2 Chronicles 7:14
“Verbs of Prayer”
November 11, 2007
Associate Pastor Doug Forsberg
My college years were coming to a close, and the prospect of responsibility and looming financial obligations was ahead of me. Thankfully, the career counselor at my college offered monthly seminars focused on finding a job and writing a resume that would get you noticed. “The most important thing about your resume,” she told us, “is to use strong, active verbs so that employers will sense your ability and confidence.” Having been an English major, I possessed no lack of confidence in my ability to use strong verbs. Finding a job was another story.
On my resume, I described the tasks involved in one of my first jobs as a lifeguard at the local toddler wading pool by writing, “Charmed an unpredictable and willful population, maintained and stored complex chemical solutions and controlled secure entry and exit ways.” I really could have written, “Kept my feet in the water, drank Cokes and twirled my whistle all day.” Strong, active verbs do make a difference don’t they?
One of the things that strikes me as I read 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the powerful verbs used to describe how God’s people should pray and the way in which the LORD will respond to their prayers: “humble, pray, seek, turn, hear, forgive, and heal.” These verbs jump out at us; they draw us into this prayer and compel us to join in, for these verbs allow us to see this prayer, and we desire the healing that the LORD offers to those who pray it.
But there is a danger here, a danger we should be aware of if we pray this prayer. The danger is that we will take this prayer out of context, that we will pray it without regard to its place in the scripture. To be truthful with you, this is not a comfortable prayer, for it is raw with emotion and much too honest about who I am, who we are; it hits too close to home. That is why it is tempting to pray this prayer out of context – to jump right in with these strong, active verbs without paying any attention to the very specific issues with which they deal.
If we are careful though, we can pray this prayer from 2 Chronicles 7:14, but only if we will pray it in the following context: this prayer assumes that God’s people will not be faithful, that they will turn away from Him, so this prayer is about acknowledging our sin and trusting in the LORD’s sovereign mercy.
Our scripture reading from 2 Chronicles 6 and 7 focused on the dedication of Solomon’s temple. In that reading we discover that after Solomon finished praying, the glory of the LORD filled the temple and all of the people knelt down with their faces to the ground worshipping the LORD saying, “He is good, his love endures forever.”
Perhaps you’ve heard of or experienced what many call a mountain top experience where the presence of the God is very close to you and your life is transformed. Many Christians report having these kinds of experiences on mission trips, conferences and retreats. These moments shape our lives and give us a focal point from which to move forward in our walk with God. The only problem with these moments is that we have to come down from the mountain top, just as Moses did after receiving the law, and encounter a world that knows nothing of our experience, a world that would rather hold the LORD at arms length.
At the dedication of the temple the Israelites certainly had a mountain top experience. The glory of the LORD was present in such a strong way that the priest could not enter the temple and the people were driven to bow down on the ground. For fifteen days the people stayed in Jerusalem and celebrated the LORD’s goodness to them, sacrificing an untold number of offerings to the LORD. Do you know what happened then? They went home. They returned to the routines of their lives, making meals, changing diapers, earning a paycheck, dropping the kids off and picking them up again. Life went on, and their experience at the temple faded from view.
This is when things got dangerous for the people of Israel. As their experience at the temple dedication faded from view, it became so easy for them to focus on the temple instead of the LORD. It was tempting for them to see the temple as a testimony to their faithfulness and God’s pleasure with them. So it is that the temple became the center of their faith and that is dangerous.
The temple is not the focus, it can’t be at the center of faith because it is just a building, four walls built by human hands. A right relationship with God is at the center of faith, for the temple cannot save you. In fact, it very well could get in the way of your salvation. The LORD had come to Israel in relationship, covenanting with them to be their God and the peoples’ proper response in that relationship was obedience and thanksgiving, the give and take of being in relationship with another. The Israelites were tempted to exchange that dynamic relationship for something less demanding and more controllable. They decided to put their trust in a building.
As Christians we might be tempted to think that we don’t have to worry about trusting in a temple or allowing something to replace our relationship with the Living God. Perhaps though it is tempting to think that going to church each week makes us right with God, or that the cross we wear around our neck somehow earns God’s favor, or that the fact that our mother was in the choir gives us a free pass, or that our contribution to the building fund has earned us brownie points, or that our participation in Bible Study means that we are that much closer to God, or that our time spent on our knees in prayer somehow impresses our Heavenly Father. How easy it is to trade in our relationship with God for a shallow, meaningless faith that demands less of us and allows us more control. Friends all of these things I’ve mentioned are fine in and of themselves, but at the heart of every Christian’s life is a living relationship with Jesus Christ. To settle for anything less is to follow an idol cast by our own minds or hands.
