If My People

Look at the following verse; I'm sure you know it. I always thought this verse was only promised to the Jewish nation at the time Solomon completed the building of the Jewish temple.

2nd Chronicles 7:14 … "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Of course I always add this disclaimer to it … "The Jews didn't, so God didn't."

Instead God fulfilled the following two verses (19 & 20) that He had warned Solomon about …

"But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them … "

And is it not true that God arranged or caused the Jewish nation to be scattered all over the known world? Evidently God fulfilled the warning He gave and removed them from the land of promise because they didn't repent.

The Scripture goes on and says in verses 21 & 22, people will ask … "Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers … therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them."

So now, let me ask this question. Can 2nd Chronicles 7:14 be taken as a promise for believers today when it says … "If my people, which are called by my name" … mean specifically Christians?

That leads me to this question … when were the Jews ever called by His name?

What is the Jewish name of the personal God of Israel? Yahweh. All other names such as Elohim (God), El (mighty one), El Shaddai (almighty God), Adonai (master), El Elyon (most high God), Avinu (our Father), etc. are not names but titles, highlighting the different aspects of Yahweh and the various roles which He has.

Were the Jews ever called … "Yahweh-ions or Adonai-ions?" No … they were called Jews, Israelites or Hebrews. They were never called by His name.

Do you see where I'm going? The Jews were never called by His name … Yahweh … but believers in Jesus, God's Son, who is the Christ, are called by His name. We are called … Christians because of that name and title.

God is the God of the whole earth, of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews. The Gospel was spread among Jews and Gentiles; and when Jews were converted they were also called Christians the same as the Gentiles.

The Jews understand the meaning of "If my people" to be only the people of Israel, God's chosen people … as the Hebrew Bible reads slightly different … "upon whom his name is called" … meaning the LORD or Yahweh. But as history shows, the promise of 2nd Chronicles 7:14 was ignored and came and went. The Jews were removed.

Let me return to my question. Can 2nd Chronicles 7:14 be taken as a promise for believers today? Are we not, because of Christ, God's people today? If so … will the same thing happen to us … that happened to the Jews?

I'm speaking of God's warning that came with the promise … not to be plucked up by the roots and removed … but the other one; the question they asked after God brought judgment.

"Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers … therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them."

Stop and take a good look at this land … America. Do you remember how it became a nation? A free nation … a Christian nation.

America's founding fathers formed this land to be governed by the principles found in the Bible. The founding fathers were believers in Jesus Christ. They believed that this land we call America, was preordained by the sovereignty of God to be … "a Christian nation."

What worries me, if I can say it that way … is if 2nd Chronicles 7:14 can still be claimed as a promise for America today … and if it can, then doesn't that mean the warning that God gave Israel is also given to us as well?

Have we as a nation done exactly what Israel did? "They forsook the LORD God of their fathers." Have we?

Has America forsaken the God of our founding fathers? And if we have … will our children ask the very same question … "Why has the Lord done this unto this land?"

And it shall be answered, "Because they forsook the God of their founding fathers … therefore He brought all this evil upon them." You reap what you sow.

May God have mercy upon America; because … I have grandchildren.


Comments welcome.