The Key to Renewal

For the last two months, we have been in Revelation looking at the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, discovering some warnings that Christ gave to the churches. Today, we are going back in time to the land of Israel during the reign of king Solomon. Turn your Bibles to the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 7.

In 2018, Psychology Today posted an article suggesting human beings make approximately 35,000 decisions each day. That seems like such a staggering number, but it’s probably true if we stop to think about all the things we choose to do or not do whether we are consciously aware of making those decisions or not. We make about 35,000 decisions each day and the the vast majority of them have no massive ramifications that alter the trajectory of our lives. Then there are the decisions that will alter the course of your life. Where are you going to live? What sort of education will you get? What sort of job are you going to have? Who are you going to marry? Are you going to finish listening to this sermon?

Every decision we make produces an outcome. When it came to Israel’s relationship with God, their choice was to follow God’s commands and receive his blessings, or go their own way and receive chastisement. It is not all that different with the church.

We are looking at verse 14 today which is probably quite familiar to many of you. Verse 14 reads:

2 Chronicles 7:14 NASB95

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.

Some translations will begin this verse with the word if, but either way, we are looking at a conditional statement. If God’s people will do this, then God will do that. If God’s people will humble themselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from their sin, God will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

The key to understanding this verse is to understand what it first said to its original audience. If you are an astute grammar student, you can see that verse fourteen is not a complete sentence. It is the continuation of verse thirteen. Let’s take a look at both verses together now:

2 Chronicles 7:13–14 NASB95

“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.

What we have here is a conditional statement. The Lord starts with the word if and follows it with several conditions. IF he shuts up the heavens, IF he commands the locusts to devour the land, or IF he sends pestilence among his people, AND they respond by humbling themselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from their sins, THEN he will hear from heave, forgive their sin, and heal their land. If these are the conditions, an the people respond in this manner, then this will be the result.

Now if we are going to understand what this passage says to us we must understand a few things.

First, God is responding to Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple in chapter six. At the opening of 2 Chronicles, Solomon sets out to build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself. He secures the help he needs and goes to work. The temple is completed and they hold a dedication ceremony for the temple. In chapter six, Solomon offers a prayer for the temple. Read with me starting in verse 26:

2 Chronicles 6:26–31 NASB95

“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them; then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance. “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men, that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

In chapter seven, God is responding directly to Solomon’s prayer.

God initiates fellowship with his people through covenantal relationships.

When any person enters into a relationship with God, they do so as a response to God’s initiation and they do so through a covenant relationship. Anyone who has ever entered into a relationship with God has done so at God’s prompting. From the moment God breathed the breath of life into Adam, he has initiated relationships with us. Abraham did not come to God on his own. God called Abram to leave Haran and go to the place he was going to lead him. Moses did not return to Egypt until God called him on the mountain. God called the people of Israel out of Egypt and entered into a covenant relationship with them. It was by his initiation that these things took place.

Every person who enters into a relationship with God does so through a covenant relationship. A covenant is similar to but different than a contract. In a contract, two or more parties, bring something of equal value to the table and make an agreement. Party A will provide A while Party B will provide B. The parties are considered equal in the sense that each has something the other wants and agree to supply each other with those things given the parameters or responsibilities of the agreement. If one party breaks the agreement, the other party is not obligated to continue holding up their end.

A covenant is similar to a contract in the sense that there is an agreement between two parties, but they are not considered equal. The initiator of the covenant is considered the stronger party while the other is considered the weaker party. Both parties don’t have something of equal value to bring to the table and if one party violates the terms of the covenant, it does not free the other from their obligations to the covenant. However, this does not mean that the relationship between both parties is always healthy.

We see this playing out in 2 Chronicles 6-7.

God’s response to Solomon is in line with his covenant with Israel.

When God entered into his covenant relationship with Israel, there were blessings and curses for Israel’s obedience to the covenant. You can read about those in Deuteronomy 28-29. When God says, “If I shut up the heavens” or “if I send locusts” or “if I send pestilence,” it is a response to Israel’s disobedience to the covenant in the first place. Then he promises that if they return to faithfulness to the covenant, he will be faithful to forgive them, and heal their land. So God is responding to Solomon in line with his covenant with Israel.

But you and I are not Israel and the covenant that you and I have entered into is not the same covenant that Israel entered into. The new covenant, initiated by God through Christ, comes from the fulfillment of the law, but now the law has been written on our hearts. Not only that, but through this new covenant we are given a new heart and indwelt by the Holy Spirit where we possess an understanding of and a desire for righteousness.

God deals with us on the basis of this new covenant and not on the old covenant. Under this new covenant we are his covenant people and he will act according to that covenant relationship and so do we.

The church must remember that it exists within a covenant with God and must be careful to follow in obedience to his commands.

There is a very important distinction that I feel must be made here. There is no covenant relationship between God and the United States of America. There are some who have taken this verse to mean that if America will repent of its sins and turn to the Lord, there is some obligation for the Lord to return America to its former glory. God has no covenantal obligation to do so. But it doesn’t mean that he won’t. God can and has used all kinds of people to accomplish his will on earth, even those who were not saved.

God promised Abraham that anyone who blessed him would be blessed and anyone who cursed him would be cursed. Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.” While that is speaking of Israel also, it follows that a nation who would claim it is one nation under God, that is the God of the Bible, will be blessed by God when they pursue righteousness. We just have to be careful not to say that America the nation are the people of his own inheritance.

Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” It follows that any nation that upholds and pursues righteousness is blessed by God regardless of whether everyone in that nation is a true follower of God.

Now when it comes to the church, we have to remember that we are God’s covenant people. If we expect to see the blessings of God in our midst, we must follow in obedience to the Lord’s commands. We and God are not equal partners in this relationship. He is the grater party. We are the lesser party. If we are to enjoy everything that he has for us, we must humble ourselves. We have to agree that his ways are better than our ways. We have to pray and seek his face. We have to turn to him for everything we need. We also have to turn from our sin. We cannot maintain an appropriate relationship with God and live a sinful lifestyle. They are contradictory to one another. Only then will God hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land.

Yes, it’s true that you are forgiven and are a child of God if you have come to him through faith, but you can only get a closeness to the Lord through continual growth into Christlikeness.

So what stands between you and an intimate relationship with your Maker today? Is it that you have never come to him through faith in Jesus, believing that he is the son of God who paid the price for sin that you and I could not pay by being nailed to a cross, dying, and rising from the dead three days later? Is it that you have taken up your own way and have now come to the realization that you have not been living his way? Ask the Spirit to reveal to you what change needs to be made in your life.