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IF MY PEOPLE…

2 Chronicles 7:11-16

By Teresa Dombach

This morning’s passage actually is part of a larger story. So, at the risk of putting everyone to sleep, I would like to tell you that story.

It begins with Solomon’s father, David. David began as a shepherd boy, who in his teenage years was chosen by God to be king of both Judah and Israel. After many battles, and much hardship, he won the hearts of the people and managed to claim the throne. David was king. He was rich. He had several wives and many children. He had the palace, and he was on top of the world.

Now David knew that God was the one who got him through all those battles and fights, the one who blessed him with a palace and family, the one who gave him riches and gifts. So, David wanted to do something nice for God.

Have you ever wanted to do something for God? Maybe it’s playing in a praise band, organizing a summer Bible conference, beginning a campus ministry, becoming a missionary. It’s that moment when we are so thankful for all that God has done, that we want to do something for God.

David decided to build God a temple — a proper home for God. Because while David lived in a palace, God lived in a tent.  For generations, the Ark of the Covenant where God was believed to dwell was carried around from place to place in a tent. However, a few hours after David made the decision, God spoke through a prophet and said “No.”

God said: “Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”  (2 Samuel 7:5-7) Part of me wonders if God preferred being mobile, so he could seek his people wherever they went.

God continued and said: “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him …” (2 Samuel 7:11-15)

In these verses, many Christians see the parallels with Jesus. Jesus spoke of an eternal kingdom, one that was not of this world and one in which we would have rooms in a house. The Pharisees attacked Jesus because he called God father, and himself the son. Jesus was beaten by a rod and flogged. However, David’s son Solomon came along and took the throne after David’s death. He decided that God’s words were meant for David’s literal son. And he began building.

The temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.  Cedar and pine logs were hauled and floated in rafts via the Mediterranean sea by 30,000 men. 80,000 stonecutters cut and dressed stones in a quarry, while 70,000 carriers then brought them to the temple. And an additional 3,300 people supervised the process. The walls were cedar boards, the interior temple and floors were overlaid with gold. Much of the inner furnishings and decorations were made of bronze and cast metal. Only the best for God

It took about seven years to build, and a very, very large amount of blood, sweat, tears and money. On the day of dedication, Solomon sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats — that’s not including the grain offering.

One night after the temple was finished, God appeared to Solomon. According to verse 12: “The Lord appeared to him at night and said: ‘I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifice.’” Maybe God hadn’t intended for Solomon to build the temple, maybe He did, but God either way accepted their hard work, sacrifice and most of all prayer. God realized that building that temple, and all that went into it, was their way of seeking God, and inviting God to live with them. Maybe the temple was not necessary, but God accepted their prayer.

I have to admit that when Pastor David first texted me about giving message, I really wanted to do it, but not on this passage. Prayer is not my forte, and in fact, I am angry at God for not answering so many of my prayers. But as I mulled over the passage, I realized I really relate to building the temple. I’m a doer, a builder. I will pour everything that I am into something — the orchestra, HBF, Seed messages, 1:1 Bible studies, seminary school — doing all of it for God. I make sacrifices, cry tears, and even go broke. I build temples.

But my first reaction to verse 12, was poor Solomon. After all his hard work, after everything that went into that temple, after sacrificing so much, God doesn’t even say good job? God doesn’t give him a reward or blessing? Some people will say that being with God is a reward, but God was with them in the tent — God’s just changing houses.

Then I stumbled on verse 13. “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,” In my mind, I still have this crazy idea that if you do something for God, God will bless you. But these Israelites just spent seven years and so much money building a temple, and God said “when” I bring a drought and your food won’t grow, “when” locusts devour all your food and you starve, and “when” your people die from plague. Not “if,” but “when.” Instead of being blessed for all they had done, it seems as if God were cursing them. You can see as a “temple” builder, I’m really frustrated.

But then we come to verse 14.  “If my people, who are called by my name, will 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.” Although God accepts our temples — our work, our sacrifice — God wants more. God will dwell in our temple — whether it is a message, a ministry, a skit, a worship song — but on its own the temple is not enough. According to 2 Chronicles, this is what God really wants.

First, humility. We can’t even approach God without humility. When we think we can do it on our own, then we believe that we have no need for God. God can seek us out, but we will ignore God — because what use is God to me? I can do everything on my own. Realizing we need help, that personal humility, is our first step to interacting with God.

And it’s also a step we must continue to do all our lives. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tackled a task or project, or even a message, and not sought God’s help. I might be doing it for God, but in the back of my mind, I think I can handle it on my own. It’s so easy to forget humility and forget how much we desperately need our Lord.

But humility also doesn’t stop at seeking God’s help. I mentioned earlier that often I want credit for building my temples — a pat on the back. Solomon never seemed to desire that, at least outwardly. He was humble. In our generation, the best example I can think of that humility is Mother Teresa.

