Humble Yourself & Pray
Hi ladies! I am so glad to be here having tea with you all and celebrating this mother’s day weekend! If you don’t know, I’m Greg and Cindy’s daughter, and I live in Bowling Green, KY, where I work in full-time college ministry at Christian Student Fellowship. My mom asked me to come and talk to you all about prayer, which is one of my favorite topics.
So, let’s start by praying together.
In an effort to not talk for too long so we can get back to tea and fellowship, I want to jump right into our passage for the day. Our theme verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says,
14 If My people who are called by My name 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.
We’ll focus mostly here, but I want to back up a little and give some context, and hopefully, that will illuminate some of what the Lord is saying.
Before the time of King Solomon, the people of Israel did not have a Temple where God would dwell. They had a tabernacle, or a movable tent, that they would set up wherever they went, and when they settled in the Promised Land, they kept that tabernacle for a long time, basically until Solomon’s dad, King David, was like, I’m gonna build an extravagant Temple for God. God said, no, you’re not, but your son will, and chapter 5 of 2 Chronicles is where we see that happen.
So back up all the way to chapter 5 verse 11, and we see the priests coming out of the Holy Place where they just put the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is basically a golden box that had the Book of the Covenant in it—all the laws and commandments that God gave His people—and the “mercy seat.” It was where God was, essentially. Think of it at His throne. So when the priests came out, Scripture says that the glory of the Lord filled the Temple, so thickly that the priests could not minister there. They couldn’t even go in!
So Solomon, in chapter 6, praises God for the completion of the Temple, telling the people how it came about, and then, he kneels down to pray, starting in verse 14. This prayer is called the Dedication of the Temple because Solomon asks God to dwell there, to hear the prayers prayed there, and to answer. It’s really interesting because he does 7 iterations of his prayer, basically saying if people do this specific sin and then pray and repent either in the Temple or toward the Temple, please hear their prayers and forgive them and restore them. 7 times! And if you know anything about numbers and their biblical significance, then you know that 7 is the number of divine completeness. So Solomon’s prayer means that NO MATTER WHAT sin they commit, God, please hear and forgive and restore. And our passage today is God’s response to this prayer.
Let’s read it, 2 Chronicles 7:12-16.
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name 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. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
The first thing God says to Solomon: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place.” Sounds like a yes to me! So if someone repents and prays in the Temple, God says He will forgive. When He shuts up the heavens and makes it not rain, or when locusts devour the land, or when disease is running rampant, if people who are called by His name humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, He will hear from heaven, He will forgive their sin, and He will heal their land.
In the last two verses we’re looking at, God makes a beautiful promise: He said, “My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.” He promises to dwell in this place, the Temple, among His people, and be attentive to their prayers. Isn’t that so lovely?
Now I’ve noticed a couple of things here in verse 14, our theme verse, that I think will only add to our understanding. I’ve got 8 things. There are two lists in this verse: an if-list and a then-list. The if-list has 4 things and the then-list has 3 things, and then I have a bonus thing.
So first, if-list number one: “If my people who are called by my name.” What the heck does that mean? Well, they had a lot of symbolism and metaphors back then, so this phrase was a common one that people probably recognized. A person’s name usually symbolizes all of who they are. So does their heart. And the eyes, too. You know, your eyes are the window to your soul and all that? Biblical. And if you notice throughout the passage, God claims all three of these–his name, his heart, and his eyes–will be in the Temple forever. Three symbols of God’s whole self. You remember what I said about numbers? 3 is also an important number that also means divine completeness. Holy trinity type stuff, you know; Father, Son, and Spirit. Pretty cool! But anyway, that’s not the point; that’s just a little extra tidbit I found interesting. So God said people who are called by His name. We don’t usually go around calling each other by our parents’ names. We have our own names. But in the same way that I’m Leah, but I’m also Cindy’s daughter, God is referencing our attachment to him. Our belonging in His family. So the first “if” is if they are God’s people, saved by grace. On this side of the cross, that means those who are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.
Number two: “humble themselves.” Sin is a lot of things, but first and foremost is a lack of revering God as the one true King. We as humans have a tendency to elevate ourselves above where we belong and shrink God down to something palatable to us. And that wrong view of ourselves and of God causes disordered desires to rise up in us, out of which is born sin and death, according to the book of James. So it’s no wonder that one of the first steps is to humble ourselves. To humble yourself means to recognize your complete dependence on God and submit to His authority in your life.
