ch 7 opens with a bang (literally) - fire comes down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice (a sign of God’s acceptance of said sacrifice)

As part of the temple dedication, Solomon offers a seemingly impossible number of Sacrifices (vv4-7)

Some suggest this number (144k) is more hyperbolic simply based on the number of sacrifices compared to the 14 day time period (vv8-9)

**For the math nerds: 144k sacrifices in 14 days would mean a sacrifice every 8.5s (24hr/day)

Several years pass and Solomon is now completed with the temple and his own house

Then, in the middle of the night, the Lord appears to Solomon

And this brings us to our passage

Context

Once again, whenever we study a passage we need to set the immediate context and then the passage context

For anyone paying attention when they read this verse, what’s the first thing that should stand out? (it’s the middle of a sentence)

So because this is the middle of a sentence, what should our first reaction be? (go backwards to find the start of the sentence)

This establishes the immediate context for us (vv12-14) and the entire dialogue from God goes to v22

So if we want to avoid misusing this verse we have to start in v12 - and what do we notice about v 12 when God starts speaking? (God says, “I have heard your prayer”)

What proceeds from the mouth of God in vv 12-22 is a response to a prayer of Solomon

So what prayer? - The closest prayer we have is Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chr 6:12-42

And if you go back and read through Solomon’s prayer, you will see specific parallels between the prayer and the response

So the context establishes that God is responding to a specific prayer from a specific person, who prayed for very specific things

Let’s also notice what God begins with (v12 - “this place”)

In His response, God could only be referring to the temple Solomon built (it’s the “house of sacrifice”)

All of this is significant in understanding the passage as Bargerhuff points out: “because the promise that the Lord gives is specifically to this king and these people in this time and this place.”

We said v14 is the middle of a sentence, so let’s look at how that sentence starts: “When I shut up the heavens...”

So not only is the response to a specific prayer, etc., v14 is attached to a specific scenario

The assumption by God is that His people (Israel) will sin

And as God promised numerous times, their sin will lead to judgement - not only for them but on the land as well (drought, famine, locusts, etc.)

If God sends this judgement and the people repent God will provide restoration

What it Doesn’t Mean

Based on all of this, is there anything that would lead us to think we could just generally apply this verse to America (or any other nation besides Isr) or to the church or just to us generally as individuals?

Yet I’ve had several conversations with overly patriotic believers who felt the need to pluck this verse out and quote it as some sort of general promise with no consideration of the context or it’s meaning

To quote Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park: they’re “so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”

If we are going to use this for either America or the church (universal), then we also have to account for the statements in v13

When was the last time America was in a national drought, or the last time locusts devoured the land

I’m pretty sure I don’t recall reading about those in any of my history classes in school (although I did go to public school so...)

If we are going to use this for the church then we are going to have spiritualize everything

Which is dangerous because you’d have to explain why God is causing a spiritual drought and famine in His church

Not to mention: what is the spiritual meaning of a locust devouring the land?

And there are other aspects of the verse we haven’t even touched on: define wicked ways (what does that mean)?

In relation to America, that’s fairly easy - but we we willing to define the church as practicing “wickedness”

Doing this just becomes comical at minimum, at worst it’s blasphemous

So be patriotic if you want, and pray for our leaders and nation (1 Tim 2:1-3) but let’s not use this verse as our binding promise expecting God to bring spiritual revival to this nation when so many other people in other nations need the message of Christ as much, if not more than those in this country

(Bargerhuff): “Though the spiritual principle of humility, repentance, prayer, forgiveness, and healing are still relevant for us today, the binding promise of this passage was fro another people in another time and another place. It is not a promise for any other nation besides the nation of Israel, those who could rightly be called “‘God’s people’.”

Application

So is there nothing we can get out of this verse? - of course there is

1) God hears our prayers

There are countless examples in the Bible where we are told “God heard their prayers”

Here God specifically says, “I have heard your prayer”

Isaiah says God never sleeps, meaning we can go to Him any time and when we go to God in prayer, we can have confidence He will hear us

This is what Mark mentioned last week (1 Jn 5:14)

2) God answers prayer

Solomon prayed, God answered - And God answered specifically

If you go back and read Solomon’s prayer in ch 6:12-42, there are very specific requests, and while God didn’t go line by line, His answers are specific to Solomon’s requests

Throughout the Bible we see God answering the prayer’s of His children

So we can pray generally, but we can also ask for specific things and with those prayers we can be certain that not only will God hear us, but he will answer us - again, as Mark pointed out last week, sometimes that answer is “wait” but “wait” is an answer

3) Repentance leads to forgiveness

Contrary to the opinions of the ignorant, God is gracious and merciful in both the OT and NT

A couple of times in these chapters we read about God: “You’re steadfast love endures forever”

That love is shown here in this passage when God clearly states when His people repent, He will forgive them

That was true for the the nation of Isr in Solomon’s day, it’s true for us as individuals today

When we sin, we don’t have to be afraid that God will take away our salvation - Eph 1:11-14, Heb 7:25 (and others) make clear our salvation is secure

But when we sin, we know that God through X has forgiven us (1 Jn 1:9)

Repentance (turning from sin, turning to God) is our sign that God’s forgiveness is provided through the death of X

For the unbeliever, it (along with faith) places them into the body of X and makes them one of God’s children

For the believer, it’s the ongoing recognition that we are not perfected in this life and leads us to long for the true temple, the true kingdom, our true home in heaven

It is a biblical principle that repentance leads to times of blessing so we can pray for revival, and repentance for those in this country

But let’s go to passages like Act 3:19-20 and not cliing to this passage as though it invokes some guarantee that forces God to act like he did in the OT