There is no “IF” in the biblical Hebrew text.

“Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven, and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will 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.” (II Chronicles 7:14).

A look at the Hebraic thoughts that guide the famous “II Chronicles 7:14” declaration offers revelatory insights: ASSURANCE.

This profound and often quoted promise of forgiveness and healing is not conditional at all. Rather, it is a statement of things to come for the believer. The fact is that there is no “IF” in the biblical Hebrew text. The well-known “… if My people…” opening should be better translated as “… As my people …” or “When my people…” or simply “And my people,” making the rest of the statement a factual experience free from any condition.

We are not negating the reality of man’s free choice or the consequences of our bad decisions. We are saying that this well-known II Chronicles 7:14 promise is not conditional or dependent on the people’s performance. Rather, this great promise of forgiveness and healing is a statement of God’s INTENT. It is a divine DECLARATION promising that Israel’s long and painful journey will end in a remarkable show of God’s Great Mercies. The Great Apostle envisioned the same conclusion to our earthly history when he wrote, “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.” (Romans 11).

DIVINE SACRIFICE.

The House of God has many names, but it is known primarily as “A House of Prayer.” However, in this context, framing one of God’s greatest and most sweeping promises of forgiveness and healing, the Scriptures call it “A House of Sacrifice.” Why the change? The reason is that no amount of human self-effort can ever justify our spirits, purify our conscience, or sanctify our soul. Only a perfect sacrifice could and did accomplish eternal redemption once and for all.

As it is written, “… Messiah came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption … who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God…” (Hebrews 9). God’s House is a “House of Sacrifice” where the blood of The Lamb of God will forever speak on our behalf.

GROWTH & TRANSFORMATION.

The journey of returning to the safety of our Father’s forgiveness and healing is gradual and methodical, especially for those of us who may have lost the innocence of childhood and were defiled by the world. Consequently, II-Chronicles 7:14 lists four stages we must embrace in this lifelong journey of transformation as the Spirit of God works the miracle of the new birth within us.

4 STAGES OF GROWTH:

1 – SURRENDER. “My people who are called by My name will humble themselves.” The original Hebrew text for “humble themselves” comes from the root word “כָּנַע” (KA’NAH), which means primarily “to surrender” or “to submit.” Our journey home MUST start with a genuine submission to our Heavenly Father’s authority and guidance, making humility the gatekeeper to everything else we receive from Him. Pride was the key to Satan’s fall, and this is the reason the Word of God warns us that “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (James 4 was quoting Proverbs 3). Embrace humility at all times. Your life depends upon it.

2 – PRAYER. “My people … will pray.” Prayer is the language of heaven and through prayer we weave an unbreakable bond with our God and Savior. In good times or bad, through tears or laughter, with human or heavenly languages, a lifestyle of prayer connects us to the Father’s heart like nothing else. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?… Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me. The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me; a prayer to the God of my life.” (Psalm 42).

3 – DEVOTION. “My people … will seek my face.” There is a great difference between “casual prayer” and the more intentional and costly practice of seeking the face of God. The original Hebrew text calls this stage “וִיבַקְשׁוּ פָנַי,” “THEY WILL SEEK MY FACE,” which means to pursue a deep and intimate relationship with God rather than simply asking Him for things. It involves an urgent desire for His presence; a genuine hunger for the beauty of His holiness; and a deeper surrender to His ways and purposes.

Our Lord Yeshua is the primary example of how to always seek the Father’s face. His great descendant, King David, composed a song of devotion, saying, “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Selah” (Psalm 24). All of Jacob’s hardships and trials led him to seek and to find God’s face as he was re-entering the Promised Land. It was then and ONLY THEN that his name (and character) was changed from that of JACOB to ISRAEL. (Genesis 32).

Any forward motion in our journey of eternal life results from discovering more about our Great and Awesome Heavenly Father. As the Lord Yeshua prayed, “… this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah whom You have sent.” (John 17).

4 – REPENTANCE. “My people … will return.” Have you noticed that repentance is last on the list of characteristics that God gave King Solomon in that night vision? While we often see repentance as the START of our journey with God, it is not necessarily so. In the context of God’s great promise of forgiveness and healing in II-Chronicles 7:14, true transformational repentance comes at the end, as a fruit of the surrendering of our human will to God and learning more and more of Him and of His ways. The Lord’s commandment is upon us daily, saying, “take my yoke upon you and learn of me…”

The original Hebrew text for this fourth stage of transformation is “וְיָשֻׁבוּ,” (VA’YA’SHU’VU), which literally means “and they shall return.” The Western mind commonly sees repentance as either turning away from evil deeds or feeling regretful about them. In Hebraic thought, however, repentance is not “merely” to feel bad about our sinful activities or quit a destructive behavior. Repentance, or “Te’shu’va” in Hebrew thought, is primarily a return to God in our heart and in our mind, trusting Him to wash away and transform us from our sins.

Repentance certainly involves walking away from sin, but it is first and foremost a change of heart and mind toward God. It is a recognition and a realization that God is good, loving, trustworthy, and faithful. Our God is a gracious and merciful Father who gave up His only Beloved and Begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins so that we can be born again into His eternal family. True repentance is a growing fruit of the Spirit of God working a divine conviction within us; a fruit that grows in the good soil of a lifestyle of ongoing humility, prayer, and devotion.

FORGIVEN & HEALED.

God promised three marvelous results to a believing lifestyle built upon the foundations of surrender, prayer, devotion, and repentance. He told Solomon in that night vision that He “… will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

This is our confidence and assurance even while we pass through the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” (Psalm 23:4), or the “Valley of Weeping” (Psalm 84:6). In God’s “House of Sacrifice,” where the holy blood of The Lamb of God intercedes for us and continuesly cleanses us from all sin, our Heavenly Father has committed to HEAR us, to FORGIVE us, and to HEAL our land (our lives and our families). Everyone who believes in God’s Word can enter into this blessing, just as He has promised to do for His people Israel. Welcome aboard, and have a blessed Shabbat.

REUVEN DORON