Bigif

The Big If

2 Chronicles 7:14

In 1996 in Brandon, Mississippi, one not-so-bright fellow stole blank checks, then tried to cash one of them he had forged. He would have gotten away with it, except he made a couple of big mistakes.

The first mistake was that instead of writing the check for a smaller amount, he wrote it for $300.00, which required him to show ID. The second mistake was that when he was asked to show some ID, he showed his OWN driver's license (which of course, had a different name on it than the check he was presenting). The prize was six months in the Rankin County Jail, all expenses paid.

Well, I made a big mistake this week, but it wasn’t because I forged a check. It’s certainly not unusual that I would make a mistake, but when I realized what I had done, it was an eye opener.

I’ve read 2 Chronicles 7:14 many times. I’ve preached on it quite a few times. But this week I thought I might do a little more word study on that verse. Sometimes when we look beneath the surface of the Biblical languages, we uncover some beautiful things, some deeper meaning that we might not immediately see when we read the Scriptures in English. So I spent some time looking into the original Hebrew, to see if I could find some hidden meaning in the words of that verse.

Today I want to tell you what I found. It was not what I expected.

I discovered that when God says, “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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land,” that there are no hidden meanings or discoveries to make! It simply means what it says.

My mistake was in thinking it was complicated, or that there must be some profound spiritual secret embedded in those words. But I discovered that that verse is as simple as it possibly can be.

God wants us to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. That’s it. He didn’t hide any deeper meaning. He put it all right out there in plain sight so we wouldn’t miss it. It’s not covered up in obscure Hebrew words, and cannot be misinterpreted. It’s pretty clear.

“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

He says that we are to humble ourselves. He says that we are to pray. He says that we are to seek His face. And He says that we are to turn from our wicked ways. If we did those things, then He said He would respond by hearing from heaven, forgiving our sin and healing our land.

But I made another mistake. After digging into the original meanings of the Hebrew words and discovering that the words mean exactly what they say, I almost overlooked something else very important, thinking there was nothing new I could say about this verse that you haven’t heard already. I left my Bible open on my desk. In a few minutes I reached across to pick up something else, and my eyes fell on that verse again. And that is when I saw it.

The little word “if.”

It’s what we call a “conjunction,” and is just two letters in English. But the condition it sets forth, and the power-packed words which follow it transform this little word. It becomes “the big if.” The word “if” means that the actions which follow it are not automatic. When we use the phrase “that’s a big if” we are talking about an “unlikely but necessary condition” (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/big_if). The phrase describes something which may or may not happen, but which should happen.

Here’s an example: “If he gets up in time, and that’s a big if, he may actually get to work on time.” The impression we take away from that is that he should get up to get to work on time, but it’s not likely that he will.

So when God says “If my people,” we have to acknowledge that the things God sets forth after that are not automatic. They may not happen. God could just as easily have said, “If My people, and that’s a big if …” If My people humble themselves. If My people pray. If My people seek my face. If My people turn from their wicked ways. All of those things MUST and SHOULD happen, but none of them is guaranteed.

It also follows that it is not automatic or guaranteed that God will hear from heaven, or that He will forgive our sin, or that He will heal our land.

You see, God is not obligated to do anything for us, and He certainly is not obligated to do anything for America. If we turn our backs on Him, we should not think that He will continue to bless our nation.

But sitting here today in our church, we cannot do a whole lot about what our nation does. We have no influence on the Supreme Court. We cannot dictate that all immorality cease, or that there be no more murders or abortions. That is a fact.

But what we can do is make absolutely sure that our own hearts and lives are the kind that honor and please God. God says “If My people,” and that includes those of us who follow Him with all our hearts. It does not include those who have been blinded and brainwashed by a society doing its best to be free of God. He’s talking about us.

The “big if” is whether or not we will follow God’s own prescription for restoring our nation. Will we humble ourselves? Many might not, but God’s people must. Will we pray? Most won’t, but God’s people must. Will we seek God’s face? Not even all the people who go to church on a regular basis do that, even in church. But God’s people must. Will we turn from our wicked ways? History and what we know of the human heart tells us that will not be the case for the majority. But God’s people must.

Regardless of what others do, we must. Regardless of the anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-Christian society in which we live, we must choose to follow Him and obey Him. We must choose to repent of our own sin and seek the face of God. There is no other prescription which God gives. Let us not make the mistake so many others have of thinking that we can solve this ourselves, without the help and intervention of Almighty God.

Hear it once more, and this time, decide in your heart that you are going to begin this moment to follow what God says in this verse:

“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”