A lot of Christians quote Chronicles 7:14 as a verse that enjoins us to pray for our nation with the understanding that God will hear such a prayer and heal our nation from whatever evil besets us. The verse itself reads, "if 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 and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV) This seems a very straight forward verse, God clearly says that if his people who are called by his name (we Christians believe we are the people of God, and we are called by the name of Christ) humble themselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from their wicked ways (we like all of these things) then God will hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land. That seems like a done deal. So why am I saying it doesn't mean what you think it does?
As much as I want to agree and give a hearty, "Amen!" to the idea of Christians praying for our land and seeking God's healing upon our land, I cannot agree that this verse is the one to hold to for that point. If I were to point to any verse I would much rather point to 1 Timothy 2:1-2, wherein we are specifically told what, or who, to pray for. In this case we are told directly to pray for those in authority, and with the specific goal that we may lead godly quiet lives. Such verses have great value in that we are instructed first to pray, second to pray for certain people, and third to pray for a specific goal. The Christian who lifts up prayers on behalf of his rulers with the goal that he wants to live in peace in his community quietly doing the will and work of God knows that this prayer is in line with the will of God.
Okay, so I agree that we should be praying for our communities, so what's my beef with 2 Chronicles 7:14? Simply put, it is a matter of exegesis.
Recognizing that this passage results in a conditional statement of action the questions that must be asked are the following: Who is this command written to? When is the condition of the command met so that it goes into effect? What are individuals commanded to do when the command goes into effect? The argument most commonly put forward among Christians is that this command was written to Israel, and is written to the church today, so that when God brings judgment on the nation (i.e. when bad things happen), then Christians should be the first to repent of the wickedness going on in their culture and should pray to God, with the result being that God will heal the nation.
My argument is that this exegesis misunderstands who the command is written to, and thus today misunderstands the proper application of this verse. By misunderstanding the "who" of the command the "what" and the "when" of the command are also misunderstood. (This is not to argue for a causative relation, one could very well have misunderstood the "when" of the verse and thus misunderstood the "who" of the verse based on application.) In order to demonstrate a full understanding of the "who" of this verse I am going to first attempt to explain the "when" and the "what" of this command. Once we understand when this command goes into effect and what this command entails in terms of the action of the people under the command, then we will be in a position to better understand who this command applies to. Once all of that is done then we can understand what the result of obedience was, and thus have a full understanding of the verse that will then allow us to understand how to apply this verse today.
So, as to the "when." When should this command be applied? Well, the verse indicates that God will heal the land, so that implies that the command goes into effect when the land needs healing. But, if we back up one verse to 2 Chronicles 7:13 we see that this command applies specifically to when God causes drought, sends locusts, or brings pestilence upon the land. This is not to say that God would not also hear prayers in other situations, but rather that God made specific reference these events. But so what?
Well, if we want to know "so what" let us go to Deuteronomy. Specifically let us read Deuteronomy 28. If you notice in this chapter God discusses the curses that he will bring upon Israel when they disobey him and fail to keep his law. He starts with pestilence (Deuteronomy 28:21), then discusses drought (Deuteronomy 28:22, 23-24), and then talks about locusts (Deuteronomy 28:38).
The point of looking at Deuteronomy is that we see the situation God is describing in 2 Chronicles is a reference to the rebellion that is about to start in Israel after the time of Solomon (even during the time of Solomon as his idolatrous wives are said to have turned his heart away from God). God warned Israel that when they forsook his commandments and his law that he would bring about a series of judgments involving pestilence, drought, and locusts. Included in these judgments was also the fact that Israel would suffer exile and be brought out from the land. In reference to the exile God made a promise in Deuteronomy 30:1-3 that he would hear the cries of the exiles and would bring them back to their land, but there was no promise of forgiveness prior to exile, only the continuing harshness of judgment up to and then throughout the exile itself.
