2Chron. 7:13-14: 13If I shut up heaven that there be no
rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence
among my people; 14If my people, which are called by my name,
shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their
wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sin, and will heal their land.
The Promises
As
mentioned earlier, 2Chron. 7:14 has four conditions that God’s people must fulfill
and three blessings that God will bestow upon His people should they meet the
specified conditions. Upon fulfilling
the conditions, God says:
1)
I Will Hear From Heaven
God
says He will give ear to, give attention to (e.g. Exodus 3:7) or will consider
our requests. God is saying in the passage that if His people will meet the
four conditions that He requires, then He will not just hear our prayers, but
he will pay due attention to them, He will act on our prayers and answer them..
2)
Forgive their sins
God
says He will pardon or spare us. Sin leads to death, but God has promised to
spare His people from the consequences, or penalty of sin (Romans 6:23, Ezek.
18:20-32).
3)
Heal their land
God
says if He has stopped the rains from the land and brought drought, if He has brought
plagues of locusts and insects to devour the crops, and if He has caused
pestilence to fall on His people, if He has brought judgment on His people due
to their wicked rebellion against Him and His statutes. Then If His people will humble themselves and
pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, then He will heal the
land from the judgments He has brought
upon it.
In
ancient Israel the land was their livelihood.
If the land did not bring forth the crops at the appropriate times and
if the harvest was poor, then the people would starve or have insufficient
food, or the animals the people grazed for milk, cheese, and other products
would be under nourished, and not produce sufficient milk, cheese, etc. Again the people’s lives would suffer, as a
result of the poor crops and livestock. (Deut. 11:16-17)
This
principle can be applied at all levels of our life and society. Essentially,
God is promising that if His people will comply with the four conditions
outlined in 2 Chronicles 7:14, then He will heal their land, God will heal the
family problems and the country’s ailing economies. God will surely provide for
His people and they would prosper. God
wants His people to have a good life, and enjoy the planet He created for them (Matt.
7:11).
Summary
God
wants to bless us in such a way that we will prosper and live a good life, but
all we need to do is to repent, seek Him with all our hearts in absolute
humility, and trust Him to deliver on the promises He has declared and made.
In
Ephesians 4, Paul entreats us to walk before God in a manner worthy of our calling,
with all humility and gentleness; to lay aside our old self, which is corrupted
with lusts and deceits; to renew the spirit of our minds, and put on the new
self, which is in the likeness of God.
In
Romans 12:1-2, Paul exhorts us to present our bodies as a living and holy
sacrifice before God, and renew our minds and not conform to the world because
this is how we serve God in worship. Lots of people say they want to repent;
they want to seek God, and they want to pray.
Yet I do not know those who say they want to be humble before God. We
all profess to know God but our hearts are far off from God’s desires. The pleasures
of this world have entangled our hearts. (Read Acts. 3:19).
Finally
God
is not a man that He will lie (Num. 23:19). Some will say that this teaching is
Old Testament and therefore does not apply to them as we live under grace and
in the New Testament age but I want to tell you that all the promises of God
are yea and Amen in Jesus name (2Cor. 1:20).
Amen!
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