As I listened to our president speaking on our economy, jobs and health care it occurred to me that the economy has been
one of our nation's major concerns, as it is right now. With Government shut downs credit ratings in danger and the like, we are in a crisis unlike any I have seen in my lifetime. What has happened to our nation? Let me show you something.
The parallel with Israel during the days of Solomon is astounding. Economic prosperity went hand in hand with godliness and obedience. Economic disaster followed idolatry and disobedience.
When God told Solomon to choose what he wanted most, Solomon chose wisdom. Because of his CHOICE…Because he did not choose riches and power, God granted his desire to become the wisest man who ever lived. Not only did God make him the smartest guy the world has ever known, He also allowed Solomon to complete the building of the magnificent temple that had been his father David's dream.
And yet, for all his wisdom and wealth, Solomon lacked what David had. See David was focused on doing the will of God.
At the dedication of the temple, God promised to bless Israel if they remained faithful, but IF they did not, He would uproot them from their land and cause the temple to be a scornful reminder of their disobedience.
Many years later, in his old age, Solomon remembered God's decree and realized that because he failed to follow God, Israel had suffered economic disaster.
The words written in 2 Chronicles 7: 14 are God's provisions for economic reform. They establish a formula based on moral
principles that supersedes mathematics and take precedence over politics and this formula is summed up in one word: Repentance! And it is the single hope for our country.
I. THE CONDITIONS
God no longer dwells in the temple that Solomon built. Since the Day of Pentecost, He has lived in the bodies of believers, whom He calls "temples of the Holy Spirit."
But it was different in Old Testament Israel. Because the Israelites were a nomadic nation of tent-dwellers, it
was Solomon's great desire to build a permanent and glorious place in which God could manifest His presence to
His people.
But after the building of the temple, Solomon's personal life as well as Israel's well-being went into a downward spiral as they began to worship idols and foreign gods. It didn’t take long to go from the pomp and ceremony and unbelievable riches of Solomon's greatest days to the poverty and economic disaster of the later years.
The plan for economic reform that God laid out for the nation is applicable to us today.
1. God's Plan Involved A Select People
When God said, "If MY people ... ," He was talking about those whom He had called out of Egypt, delivered to the Promised Land, and established as a nation. Today we could apply that term to believers, who know Him and are called according to His purpose.
2. God's Plan Involved A Special Purpose
That purpose has never changed; it is the same now as in Solomon's day:
2 Chronicles 6:33.“That all people of the earth may know Your name and fear You.”
What was hidden in the Old Testament was made known in the New - that it is His will that none should perish, but all should come to repentance. His children are human temples in whom His Holy Spirit dwells for the sublime purposes of communing with Him and being instruments of revelation to all peoples of the world.
3. God's Plan Involved A Specific Protection
God's covenant with His people included promises of protection in instances of swearing oaths, defeat, severe drought, disease, famine, pestilence, blight, foreigners in the land, war with enemies, and captivity.
In fact, almost any imaginable circumstance was included in God's comprehensive coverage.
4. God's Plan Involved A Precise Procedure
The first thing the Israelites were to do in order to qualify for this unlimited protection was to humble themselves.
Notice that God doesn't promise to hear from heaven when we get humble; He can humble us anytime He wants to.
If you've ever been humbled by God, you soon discover that you would rather humble yourself than have Him do it again.
James wrote in, James 4:6 that God opposes the proud, but gives grace - abundant, additional grace - to
those who willingly humble themselves. God requests His people to take the initiative in humbling. It's past time for our nation to do just that; we must no longer rely on scientific progress, military strength, or the ability of lawmaking bodies to deliver us.
We must humble ourselves before God, our Sovereign Deliverer.
After humbling themselves, God instructed the people to pray. Prayer is, in its simplest definition, communication with God.
But it includes being aware of His being, acknowledging His sovereignty, and actively placing our faith in Him. Prayer develops our relationship with a loving Father.
So often people pray "fox- hole prayers" when life is out of control and they are desperate for help. But at that point, He is a stranger to them. They don't know Him as their friend who walks beside them in every circumstance. They're playing a game of "catch up" and have forfeited the blessing of a personal, intimate relationship.
