One of the biggest “If’s” in the Bible is part of our reading this morning, and I feel compelled to take a very familiar portion of scripture to expound on this morning. If is a powerful word. It precedes a conditional promise, and is always spelling out requirements for that promise to come true. We would tell our children, “If you clean your room, you can have a cookie.” We talk to our friends and say “If you can get away around 5, I’ll meet you for a walk.” At our places of employment we hear things like “If business keeps up this good, we will have to hire a new employee.” We see these conditional promises throughout the Bible. Many of them are made by God Himself when He is speaking to someone. He made these promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua – the list goes on and on. It is so important for us to look careful\y at these conditional promises and heed every word they say.
Today, we look at 2 Corinthians 7:14, a conditional promise made by God to Solomon after the dedication of the temple. Solomon had finished praying to God, and had offered great sacrifices to God. The glory of the Lord had come and filled the house. Solomon had held a feast for seven days, and a great assembly of he people on the eighth day, and had sent them all home. He was alone in his chamber, at night, and the Lord came to Him and uttered what I feel is one of the greatest promises in the Bible. As He often does, God chooses the quiet times and comes gently to give us hope. We could spend days looking at this conditional promise and dissecting it because it is so well known, yet so misunderstood.
The promise is clear. God will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land. What a massive promise this is! First, God will hear! We are merely specks of dust on this earth, with little to no power or strength to stand before the God who made the universe, yet He says He will hear our prayer. That alone should wake us up enough to look at the conditions set forth in this promise. But he goes on to say he will forgive our sin. Not plural, but singular. Our sin is our disobedience to God;s commands. It is a singular sin that encompasses all that we have done wrong by not heeding God’s word. It is the very sin nature within us to go our own way. That is what God will forgive, Then He will heal our land. Who will say this land does not need to be healed? We are running away from God instead of toward Him in our nation these days.
I see many people praying God will bring forth the blessing of this promise. I see them seeking God with all their heart, and turning away from some of their wicked ways. Not all – just some. We see a church that daily compromises on the word of God, and makes sinful practices normal and accepted. We see a watered down gospel that leaves out judgment and hinges only on mercy. We see a prosperity gospel that says we can demand that God do something for us because His word says this or that. And yet, as all of these members of His church pray, and eek and turn, this promise is still not coming to pass, and we question why? Why is our country going away from the Lord when all this prayer is rising up, and people are claiming the promises found in this one verse?
I have long been saying that the problems in our government and in our churches lie at the feet of Christians. God says “If my people, who are called by my name.” That is us. We are Christian. Our very religious affiliation is defined by Jesus Christ, Our name derived from His name. There can be absolutely no question this promise is made to the church, not just to Solomon. This promise is for today and we pray it often. We pray, we seek, we turn, over and over, and over again. yet the promise does not come. Why? I can tell you why. There is a first requirement in this prayer that most of the church sorely lacks. I include myself in that number. We pray, seek and turn, but we miss the first requirement of the conditional promise, God says “shall humble themselves.” We have to be humble in our own decisions and actions. Humility is sorely lacking in the prayers of the saints. If we want the promise of this verse to come to pass, we must humble ourselves before we pray, before we seek and before we turn. Without our humility, God is not bound by this payer.
It is no coincidence that the very first beatitude Jesus spoke at the Sermon on the Mount is “Blessed are the poor in Spirit.” The Beatitudes come to us in the order they are given. We cannot attain the second or third one without first succumbing to the first one. All the rest of the Blessings come to those who are poor in spirit – humble. Humility throughout the Bible is a sacred condition of the heart. Yet we all too often come to God proudly declaring His word, and claiming His promises as our own. Excuse me, please, but who exactly am I to demand of God? It is easy enough to look back at Solomon’s prayer preceding this promise. The whole prayer was given when he was on his knees before the altar of God. On His knees. Not demanding, not prideful, not haughty., Humble.
I truly believe that if the church will come before God with all humility, and then pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, then God will fulfill His part of the promise. I also believe that this will not happen. I hope it will happen, but in my own mind, I just don’t see it happening. The church as a whole is way too content in their sinful ways. They are content to make God in their own image. They are content to live in opposition to God’s word. They are content to stay proud, and not walk in humility. Can it change? Yes, but only with a fresh revelation of who Jesus really is, and what He has done for us on the cross. And only as we all humble ourselves before God Almighty. Can it happen? Yes. Will it happen? Doubtful. We rest in hope that it will!
God's Maintenance Man 