Will God Be Entreated?

BY LEON F. WARDELL

II Samuel 24:16-25; I Timothy 2:1-8
In 1863, while the Civil War still ravaged our land, President Abraham Lincoln gave his now-famous Gettysburg Address. Referring to those who had died in the Gettysburg battle, He ended that speech saying, "from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Today, our nation again needs a new birth of freedom under God. This time, not from human slavery, but from the plagues of drugs, immorality, broken families and fallen leadersall brought on by our having abandoned God. Looking at today's society in the light of all those who died to preserve our freedom, we can
not help but ask: Have those Americans died in vain?

Godly start. Right from the beginning, this nation depended upon the Bible for its foundation of law and order. Our founding fathers believed that if freedom is to be preserved, it must ever be based on Christian morality.

But today, instead of using God's law as our guide, we rely on the opinion polls to decide what is right or wrong. Effectively, this has exchanged the American heritage of law and order decreed by God for a new order of politics designed to please men. And what does God declare in His Word? Any nation that forgets God comes under His wrath; if there is no repentance, that nation dies (Psalm 9:17).

Can God be entreated for our land? Yes! The Bible tells us that when the very evil city of Nineveh, warned by Jonah of upcoming judgment, entreated Godall the people humbled themselves, turned from their wicked ways and pleaded for mercyGod spared them from destruction.

There are many other illustrations in the Bible showing that God can indeed be entreated for a particular land. Before we go to I Timothy 2:1-8, let's look at an example in II Samuel 24.

Old Testament Lesson

That chapter begins: "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." The parallel passage of this account in I Chronicles 21:1 reads, "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." This is not a contradiction. Rather, it reminds us that Satan is never an independent agent alongside of God; he can do only what God allows him to do. In this case, God used him to provoke David.

Remember what James 1:13,14 says? "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."

That God moved David to number the people, therefore, does not mean that God produced evil. It would be inconsistent with His holiness. Sin pertains to man and never to God. Frequently, to save or refine the sinner, or to prepare the unsaved for judgment, God brings about circumstances that causes the hidden sin in man's heart to manifest itself openly.

Pride. It was the sin of pride that was committed by both David and the people of Israel, a perversion of God's favors into self-aggrandizement. (In
verse 10, David himself acknowledged that his action was a sin against God.) God had done much through King David for that nation, and now they were taking the credit for it to themselves.

Isn't this what we see manifest throughout our nation today? Even our leaders openly exchange the liberty preserved for us by our founding fathers under divine law for the freedom to do whatever they want.

The direct result of David's numbering of the people was a plague on Israel, killing 70,000 of the people. Likewise, God's wrath and judgment are upon our land today as we see the mass killing of unborn children, the proliferation of AIDS, and the many natural disasters in divers places.

Entreating the Lord. David remembered, however, that he can pray for deliverance, knowing that the wicked are sometimes God's sword and evil men, His hand. (In Psalm 17:13,14, he once prayed: "Arise, 0 Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: from men which are thy hand, 0 Lord, from men of the world, what have their portion in this life.") So, he entreated God for the land of Israel.

Notice how he did it? First, he confessed his own sin, saying:

I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly (v. 10).
If there is to be any healing of our own land, there must first be true, godly repentance on the part of God's people, the body of Christ in America.

Second, David cast himself upon the mercy of God. He prayed:

I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man (v. 14).
To have any healing of our own land, Christians must cast themselves upon the mercy of God, pleading that they not fall into the hand of the wicked.

Third, David pleaded for the people of Israel. He said:

Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house (v. 17).
If there is to be any healing of our own land, Christians must entreat God for the people of our land who are suffering both physically and spiritually.

Fourth, David obeyed the Word of God. We read in verses 18 and 19:

And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite. And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded.
For our own land to be healed, Christians must live an obedient life.

Fifth, David bought the threshing floor for a price. Araunah the Jebusite, its owner, had offered to give it to David free of charge. But the king said to him:

Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for
fifty shekels of silver (v. 24).
If there is to be any healing of our own land, we Christians must offer our whole self to God. Only sacrifices that cost us will be acceptable in His sight.

Was it worth king David's personal repentance, obedience, and sacrifice? Will it be worth our doing the same for our own nation's healing? The answer is found in verse 25:

So the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

New Testament Lesson

God has not told us to build any altar on a specific spot, but He has commanded us to pray. Our text in I Timothy 2 begins with this exhortation:
First of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority.
The word "supplications" refers to prayers that spring from a need, the word "prayers" to petitions distinctly addressed to God, and "intercessions" to prayers offered on behalf of others. "Giving of thanks" is important also because it expresses our gratitude for the good that we have already received.

Note that these prayers are to be offered for all men, believers and unbelievers alike. Even in the Old Testament, God instructed the Jews that were in Babylon to "seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace" (Jer. 29:7).

Why should we pray for our rulers? Paul explains in verse 2:

that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
That is, so that God, answering such prayers, will move the hearts of those in authority to leave Christians at rest.

Yet, if God is to be entreated by the prayers of Christians, we must also do what king David first did. We must first confess our personal sin and repent. That's why Paul says in verse 8:

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
Among other things, hands here symbolize our behavior. To lift up holy hands is to display to the world a lifestyle that glorifies God.

As I noted earlier, God sometimes cause circumstances to bring out the sin in men so that it may then be cleansed. The cleansing process can involve suffering under the chastening hand of God. As the plague in Israel was stayed because David had entreated God for the people, today's
chastening by God can be shortened if God's people entreat Him for the nation.

Will we? The question, though, is not whether we can entreat God, but will we?

Most of us are aware of the promise God gave Solomon when the temple in Jerusalem was dedicated: "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" (II Chr. 7:14).

This scripture was widely publicized during our nation's Bicentennial back in 1976. Did Christians really humble themselves and entreat God then? Evidently not, for evil and wickedness, if anything, have multiplied since.

Soon after the incident recorded in II Samuel 24, Israel began to turn away from God again. In fact, it subsequently became so apostate that God finally delivered the nation into the hands of its enemy, Babylon.

Could it be that our disregard for God becomes so vagrant that God will finally deliver this nation into the hands of the wicked? I don't know; but, this I do know: Christians need to offer supplications, prayers, intercessions, and the giving of thanks for all men everywhere, and they must have "holy hands" as they do it.

This is the only hope for this country. Without private and corporate praying by God's people for God's mercy, the plague that is besetting this nation will not be stayed. And the freedoms that so many men and women had given their lives to preserve for us will be lost for good. o

Rev. Leon F. Wardell is the Executive Director of the Calvary Ministries of New Hampshire, 45 North Main Street, Bristol, NH 03222.

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