FBC Daily Devotional – February 10, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Thursday morning to you. We're coming close to the end of the week already, and this week is flying by.

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I hope it's going well for you. Today, we're reading in 2 Chronicles, and you know, let's see,

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Tuesday and yesterday, both days, we saw this concept of steadfast love show up in our scripture reading.

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On Tuesday, at the dedication of the temple, all the singers and choir was praising

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God for his goodness, that he is good, and that his steadfast love endures forever.

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And there was also the challenge from Proverbs 19 on that day, that what is desired of a man is that we be marked by that same steadfast love.

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And then yesterday, again, we saw this idea of covenant loyalty, steadfast love.

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And here it shows up again in chapter 6 of 2 Chronicles. And Solomon is using an example that illustrates the truth that the

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Lord is characterized by steadfast love. And you see it in verses 14 and 15.

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Again, this is all in the context of the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem.

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And he says this, Solomon says this, Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like you who keep your covenant and your hesed, your steadfast love with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts.

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You show steadfast love to your servants. And now he uses an example of how the

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Lord does that, how God has done that. He says, you have kept what you promised, your servant

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David my father. You have spoken with your mouth and have fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day.

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That's how God's covenant loyalty works. He makes a promise with his mouth, if you will, with his word, and then in his actions, he fulfills that promise.

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Now having seen that, lived out in technical before them, the promise that David's son would be on the throne, he's on the throne.

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The promise that David's son would build the temple, the temple is built. There it is. God has proved himself to be faithful to his word, marked by steadfast steadfast love, loyalty to his covenant.

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And having seen that, that then gives confidence for praying for more expressions of steadfast love.

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So in verses 16 and 17, Solomon goes on to say, therefore, on account of the steadfast love you have already shown, therefore,

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Lord God of Israel, now keep what you have promised your servant David my father, saying, you shall not fail to have a man sit before me on the throne of Israel.

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So you've also promised not only that to David, not only that his son would be on the throne, but you also promised that there wouldn't fail to be a man, a descendant of David's, to be on that throne.

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Fulfill that promise as well. And he goes on to say in verse 17, now, O Lord God of Israel, let your word come true, which you have spoken to your servant

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David. What a prayer! You can pray that to the Lord, that he will continue to show his steadfast love.

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And what confidence do you have that he will? What confidence do you have to offer such a prayer?

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Well, look at how he has shown his steadfast love, and that gives you such confidence.

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Now the other thing I wanted to point out about this is that another way that Solomon asks the

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Lord to show his steadfast love is through this repeated expression that you see, for example, in verse 21, 2nd

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Chronicles 6, where he says, may you hear the supplications of your servant and of your people

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Israel when they pray toward this place? Hear from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

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So Solomon goes through this prayer, creating a bunch of potential scenarios in which

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God's people might sin, suffer for that sin, some kind of consequences or punishment or chastening for that sin, and then in their misery, they turn to the

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Lord, pray toward the temple, toward the Lord, and seek his face and ask for forgiveness.

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And so Solomon asked the Lord to forgive on the basis of your steadfast love, forgive.

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And what's clear in chapter 7, as Solomon finishes his prayer, is that the

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Lord is pleased with our total dependence upon him for forgiveness, and the way he manifested that pleasure with a longing for forgiveness is what he does in chapter 7, verse 1.

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It says, when Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifice, and the glory of the

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Lord filled the temple. All right, so the Lord visually showed Solomon and the people gathered together at the temple that he was pleased with that prayer of utter dependence upon the

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Lord, even for forgiveness. Such a thing as forgiveness. And then, following that visual manifestation of his pleasure, the

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Lord confirmed confirmed that he heard Solomon's prayer and that he would promise to forgive as God's people truly repent.

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We read of this in chapter 7, verses 12 through 15. Listen to what it says.

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The Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer. I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

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When I shut up heaven and there is no rain or command the locusts to devour your land or send pestilence among my people, with the understood thing there because of their sin, then there's this verse that is often lifted out of context and applied inappropriately, but I'll say more about that in a second, perhaps.

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Then he says this, if I do that, if I shut up heaven and I command locusts and send pestilence among my people, then he says this, 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

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I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. I will be steadfastly loyal to the covenant that I have made with my people.

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As they repent and turn from their sin, I will forgive them and heal their land.

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And then he says in verse 15, now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer made in this place.

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So the Lord again demonstrates his steadfast loyalty, his steadfast love.

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And you and I, even as New Testament Christians, God hasn't changed. He is still marked by hesed, steadfastly, lovingly loyal to the covenant promises that he has made.

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Hence, you and I, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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So take that promise, count on the Lord's loving kindness. Now just a word about verse 14 again here.

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This, as I mentioned, this verse is often taken out of context. This verse isn't given to the United States of America. This isn't a promise given to Americans any more than it's a promise given to Germans or Russians or Chinese.

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No, this was a promise given to God's people, the covenant people of Israel. This is a promise given to the covenant people.

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And this is a promise given to us as God's people that if God sends chastening upon his church, then we who are his people, if we recognize that chastening because of our sin and we turn from our sin, then he will forgive and heal our land.

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So let's be careful not to misappropriate this verse in a way that sets us up perhaps for some kind of disappointment, but it's not intended to be a disappointing thing.

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It's intended to be a promising hope and a joy that we can count on the steadfast love of our

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God. Thank you, Father. Thank you today that we can count on you to be ever faithful, ever true to your word.

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Even when we need forgiveness and especially when we need forgiveness, we can count on you.

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Thank you. Thank you for that forgiveness in Jesus name. Amen. All right.