Recently I heard a prophecy teacher –actually one of my favorite prophecy guys— say something like the following: “I hate to burst your bubble about what you probably believe about God’s promises to the church and his promises to Israel. But 2 Chronicles 7: 14 isn’t for the church. It is for Israel.”

He then went on to say that the context of that promise makes it obvious for whom it was given. It doesn’t apply to we of the Church Age was his conclusion.

I must take exception to that statement by this man, one who I respect greatly and consider one of the very top teachers and writers of Bible prophecy today. Let’s have a look at the promise that god, indeed, made to the nation Israel.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.” (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

The speaker was talking about whether the United States is in Bible prophecy. He was speaking to the many worries people have as to what will happen to America so far as concerns prophecy yet future. Particularly, as I recall, he was talking about the upcoming 2020 presidential election. People were, he said, wondering about what we should do as believers to seek God’s divine intervention in this election. There are great fears that the opposition party to that of this president has turned totally toward the dark side and is more and more anti-God in their platform goals.

The speaker was intimating that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the scripture most invoked, but that it isn’t in effect for the Church. It was given exclusively to the Jews –to the nation Israel.

The basis for my taking exception to my friend’s pronouncement in part is truth encased within the following scriptural areas.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with who is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1: 17)

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13: 8)

God’s Word is the very Person of Jesus the Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead. God the Father sent Jesus into the world as Himself in the flesh. Jesus taught and preached ultimate truth. Jesus and the Father are one –see John chapter 17. Jesus created all that is, see Genesis chapter 1. He did so by the spoken Word. Jesus is the Word. This is made plain in John chapter 1.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1: 1-3)

Jesus and the Father, the Lord verifies through His prayer in John chapter 17, are one. Jesus also says that we who believe in Him are one with Him, as He is one with the Father. Therefore His Father’s children are Jesus’ “people,” just as they are God the Father’s “people”.

We are all “one” with God. We are His “people”.

This includes all people of God’s created order who “believe” for salvation as prescribed by God. Those who believe are His people.

Therefore, it is my Bible-based contention that in 2 Chronicles 7: 14, the “my people” is referring to God’s “people,” no matter of what era.

God changes not. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

God’s Promise to Israel in 2 Chronicles 7: 14, in my view, apply to believers of all ages.

It is true that Israel’s “land” was healed on several occasions, after the people had drifted into backsliding and gross idolatry. America, it is equally true, for example, has not experienced what might be considered a complete healing in the sense of Israel in its ancient past.

However, America, again for example, has experienced degrees of “healing.” The great revival movements that came out of the Great Depression, was God at work in answering prayers of His “people.”

I believe the 2016 election for president was an answer to the prayers of God’s “people.” It was, to anyone possessing spiritual acuity, a miracle from the Almighty. Certainly, even the secularists –the mainstream media, and Mr. Trump’s opponents, were stunned into a form of madness!

Another friend defines the declaration that 2 Chronicles 7: 14 is not for the Church as a part of the Seminary Syndrome.

By this, he means that the products of often self-exalted seminaries sometimes can’t see the simplicity of God’s truth for feeling they have to make it complex to somehow justify their existence as the last word on interpretation of scriptural truth.

And, I mean no disrespect to the men and women who have the prestigious, seminary degrees of various flavors. Many, many of these are dear friends.

But, for the Seminary Syndrome to induce them to say such things as the things mentioned above with regard to God’s dealings with His “people,” just smacks of being wrong to my spiritual senses.

I have expressed before in my commentaries that I have the same problem with the Seminary Syndrome declarations that Matthew chapter 24 (the Olivet Discourse) is for the nation Israel only. –That the Rapture of the Church isn’t to be found in that great teaching by our Lord.

So please continue to pray in light of 2 Chronicles 7: 14 in regard to the 2020 presidential election. Our nation still needs healing, as we all know. Admittedly, as this generation seems to be at the very end of the Age of Grace, and at least half of the nation is deliberately moving away from, not nearer to God, it is unlikely that there is time to see a complete healing of America.

However, the prayers of God’s people have and can yet produce miracles within this land upon which God has so richly bestowed His blessings.

As anyone who reads my commentaries knows, I support Donald J. Trump in most every one of his actions and policies as president. As a matter of fact, I believe he has been placed in this powerful office at one of the most crucial points in human history, not just at the most critical point in American history.

