Monday, June 8, 2020

Formula for National Healing

Formula for National Healing
June 8, 2020
Jeremiah 33:6 "I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security."

The prophet Daniel, wrote in Daniel chapter 9 about Jeremiah, and he said he understood the 70 years of captivity were about to come to an end, as written about through the prophet Jeremiah, as there was a promise and a caveat. The promise is in Jeremiah 33, and the Lord says starting in verse 6, I will bring health and healing to it (meaning the land and the people in it), and I will bring them back and rebuild them. Then it goes on to further say, I will cleanse them from their sin and will forgive their rebellion against me. I will restore the fortunes of the Land as they were before. So Daniel read these words and he was scratching off the years waiting for the Lord to bring full restoration and healing to the house of Israel.

If you read chapter 9 of Daniel, he doesn’t pack a suitcase, he doesn’t write letters to his relatives telling them he is going to come home and ask them to get a hot dinner ready, you’ll read it and notice that he gets on his knees and repents. Daniel repents. Daniel was likely one of the most righteous men of the time, possible the most righteous man alive, and he gets on his knees and repents. He understood the Lord was going to heal the land and forgive the sins and so Daniel took it upon himself to repent for the need to live in exile in the first place, because the children of Israel broke the covenant with the Lord. Daniel repented on behalf of all the sins that were committed to get them the 70-year sentence, even though Daniel was only a child when it all started and went down. Daniel, himself, had nothing to do with the 70 years in exile and had nothing personal to repent for, absolutely nothing, but he repented on behalf of all the sins of the forefathers that brought the punishment of the exile.

Daniel, unlike a few of our church leaders today, understood the formula in the Bible to bring about national healing. The formula is found in 2 Chronicles 7. The Lord says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and repent of their wicked ways, then I will hear their prayers and then I will forgive their sins and then I will heal their land.

Daniel knew the formula, if he wanted the prophet's words to come true, the formula for seeing the nation healed and people restored, there had to be repentance. The formula is an if-then statement. It requires acknowledgement of sin and repentance from it. The Lord says the acknowledgement of sin and repentance comes first and then the healing and restoration would follow. We often get it wrong, and our church leaders today calling for prayers to restore and heal our land is wrong. The church leaders need to call for  repentance.

Daniel knew this. He knew he had to acknowledge and repent of the sins of his forefathers and that the Lord would do His part. Jeremiah told them of this need for forgiveness of sins, and both Jeremiah and Daniel were familiar with the formula in 2 Chronicles 7. Daniel had to lead. And so, we as Christians, need to lead the way in repentance if we want to see our national healed. Don't pray for national healing, that is a foregone conclusion from the Lord when there is repentance.

Don't take my word for it; look it up:  2 Chr 7, Jer 33, Dan 9

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