Last night, several of the churches of Siouxland (the general term for Sioux City, South Sioux City, NE and North Sioux City, SD) came together for a time of prayer for our nation. There were two Baptist pastors involved, three Assemblies of God, a Lutheran church and a couple of Reformed fellowships. Each of us had five minutes to introduce a topic related to our national plight, lead in prayer, then give those involved time to prayer in small groups about the issue.
Before I get to my point, some observations:
- 1) I really enjoy doing things like this and I believe that God is pleased when his people unite in prayer like this.
- 2) It isn’t easy to bring all those styles together. I heard someone I’m quite sure was speaking in tongues, and I heard some things said that are not exactly the way I would say them. But it is worth putting those things aside for an evening to unite as the Body of Christ in Siouxland.
- 3) While I am suspicious of the dominionist movement that seems to be gaining steam out there, and I know many are down on “revivalism”, I think it is a good and godly thing to join together to ask God’s mercy on our nation and to beg his reviving grace and restoring mercy.
Can We Claim 2 Chronicles 7:14?
It was no surprise that one of the pastors quoted this verse. It would have been a shock if it were not refferenced in a gathering such as this.
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.
The formula for revival is clear here, isn’t it? God’s people need only repent, pray and seek his face while turning from their wicked ways and God will hear our prayers, forgive our national sins and bring healing and restoration to the United States of America – something we need pretty badly.
There’s one problem with that – it completely misses the context of the verse. This was spoken to Solomon in a vision in the night just after the Temple had been completed. The passage begins with a warning that when Israel sins, God will stop the rains and send the locusts and generally wreak havoc on Israel. But if they turn from their sin and repent, God would restore Israel. It is clearly a promise given to the nation of Israel, not the United States of America. Promises made to Israel were often unique to Israel and in context that seems to be the case here.
So, 2 Chronicles 7:14 Is Meaningless?
Of course not. First, it reveals God’s faithfulness to Israel and that is a great encouragement to all of us. In spite of Israel’s constant propensity to sin and rebel, God was still willing to forgive and restore them when they repented. That is good news for anyone who messes up as often as I do.
And I think there may be eternal principles behind this that can make it not wholly inappropriate when used as a national call to repentance. No, America has no promise from God for our continued existence. God raises up one nation and takes another down. This verse offered Israel, not the USA, a promise of restoration.
But there is an insight into God’s character that is universally applicable. While we cannot claim every promise made to Israel, we can know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and that he acts on the basis of his character.
While God judges sin and sinners, he responds to repentance. That repentance should begin with the people of God. If we wish to be agents of God’s redemptive work, we need to examine our own hearts and lives and see where we have been walking in sin. When we have repented of our own sin, we can also call sinners to repent and believe. As people do that, as they turn from their sins and come to God, healing comes. God heals lives and families and if the repentance becomes widespread enough, cities and nations.
So, NO, the USA has no promise of restoration from 2 Chronicles 7:14. He has blessed us and used us in many ways, but he is not obligated to continue using us in the future. But if we love our nation and desire to see its fortunes restored, then a call to repent, starting with our own hearts, and an admonition to pray and seek God’s face is completely appropriate.
So, while I understand that the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 was not made to and cannot be claimed by patriotic Americans, we can rest in the fact that the God we serve responds to those who repent of their sins and pray and seek his face. It is the right thing to do,with or without a promise of restoration for our nation.
Dave, I agree with you. That verse would seem to serve as a good jumping off point to ask some rhetorical questions about who God’s people are and how will He hear them. Then, move into the gospel.
Jer. 29:11 is similarly misused.
Perhaps more so.
Would you mind telling us what you said in your five minutes?
I actually had a minute, minute and a half to talk, then the rest of the time people prayed. I mentioned the singing of “God Bless America” and how we cannot really ask God to bless a nation and a people who live in sin and rebellion. I quoted Pr 14:34 and the need for righteousness and obedience. Nothing too profound.
Amen Dave … God has never blessed sin and rebellion, individually or nationally. Traditional lyrics of “God Bless America” contain an opening stanza which we no longer sing: While the storm clouds gather far across the sea, Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free, Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. God Bless America, Land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam God bless… Read more »
Dave,
Your article was outstanding. So many preachers fail to note the truth of what you just said.
I think pulling scriptures out of context stems from the general practice of ‘proof texting’ to make one’s predetermined point as well as ‘topical preaching’ which starts with a point to make and scriptures are pulled out to support it. If we are to learn the whole council of God, it would seem better to read whole chunks of scripture and then expound it.
“But if we love our nation and desire to see its fortunes restored, then a call to repent, starting with our own hearts, and an admonition to pray and seek God’s face is completely appropriate.”
Amen!
If My People … Then Will I.
Because there is an idea that one can move God to do as one wants, that is, one can labor under the mistaken notion that he or she can manipulate God (though they would not call it that), I have never felt any desire to preach II Chron.7:14 as a means to revival. I do have a message on Hab.3:2 bearing the title, A Third Great Awakening. Awakenings apparently are the result of a visitation of God. His presence becomes evident, overwhelming, prompting the visited to cry out for mercy, for relief, for any and everything appropriate to the stituation.