A quick rethinking of the 2016 U.S. presidential election makes one acknowledge the strange turn of events. The so-called odds ran totally contrary to the way the election was supposed to go.

I believe it was not just a strange turn of events, but a supernatural turn of events that took place.

Likewise, I think most who read these commentaries know that I strongly support the nation Israel in most every way. This is not to say I always support and agree with the Israeli government and that country’s actions and reactions to events in which they become involved. The nation is in many ways stumbling in the dark like any other nation, and often makes mistakes. Israel is in no way perfect, and those who accuse we who support the nation blindly just don’t know the truth of our support. I’m talking about our support as Christians –Christians in the truest sense. –Christians who believe in the literal interpretation of Bible prophecy.

And, speaking of blindness –a myopic view of things that rivals any nearsightedness in history— the nation called Israel and the people called Jews are subjects of legendary such malady.

Only, it is not merely legendary myopia the nation and Jewish people as a whole suffer. It is Biblically pronounced extreme nearsightedness with which they are afflicted.

Paul the apostle wrote the following in this regard.

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Rom 11: 25)

Jewish orthodoxy, of course, rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah 2000 years ago. This puts the nation, as a whole, under Paul’s further expression of God’s condemnation in this regard.

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor 4: 3-4)

Having prefaced these commentary thoughts with the fact that both Mr. Trump and the Jewish people and the nation Israel have no greater a supporter than yours truly, I must point out a development that portends devastating trouble ahead.

The trouble of which I write is for the Jewish people who continue to reject the one, true Savior of the world –the Lord Jesus Christ.

It involves the matter of the orthodox Jews –the religious upper-strata that holds to Judaism and the rejection of Jesus Christ. These religionists –at least a number of them—embrace President Trump as a sort of savior. They don’t give him Messiah status, but they laud him as a king of prophetic prominence within their clerical view.

This brief excerpt will, I hope frame my thought here.

President Trump attended an Orthodox Jewish fundraising event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday evening. Four hundred Orthodox Jews participated in the event, contributing an estimated $100,000 each for the honor of paying a personal tribute to the Commander-in-Chief.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson recited the blessing said upon seeing a non-Jewish ruler…

 

Blessed art Thou, O L-rd our G-d, King of the Universe, that you have shared part of your love and glory and compassion with a human being who maintains the honor of every innocent person and every Jew forever.”

 

The Talmud states that it is a mitzvah (Torah commandment) for a Jew to go out of his way to see rulers and kings, whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish but there is a dispute among Halachic (Torah law) authorities as to whether this blessing should be recited with the complete name of God in these times upon seeing a ruler who is not a king.

 

It is significant that when the rabbi recited the blessing upon seeing Donald Trump, he said the complete and explicit name of God in Hebrew.

 

Rabbi Nachman Kahana, a prominent spiritual leader in Jerusalem, did not agree with Rabbi Jacobson’s decision to use the name of God in this instance.

 

“Every rabbi can make his own ruling and Chabad has their own methods and rulings. But what is for sure is that Halacha is not influenced by political considerations,” Rabbi Kahana explained to Breaking Israel News. “It is like science and should be the result of careful consideration of the facts and the current situation…

 

This is learned out from the real king, Hashem (God, literally ‘the name’), which is the source of the king’s authority. Hashem’s authority is not derived from other men. He cannot be impeached, and we don’t vote for God.” (Rabbi: Blessing Trump as King Shows He is the Final President Before the Return of Davidic Dynasty, By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Breaking Israel News, November 13, 2019)

So, there is disagreement about the technicalities of giving homage to political leaders amongst the Jewish upper-clergy. However, their myopic inability to determine who is who among politicians and world leaders is the point I wish to make. The lack of ability to determine how those leaders can be trusted as a blessing by God to Israel is becoming clear in these strange days so near the end of the age.

Their blindness, as expressed by the Apostle Paul in the scripture given above, becomes increasingly manifest as their true Messiah’s coming nears. This myopia –this blindness, is foretold by the Messiah, Himself.

“I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” (John 5: 43)

Jews at the highest ecclesiastical echelons are exhibiting the supernatural myopia Jesus predicted. They are straining to look for the anointed one so long promised. Sadly, they will soon, deludedly, see Antichrist as Israel’s Messiah.