Is the hope of our nation founded on the outward things we do, such as enacting government reform and new social programs? Or, is it the result of the inward man and what is happening on a spiritual level inside each citizen of this country? What must happen before our country will begin improving, and before God’s presence will come and dwell among us and prosper us again?
Read: 2 Chronicles 7:11-16: God had commanded David to build a temple for Him (2 Samuel 7:5-6), but David lost the privilege of building the temple (1 Chronicles 22:7-11), because he had shed too much blood in war; therefore, God passed the torch along to David’s son, Solomon. We read that King Solomon accomplished the task that was given to him; and after he had finished building the temple, then God’s presence came and dwelled there.
I want to ask you, was it because Solomon had constructed a new temple that God’s Spirit dwelled there? Was it the sight of the new temple that pleased God and resulted in His presence abiding there? In verse 12 we gain an understanding of why God’s presence came and dwelled in the new temple that Solomon had constructed. God said to Solomon, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.” God came and dwelled in the temple because Solomon had been continually lifting up his voice to the Lord in “prayer.”
Was it prayer itself that pleased the Lord? No, for in verse 14 God told Solomon that if he desired for His presence to continue abiding in the temple and among the Israelites, that both he and the people also needed to “humble themselves” and “turn from their wicked ways.”
Humbling ourselves, praying, and repenting, are each combined in the expression we read about here that speaks of “seeking God’s face.” God says, “If My people . . . seek my face . . . I will hear from heaven.” Constructing a new temple did not result in God’s presence abiding among His people, but seeking His face did. With us, enacting government reform or programs is not the main thing that will result in improving the state of our county; but seeking God’s face will.
In verse 13 the Lord speaks of shutting up the heavens. I believe we can see from this verse that if we don’t seek God’s face then this will result in the Lord’s presence departing from us.
In Ezekiel 39:23 God spoke of the Israelites in captivity, and said, “Because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid my face from them.” In Isaiah 59:2, we read, “Your sins have hidden his face from you so that He will not hear.” Seeking God’s face is seeking His presence, and we learn time and again from the Scripture that we cannot stand before the presence of a holy God if we are living in sin. Our sins result in God’s presence departing from among us.
If we are not seeking God’s face, then our hearts are simply not devoted to Him. Anytime that we fail to place God in the center of our nation, then we have sin in our life, and sin results in God hiding His face until we repent and seek Him anew. If our country is suffering, then we need to get down on our knees in prayer and get serious about the Lord.
If we want God to choose and sanctify our country as a place where His heart will be perpetually (v. 16), then we must be about seeking God’s face. If we don’t seek His face then we will experience a drought of God’s presence, and a drought in prosperity; so let’s begin seeking His face!
Read: 2 Chronicles 7:19-22: We read that if we “forsake God’s commandments” and “serve other gods,” then the Lord will depart from our presence. When we stop seeking God’s face, then these are the two main things which reveal our lack of devotion.
First, we “stop heeding God’s commandments,” such as the Ten Commandments; or perhaps His top two commandments of loving God first and then loving our neighbor as ourselves. The second thing we do that will result in God’s presence departing from us is that we “serve other gods,” which is known as “idolatry.” Idolatry is an extreme obsession with any person, place, thing, or idea; and we have many idols as citizens of one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Verses 19-22 warn us about the shame and mockery that will result when God’s Spirit departs from His people. Such things will happen as, we will become “a proverb and a byword among all peoples,” and our country “which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land’.”
If we fail to seek the Lord’s face, then our country will become a mockery to the entire world. However, if we start getting serious about God then our nation will be revived. We must lift high the name of Jesus Christ as a banner across this land; but keep in mind that both national revival and personal spiritual awakening begins with each of us.
A man once came to Gipsy Smith, the renowned English evangelist, and asked him how to have revival. Gipsy asked, “Do you have a place where you can pray?” “Yes,” was the reply. “Tell you what to do. You go to that place, and take a piece of chalk along. Kneel down there, and with the chalk draw a complete circle all around you – and pray for God to send revival on everything inside of the circle. Stay there until He answers – and you will have revival.”