My People
Notes
Transcript
Intro; This morning I want us to look at probably the top one or two scriptures in all the Bible that is taken out of context way too often. Now it is taken out of context for a good purpose, but it cannot accomplish the purpose that it is taken out of context for. This verse is used in evangelistic conferences, revival meetings, it has been the theme for the National Day of Prayer, it is prayed in our prayer meetings and by individuals as well.
Just because a verse seems to fit into our plans and says what we want it to say, we can’t ignore its primary purpose and rob it of its power. When we do that it becomes a meaningless verse as it is being used in our day. Using this verse out of context is like reciting “The Lord’s Prayer” everyday. It becomes a ritual of words and not a reality of a relationship.
There is an old saying that “all Scripture is written for us, but not all Scripture is written to us.” This verse is one of those.
Text; 2 Chron. 7:14
14 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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Prayer
I love this verse and I can see why any nation would pray this prayer seeking God to heal their land! But this scripture is not meant for any nation but the nation of Israel, at a specific time and place and for a specific reason.
1. The Setting In Context; 14
1. The Setting In Context; 14
Solomon has just completed Yahweh’s [first] temple. It has been 20 years since this project started and now Solomon dedicates it to the Lord.
Summary
First, he and all Israel bring God’s Ark to the temple (5:1–10).
1 So all the work that Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and all the furnishings. And he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.
2 Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, in Jerusalem, that they might bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord up from the City of David, which is Zion.
When the musicians sing, God’s glory fills the house (5:11–15).
13 indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,” that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,
Solomon then blesses God for fulfilling his promise to make Solomon king and builder of his house (6:1–11).
4 And he said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His hands what He spoke with His mouth to my father David…
Solomon asks God to answer any prayer made toward his house (6:12–42).
19 Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You:
21 And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.
22 “If anyone sins against his neighbor…
24 “Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You…
26 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You…
28 “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;
36 “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near;
39 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.
God responds as fire comes down from heaven and consumes the burnt offering, and God’s glory fills the house again (7:1).
1 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 temple.
After Solomon sends the people home, God appears to Solomon and promises to grant Solomon’s request (7:12–16).
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice…
15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
God makes a promise to Solomon and a specific people, the nation of Israel, concerning prayer and sacrifices made in a specific place, the temple.
2. My People; 14
2. My People; 14
My people called by My name- the nation of Israel. God is specifically talking to Solomon about the people of Israel.
If Israel will humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, then God promises three things to Israel: He will hear their prayer, He will forgive their sin, He will heal their land.
[13] The reason Israel would need to humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn from their wicked ways is because God is judging them in their sin!
These were definite conditions that God placed upon Israel at the request of Solomon’s prayer.
You can carry this back to God’s covenant with Moses in [Deut. 28]. The promised blessings for obedience to God and the promised curses for disobedience to God.
In the NT, while the temple is still in play, I want you to see the same promises are brought before Israel by both John Baptist and Jesus.
1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ ”
John was preaching to Israel, “MY People” to humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways and God would hear, forgive and heal their land.
Jesus did the same thing!
17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
38 See! Your house is left to you desolate;
39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
John and Jesus made a legitimate offer for the nation of Israel to have the promises of God fulfilled from that prayer. But their history demonstrates the accuracy and literal interpretation of that prayer and the promises of God.
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 them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
21 “And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’
22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”
The people of Israel today are scattered throughout the world, there is no peace in the land because they failed to meet those conditions.
In AD 70, Titus the Roman emperor destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. Do you know what sits on the very same sight today, the Mosque of Omar [Dome of the Rock]. It is an Islamic monument to the prophet Muhammed.
If you wanted to pray this prayer in context, you would have to be a Jew, standing in Jerusalem, where there is no longer a temple of God. It would be a prayer in vain.
3. Application for Today; 14
3. Application for Today; 14
We can surely apply the principles of this prayer to our life today.
My People- church
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Humble themselves- not think highly of self
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Pray- an earthly request for heavenly intervention
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Seek My face- His will
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Turn from wicked ways- repent
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
What principles can we glean from God’s promises in this prayer?
God promised to hear
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
God promised to forgive
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But God never promised America, the church or any nation besides Israel in scriptures, that He would heal their land nor promise material blessings. God promises the church “spiritual blessings”.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Close;
I am confident that we should repent of our sin so we can pray for our country and leaders, and that God would hear our prayer.
I am confident as a christian that we should seek the face of God on a daily basis for ourselves and all mankind, to know Him and come to the knowledge of truth.
And I am for sure that to change the course of this country will take more than a politician!
But I am also confident that regardless of what happens in America, God is still on His throne and when Jesus returns, then and only then will there finally be true Peace on Earth!
In the meantime you can have true peace in your heart by trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