He is much more interested in my prayer life than my preaching because if my prayer life isn't what it should be, my preaching can't possibly be what it could be. The same thing is true with a church: Its programs and projects will never be as important to God as day by day prayer hours and prayer meetings. Prayer is what America needs. We must humble ourselves and seek His face.
After seeking His face, we must turn from our wicked ways. To turn and go in another direction requires initiative and a conscious decision on our part. It is real easy to throw stones at others, especially non-Christians, but we really don’t want to judge the sin in our own lives. When we pretend that sin belongs to everyone else but us, we are living in denial.
Yet, even with sin in our lives, God is willing to do what He promises - if we turn from our sins.
II. THE CONSEQUENCES
The words of Solomon as an old man show that he had learned the main thing: to keep God's commandments. He finally discovered that everything else is futile. He also learned that there is a set of consequences for obedience as well as for disobedience.
1. The Consequence Of Obedience
God promises to hear His people, whatever their circumstances, as long as they are obedient. He also promises to forgive their sin. Just imagine how many people in our own congregation, feeling the hurt and anguish of divorce, need to forgive those who have hurt them and to be forgiven by partners and children. The Apostle Paul tells us in, Ephesians 4:32 “... Forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.”
Another consequence of obedience is a healed land, and I can't think of a land that needs healing more than our America. We have holes in the ozone layer, entire species becoming extinct, polluted air and water, and a disease-ridden population. In 1948, there were only two sexually-transmitted diseases. Today there are at least five, two of which are incurable.
When we are rightly related to God and living by His principles, He will do as He has promised and heal our land.
2. The Consequences Of Disobedience
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived wrote in, Ecclesiastes 10:1 Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's ointment, and
cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor.
He recognized that God's word is true - obedience is rewarded, disobedience is punished.
God spoke the truth when He declared that the disobedient would be uprooted and He would withdraw His presence from the temple, making it an object lesson to those who turned their backs on Him.
He also wrote in: Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ... Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil [].
But if the wisest man who ever lived failed to obey God, how can we possibly hope to do better? Solomon
did evil in the sight of the Lord because his heart became entangled with "strange" women. The "strange"
women worshiped Molech and Baal - the detestable gods of the pagan Canaanites, Amorites, and
Moabites. Eventually, Solomon built a high place on a hill east of Jerusalem for the worship of these idols.
Solomon was being tempted to worship whatever gods his neighbors worshiped, and by doing so he compromised the worship of Jehovah God by allowing the worship of other pagan gods.
I see a similarity in the church of today. Though we may not have turned completely away from the Lord, we have compromised with the pagan gods of pleasure and materialism enough to lose the cutting edge of evangelism and commitment. There are multitudes of professing Christians who attend church twice a year, tip God with a little bit of money, and then defile their bodies with food, drink, and fleshly lusts rather than dedicate them to become temples of the living God. Just look at face book and you’ll see what I mean. “Christians waving the symbol of Christianity on one post and waving a Bud Lite and cursing their friends on the next.”
One of our deacons told me that he told a 25 year old who worked with him that the joy of old age was to realize just how ignorant we are 25.
Solomon compared his moment of folly (actually years of folly) to the flies that are drawn to a spoiled ointment, and rightly so. In his latter years, his love went to others rather than God, and he ignored the One who had appeared to him twice and given him wisdom and wealth beyond description. What dilutes our worship and keeps us from becoming the people God wants us to be? Is it pride? Is it denial?
The most brilliant man who ever lived, the man who spent so many days in sacrifice and praise, eventually rendered himself destitute of wisdom and riches.
Solomon failed, and in his misery cried out, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Though I do not equate America with Israel, I do see the need for us to apply the biblical principles to ourselves as individuals, churches, and as a nation. God blesses those who are willing to live by His commandments. He also promises that no matter what brilliant economic strategies the economists and political scientists can create, we will come to economic ruin if we fail to honor Him.
Does America need economic reform or repentance? I believe, the answer is repentance. The truth is that when we are right with God, His blessings will fall upon our land and we will be healed - morally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially.
