On November 11, 1938, two decades after the end of WWII, Kate Smith debuted the song written by Irving Berlin called “God Bless America”. In Dr. Richard Land’s book Real Homeland Security, published in 2004, he opened with a pertinent question: “What does it mean when you say ‘God Bless America’? Is that a hope? Is it just an expression? Is it a prayer? Does God bless America because she deserves it?”
Land significantly observed that “If America perishes, she will die of self inflicted wounds.” He is not wrong. In fact, I would state it this way… If America perishes it will be because she has bled out her moral commitments while drinking heavily the lethal cool aid cocktail of moral relativity and unabashed narcissism. Ok, so his is more poetic.
Consider the US that God is observing:
- An unborn baby has been killed approximately every 20 seconds for over three decades.
- More than half of US children spend a significant amount of childhood and adolescence in a single parent home.
- We have become the world’s center for hardcore pornography and export it in huge amounts around the globe.
- One third of the babies born in the US are out of wedlock.
- The push to normalize homosexual behavior and sanction same sex marriage has entered even our military.
Those are just skipping the stones across the top of the pond scum of our day. The problem is, the church seems bent on sliding with the signaled needs of the time. The best selling Christian books reveal the trends:
- Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear by Max Lucado
- The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
- Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
- The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren
- The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- Become a Better You by Dave Ramsey
- Love Your Life by Victoria Osteen
- The Secret to True Happiness by Joyce Meyer
I am not saying these are bad books –in fact they are not. I am not saying they are un-needed. I am saying just the opposite. Even Christians are showing their desire is to overcome phobias, find and keep relationships, know life’s purpose, manage money better, and find happiness in this life. How would that list of needs stack up with the words of the New Testament and the priorities of the early church and its Apostles?
Do you suppose that Peter or Paul would have spent significant time on those issues? How was a believer THEN different than a believer NOW? I suspect in MANY ways. One of the most obvious ones is the HUNGERS that defined their pursuits. We are awash in self awareness, self affirmation and… well just SELF. So what do we do about it all?
Obviously, in the days of sound bite theology taught to a generation that was trained to see resolution to every problem by the end of the one hour TV show, many Christian writers have immediately jumped on the bandwagon of 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.”
Sounds simple enough.
- God’s people humble themselves.
- God’s people pray fervently.
- God’s people seek God.
- God’s people turn away from wickedness..
…and God fixes the place. Everytime I hear this quoted it sounds like a “four quck tips to save your nation” pitch.
I am not being cynical, I am seeking to be Biblical. That message plays well in America. But what happened was both Biblically inaccurate and possible historically impossible. Let me explain:
The Biblical accuracy issue has to do with the misuse of God’s promises. God didn’t make a deal with every believer when He made a deal with ONE believer. Dr Land’s book serves well as a warning here: “In this passage God defines the conditions for His blessing on any nation – the people of God must get right with Him.” That is both inaccurate (that is not contextually the deal God made) and dangerous (it leads people into promises that God didn’t make). Let me explain:
In context, 2 Chronicles 7 is set at the time of the completion of the Temple of Solomon (the First Temple). Chapter 6 contains the marvelous prayer of the wisest man ever on the planet. Chapter 7 includes God’s response to it. In context, God’s promise was made:
1. After a clearly demonstrated obedience to the Lord in the building of the Temple. (6:40-41;7:11). It was YEARS into the process, not days or weeks. 2 Chron. 6:40 “Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. 41 “Now therefore arise, O LORD God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good…. 7: 11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in the house of the LORD and in his palace.
2. After a clear and specific set of Abrahamic and Davidic promises to the people of Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:42 “O LORD God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David.”
3. After the deliberate and public seeking of the God of the Bible by the responsible official of the people. 2 Chronicles 7:1 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house. 2 The priests could not enter into the house of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’S house. 3 All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the LORD, saying, “Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
4. After nationally sponsored obedience to the specific prescriptions of God’s corrective laws to His people were meticulously executed. 2 Chronicles 7:4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. 5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6 The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites also, with the instruments of music to the LORD, which King David had made for giving praise to the LORD—“for His lovingkindness is everlasting”—whenever he gave praise by their means, while the priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing. 7 Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat.
