By Ezekiel Kimosop
As the world grapples with the impact of the COVID 19 virus, it pays to turn to the word of God in order to understand His will concerning us in this difficult situation.
If there's a scripture that is most pronounced during this difficult time, it is perhaps 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says "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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (NKJV).
God gave Solomon specific conditions that must be satisfied before He can respond to the prayer of His people in situations of calamity.
In order to appreciate the context of the passage in which this Scripture lies, we shall examine the preceding passages. We shall begin with 1 Chronicles 7:1-11 which describes the dedication of the Jerusalem Temple by King Solomon shortly after he completed the construction works.
Solomon conducted an elaborate dedication ceremony that is perhaps unparalleled in biblical history. He had constructed the temple after God forbade his father David from undertaking the task saying that David had much blood in his hands (1 Chronicles 22:8).
Solomon also brought the ark of the covenant to the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 5). When the celebration was concluded, God's glory filled the temple, signalling His approval of the celebration (2 Chronicles 5:13-14).
Solomon's prayer is recorded in 2 Chronicles 6.
In 2 Chronicles 7:1-12, God responded to Solomon's prayer by sending a fire 🔥 from heaven which consumed the sacrifices on the altar. The glory of God again filled the temple and the people bowed down and worshipped God (2 Chronicles 7:1-3).
God later appeared to Solomon in a vision at night (2 Chronicles 7:12-22). He conveyed His answer to Solomon in person.
This now brings us back to our passage of context which we shall examine in greater detail below.
God declares in 2 Chronicles 7:12 that He had heard Solomon's prayer. This prayer was consistent with God's divine will for His people. However, there was a catch!
God's approval came with conditions. His utmost desire was that the people should walk in obedience to Him going forward. He sought a relationship with His covenant people in which the people worshipped Him in truth and obeyed His voice.
In 2 Chronicles 7:13, God, in the exercise of His sovereignty and foreknowledge, reveals that there will come a time that the people will forsake their covenant with God and rebell against Him.
Under those unpleasant circumstances, God may shut the heavens so that no rains shall fall on the land. He may also send locusts to devour the land or send pestilences (epidemics).
When these circumstances are experienced, God demands that the people must examine their ways and turn to Him in repentance. This is true of our circumstances today as we face the COVID 19 virus epidemic.
The preintervention conditions prescribed by God for His people Israel are recorded in 2 Chronicles 7:14. We shall briefly examine them in turns below.
HUMBLING SUBMISSION
First, God demanded that the people must humble themselves. Humility is key to discovering our broken ways. It is an acknowledgement of our sinfulness and the awesomeness of our great God. We are undeserving of God's grace. Isaiah 64:6 says that our righteousnesses [apart from Christ] are as filthy rags!
A humble person is a submissive person who is open to spiritual counsel. He is conscious of and remorseful for his disobedience.
Elsewhere in the Bible, we learn that David expressed deep humility and brokenness after his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, the Hittite (Psalm 51). After desperately trying to cover up his adultery, things got worse. He committed murder along the way and God was sorely displeased with him.
He sent Nathan the prophet to rebuke the king (2 Samuel 12:1-23). David discovered the gravity of his sin and the alienation that his transgression had achieved in breaking his fellowship with God. He humbled himself before the LORD and God graciously spared him but took the life of the child born from the incident.
On the contrast, Saul did not express any remorse for his disobedience and this caused him the throne (1 Samuel 15:10-35). He was a proud and arrogant man. Samuel the prophet desperately interceded for Saul but God had made up His mind. It was too little too late.
PRAYER OF BROKENNESS
The second condition that God gave to Solomon, and to us who love God, was that the people should pray and seek His face.
How should we pray as a nation; as a covenant people?
We should pray from a position of submission and brokenness. We should pray at all levels: personal, family, neighbors, Christian community and as a nation under God.
Our civil and religious leaders leaders should call a solemn assembly and implore our people to turn to God in truth. The call to national prayer should not be merely about religious ceremonies for the gallery and cameras! It should be informed by our brokenness; a bemoaning of the beaten paths from which we slipped away in our pride and rebellion!
Here's why...
The wicked people of Nineveh demonstrated humility and brokenness. When God's judgment was proclaimed upon them by Jonah, the king rose from his throne and laid aside his royal garments and called a solemn fast upon all his subjects! (Jonah 3).
God was touched by their response and withdrew His judgment. Remember that Ninevites were not part of God's covenant people yet this fact did not preclude them from God's sovereignty. The moral principles of God's word are binding upon all people and nations of the earth.
The Bible affirms God's sovereignty over all creation. Psalm 24:1-2 says "The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters."
TURNING AWAY FROM WICKEDNESS
The third and final condition that God gave to Solomon is that the people must turn from their wicked ways.
What does it mean to turn from wickedness? It is to totally forsake our rebellion and obstinacy in disobedience and to submit to the principles and exhortations of His eternal word.
It is not enough to express remorse and brokenness if in the end we return to our old habits of rebellion.
We learn from the Book of Judges that the children of Israel went through a cyclic pattern. Whenever they disobeyed God and went after Canaanite gods, the LORD permitted their enemies to humiliate them (Judges 2:11-23).
When they cried to God in their afflictions, the LORD was gracious to rescue them. However, they soon drifted back to their old ways and this cycle was replicated until the period of the Judges came to a close.
God desires that His people should faithfully and consistently walk in His ways and learn from their past life of sinful disobedience.
He has offered us His atonement in Christ Jesus so that those who repent and call on His name shall be saved.
CONCLUSION
If a nation turns to God in situations of calamity such as COVID 19, its leaders must lead by example, as happened in the Nineveh case. God is seeking true change, true remorse which is backed by action.
We should demonstrate true change and repent of our moral evils and excesses, including official corruption, the spilling of innocent blood, abuse of power and authority, racial and ethnic discrimination, among other transgressions.
There must be a change in our approach to civil and religious way of life as evidence that we have learnt from our past and have forsaken our evil ways.
Are we prepared to turn to God in truth?
Anything short of this divine threshold is an exercise in futility.
May the LORD hear us as we hold our national day of prayer and may He graciously rescue us from global epidemics.
May this nation turn to Christ.
Shalom
© Ezekiel Kimosop 2020
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