When Solomon was dedicating the beautiful temple that he had built, as described in 2 Chronicles 7:14, he laid out God’s blessings and warnings to the people of Israel so that they would dedicate themselves to following after God with all their heart and doing His will in the land. This verse became especially well-known in the 1970s and 80s, because the church had begun to awaken to the negative effect that political and social apathy (the condition in which many Christians had been living) was having: a lack of respect for Judeo-Christian morality and our deeply held national values. This particular verse was preached about, sung about, and in many ways, acted upon, by many praying people in churches across the country and probably across the world. People were instructed to pray and seek God for a revival or an awakening of some kind so that we might experience a turnaround in our national direction. To a certain extent, such changes began to occur and many people came back to church and to God.
Energy and commitment began to be asserted toward involvement in the political, social, and cultural spheres by Christians, who responded mostly on the grass-roots level, to accomplish various goals through a more attentive presence in the national town square. Christians felt that it was their duty to become involved in ways that they had not felt for decades and this influence began to get attention by both those that opposed the new involvement and by those who felt that they could find a use for it. However, little of this actually had to do with the original verse, which focused on bowing in humility and the personal repentance shown by turning from the sin that so easily catches us up. Prayer movements arose from that original call in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, which led the main focus in the beginning toward personal revival and individual change.
However, in recent years, prayer has not been the national priority as it was in the past; people talked more about prayer, perhaps, but I think, did less of it. September 11, happened, which at first brought rededication to prayer and national unity of purpose. However, it was not long before our national conscience turned toward a vengeance mentality: everyone wanted to blame the other guys, find the bad people to score points over or destroy, rather than forgiving them, praying for them, or seeking their welfare.
Everyone wants to find fault and to “be right,” rather than humbling themselves and changing their own heart.
Wars and terror attacks of the 1990s and new millennium pushed the nationalistic impulses to the front of our minds, and the humbling of ourselves command of the verse in 2 Chronicles was out of focus. We want God to “heal our land,” but we want to be able to say what that means, not let God define it. Heart-searching was no longer our first response to personal, civil, social, and political problems; for many reasons, blame-casting became the response of the day.
We want to blame someone else, whom we demonize as being at fault. We prefer to see them as entirely evil, just like we want to see less of what is wrong in our own souls. Those are the eyes of our human nature, not the eyes of Jesus. Without His eyes, we won’t see the one lost sheep, whom Jesus went after, whom He actually advocated leaving the “99” behind to go off to find; without His eyes, we will only see the world of people as enemies or obstacles to our peaceful existence or as a distraction from our “God” agenda. Rather than loving our enemies as we have been commanded by the Lord of love, we, instead, want to assert our rights and rightness and blame our problems on those with whom we disagree. But the promise in 2 Chron 7:14 states, ” 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 humility and turning are often not the parts of this verse-promise on which we like to focus our attention.
It has become clear, to me, however, that the promise of God in regards to blessing has another side as well—warning—and the rest of this chapter makes this clear: “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”
We must remember that the people to whom the promise was made were the people of Israel, God’s own. Those who wish to see themselves as the “righteous ones” today must also realize that, just as in the day of Solomon, it is those who are called by “His name,” who are “His people,” and who must humble themselves and pray and turn (repent) in order to receive the blessing promised by God.
All the blaming in the world will not bring us closer to the fulfillment of this promise, but will bring us closer to its warning. We need first and foremost as God’s people, His Church, His Bride, to “search our own hearts” and “see if there be any wicked way found there” (Ps 139:23) and turn aside from it in humility.
RECOMMENDED BOOK:
PRAYER: FINDING THE HEART’S TRUE HOME, RICHARD J. FOSTER
Amazon’s description of the book:
“Best-selling author Richard J. Foster offers a warm, compelling, and sensitive primer on prayer, helping us to understand, experience, and practice it in its many forms-from the simple prayer of beginning again to unceasing prayer. He clarifies the prayer process, answers common misconceptions, and shows the way into prayers of contemplation, healing, blessing, forgiveness, and rest.
Coming to prayer is like coming home, Foster says. “Nothing feels more right, more like what we are created to be and to do. Yet at the same time we are confronted with great mysteries. Who hasn’t struggled with the puzzle of unanswered prayer? Who hasn’t wondered how a finite person can commune with the infinite Creator of the universe? Who hasn’t questioned whether prayer isn’t merely psychological manipulation after all? We do our best, of course, to answer these knotty questions but when all is said and done, there is a sense in which these mysteries remain unanswered and unanswerable . . . At such times we must learn to become comfortable with the mystery.”
Foster shows how prayer can move us inward into personal transformation, upward toward intimacy with God, and outward to minister to others. He leads us beyond questions to a deeper understanding and practice of prayer, bringing us closer to God, to ourselves, and to our community.”
Trinity Church 