One of the most popular verses Christians use when speaking about repentance is 2 Chronicles 7:14. I’m not one to take a single verse and hang on it without knowing the context. It could be saying something else and we would be misleading people. Let’s take a look.
2 Chronicles chapter 7 recounts the dedication of the first temple built by Solomon. More than 100,000 animals were sacrificed in dedication. The celebration lasted seven days and they returned home on the eighth day. (There’s a sermon in there, but I digress.) We’ll pick things up in verse twelve.
“And YHWH appears to Solomon by night and says to him, “I have heard your prayer, and have fixed on this place for Myself for a house of sacrifice. 13 If I restrain the heavens and there is no rain, and if I lay charge on the locust to consume the land, and if I send pestilence among My people— 14 and My people on whom My Name is called are humbled, and pray, and seek My face, and turn back from their evil ways, then I hear from the heavens, and forgive their sin, and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes are open and My ears attentive to the prayer of this place”
– 2 Chronicles 7:12-15
Verse 14 indeed can stand alone within the context. It means what it says, but let us look deeper at verse 13. It is the beginning of a conditional statement. Verse 14 says, IF My people do this, THEN I (YHWH) will do this. But the IF statements begin in verse 13. YHWH mentions three things He might do. These three things are found in Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and curses chapter. When Moses gave the Law to the next generation before they entered the Promised Land, he laid out the blessings and curses YHWH promised if they obeyed or disobeyed His Law, respectively.
On this first day of teshuvah, let us stand upon verse 14 with the understanding that turning from our wicked ways and having our sins forgiven means to return to obedience to the Law of YHWH. Humble yourself and seek His Face. Turn to His Law for the paths of righteousness as Psalm 27:11 says.
Feel free to read through Psalm 27 again today.
Shalom.