“37 When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, 38 and when a prayer or plea is made by any of Your people Israel—each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple— 39 then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since You know his heart (for You alone know the hearts of all men), 40 so that they will fear You all the time they live in the land You gave our fathers. ”
“Here’s how we’re responding to covid-19.” If you’re anything like me, your mailbox, inbox, and social media feed have been full of information about how everyone and anyone is responding to covid-19. I received an email directly from Sandy Douglas, the CEO of Staples, letting me know how the office supply giant is responding. I’ve also heard from Escape 605 on the matter. You will also be pleased to know that although their escape rooms are closed, you can order an escape crate to complete in your home. The post office here in Inwood has a warning reminding you to remain six feet away from any other patron, which, of course, really means that only one person is allowed inside at a time.
Imagine the millions of hours that have gone into formulating responses to covid-19. Consider the meetings going on in hospitals, government agencies, non-profits, small businesses, large businesses, online retailers, and the list goes on. Now there is a good deal of wisdom to these meetings and we should be appreciative of all the hours that have gone into formulating responses, but please consider that Solomon already had a covid-19 preparation plan in place three thousand years ago.
Solomon’s plan could certainly have been expanded to include hand washing and social distancing, but the basics of the plan were and ready for action. His plan might sound rather obvious to you, but washing your hands is obvious too. Just because something sounds obvious doesn’t mean that it’s ineffective.
Solomon’s first response to covid-19 would be nationwide call for repentance and prayer. He would have considered this essential. In our culture, spiritual matters are not considered to be essential. They are considered add-ons. Spiritual matters play the same role in our culture that cheerleaders play at a football game. That’s not to disparage cheerleaders. They play a role. They motivate the crowd. They encourage the players. They build team spirit. They are important; however they are not essential in the same way that a quarterback is essential to football.
Our culture considers medicine, economics, and the government to be the essential players in this COVID-19 crisis. These essential players view churches as valuable insofar as we follow the mandates that they pass down. They are calling on churches to practice distancing and they appreciate our efforts. However, they do not really consider the church to be an essential player that adds anything unique, which is to say that repentance and prayer are not seen as essential matters. No one will discount prayer, especially at a time like this, but it isn’t seen as essential. Handwashing is essential. Repentance is “a neat idea”. Social distancing is essential. Prayer is, “great if you believe in that sort of thing.”
Solomon would have considered prayer essential for this time. Solomon would have considered repentance before prayer essential at this time. The question is whether we as a church consider it essential. The question is whether you consider it essential. We can see how essential or unessential we view it by whether we do it. We would be wise to pray because now is certainly the time. Now is a time for repentance. Now is a time for prayer. That is the claim of this sermon: now is a time for repentance and now is a time for prayer.
We will see this in three points. First: disaster and disease. Second: repentance and prayer. Third: the fear of the Lord. In verse 37, we will study disaster and disease. In verses 38-39, we will study repenetance and prayer, and in verse 40 we will study fearing the Lord.
First: disaster and disease. We find Solomon’s response to covid-19 in the midst of his prayer of dedication for the temple. Solomon had spent years preparing and building this temple. The ark of the covenant had just been brought in and the glory cloud had filled the temple.
God was near His people. The temple was a means by which God communicated this nearness. He was making Himself available.
Now Solomon knew that God didn’t live in this temple. He prayed, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God.” The temple didn’t house God. Rather, it was a public declaration that God was available. It was a means by which people could draw near to God.
The heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the families gathered together for this dedication. They gathered as representatives of the people, just like our council will pray as representatives of the people. The people met with God at the place where God and humanity meet—the temple. This is one of the reasons that Jesus called himself the temple. He is the place where God and humanity meet.
After Solomon’s prayer, he spoke to the people and said, “May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our ancestors; may He never leave us nor forsake us. May He turn our hearts to Him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws He gave our ancestors.” God had drawn near to Israel and the temple made that clear. Now Israel must draw near to God.
Solomon’s prayer called upon God to draw near in different situations. He made seven different appeals to God. We are simply studying one. The fact that there were seven appeals is noteworthy but seven is used throughout Scripture as a number of completion. These seven appeals show that the temple is comprehensively useful. It is a sign that you can call upon God in any and every circumstance. Call to God when you sin. Call to God when there is a drought. Call to God when you have personal difficulties. Call to God when there is political trouble. Call to God in any and every circumstance.
We are studying the petition which has to do with disaster and disease. As Solomon put it in verse 37, “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come…”
That covers a wide gamut and it covers our prayers today. We are praying for planting after an exceptionally wet year. We are praying for our government and medical workers in the midst of a crisis. We are praying for jobs in the midst of economic uncertainty. We are praying for families and schools in the midst of upheaval. We are gathering in prayer because this is what God called His people to do when there is trouble.
It is interesting to note that in the midst of this splendid day of celebration, Solomon’s prayer listed trouble after trouble. There was and is no paradise on this side of the new creation. In the midst of trouble, we should call out to God so we might be heard. The very existence of the temple made clear to Israel that if they called out to God, they would be heard.
The coming of Christ makes clear that if you call out to God you will be heard. This God who loved the world by sending His Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life clearly wants you to draw near. He sent His Son so that you might draw near. He has made and always makes the first move. Your response is to draw near. We are drawing near now as a church because there is trouble.
Now you might be curious about the specifics of how to draw near. We see them in our second point: repentance and prayer. Even secular people are fine talking about prayer in the midst of this pandemic. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily praying as Solomon instructed. Solomon’s prayer necessitates repentance as we see in verses 38-39, “when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel—each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart and spreading out his hands toward this temple—then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since You know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men).”
