By: Dr Steven K. Parker
Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 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. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’
“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.’” (2 Chronicles 7:11-22)
This past week, our nation inaugurated Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. This ceremony marked the conclusion of the most contentious election cycle of my lifetime. Our nation is divided, but I have to admit that it was nice to see our national leaders come together for the inauguration ceremony, even if for just a brief moment, to celebrate the hopeful uniting ideals of our democratic republic. A national inauguration gives us a good opportunity to pause and ask, where do we go from here?
In this passage that we will be considering on Sunday, the nation of Israel gathered together with King Solomon in a special, national ceremony to dedicate the new temple they had just constructed. Solomon cried out to the LORD in prayer on behalf of the nation and the LORD appeared to the king in the night saying:
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 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. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. (2 Chronicles 7:12-15)
If the people wandered away from the LORD, judgment was sure to come, but it was the LORD’s desire to restore them. If they would humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wickedness, the LORD promised to hear, forgive, and heal.
This ancient message continues to speak to us today and offers us a way forward in the midst of this divisive political mess, global pandemic, and the normal struggles of our day-to-day lives. We are facing real problems, legitimate disagreements, and trying times. I don’t know all the solutions to the great political, social, medical, and economic difficulties of our day. I don’t know how to fix all that’s wrong with our nation. In the midst of these challenges, what I do know is that God invites us, as His people, to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our own wicked ways. If we will respond to that invitation, we just might discover God hearing those prayers, forgiving our sins, and healing our land.
We can so easily point out what’s wrong with our country and the sins committed on the other side of our current political disagreements. It’s much harder to take a critical look inward, display true humility, seek God’s face, and turn away from our own sinful, prideful, selfish ways. It’s so easy to get bogged down in disagreements and so difficult to step away from the noise, humble our hearts, and pray faithfully. As we move forward from yesterday’s inauguration, will we continue to take the easy way out or will we take the more difficult path of true discipleship that can really make a difference in our world? If we will do the latter, we just might find God’s way forward through this mess.
I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, either online or in-person at our Parking Lot Service.