Tuesday after Populus Sion, The Second Sunday in Advent
Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 (NKJV)
11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house.
12 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. 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 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. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 17 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’
19 “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
21 “And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.'”
Devotion
For the repentant—those who humble themselves before the Lord on account of their sins, turn from their wicked, sinful ways, and pray and seek His face in faith so that He might forgive them—the Lord God has established His Temple. We also know it as His Throne of Grace, His Mercy Seat, and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. All those who cling to Him in faith receive forgiveness and are justified on account of Christ’s work of redemption.
However, those who do not believe, who cling to their wicked, sinful ways, the Lord God has promised that He will mete out His eternal punishment upon them. They are not justified; they are not forgiven, but rather receive the due punishment for their unbelief: the eternal wrath and condemnation of our Lord God in Hell.
This is why we should consider our sins, fear God’s wrath, and turn from them in repentance. Further, the Lord God in His prophecy to King Solomon promises that He will allow turmoil and temptation in order that He might strengthen our faith and cause us to turn to Him when He says, “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people.”
But, our Lord promises King Solomon, “You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.” This Messianic prophecy brings our eyes of faith back to our Lord Jesus, Who lives and reigns forever on His Throne of Grace to grant all of us who cling to Him forgiveness, life, and salvation.
