Did you know that there are things in the Bible that you were never meant to apply to your life? Take for example the popular 2 Chronicles 7:14:
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Have you ever heard this verse cited as a type of spiritual recipe for the United States to come back into favor with God? Have you ever considered the context in which this verse sits? Can I tell you that this verse has nothing to do with America’s future? This verse should not be seem as a spiritual prescription for the health of our Nation and you should help others see this as well. Consider the context starting at verse 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 …
So, God is speaking to Solomon because He had been praying on behalf of the nation of Israel. In response, God promises that He will make the Temple a place for sacrifice (slang for worship). The worship of Israel will periodically be strained due to sin and neglect of faithfulness to the Law. When this occurs the Lord will graciously provide for Israel certain signs to indicate this strain: the lack of rain and the growing presence of locust or pestilence. It is at this point that the Israel is given a conditional promise to avert further strain between themselves and the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob: If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
If Israel responds to God in humility through crying out to Him and turn from their sin, the Lord promises to hear, forgive, and return the land to its original condition. In other words, the relationship between the nation of Israel and the God of Israel will again be enjoyable and effective in being a light to the nations: Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place (2 Chron. 7:15)
Given the context how does this relate to the potential vitality of the United States? Short answer: It doesn’t. Long answer: Our relationship with God is not centered on a sacrificial system that is in Jerusalem, we don’t offer sacrifices, and God has not promised us this “land.” We simply have no right to say that America is or can be the focus or beneficiary of this passage.
We have it much, much better!
If you are a Christian then Jesus is the ultimate and final sacrifice: … “He [Christ, emphasis mine] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:26, see also Heb. 10:12).
If you are a Christian then your “land” will come at the coming of Christ: “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:16).
If you are a Christian then God has opened your eyes and you can pray boldly to Him on the basis of what Jesus has done for you in the Gospel: “… so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.” (Eph 3:10-12).
Therefore, let the promise of 2 Chronicles find their intended purpose: to be rooted and expressed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s not go back to the Old Covenant between the Lord and Israel. Let’s remind ourselves of the New Covenant based on the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is good!
Dan, thank you for having the boldness to expose a misapplication. What are your thoughts on Malachi 3?
Malachi 3
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
I have heard it put by multiple pastors that this scripture illustrates the principle that God blesses those that tithe. The pastors I have heard have carefully clarified blessing…stating it doesn’t mean financial blessing but means just blessing. This principle may be true but I am not convinced that we should use this scripture to make that argument. The audience in this context is Israel, not the Church.
More broadly, are we take any principle or promise we see in the OT and say it still applies? If not, how does one discern this?
As an example of something we no longer do but what was very common practice/principle in OT is the casting of lots.
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33)
The apostles in Acts 1:24-26…actually cast lots as well. Why doesn’t the church do this today?
Yes, I see clearly in the New Testament that circumcision is no longer a sign used for the community of God; pork is not forbidden; love and forgiveness instead of eye for an eye; and Christ is our sacrifice and we no longer have to sacrifice animals. Where is it said that tithe is no longer valid in the New Testament and today. In the early church I see where they went way beyond tithe to sacrificial giving. I myself would NEVER want to mislead people on what God’s people used to think was important and God might think is still today.
Jim, it is true that we can’t find explicit teaching from an Apostle that the tithe is invalid for today. What we do have is implicit teaching contained in Paul’s application of giving (not “tithing”) in 2 Corinthians 9:5-15. I believe the teaching of the early Church is captured through the application that Paul makes in the “freewill” commitment of the Macedonian Christians. You will notice that Paul does not command Given that the Macedonians give out of their obligation or duty (i.e. a “tithe”) but out of gratitude of God’s giving of grace to them. If Paul taught the principle of a tithe then he would naturally invoke it here and yet he does not. Therefore, I conclude the “tithe” is not the regulatory principle for giving in the church today. So the issue of a strict percentage that was determined is gone and now we have a “freewill” offering that contains no constraints of percentage. In the end, giving of this sort takes the lid off of giving and encourages the type of giving that mirrors the love that God expresses to us in the Gospel, it is without boundaries! Thank you Jesus! You can listen and see the teaching guide for this teaching HERE.
I hope this helps.
Grant, sorry for taking so long to reply! Please forgive me.
I think I may have answered your first question in my reply to Jim. However, if I haven’t please let me know and I will explain more.
The second question you posed is a very good one:
“As an example of something we no longer do but what was very common practice/principle in OT is the casting of lots… The apostles in Acts 1:24-26…actually cast lots as well. Why doesn’t the church do this today?”
The short answer is that we would could do this today and trust that the answer is from God.
However, even in the early church we have examples of the church NOT casting lots. Take some time and read Acts 15 and notice the critical issue of gentiles being added to the church and the need for a decision of whether or not this was something God approved of. Notice how the decision making process worked. You will find that the casting of lots is never suggested or considered. What is considered is the work of God producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit (“speaking in tongues”) in the lives of gentiles who have accepted the Gospel. Since this is the same fruit that God gave the people at Pentecost then this must be a work of God and something that they should accept and rejoice in. Therefore, it was in light of the evidence and sound reasoning among the leadership that the gentiles are received into the church. This was all done within the leadership structure of apostle, elder, then church format.
So, while we could cast lots it does not seem to be the normal practice modeled by the early church. The early church modeled decision making by men who were called by God to lead the church by considering the work of the Holy Spirit in developing people in the character and priorities of Jesus Christ.
While this is certainly a brief treatment of decision making in the early church, I believe it is the essential way the early church was to be governed.