Praying for Revival and 2 Chronicles 7:14 tagged: , , , ,

Praying for Revival and 2 Chronicles 7:14

Posted by in Baptist Life, Bible & Theology, Church & Missions

An April 12, 2010 e-mail written by Ronnie Floyd and sent out by the GCR Task Force (which can be viewed here) states the following:

“Spiritual revival is the number one need in the Great Commission Resurgence movement. Nothing is more needed in our lives, our churches, and in our convention of churches than spiritual revival. We are in desperate need for the refreshing wind of God’s Spirit to blow upon us.”

I (as I imagine are the great majority of you) am in total agreement. Floyd continues:

“This next great movement of God we are praying for will look something like the following:

If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)”

Second Chronicles 7:14 is often used as a call and a promise for revival. I agree with what Floyd says here, and with the rest of his letter, which I recommend that you read and take to heart. Locally, I am part of a group of men who have begun to meet on a regular basis with the specific purpose of calling out to God for revival in America, using 2 Chronicles 7:14 as our guide. In order to correctly understand and apply this wonderful passage, though, it is necessary to study it in its context. As has often been observed, “A text without a context is a pretext.”

The context of 2 Chronicles 7:14 was the dedicatory prayer of King Solomon of the new temple in Jerusalem in the Old Testament kingdom of Israel. God’s relationship with the nation of Israel in the Old Testament was special. Old Testament scholars have described it as the relationship of a suzerain (a type of ancient middle-eastern feudal lord) with his subjects. Israel was a theocracy. God dealt with Israel according to the covenant He had originally made with them at Sinai, and renewed in the book of Deuteronomy before entering into the Promised Land. As a part of this covenant, if they acted in certain ways, there were certain consequences that accompanied their actions. If they acted in other ways, there were other consequences.

What God was telling Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 was basically that, if Israel was disobedient to their covenant vows, punishment would come. However, if they would humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, He would forgive their disobedience, and reverse the consequences of this punishment, which included drought, attacks from locusts, and pestilence.

A big question for us as Christians today is to what degree and in what manner we interpret this promise in our own relationship with God. The New Testament teaches us that the things that happened to Israel in the Old Testament happened as an example for our instruction (1 Cor. 10:11). It also teaches us that the promises of the Old Testament are all fulfilled in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). We also learn from the Old Testament the character and ways of God, which are unchanging, and thus, still applicable for us, as we seek to relate to Him as His New Testament people.

Having said all that, it is important to keep in mind that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is specifically directed to “God’s people.” When He says, “If my people…” He is referring, in the immediate context, to the covenant people of Israel. However, in the New Testament, by means of the blood of Christ, we who were formerly alienated from the promises of God are brought near, and may legitimately view ourselves as God’s people as well (Col 1:19-22; Eph. 2:12-13).

What is important to keep in mind, though, is that modern nation-states, such as the United States, or France, or Brazil, or even the political entity known today as Israel, do not have the same covenant relationship with God as Old Testament Israel. None of them is a theocracy. And none of them, as a “nation,” meets the qualifications as “God’s people.”

However, I do not believe that cancels out the prerogative of Christians in any of these countries from appropriating the general principles of 2 Chronicles 7:14 and claiming them as their own. But, we must be clear that both the requirements as well as the promises apply only to us as God’s people, and not to the nation as a whole. If we, specifically, as Christians, will humble ourselves; if we, as Christians, will pray; if we, as Christians, will seek God’s face; and, if we, as Christians, will turn from our wicked ways—then God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins (as Christians), and heal our “land” (as Christians).