What we see in 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the gracious act of a kind God choosing to modify the covenant he made with Israel hundreds of years prior in Moab. When God renewed the covenant with Israel in Moab they agreed, acting on behalf of their children, to take on all the blessings and all the curses of the covenant. Thus the children of those men found themselves living in a time when the curses could finally come to fruition. They finally had a king over them, one they had chosen and God had consecrated, and the full weight of the curses could be executed, and they had no way to escape the coming curses once they began to slide into immorality. Yet, God, in his love for his people, by making this promise, gave his people a way to escape the curses once they began and forestall the utter destruction of their kingdom. Once the curses began, if the people acknowledged that they had broken God's laws and had transgressed the covenant, then they could humbly come to God and pray to him, and he would forgive them this transgression and heal the land of the pestilence, the drought, or the locust, and thus forestall the exile.
When understood this way we see that this command had a special application under the covenant relationship that God had established with Israel. But, this opens up a very interesting dilemma for us. If I have understood the "when" correctly, and the "what" correctly (when the people realize they have transgressed the covenant, what they must do is pray for God's forgiveness), along with understanding the result correctly (God will forgive them and hold back the exile for a time), then the "who" of the command stands out in rather stark relief. The only "who" this can apply to is the people of Israel during the time of the Old Testament. The reason why is quite simple: This command was dependent upon the Old Covenant which was renewed at Moab as recorded in Deuteronomy, the Old Covenant has been done away with, it has been replaced by the New Covenant made by the blood of Christ.
Understanding the New Covenant opens up multiple problems for the direct application of this command. For instance, as this was a command that reflected the judgment of God during the Old Covenant upon those who broke his law, it would be impossible to apply such a judgment to those in the New Covenant who do not live under the law and instead live under grace. Likewise, as this was a command that developed by way of rebellion, we would be hard pressed to argue that the New Covenant people could live lives that would require repentance and turning from their wickedness. Prior to being people of the New Covenant, most certainly, that is how we all lived, but now being in the New Covenant, having the Spirit of God, being filled with the love of Christ, to live in such a way seems impossible. The idea of a New Covenant individual, much less a great number of individuals making up the New Covenant community, living in such wickedness certainly seems foreign to Scripture. If indeed we are living such wicked lives that are not marked by regular repentance and a continual turning from wickedness, then I would honestly question whether any of us has a right to call ourselves "Christian" as such lives do not match up to the pictures of the saints we see in the New Testament.
So what do we do with this verse then? I believe 2 Timothy 3:16 to be true. Therefore I look to this verse and say that it was breathed out by God and that it is applicable to the Christian today. But how shall we apply it, being as I have already said it cannot be directly applied? We apply it through the atoning work of Christ, for all of God's promises are "yes" in Christ Jesus.
In Christ we recognize that we are in covenant with God, just as the people of Israel were. In Christ we recognize that we have dire need for constant repentance, and that we are fully deserving of the wrath of God, of pestilence, drought, and locust. And in Christ we recognize that the fullness of God's amazing forgiveness has been applied to us, so that our sins are forgiven and God is not waiting until some future date to pardon us. Once we see all of this in Christ we look to our land and realize that we, like Abraham do not have a land here on earth. Our country, our city, our neighborhood, none of it is our "land" in any final sense. Israel was in the promised land, and we are waiting for the land promised to us. Where God promised to heal the land stricken by curses for Israel we look forward to the land that will never be judged again, the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven, and we acknowledge that all of this, our forgiveness, our claim to this land, our hope in a bright future where the curse is totally done away with, is all because of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior forever more.
2 Chronicles 7:14 does not apply to us in promising that God will heal our country, because we are not the people of Israel in the Old Covenant, rather we are the true Israel, adopted by Christ in the New Covenant. We, like our father Abraham look for the land we shall inherit, and we recognize that we are but sojourners in the land here on earth. We are not those who need to turn from wickedness, but rather we are those who have turned, and who daily take up our crosses and follow after our Lord. We are not those who must humble ourselves, but rather those who recognize in full humility that we are objects of mercy, having nothing of our own we may brag about, though we must be reminded about this fact regularly. The promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is bigger for us, it is a promise of an undefiled land, a land beyond the curse, a perfect land. And to this promise we say, like Job, that though we die, we will see our redeemer, we ourselves and no other, with our own eyes, for our redeemer was slain and he lives.
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