2Ch 7:17-18 | KingComments | STEP | In these verses the LORD gives an audible answer to Solomon. Solomon asked in the previous chapter: “Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer [offered] in this place” ( ). Now the LORD answers: “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer [offered] in this place” ( ). That He gives this answer means that Solomon’s prayer is a prayer according to His will. The LORD has given all the instructions and Solomon has done nothing but execute them. Yet He presents it here as if everything is the answer to Solomon’s prayer. This shows that God wants to be prayed to. He would like to give what He has in His heart, on the basis of prayer. The LORD appears in the night to Solomon ( ), not in a dream, but visible and real. It is a second apparition ( ), after the first apparition at Gibeon ( ). It happens at night, when the eye is not distracted by other things. He tells Solomon that He heard his prayer and chose the place of the house “as a house of sacrifice”. This reflects the beautiful purpose of the house. Sacrificing means to offer. We may offer our prayers, but also our worship to God in the meetings of the church, now the house of God. He chose that house for that purpose. The LORD repeats that His discipline must strike His people when they deviate from him. He mentions some of these means of punishment ( ). He uses those means to bring His people to repentance, what will be evident from their confession. This answer is about restoration after sin and confession. There can never be restoration from blessing apart from the conditions He mentions ( ). When these conditions are met, blessing comes again from heaven. There follows a wonderful impression of God’s feelings for this house, His house ( ). God speaks of His eyes, His ears and His heart that go out to this house and of His Name that dwells there, and not just for a moment, but “forever”. Wouldn’t His house in this time, the church, also be worth all our attention and effort? We see God’s counsel on the one hand ( ) and God’s ways on the other ( ). According to God’s counsel , there shall not lack a man of David’s descendants on the throne. In the ways of God, the line of the succession to the throne will be interrupted in case of unfaithfulness. Until God’s counsel is finally fulfilled in the great Son of David, the Lord Jesus. We can apply the warning ( ) to a local church. If a local church deviates from the Lord Jesus by ignoring His directions in His Word, He must remove the lampstand of testimony ( ). It begins when the leaders become unfaithful and bind people to themselves rather than to the Lord. Then a form of idolatry arises. An idol is anything that takes the place of the Lord Jesus, that displaces Him from the first and only place in the church. Then He goes away, because He does not impose Himself. The result is that the lampstand is removed from a local church. The light is extinguished. In the end, there is nothing more to see of Christ. The deeper cause is that “they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt” ( ). If we forget that the Lord Jesus “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age” ( ) to live for Him, other things will fill our lives and our testimony will be lost. If the Lord then disciplines us by bringing evil upon us, that is His love. He wants to bring us back to His heart and in the enjoyment of the blessing.

‏ 2 Chronicles 7:17-18

The LORD Appears to Solomon

In these verses the LORD gives an audible answer to Solomon. Solomon asked in the previous chapter: “Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer [offered] in this place” (2Chr 6:40). Now the LORD answers: “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer [offered] in this place” (2Chr 7:15). That He gives this answer means that Solomon’s prayer is a prayer according to His will. The LORD has given all the instructions and Solomon has done nothing but execute them. Yet He presents it here as if everything is the answer to Solomon’s prayer. This shows that God wants to be prayed to. He would like to give what He has in His heart, on the basis of prayer.

The LORD appears in the night to Solomon (2Chr 7:12), not in a dream, but visible and real. It is a second apparition (1Kgs 9:2), after the first apparition at Gibeon (2Chr 1:3 ; 7). It happens at night, when the eye is not distracted by other things. He tells Solomon that He heard his prayer and chose the place of the house “as a house of sacrifice”. This reflects the beautiful purpose of the house. Sacrificing means to offer. We may offer our prayers, but also our worship to God in the meetings of the church, now the house of God. He chose that house for that purpose.

The LORD repeats that His discipline must strike His people when they deviate from him. He mentions some of these means of punishment (2Chr 7:13). He uses those means to bring His people to repentance, what will be evident from their confession. This answer is about restoration after sin and confession. There can never be restoration from blessing apart from the conditions He mentions (2Chr 7:14). When these conditions are met, blessing comes again from heaven.

There follows a wonderful impression of God’s feelings for this house, His house (2Chr 7:15-16). God speaks of His eyes, His ears and His heart that go out to this house and of His Name that dwells there, and not just for a moment, but “forever”. Wouldn’t His house in this time, the church, also be worth all our attention and effort?

We see God’s counsel on the one hand (2Chr 7:17-18) and God’s ways on the other (2Chr 7:19-22). According to God’s counsel, there shall not lack a man of David’s descendants on the throne. In the ways of God, the line of the succession to the throne will be interrupted in case of unfaithfulness. Until God’s counsel is finally fulfilled in the great Son of David, the Lord Jesus.

We can apply the warning (2Chr 7:19-22) to a local church. If a local church deviates from the Lord Jesus by ignoring His directions in His Word, He must remove the lampstand of testimony (Rev 2:5). It begins when the leaders become unfaithful and bind people to themselves rather than to the Lord. Then a form of idolatry arises. An idol is anything that takes the place of the Lord Jesus, that displaces Him from the first and only place in the church. Then He goes away, because He does not impose Himself. The result is that the lampstand is removed from a local church. The light is extinguished. In the end, there is nothing more to see of Christ.

The deeper cause is that “they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt” (2Chr 7:22). If we forget that the Lord Jesus “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age” (Gal 1:4) to live for Him, other things will fill our lives and our testimony will be lost. If the Lord then disciplines us by bringing evil upon us, that is His love. He wants to bring us back to His heart and in the enjoyment of the blessing.