Dave, I think I am at least in basic agreement with you on this. God is merciful to any and all who repent. What I am about to talk about you have not advocated for. So, don’t take this as if I am disagreeing with you. I think people can go in the wrong direction when it comes to blessings. They can think that blessings are both necessarily forfeited by our disobedience and earned by our obedience. When someone makes a statement like “‘Can’ God Bless America?”, then I think a good question to ask in response would be “Do… Read more »
I think that is a difficult thing. On the one hand, we know what we experience, and on the other, we have the implications of the sovereignty of God.
No, I don’t think God dangles at the end of our string, simply responding to what we do. He is sovereign.
but on the other hand, it is not hard to demonstrate that God responds to repentance. “Seek me and I will be found,” he says.
Dave, I do believe that God mercifully responds to those who seek Him. What I am talking about is folks taking the basic “If you obey, then you will be blessed; if you disobey, then you will be cursed” that did apply to Israel and presently applying that to America (for example). I do not think that kind of approach is sensitive to the shift from the Old era to the New era. Israel was in a context in which it was permissible for them to earn blessings. However, I think Christ came under that same law [that Israel was… Read more »
And yet, the principle of reaping and sowing is repeated in the New Testament. And when I read books like Proverbs, I don’t see any sense that the “wisdom leads to blessings and folly leads to destruction” principle is meant as some sort of specifically Israelite concept.
Dave, I don’t equate the “Obedience –> blessings; Disobedience –> cursings” with reaping what one sows. For example, I do not think the pagan nations were in the same position to earn blessings from God as Israel was in the OT. However, I do think that if a pagan did not get habitually drunk and exercised, than he would [possibly] have a healthy body as a consequence (i.e., reaping what he sowed). I do not think the pagan “earned” a healthy body. I think the pagan went with the grain of how God designed his body and thus benefited from… Read more »
I think this may be another one of those antinomy/paradox things – we are blessed in Christ but we are also blessed for obedience to Christ. Maybe those principles just work at different levels.
What makes a person a person a believer in the cultural mandate? What makes a believer a dominionest? Are they the same?
Is Wayne Grudem a dominionest?
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/10/nation/la-na-adv-christian-right-20110911
I shared the pulpit with a guy who preached this passage. I asked him at dinner about it. He smiled and said, “There are so few Jews claiming the promises of God, that God just might answer it for us.” 🙂
I am not sure that those who preach this verse are viewing God as a slot machine where if we pray enough, repent enough, humble ourselves enough, then God MUST bless America. They just see praying, repenting, humbling and seeking God’s face as the ONLY way that we will ever get ourselves out of the mess we’re in.
I agree that the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 was not made to America. But I also note that the promise was made to Israel when it reached a state in which 2 Chronicles 7:13 applied. And God’s promise to do that in 14 was made after Solomon had prayed, stating he knew Israel would stray, and asked God to forgive and restore when they’d repented.
If it applies to a group today, I’d suggest it applies to the church, not to the USA.
Incidentally, does Sadie’s in South Sioux City still serve corned beef & cabbage?
“If it applies to a group today, I’d suggest it applies to the church, not to the USA.”
Bob, I completely agree. The focus of this passage should be on “my people” … the church, rather than the nation. God will not bless America, nor America bless God in its current state. America will not pray, repent and seek God’s face … will the church?
No, it won’t, not until it sees it has a problem and admits that it’s an internal problem unrelated to other peoples or nations. The church won’t admit the 13th verse already applies to the church. Sadie’s had a bunch called “Sadie’s Corned Beef & Cabbage Club” that met weekly .. I think it was Thursday but it’s been nearly 30 years ago I was there. I went there with an insurance agent named Bob Hatfield, and the City Controller (I believe it was) by the name of Mose Yanney. The CB&C was terrific! Sadie even had a little sign… Read more »
Honestly, I’ve never been there. It’s not in the phone book either. SSC has had a lot of turnover in recent years and is now mostly hispanic and other ethnic groups. It has some excellent Mexican restaurants and some Korean and other Asian restaurants.
Agree with Bob Cleveland. 2 Chronicles 7:14 applies to the church. In that fashion, it can be taken with the calls of Jesus Christ for Laodicea and the other seriously flawed churches to repent in Revelation 2 and 3.
Exactly Job. The last word of Jesus to the church is not the Great Commission. The Great Commission should indeed be at the heart of our ministry at the end of the age, but our Lord’s last words to the church should ring in our ears … “repent or else”.
Actually, II Chronicles 7:14 can be taken with reference to the church today. In Romans 15:4 Paul writes: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” B.H. Carroll in one of his sermons points out that God does, contrary to certain folks in the past 30 years, hear the prayers of sinners. He even illustrates it with the case of Ahab. The point is, however, that though God hears and even answers the prayers of sinners (and we are all sinners), He does not accept… Read more »