2 Chronicles 7:14 - Is it misapplied to the Church?

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “Rethink.”

Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves. 

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is a verse loved by many Christians, mostly because it states some timeless and encouraging truths. Christians who are attentive to their faith are attracted the verse because it contains crucial ideas: Prayer and answers to prayer, repentance, humility, and the promise of God's response. It is an expression of the mature faith in a nutshell.

The crucial question before us is, in what manner does this verse apply to today, if it does? 

Before we begin, let's first present a larger part of the passage: 

2Ch. 7:11-22 When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, 12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

13 “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, 14 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 will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 

17 “As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, `You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’

19 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple which I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

21 And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, `Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People will answer, `Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshipping and serving them — that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’“

We can see here that the occasion is the completion of Solomon's Temple. Before this the temple was a tent, moved from place to place. So this is the first time the dwelling place of God had a permanent building. And in fact, God's glory did dwell here. 

We see in the passage that God comes to Solomon and makes a promise to him. He intends to permanently dwell here, with a condition: 

...if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple which I have consecrated for my Name. 

Solomon in particular, and Israel generally, must obey the commands of the Lord. If they do not He will reject this temple (that is, His glory would depart from Israel) and bring disaster on His people. Unfortunately, Israel has a long history of forsaking their faith and embracing false gods. Israel did abandon this promise by apostatizing, and in fact because of this we are the now inheritors of God's promise, grafted into the vine (Jn. 15:5, Ro. 11:17).

This passage is very Jewish. It deals with the temple, the obedience of Solomon and the nation of Israel, and the very presence of God in their midst. It is spoken to the King of Israel, the occupant of the throne which God intends to be ruled from without end.

How much of this applies to present-day Christians? It is beyond the scope of this post to explore things like the grafting of the Church into the promises, the current status of Israel as a chosen people, or the magnitude of what belongs to the Church as compared to what was promised to Israel. Many great minds have debated these things over the centuries, and the reader is free to explore those issues elsewhere.

For this post, we will consider some of the principles contained in the verse:

• Are we God’s people who are called by His name? Yes (Ro. 8:16-17, Ro. 9:8, Ga. 3:7, 1Jn. 3:10, Re. 21:3)
• Should we humble ourselves? Yes (Ep. 4:2, Ja. 4:6, 10, 1 Peter 5:6)
• Should we pray and seek God’s face? Yes (Ro. 12:12, Ep. 6:18, He. 11:6, Ph. 4:6, 1 Thess. 5:17, Ac. 2:42)
• Should we turn from any wicked ways we practice? Yes (Acts 3:19, Ac. 17:30, 2Co. 7:10,2Pe. 3:9)
• Will God hear from Heaven if we do these things? Yes (1 John 5:14-15, Re. 3:20)
• Does God promise to heal our land?

Well. This last question is the sticking point for many, particularly those on the Reformed side. They do not believe we can substitute America for Israel. They would say that those who believe that God would heal America in response to the repentance and prayers of Christians are in error. This position likely comes in reaction to Christian Dominionism, that is, the idea that the victorious church is expected to eventually become the dominant influence in American institutions.

It is not our intent to advocate for or examine Dominionism. Further, we do not necessarily have to believe that healing our land is synonymous with Dominionism. They are actually separate ideas. God can indeed heal America in a variety of ways without there being a takeover of American government or our various institutions. And in fact, most Dominionists would not say they do not intend to take over government so much as they would want to increase Kingdom influence in government.

We first would note that the English translation of the Hebrew adds words to the text. For example, the word "their" and "my" are not found, but rather inferred. The literal rendering is 

if [the] people who are called by [the] name, will [become] humble, intercede, and seek [my] face and turn back [from] the evil road, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive sin and will heal land.

This is not to say the English is mistranslated, but rather it might lead us to misunderstand. Further, we often find the promises to Israel have a physical manifestation which then is revealed in the Church in a spiritual sense. If this is the case, then we might consider what it means for the land to be healed. Is it a healing so that we would have abundant rain and bountiful crops? A righteous government? The people who occupy the land would be blessed with revival and salvation? Or perhaps the sin of say, abortion would be wiped clean? 

An example of the latter is Nu. 35:33-34:

Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34 Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.

"Land" is erets, which means earth, whole earth (opposed to a part); earth, opposed to heaven; inhabitants of earth; country, territory; district, region; tribal territory; piece of ground. This broadens the meaning of the word, and which meaning should be used is determined by context. This means if the verse has a spiritual component for the Church, land could mean something different than the land of the nation of Israel.

So the land could be spiritual renewal or spiritual blessings, or it could be a literal healing of the sins perpetrated against the actual soil of America or some other nation, or even the world. We see these kinds of concepts in many places in Scripture:  

Ga. 3:8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

Re. 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Ac. 14:16-17 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.

He. 6:7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

The blessings of Israel have been extended to include the Church:

Ro. 9:23-26 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory — 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

25 As he says in Hosea: “I will call them `my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her `my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” [Hosea 2:23] 26 and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, `You are not my people,’ they will be called `sons of the living God’.” [Hosea 1:10] 

Ro. 11:12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fulness bring! 

Ep. 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

The primary blessing we have received is the Gospel of Christ, which enables our salvation and makes us co-heirs. This makes the Church part of the promise to Israel, and that promise is spiritual, but may even be in the natural realm (3Jn. 2). 

So, does 2 Chronicles 7:14 mean will hear the repentant cries of the Church for the sake of nations? We believe so.