To be heard by this God of the temple, the Israelites would need repentance that was proper for a place of sacrifice. They needed to be aware of the afflictions of their own hearts, as Solomon put it. Disease and disaster should drive them to inspect themselves before coming to God.
Now disease and disaster didn’t always come because of sin and they don’t always come because of sin, but they were, and are, very natural times for repentance. Now should be a natural time for repentance.
This pandemic may be, in part, discipline from God for sin on a global scale. I don’t know everything God is doing in and through this time. I do know that Solomon and the whole of Scripture are clear that pandemics are times for repentance. I know that because it says it in the Bible, “whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel—each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple— then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place.”
This pandemic has certainly brought confusion in many matters of your life. It should also bring clarity— clarity about the fact that you are not in charge but rather you stand before the one who is in charge, clarity about the fact that you will die one day and stand before the judgment seat of God. This pandemic is a God-given opportunity for you repent.
It is a God-given opportunity to find your forgiveness. You don’t spread your hands towards the temple as Solomon. You draw near the true temple, the perfect meeting place of God and man. You draw near by way of Jesus.
This is a moment in history for men, women, and children to seek God while He might be found. Pray that this is a time when people recognize themselves as sinners and God as the justifier of sinners. Pray that this is a time of revival.
We must repent and pray first of all because it is commanded and secondly in hopes of experiencing verse 39, “then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since You know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men).”
We pray in hopes of relief. We pray in hopes of healing. God does hear the prayer of His people in times of disease and disaster. You see this in the biographies of Moses and David. It seems that Solomon, here, though is thinking not about the population but about individuals. These men I mentioned interceded for the people as a whole. God heard, stopped a disease or lessened the disaster. It seems that in this verse, though, Solomon’s focus is on God hearing individuals and treating them accordingly. As he said, “forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since You know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men).”
Woe to the man human heart that is hard toward the Lord at this time. Woe to the human heart that is hard toward the Lord at any time. This is a time to repent. This is a time to pray.
It is a time to pray to God where He might be found. Solomon told the people to direct their prayers to the temple. He then told them that God would hear the prayer from heaven. So you offer the prayer toward the temple, but God hears it from heaven. In other words, God hears those who draw near to Him in the ways He has appointed.
Now the idea that God only listens those who draw near to Him in the ways that He has appointed might seem rather narrow, but a moment’s thought will correct that notion. You only listen those who draw near to you in ways that you have appointed. Mechanics will listen to you talk about your car, but they won’t come to your house to set up shop in your garage. They will tell you how to draw near to them. Tax preparers are happy to help you if you bring them the proper forms. They won’t come to your house and sift through your junk drawers. They will tell you how to draw near to them. We are happy to help those who draw near to us in ways that we have appointed. We don’t view that as narrowness.
This refusal to believe in a God who only accepts those who come to Him by means that He has appointed isn’t a sign of broad-mindedness. It is a sign of foolishness. If you know the means to draw near to God, use those means. It is quite unwise to argue with the Father of Jesus for not justifying people apart from Jesus just as it would be quite unwise to argue with the God of the temple for not hearing people who refuse to approach Him by way of prayer. If religion has simply become a head game for you, get on your knees and pray. Your soul may depend on it.
Now this repentance and prayer have an intended result. Healing in pandemics has an intended result. We see that intended result in our final point: fearing the Lord.
Now I want this pandemic to be over. I want people healed so they can live long and fruitful lives. I want the economy to return to what it was. I want kids to return to school. I want us back in the sanctuary. None of those, however, are the most important end result. The most important end result is seen in verse 40,”so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers.” Solomon prayed that the people would repent and pray, and that God would hear so that, “so that they would fear God all the time they lived in the land that He gave their fathers.”
The end of social distancing is not enough. The return of the economy is not enough. Only the fear of the Lord is sufficient. Don’t simply pray for healing, as important as that is. Pray for healing and the fear of the Lord. Don’t simply pray for a return to business as usual, as important as that is for businesses. Pray that the people of this nation and world might fear the Lord. Pray that you would fear the Lord.
There isn’t much fear of the Lord in this country or world at this moment in history. Ecclesiastes’ summary that fearing the Lord and keeping His commandments is the whole point of life is utterly incomprehensible to many people. They think success is the whole point of life, self-fulfillment is the whole point of life, or building your life on your terms is the whole point of life. God has smashed all of those in a matter of weeks. None of that was ever a sufficient reason to live. The fear of the Lord is.
You need to fear the Lord. You need to revere Him. You need to approach Him with trembling trust, as one scholar put it. If you examine yourself, repent where needed, and pray, you will find yourself more wholly devoted to God than you were before, and that is the substance of life. If you never do that and if it doesn’t enter your mind to do so now even after hearing the call to do so, you wouldn’t benefit much from a miraculous end to covid-19 even if God gave it tomorrow.
Do you live in the fear of the Lord? Do you recognize that you live each day before an audience who is not only merciful but holy? We all live our lives before different audiences—most of them exist only in our heads. Live your life before the only audience that will matter on judgment day because He is the only who really matters on this day. May people fear Him now and when this is all over.
Now I imagine that you yourself are responding in a whole host of ways to covid-19. You are washing your hands more often. You are avoiding social gatherings. You might be unable to see your children or grandchildren or parents or grandparents. You are abiding by various guidelines. Handwashing is essential. Social distancing is essential. So is repentance. So is prayer. So is the fear of the Lord. Are you doing what’s essential? Amen.