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“The Promise To Heal Our Land – Part 1”
The Promise To Heal Our Land – Part 1
Wade Webster
“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” (2 Chron. 7:14). What a promise! God would heal their land and forgive their sins. Sadly, Israel did not ultimately enjoy this promise because they did not meet its conditions. The land that God promised to heal looks little like a land flowing with milk and honey today (Lev. 20:24). It was at one time a land that abundantly met that description, and as this promise suggests could have been that way again; but rather, as a dry, desolate, war-torn land today, stands as a witness to the fact that they failed to lay hold on the promise that God made to them. Let’s examine this promise and what it declares for us today. Let’s make sure that we don’t come up short of the promises that God has made to us.
The Requirements - “If…humble…pray…seek…turn”
The word “if” generally signifies a condition that must be met. Sometimes, this word signifies a condition that has already been met and could better be translated as “since.” In our passage, the “if” is clearly a condition that must still be met rather than one that has already been met. Four conditions are enumerated in the text:
- They must humble themselves. As you know, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Peter declared, “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Pet. 5:5-6; cf. Jam. 4:6). When Peter speaks of being clothed with humility, he is likely referring back to the occasion when Jesus girded himself with a towel and washed the disciple’s feet (John 13:1-17).
- They must pray to Him. God wants us to pray. He wants us to ask for what we need and want, including forgiveness. Those who ask receive. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Mat. 7:7-11). Those which don’t ask, don’t receive. James wrote, “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask” (Jam. 4:2).
- They must seek His face. God’s face is against those who do evil. The psalmist declared, “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,And His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all” (Psa. 34:11-19).
- They must turn from their wicked ways. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Through Ezekiel, God said, “So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?” ’ Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”(Ezek. 33:7-11).
God’s blessings were dependent on them meeting these four conditions.
Although there are clear differences between Old Testament Israel and America today, there are still some things that hold true. Righteousness still exalts and sin still reproaches. In Proverbs, Solomon wrote, “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people. The king’s favor is toward a wise servant, But his wrath is against him who causes shame” (Prov. 14:34-35). If we want God to have mercy upon us and to heal our land, we must humble ourselves and do His will.