The danger of the temple in Jerusalem was that it would become the focal point of faith instead of the LORD. The context for the wonderful prayer before us today is that God’s people willingly exchange the glory of their relationship with the Living God for idols. After Solomon had finished the temple and the palace, the LORD appeared to him, telling Solomon that he had heard Solomon’s prayers for the temple, but then in verse 13 of chapter 7 it is clear that the people will place their faith in something other than the LORD. The LORD simply assumes this will happen, for he says, "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.”
Notice that the LORD does not say if, the LORD says when. We know that the LORD does these kinds of things in response to Israel breaking their covenant with him, in response to their exchanging their relationship with him for a relationship with worthless idols. This is the context for the prayer found in verse 14: a prayer that assumes that God’s people will not be faithful, that they will turn away from Him, a prayer that is about acknowledging our sin and trusting in the LORD’s sovereign mercy.
So we’ve seen that those who pray in the manner that the LORD describes in verse 14 are assumed to be unfaithful. They have turned from their relationship with the LORD and sought to satisfy their needs in some other manner. Unfaithfulness is a given. How the people respond to their unfaithfulness is up to them. Verse 14 begins with an important preposition: if. If means that it is quite possible for the LORD’s people to continue on in their rebellion and to face the consequences. If means that the LORD will not be mocked by those who reject him. Most importantly though, if means that there is a way back for those seeking to be in a right relationship with the LORD. If means that no matter how far the prodigal has run, there is an opportunity to be welcomed home into the arms of a loving Father. If invites a right response from those who seek to be in relationship with the LORD.
If we desire such a relationship, it is at that point that we can take hold of the strong, active verbs found in verse 14 and make them our own. James 4:10 tells believers “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” The first thing verse 14 calls us to do is to be humble, and to be humble is to acknowledge our place in the creation. We are creatures under the sovereign rule of our Creator, the LORD. This means that we are not lord and master of our lives. To be humble before the LORD is to submit to his governance, to submit to his will. To be humble is to bow our knees, and in that position of humility we can rightly pray and seek the LORD’s face, and when we have prayed and sought the LORD’s face, we will see our wicked ways and turn from them. So it is that these actions work together in a progression, enabling us to enjoy a relationship with God.
The LORD also assigns some strong, active verbs to himself in verse 14. When the people respond to the opportunity to turn from their wickedness, the LORD will act. Listen to what the LORD will do for his people, for in this there is hope and joy. Notice that the first thing the LORD will do is hear his people. We can’t overestimate the importance of this. When the LORD hears, he does what no idol can do, for idols are lifeless and unable to respond; they can’t hear, but the LORD can, and one who can hear can respond.
The promised response of the Lord to those who seek relationship with him is to forgive them, to pass over and pardon their sin. Listen to what Psalm 103 says about the LORD: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (8-12). When you find yourself wondering if perhaps you’ve wandered too far from the LORD, wondering if something you’ve done or left undone has made it impossible for you to come back to the LORD, be assured that in wondering you’ve already started to turn back to him and as you continue to do so know that he hears you and that his forgiveness is true.
Know too that with the LORD’s forgiveness comes healing. Verse 14 tells us that the land will be healed. Looking back on verse 13, we should take this to mean that the rains will come again, the locusts will no longer invade and that there will not be a plague among the people. Romans 8:22 reminds us that creation itself suffers the effects of the rebellion of humanity; so it is that when we repent, healing is offered not only to us but to the land, the creation, as well.
2 Chronicles 7:14 assumes that God’s people will be unfaithful and it instructs us to acknowledge our unfaithfulness so that our relationship with the LORD can be restored. It would be appropriate to pray in this way for our nation because as a nation we are unfaithful to the LORD and in need of his forgiveness and healing. At times it would also be appropriate to pray in this way for our congregation, for too often we give in to the temptation to settle for the way we’ve always done things instead of seeking a vibrant, living relationship with Jesus and so we find ourselves in need of the Lord’s forgiveness and healing. It would also be appropriate to pray this prayer for our own lives, for we often prefer the outward signs of faith to the dynamic unpredictability of an inward relationship with Christ.
When we sense unfaithfulness within our nation, our church or even our lives, the way forward is marked out for us. Let us put into action the strong, active verbs found in this verse and in so doing the LORD will hear, forgive and heal our land.
May it be that we take hold of these promises Lord. May it be.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.