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Matthew 6:9-15 9 “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
2 Chronicles 7:1-4, 11-16 When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” 4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD.11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house; all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
A House of Prayer
You won’t often see anyone preach from 2 Chronicles but one verse that you may have heard before is, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Before I went to seminary I was part of the Praise Team in Narberth. No, I didn’t play an instrument or sing. I was the techie. This verse was on the wall of the room where all the equipment was stored. It was sort of our team verse. Prayer was important for us; we always started our practice with a short teaching and a time of prayer. Once a month we got together for a longer time of prayer. My early training as a Christian taught me how important it is to seek after God. God teaches us in this verse exactly how important prayer is. It is tied to forgiveness and healing. From the moment when we broke relationship with God in the Garden of Eden, when we rebelled against God, God has been caring for us and calling us back. All God has ever asked us to do is to turn from our wicked ways and repent, to seek God and God will forgive us. We see this not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament where we heard Jesus teach his disciples to pray using the prayer we pray every week.
Today we are going to compare what God tells Solomon about prayer with Jesus’ instructions about prayer and see what we can learn from both. I think we will see that God has always wanted the same type of prayer relationship from us.
Our Old Testament scripture occurs at the high point of the Israelite kingdom. David had been a warrior king, uniting the kingdom and expanding its borders. Under Solomon the united kingdom flourished. David was not allowed to build the temple but the task was given to Solomon. We begin today’s lesson at the end of the dedication of the temple, as Solomon concludes his prayer. We are told the fire came down from heaven and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. We don’t know exactly how they knew this but whatever they experienced it kept the priests from entering the temple. The glory of the Lord is something that we can perceive with our senses. It has been described as a thickness, a heaviness, God visits His people and allows them to feel His presence with them. During times of revival people have experienced God as a strange warming in their hearts. Think of the two on the Road to Emmaus after Jesus was resurrected, they didn’t recognize Jesus while he walked with them until when he ate with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Luke tells us, “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
After Solomon’s prayer the sacrifices and the festival continued for eight days and then the people return to their home. We pick up our scripture again with God’s appearance to Solomon and God’s answer to his prayer. Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, had acknowledged that people sin and he listed various circumstances and asked God to forgive them if they would turn from their sin and acknowledge God again. Verses 24 and 25 of Chapter six are one example where Solomon asks, 24 “When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house, 25 may you hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.” Our verses contain God’s answer to Solomon. “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Let’s break this down step by step.
God starts with if, he lays out conditions under which he will forgive and heal. If my people who are called by my name. This is where our identity needs to start. We are God’s people, chosen, predestined for this. We hear in this God’s constant call to return to Him, our first love, our eternal heavenly Father who loves us. We are created by God, in God’s own image. Jesus has us start our pray by addressing God as “our Father in heaven.” We acknowledge our relationship with God, we are God’s children.
Next, God tells us that we are to humble ourselves. We are to to be humble before God. We are to give up our independence and turn to God. Throughout the Bible and on into today we see people who run after the things of this world instead of the things of God. Those who seek power, status, and possessions as replacements for the glory of God which we are to share in as God’s sons and daughters.
Some people have trouble with the instruction to be humble. Being humble does not mean thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves properly. Paul said in Romans 12:3, “you are not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” When the disciples asked Jesus who was the greatest in the kingdom he picked up a child and said, “ 4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 18:4) Later in Matthew’s gospel Jesus said, “12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. The apostle James writes, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Being humble is not about being a doormat to others. We are not being told to humble ourselves to others but to our God who is our Creator and our Sovereign King.
After saying, “Our Father”, Jesus has us add,” Hallowed by your name.” Hallowing or setting apart God’s name recognizes God’s holiness, otherness, heavenliness. It requires a state of humility to acknowledge how great God is. We are saying God is holy, He is the eternal One, our Creator.
The third thing God’s tells us to do is pray. Prayer can trigger the grace of God provided it is humble prayer that abandons the brazenness of disobedience and comes, humbly into God’s presence. Jesus gives us an example of humble prayer when he tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus said, “Two men who went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” The tax collector was humble, he acknowledged he was a sinner and asked for mercy. This is how we are to come to God, acknowledging our sin and asking forgiveness.