5. After God said that He agreed to specific terms of a work and a people represented in the passage. 2 Chronicles 7:12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 “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, 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.
6. And followed by His commitment to watch closely the work they did when He DID heal them. 2 Chron. 7:15 “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. 16 “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.
7. And was followed by a conditional commitment to the King to whom the promise was given. 2 Chronicles 7:17 “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, 18 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.’
In other words, God has no specific arrangement with American Christianity, and if He did from the verse it would be couched in a number of tough steps we need to think through. What God DID give us was this account to look for eternal truths and principles from. Look at them carefully by going back over the seven statements above and seeking the timeless principles behind the account God made with Solomon. Instead of being quick to grab guarantees, let’s be clear about what WE must do, and understand that we cannot legislate God’s blessings, because we don’t know His plan for the nation. Expecting no guarantees, let’s learn the lessons:
- Solomon built the Temple over the long haul in obedience to God (6:40-41;7:11). We must commit on a local and tangible level to build God’s work in order to see God’s work progress in the lives of people around us. It is not enough to come and hope that someone else does the ministry, we must do it. We must look honestly at our schedules and see how much the Kingdom is getting, as opposed to the world of personal satisfaction.
- We must be deliberate in learning theclear and specific set of promises to the modern believer from the Word of God. We must not appropriate someone else’s promises, or borrow Israel’s identity. She has her promises and we have ours. (2 Chronicles 6:42).
- We must be unashamedly deliberate about seeking public officials that recognize their responsibility is before GOD, and not just the voters. (2 Chronicles 7:1-3).
- We must use our resources individually to support any group that will aid national obedience to the specific prescriptions of God’s corrective laws and open oppose those who want to trash Biblical values (2 Chron. 7:4-7). Our testimony can be gracious even when we give NO WAY on truth.
- Now look at 2 Chronicles 7:14. Look at the principles – they are not as simple as a recipe to make brownies…
- As part of the practice of our passionate walk with God – we, the people of the church of Jesus Christ should STOP THE SELF FOCUS that is consuming our world. God’s people humble themselves (kawnaw: to be brought down) only when they STOP THE SELF FOCUS. Let me be clear: If the book lists of Christians are all about how they can be fulfilled and happy, they are still standing in front of God and haven’t humbled in the
Biblical sense.
- God’s people pray fervently (pawlal: entreat or intercede). We are called to make prayer our breath, not a formality. I love it when I walk through the halls on Sunday and see people praying together about a need. It shouldn’t be unusual – it is the stuff of Christianity to stand in intercession for one another.
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God’s people seek God (from bawkash:to seek, aim or beg). We should seek God – not God’s blessings, God’spurse, God’s fulfillment, God’s benefits… GOD! We should spend time seeking to know Him – His attributes, His Words, His ways…
- God’s people turn away from wickedness (from shoob: turn or break away). Put it down. Stop watching. Turn it off. Step away from the temptation. God wants to bless you dramatically, but your hands, heart, eyes and ears are already committed to another for entertainment and fulfillment. Slow it down and focus: What does God want me to place in front of Him right now? Do it.
One more note before we go. Remember we mentioned that there was the historical possibility that God’s prophetic calendar doesn’t have a grand position with America’s place card on it. I cannot say, because the Word doesn’t clearly say it. What I can say is that we cannot assume that we are to be blessed because we HAVE BEEN BLESSED. God owes me nothing. God owes my nation nothing. God has a story to tell and I want Him to tell it – no matter what it means concerning me. I am His, and He is God. Therefore, with no claim of my own, I seek to humbly come before Him and cry out for my nation. It is what I can do. It is not a guarantee of success for US, but it is a deliberate attempt to apply carefully the principles He has left me as a bread crumb trail to find my way home. This side of home I can only trust Him and await. Fulfillment is the stuff of my Heavenly home. My hungers for any stop gap fulfillment must be reigned in until I get there. It is worth the wait, and He is worth the effort.