3rd: “pray and seek my face.” I thought about separating these two points, but they are so interconnected that it would have been much too repetitive. Prayer is communion with God. Spending time with Him, trying to get to know Him, talking with Him. God wants your love and attention, time and devotion because, yes, He is King and He deserves it, but also because He loves you and wants the best for you. And as the Creator God, King of the Universe, He gets to decide what that is. So when we pray, when we read the Scriptures, we are asking God to reveal His good and perfect will to us, so that we know how best to live to bring about His Kingdom on the earth. Because we belong to Him.
Four: “Turn from their wicked ways.” Pretty self-explanatory, but I wanted to say that this does not mean you have to be perfect and never make a mistake again. Think of it more as resolving to change. Change is hard. Choosing Jesus is hard. That’s why He calls it taking up our cross. Dying to ourselves. It’s a death to what we want so we can have life with Him, but that doesn’t make the death less painful! God is only asking us to try. And like really try, not make excuses for continuing to sin. And in all of that, seeking His face, His strength, and His transforming power.
Okay, we’re at the then-list now. So if we do all that, which is arguably all variations of the same thing (aka, saying sorry), then God will do three things.
First, He’ll “hear from heaven.” We often think of heaven as a far away place, somewhere we go when we die, but it’s more accurate to think of it as an unseen place all around us. And often the things that we can’t see, we act like they aren’t real. It’s unknown. And right now, before we are fully restored to God, we only get it in glimpses, often through prayer or other prayerful spiritual disciplines, such as service, witness, Sabbath, solitude, generosity, and the like. God saying that He will “hear from heaven” is Him saying that, when you pray, the veil between the seen and the unseen thins, and the Temple in the passage is a place where heaven meets earth. Where God is the most visible. He’s not somewhere far away not listening to us. He’s right here, unseen, and He promises to come closer and reveal Himself, turning His ears towards us.
2nd: He will “forgive their sin.” So God doesn’t just listen to us and think “welp, nothing I can do about that.” No! He promises to do something about it! First, He will forgive their sin. Our sin isn’t just bad stuff we do. It’s treason against the High King of Heaven, the Creator God, and treason is a capital crime that deserves capital punishment. That’s a death sentence! Apart from a pardon from the King Himself, we’re on death row. And God says if we say sorry and promise not to do it again (even if we do do it again!), He will wipe the slate clean and He’ll treat us like it never happened. Every time! And isn’t that great news? It gets better.
And finally, He will “heal their land.” Not only will God forgive our sins, He’s going to put everything back to the way it was before we sinned. The consequences will be wiped away! He will restore to Himself His people AND the rest of His creation, which suffers from our treason. And healing or restoration on this side of eternity is only a glimpse of the full restoration that is coming when Jesus returns and takes back His throne.
So, if we who are God’s people will view God rightly and be humble, try to commune with Him and get to know Him and His will, and really try to not sin anymore, then He promises to hear us and do something about it, forgiving His people and healing the land.
Bonus thing, now. You might remember all that Temple stuff I told you about, how this place was where heaven meets earth. It’s where God’s throne was. And you might know that the Temple doesn’t stand anymore. The one talked about in this passage was destroyed and rebuilt and destroyed again and now there isn’t one in Jerusalem or anywhere in the world. So then do these promises not apply?
Let me read to you 1 Corinthians 6:19.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
On this side of the cross, after what King Jesus did for us to take the punishment we deserve, God sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, just like God dwelt in the Temple. We are the Temple. We are the place where heaven meets earth, where the veil between what is seen and unseen thins because we have the Spirit of God Himself at work within us. And He gives us power to enact all these promises He made, not only for ourselves in prayer, but also for others. Our prayers are heard. And we can ask the King to work on behalf of someone else. This is called intercession. It’s what Jesus did for us, and it’s what He calls us to do for others.
It’s our job to bring heaven to earth. And prayer is how we do it.
I’d like to conclude with the Lord’s prayer from Matthew 6. If you know it, you can say it with me; I’ll be reciting the ESV. If not, just listen. And hear how Jesus taught us to pray.
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.”
Thank you guys.