This raises the question, Do we, specifically as Christians, have a “land” for God to heal? In the case of Old Testament Israel, the “land” to be healed was the literal land in which the people lived. The connotation was principally agricultural, and by extension, economic. The “healing of the land” was primarily an economic blessing. Though there are certain “Christian” prosperity teachers who would find here a promise of corresponding material blessings for us as Christians, I believe a correct understanding of the New Testament will lead us away from this interpretation. The blessings God has for us as His New Testament people by way of the blood of Christ are primarily of a spiritual nature. This doesn’t mean that general principles of financial responsibility and corresponding tendencies toward material blessing, such as those enumerated in the book of Proverbs, are no longer applicable. Nor does it mean that the character of God to take care of those who trust Him with their lives, including their finances, as evidenced in passages such as Malachi 3:10, has changed. God still takes care of His own. But, as passages such as Hebrews 11:35b-39 clearly show, God’s provision in the lives of those who, in faith, faithfully serve Him does not always manifest itself in physical safety and material prosperity in this world.

As we seek to take the general principle of “healing the land” in 2 Chronicles 7:14 and apply it to us as Christians today, I think it would apply mainly in the realm of the spiritual health of the Body of Christ at large. It is a promise that holds true just as meaningfully for believers in China as for believers in the United States. Although they may not ever live in a country in which the government holds to godly values, or in a land in which they benefit from great material blessings, they may well be just as much (if not more so) the recipients of God’s promised blessings as those who live in places of relative religious freedom and material prosperity.

This still leaves us, however, with the question of the relative legitimacy of praying for God to bless our country, and what relationship, if any, this may have to 2 Chronicles 7:14. In order to answer this question, I think we must go first to another Old Testament passage—Jeremiah 29:7: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Just like the Old Testament people of Judah who lived in exile in Babylon, all of us, as Christians, are pilgrims on this earth in a land that is not our own (Heb. 13:14). But that doesn’t mean we are to be uninterested in the welfare of the land in which we live, nor in those who are in authority in that land. As Paul exhorted the believers in Ephesus by way of his epistle to Timothy: “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). He doesn’t, however, leave this merely as an exhortation toward prayer for physical prosperity and material blessings. He immediately fleshes out his line of thinking with the following words: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (vv. 3-4).

In other words, the way for the people of America (or any other nation) to truly receive the blessing of God is for them “to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And, this brings us back, full circle, to 2 Chronicles 7:14. Once the people of America (or any other nation) are saved, they become part of the people of God, and recipients of His covenant blessings.

But, we must still remember, the promise of forgiveness of sins and healing of the land does not apply to any modern nation-state in today’s world as a whole. It applies, rather, to the people of God within that land. As a matter of fact, the book of Revelation indicates that, until the time when Jesus returns, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15), the various nations, tribes, and language groups of this world, together with their corresponding political and commercial structures, are all under the sway of spiritual Babylon (Rev. 17-18), and will eventually be judged and come under the condemnation of God in the battle of Armageddon.

What does all of this imply for the way we as American Christians should pray for revival in our country? First and foremost, we must seek for God to revive us as Christians. The deep work He wants to do is more than anything else a work in and toward His people. We must not concentrate so much, in the beginning, on calling the lost to humble themselves, pray, seek God, and turn from their wicked ways, nor on the transformation of the culture around us. We must turn the spotlight on ourselves (1 Peter 4:17). True revival doesn’t have so much to do with changing one set of politicians for another, nor even with changing one set of laws for another. It has to do with the spiritual renewal of God’s people.

But it should not stop there. As Christians, we should pray, just as captive Judah was to pray for Babylon, for the welfare of our country. We should pray, as Paul told Timothy, for those who are in authority over us. And, more than anything, we should pray that the lost would be saved. But, we should not expect that, when God hears our prayer, and sends revival, the ungodly structures around us are necessarily going to change for the better. Sometimes, revival of God’s people may be accompanied by fierce opposition from the devil, and persecution from the ungodly. But, even if the effects are not seen directly in the secular structures that surround us, or the moral values of the population at large, revival is still a very wonderful thing. And, we should pray with all our heart that God would send true Holy Spirit, God-honoring revival. And, in our hopes and prayers for revival, we should give priority attention to humbling ourselves, seeking God’s face, and turning from our wicked ways, clinging to the promise that, when we do so, He will indeed hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land (at least, to the extent that we, as God’s New Testament people, have a “land” of our own to be healed).