Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends.
Have you ever been given a promise, a life changing promise, that you waited a long time to see come to fulfillment? Join me again with King Solomon in the city of Jerusalem, shortly after the dedication of the great Temple, which we witnessed over the past few days, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 5, 6, 7.
After that unforgettable Temple dedication experience, in which God sent fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifice on the altar, and the cloud of God’s Presence filled the Temple, two more weeks of celebration followed in Jerusalem. Then all the people returned home to resume their normal lives; King Solomon resumed his kingly responsibilities; and the priests began their new, daily responsibilities in the function of this great Temple. Unexpectedly, King Solomon received a visitation from God!
2 Chronicles 7:12 says “…the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said: ‘I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple for sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, IF My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place…”
As you perhaps know, what is today called the “wailing wall” in Jerusalem, is a portion of the western wall of the Temple mount which has survived centuries of time and wars and is therefore a place where Jews gather to pray because of this promise made by God to King Solomon: “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place…” Yesterday we looked closely at the first part of this great 2 Chronicles 7 promise from God to King Solomon. And yes, several times during the ensuing years, God fulfilled His great promise as His people cried out to God from this Temple in repentance and sought God’s face for deliverance when enemies surrounded them. It happened about 60 years after the Temple dedication during the reign of King Asa as recorded in 2 Chronicles 14,15. It happened again about 100 years after the Temple dedication during the reign of King Jehoshaphat as recorded in 2 Chronicles 20. And a third time during the reign of King Hezekiah about 710bc as recorded in 2 Chronicles 32.
Yesterday we looked closely at this promise from God and the first three conditions God required of His people IF He was going to respond to their prayers and rescue them. Today let’s look at the fourth condition God is waiting for: repentance from our evil, sinful ways, which is what God meant by the phrase He spoke ‘turn from their wicked ways…’ This action, like the other three, is also rooted deeply in the integrity of our heart, isn’t it? So easily some people apologize with a quick ‘sorry about that’ quip. That’s not what God is seeking.
Authentic repentance results from our being repulsed by our sin; recognizing that our sin separates us from God and leads us into perish; and that our sin deserves the death penalty. That’s what God was describing as He spoke to the prophet Ezekiel who had been taken into captivity in Babylon after King Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Jerusalem and this temple Solomon built. (Ezekiel 36:31) So it should not be difficult for us to distinguish the difference between an authentic repentance and a fake. God disregards the fake. More than that, God is offended by superficial repentance. In fact, fake repentance yields bondage in our lives and further distances us from God.
When God promised “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place…” God was promising King Solomon; and all kings of Israel who would follow Solomon; and all the people of Israel, that God would be forever attentive to the activities, the attitudes and the words spoken here in this sacred place, the Temple of Jehovah God in Jerusalem.
It was a glorious promise which many generations of Jews have cherished and therefore they’ve made pilgrimage to this place for festivals, sacrifice and prayer. I’ve stood there, surrounded by prayer shawl clad Jewish men, praying at the wall. It’s a powerful experience.
But my friends, Israel is today, once again, surrounded by enemies and in a bitter war of self-defense. And once again there are devout, diligent Jews earnestly praying, both at the wall and around the world, that God would come to Israel’s rescue, and therefore it’s very important we consider what else God said in that remarkable visitation with King Solomon recorded in 2 Chronicles 7:19: “But, if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you, and you go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from My land, which I have given them, and I will reject this Temple I have consecrated for My Name…”
During the nearly 400 years which followed that great Temple dedication with King Solomon, until King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army totally destroyed Jerusalem and demolished that Temple, (586bc) several times both the people and their kings forsook God, sometimes even closing the doors of the Temple and discontinuing worship of God, replacing God with manmade statues and idols from neighboring, wicked nations. (2 Chronicles 28:19-25)
Then after 70 years in Babylonian captivity, God miraculously moved so His people were permitted to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, as recorded in Ezra 1-6. (518bc) It was to that Temple, refurbished by King Herod the Great, the Jesus led His disciples on several occasions as recorded in the Gospels, and yet once again, repeatedly God’s people turned away from God, drawn to other religions or simply to secularism and no spirituality at all. So again, God turned Jerusalem and this place of worship over to be destroyed by the Romans in 70ad.
The lesson should be clear to us: God stands by BOTH His promises and His warnings! Do we understand that my friends?
As God is watching the activities of our world, of your city and mine, of your family and mine, of you and me, does God see men and women of God honoring integrity, raising the next generation to be a God honoring generation and therefore is God pouring out His blessings and protecting His people, or is God seeing vast numbers of people turning away from God and is He preparing to pour out His judgement as He promised?
That’s an important question for us to ponder today isn’t it, and here’s a worship song to help us consider how we fit into 2 Chronicles 7:12-20. And I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:12-20.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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