God's Promise to Fix America?

In Christian circles these days, as conservatives lament the state of our country, it is common to hear a verse quoted to encourage us that our country can be fixed: "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, will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).  The implication is that if Christians will humble themselves, pray, seek God and stop sinning, then God has promised to heal America.  The problem?  This couldn't be farther from the truth.

As often happens, well-meaning Christians have taken this verse out of context.  If you've read this blog for any time, you know that taking verses out of context bothers me like nothing else.  It bothers me because it turns the truth of God into a falsehood to support my point of view.  I don't think this is done maliciously.  I think most verses taken out of context begin with someone who goes searching for something to prove a point, then they use it, thinking it's scripture so it works, but they don't ask the question, "Does this verse really say what I am saying it says?"  Then the verse gets passed around and because it is a soundbite from the Bible, other Christians run with it without reading its context.  We need to be more like the Bereans, who heard what Paul was saying and then "examin[ed] the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so" (Acts 17:10).  (Just to note, people have caught me using verses out of context at times. It can be hard not to take offense at that, thinking we are right.  But we have to ask ourselves if what has been said to us is true, study the scriptures and change our views if needed.)

Back to 2 Chronicles 7:14.  What is the context of this verse?  This verse comes after Solomon has dedicated the temple.  He has prayed a dedication over it and Israel has had a celebratory feast.  Then 2 Chronicles says that "the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him..."  So God speaks to Solomon, an answer to Solomon's prayer of dedication where Solomon had asked God to forgive Israel when they strayed away then turned back to God praying in or towards the temple.  The verses that come before 7:14 say this:

"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.  If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people..."

First off, what is "this place" that is a "house of sacrifice"?  It is the temple that has just been dedicated.  Second, God, in response to Solomon's prayer, notes the various ways Solomon has mentioned that God might punish Israel for sinning and thus breaking their covenant with them, a covenant began at the time of Moses and reaffirmed by them throughout their history.  God could cause a drought or send locusts to eat crops or send a disease that afflicts Israel.  Then comes 2 Chronicles 7:14: "and 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, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Who are "my people"?  Not America, but Israel.  God is saying that if Israel, whom he has a covenant with, will turn back to him in humility and stop sinning, then he will forgive them and heal their land.  Heal their land from what?  From his physical acts of punishment mentioned in the previous verse: from drought or ruined crops or disease.  The context does not allow for the interpretation that God is going to heal the moral problems of the nation.  The verse presupposes that the moral problems are already dealt with.  Israel would have already humbled themselves, thrown off their sin, sought God and prayed to Him.  Therefore, this verse is not addressing a moral or spiritual healing of a land.

The verses that follow 7:14 say this: "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’"  God specifically says he will be attentive to prayer in "this place," the temple.  So when Israel is humbly praying to God for release from punishment, they are praying in the temple.  God then turns to Solomon personally and reminds him of his promise to David that if David and his sons kept his commands, then there would always be a ruler from David's line on the throne.

God's answer to Solomon goes on: "But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.'"  The "you" in this section is plural in Hebrew.  Thus, God is referring to the Israelites as a whole.  Here God says that he will punish Israel if they run after other gods.  He will remove them from their land and he will deny the temple, apparently destroying it since people passing by the temple will be astonished at it.  The destroyed temple will be a reminder that Israel had worshipped other gods and broken their covenant with Yahweh.  And this did happen.  The temple was destroyed when Babylon took over Judah and this was a direct punishment from God on Israel for following other gods.  What does this mean?  It means that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not in effect anymore.  God did send drought and locusts and pestilence and Israel either turned back halfheartedly (and their land was healed for a time) or didn't turn back at all.  He sent prophets to warn them and they didn't listen.  And finally, the temple and the land was destroyed as God said it would be.  There was no more praying for healing of the land.  The land was utterly wasted.  (God did still love Israel and had made a promise to send a remnant back to the land and that he did).

2 Chronicles 7:14 has nothing to do with America.  It is not a promise that if Christians get humble, stop sinning and pray a bunch, God will heal our moral problems.  So many Christians read this verse out of context and look at it as God's promise to heal America's moral problems.  God has never promised to heal America's moral problems.  He's never even promised to heal America's economy or social issues or government.  He hasn't even promised to heal America of drought or locusts or disease.  This verse has nothing to do with America's healing.

I recently read a book called Smoke on the Mountain, by Joy Davidman (an American), wife of C. S. Lewis.  She said something in it that struck me: "What, then, must we pray for? Nothing that we have not been told over and over again; nothing but 'Thy will be done,' even if his will is that we lose all that the last two hundred years have given us."  God's will very may well be the losing of America.  It may be that we aren't supposed to have an amazing economy or social prowess or stellar government.  It might be in God's plan to break America.  Joy says next: "We must pray to face our fear honestly."  It's easier for Christians to think that by doing certain things God will be obligated to "heal our land."  What we really need to do is face our fear honestly.  We don't want to lose our country, either physically or morally.  We don't want to lose what it gives us.  I don't want to lose it either.  But if it is God's will that we do lose it, will I accept that?  Or will I cower in a corner in fear of God's plan?  If it is God's will that America falls, I am not pretending it will be easy.  And I am not saying that we shouldn't pray for our government.  Paul urges Timothy to pray for leaders in authority in 1 Timothy 2:1-2.  But Paul does not say that God has guaranteed that praying for them will make them be what we want.  He does, however, say that God wants all men to be saved (2:4) so we are right to pray for the salvation of our leaders.

What should we do then as American Christians?  What God has always asked of us--to tell all men the truth about Christ and how confession of sin and trusting Christ leads to true freedom.  We pray for the salvation of people, in our country and outside our country.  Nothing changes until hearts change.  Hearts don't change until people submit themselves to God.  It isn't about Christians humbling and not sinning and praying in a temple.  It's about Christians speaking the truth in love to their neighbors.  Should Christians be humble and free from sin?  Yes.  This kind of authentic witness will reach our neighbor.  But being humble and free from sin is no guarantee that our nation will be healed.  We can, however, guarantee that God wants all men to be saved and that he desires us to love our neighbor and tell him the good news of Christ.