Scripture of The Day
February 25, 2021
“If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
By John Rex
We live in uncertain times. Is there any disagreement on this? There is a promise in Scripture that we can profit from: “Remember that the Lord your God is the only God and that he is faithful. He will keep his covenant and show his constant love to a thousand generations of those who love him and obey his commands.” Deuteronomy 7:9
Do you meet the two conditions of this promise? Do you 1) “love him” and do you 2) “obey his commands”? You might think of this as meeting the requirements of an insurance policy. You are required to comply with the terms of the contract, and this obligates the company to keep their contract also. Let’s consider an example of obedience and compare it to an example of disobedience. In the Book of Kings, we find two kings of Judah that lived by opposite moral values. The one was obedient and moral. The other was completely the opposite. Sadly, they were father and son.
The father in this story was Hezekiah. He assumed power at the age of twenty-five. Yet, his wisdom was great. We are told “He was faithful to the Lord and never disobeyed him, but carefully kept all the commands that the LORD had given Moses. So, the LORD was with him, and he was successful in everything he did.” 2 Kings 18:6-7 He clearly met both conditions (above) and consequently he had great success!
As awkward as it is to imagine, this great man was not a great father. It would be natural to expect that having a godly father would have influenced the boy to follow his example. It was not to be the case. Upon Hezekiah’s death, twelve-year-old Manasseh became king. Filling his father’s shoes would have been a daunting task for any son, but for a child of such immaturity, it proved impossible. We know the son was ungodly from the text. “Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the LORD had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the LORD.” 2 Kings 21:2
Manasseh did not just sin, he relished evil! “He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he built altars for the worship of Baal and made an image (idol) of the goddess Asherah… He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the LORD had said was where he should be worshipped.” Vs. 3-4 and this was not the half of it. He basically became a Satan worshipper! If that was happening today, what might WE do? The Bible does not leave us without a solution. But like the conditional promise of Deuteronomy 7:9, the solution to our crises also comes with a definitive condition: “If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 THIS IS A BIG PROMISE FOR BIG PROBLEMS. The one condition begins with “if.”