She was quoted once as saying, “I could never do what I do, if He didn’t ask me to do it. … I don’t take credit for my work. All I have done is His will. … I am only a pencil in the hands of God. It is He, He who writes.” Humility is building the temple, and realizing that God is the designer and God worked harder than we did.

Second, prayer. Prayer in its most basic form is communication with God, but prayer is closely tied with humility. Many people treat prayer as a demand. “Lord, I need a parking space, and I need it now.” And presto, I have a parking space. Now, I’m not saying that doesn’t work because I’ve tried it myself sometimes.

But once a group of us were discussing Mark 11, in which Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” One 19-year-old was perplexed because she had prayed that exact prayer, believing it with all her heart, willing the mountain to go into the sea, but the mountain didn’t move. A 30-year-old in the group, put his hand on her by the shoulder and said, “Young one, when you have the type of faith to move mountains, you realize the mountains are fine just where they are.”

God is not a vending machine, nor a genie in a bottle. We don’t pray with all our hearts, and it magically happens. Instead, our prayers are humble requests. Even verse 15 says: “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” God’s eyes will be open and his ears attentive; God will always be listening. But that is God’s only guarantee.

There is persistent prayer, breath prayers, personal prayer, two-by-two prayer — there are so many books on prayer and so many people in this room who know more about prayer than I do, or probably ever will.

But prayer, in any form, is a request. Yes, God can do the impossible, but that does not mean that God is going to obey my will. God will do God’s will, even if that means not answering some of my prayers.

Third, seek my face.  This one I found confusing, because if you are building something for God, aren’t you already seeking God? But according to verse 14 either, 1) they were seeking God, but later stopped seeking God, so they needed to seek God again, or 2) even though they built the temple, they were not seeking God to begin with.

We can seek many things in life. For example, we can seek riches and comfort. That’s usually an easy one to spot because all we care about are dollar signs. We will step on everyone and everything in our path all for selfish gain.

But, we can also seek the approval and love of others. That’s a little trickier. Am I going to Bible study because I’m seeking God or because I want my Bible teacher or parents to love me or approve of my actions? Am I the lead dancer, lead actor, or lead singer because I want to honor God or because I want the attention? Do I want to build the “temple” because I want to glorify God’s name or because I want to glorify my name? Sometimes, it can really be hard to discern if I’m truly seeking God.

Harder yet is when I think I’m seeking God, but I’m only seeking human or religious standards. To seek God is to try to be like God, but we can never be like God because we are imperfect humans. But that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. Too often our desire isn’t to seek the perfection of God, but just to do as good as our neighbors. They all go to church every Sunday, so I go to church every Sunday. They go to 1:1 Bible study, so I go to 1:1 Bible study. They all tithe, so I tithe. That should at least make me as holy as they are. If I go to GBS and Friday meeting, maybe I’ll even be holier than them. We are no longer seeking God’s face, but a religious standard.

But we are supposed to “seek God’s face.” Not things of this world or human/religious standards. I also love how the author of 2 Chronicles writes, “seek God’s face.” Not God’s ways, not God’s love, not God’s wisdom, not God’s righteousness, but seek God’s face. Just be in the presence of God, staring at God’s face. That’s what we should be seeking.

Fourth, turn from our wicked ways. It’s hard to believe that these people who had just worked so hard and sacrificed so much to build this temple for God had wicked ways. Most people would consider them holy. But many times we can appear good and holy on the outside, while stuffing our wickedness deep down within us.

I have a confession to make: I am a murderer. In Matthew 5:21-22 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.’” So the truth is that I have murdered A LOT of people, some people who are even sitting in this room. Some people will say, “that’s not real murder.” But if that is true then I’m seeking human standards and human approval, not seeking God’s face.

I have a tendency to take that wickedness and stuff it deep down inside of me. I think that I have gotten rid of it, but it always resurfaces — maybe it resurfaces when someone wrongs me again, or when I don’t trust a person, or even when for a split second I give someone a nasty glance. Or for example, when I was writing this message, and was thinking about the temples I’ve built and what I considered the few blessings I’ve received, one night I became consumed by bitterness, jealousy and anger. I thought that I had dealt with that wickedness, but apparently I did not.

Instead of repressing my wickedness so that it rips me apart inside and eventually rears its ugly head again, I need to turn from it. Turn around, leave the wickedness behind — definitely don’t hold on to it. But let go. To use the Christian terms, I need to repent. I need to remove the old clothes, and put on the new clothes. I need to be transformed.

Those four — humility, prayer, seek my face and turning from our wicked ways — that’s what God seeks. That’s what it will take for our sins to be forgiven and for God to heal our land. The temples are nice, but God wants more — God wants us. To work with us, communicate with us, be with us and transform us. God wants us.

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