Repentance

I want to point out some facts to be discerned from the text of 1 Kings 8:22-53 - Solomon's Prayer of Dedication.

O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven above or on the earth below. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today. [1 Kings 8.23-24]

Fact: God is faithful to His promises. God's promises, however, are contingent upon wholehearted devotion.

If someone wrongs another person and is required to take an oath of innocence in front of your altar in this Temple, then hear from heaven and judge between your servants—the accuser and the accused. Punish the guilty as they deserve. Acquit the innocent because of their innocence. [1 Kings 8.31-32]

Fact: Punishment is for the guilty. Acquittal (from punishment) is for the innocent.

If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave their ancestors. [1 Kings 8.33-34]

Fact: Defeat is the result of sin. Forgiveness from God reverses defeat.

If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and if they pray toward this Temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path, and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession. [1 Kings 8.35-36]

Fact: Rain is from God. Sin shuts off the supply.

If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is— and if your people Israel pray about their troubles, raising their hands toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart. Then they will fear you as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors. [1 Kings 8.37-40]

Fact: Famines, plagues, crop diseases, infestations, disasters and diseases are all the result of sin. These are all indicators of the need for forgiveness from God.

In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands because of your name, for they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name. [1 Kings 8.41-43]

Fact: Blessings and curses are obvious for all to see. God's forgiveness brings blessing even on those who are not Israelites.

If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to the LORD by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name, then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause. [1 Kings 8.44-45]

Fact: God upholds and supports His will for His people. He does not uphold or support anything outside His will (it will fail).

If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to their land far away or near. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’ If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their enemies and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name— then hear their prayers and their petition from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. Forgive all the offenses they have committed against you. Make their captors merciful to them, for they are your people—your special possession—whom you brought out of the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt. [1 Kings 8.46-51]

Fact: Defeat and captivity are the result of sin. Forgiveness from God delivers from oppression.

If Solomon saw and recognized these facts, is it not appropriate that we too acknowledge them? Is it not wise that we recognize that disaster, sickness, disease, famine, plague, drought, defeat, captivity, and oppression are clear and obvious signs of the withdrawal of God's blessing? Is it not prudent that we remain repentant?

Is it not imperative that we recognize that Jesus Himself proclaimed the need for repentance?

Christianity has largely gotten to the point of believing that punishment is a masked blessing from God. And, as a result, the world looks on in confusion (instead of flocking to Christianity because of clear boundaries as described in 1 Kings 8.41-43). This happened because people were too proud to repent and instead made up doctrines of suffering to justify the obvious curses on their lives.

Sure, everyone is welcome to "shout me down" on my statements here. But don't do so without being keenly aware that the way to the Kingdom of God is through repentance (Jesus said it, not me - Matthew 4.17). Jesus never intended for salvation to exist without repentance. How can any person be sure, when they suffer curses, that they are sinless? Only raw pride would do such a thing in the presence of a Holy God.

Father, help us all to repent ...as a matter of fact.