Who Was 2 Chronicles 7:14 Spoken To?

The verse that comes out every election week was first spoken to Solomon, about a house he had just built in Jerusalem.

You will probably see it on a church sign or a friend’s Facebook page before the polls close today:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

It’s a real verse, and every word of it is true. The trouble starts when we quote it without reading the two verses in front of it:

“And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;” (2 Chronicles 7:12-13)

Solomon had just finished the house of the LORD, and God was answering the prayer he prayed when he dedicated it. The people in verse 14 are Israel. The land is the one God gave them, and six verses later He calls it “my land which I have given them.” The healing answers verse 13, where the rain stops, the locusts come and the pestilence spreads. Verse 15 even tells you where the praying happens: “the prayer that is made in this place.”

None of that makes it wrong to humble yourself and pray for this country. The Bible tells every Christian to do both, and it gives us this promise when we confess: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) What 2 Chronicles 7:14 does not give anybody is a promise that God will heal America’s land on those terms. That promise came with an address, and the address was a house in Jerusalem.

The habit that fixes this is plain. Before you claim a verse, read the one in front of it and the one after it, and find out who is being spoken to. It takes about a minute with the page open.

“Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:6)

Adam

P.S. My daughter and I are doing better, though I’m still fighting pneumonia. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us, gave, or bought a guide.