Fourth, we are told to seek God’s face. This means to seek his presence, to have a spiritual attitude that is ready to turn to God and let His will prevail in our life. Jesus states this, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are to seek God’s will first in our lives. Jesus did this, even in the garden when facing the cross he prayed, “not my will, but yours be done.” The prophet Jeremiah said, 11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me, says the LORD (Jer 29:11-14) Seek after God, not for what He can give you but seek after relationship with Him. This is the Lord of the Universe, how fortunate we are to be able to have a relationship with Him. Seeking God is a continual journey, not a onetime trip. Every day we seek God anew.
Jesus tells us to ask each day for what we need. “Give us our daily bread.” Ask for what we need. The Father knows how to give good gifts. In Matthew 7 Jesus said, 9 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Let’s put this in contemporary terms. As parents, didn’t we want to give our children good things? Not everything they asked for but the good things they needed. I liked it when they asked for things. I wanted to give them good things.
Fifth, God says we are to turn from our wicked ways. In other words, we are to repent of our sin, we are to say we are sorry for what we have done wrong. The Hebrew phrase means recalling what one did when carried away by self-will and reconsidering in the cold light of day. Here’s an example from contemporary culture. We’ve all heard stories of someone who gets drunk and dances on a table with a lampshade on their head. Now I’ve never done this, and I’ve never actually seen anyone do it but I have seen people do some mighty strange things while drunk that they heartily regret in the morning when they are sober again. That’s what turning from our wicked ways involves. Seeing our sin for what it truly is. Acknowledging that we are prideful, judgmental people and asking God to help us change. The prayer has to be accompanied by a resolve to start again with God and leave the bad, old lifestyle behind. Such a prayer opens up the heart and soul to God, allowing him to penetrate to the core of our wills and put his will there. We are talking here of repentance which is a matter of heart and mind; it is a mental and spiritual realignment with God’s will.
Jesus says, “And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Note that Jesus has us ask for forgiveness based on how we forgive others. That can be a scary thought. God forgives in equal measure to how we forgive. Jesus does not allow us to say, “I will not forgive.” That is not an option. If we want forgiveness, we must in turn forgive others. To forgive as we forgive is to recognize that God cannot renew those who stubbornly cling to grudges thus defying His extension of grace.
Prayer is opening our lives to God, inviting Him to act in our lives. Prayer is not a matter of overcoming God’s reluctance; it is being willing to accept his will in our lives. Prayer moves the hand of God in our lives by giving him the freedom to do in our lives what he has been wanting to do. God, in his sovereign power, does not impose His will upon us, we have choice, free will. This means that God will act in our lives with the degree of freedom we surrender to Him. Prayer is therefore relational; it is not a psychological exercise, a matter of positive thinking; it is not a mental review of God’s attributes and principles, it is not a matter of coercing God, it is a matter of developing relationship between ourselves and God. Prayer offered in the secrecy of heartfelt communion.
Jesus said not to repeat empty phrases because the Father already knows what we need. Given this, we could ask, why pray if God already knows what we need? The answer is that God waits to move until we recognize Him and His will. Prayer is relationship. Prayer is fellowship. We acknowledge that we will be tempted and we are asking God in advance to help us, to deliver us from that temptation when it comes.
If we do what God asks, if we humble ourselves, seek God’s face, turn from our wicked ways then God promises to forgive our sins and heal our land. The Israelites envisioned pestilence and famine, drought, defeat in war, and sickness in their land. What do we envision? Not much has changed. Famine and drought still exist in parts of our world, there is still war in various parts of the world, and the entire world was affected by COVID. God’s promise still holds true. If we humble ourselves, seek God’s face, turn from our wicked ways then God promises to forgive our sins and heal our land.
In 2 Chronicles God is speaking to the entire people of Israel. In Matthew Jesus is speaking to individuals. There is both corporate prayer and individual prayer. God wants relationship with both individuals and groups. Let us pray individually and together for God to forgive our sins and heal our land.