2 Chronicles 6
36“When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy,...38 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul,...39 then...hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you.”
This prayer of dedication was offered by Solomon at the completion of the building of the temple. It offers a lot of doctrine and theology including the sin, its consequences, repentance and restoration.
Solomon worried that the people of Israel would sin and turn against God. His fears were well founded and history showed this pattern of behavior over the next several centuries. The people would sin against God. The consequences for their sin was separation from God. In that period of history this was seen in God allowing the Israelites to be taken captive by their enemies, exiled in foreign lands or occupied and ruled by god-less governments in their own land. When they repented they were restored to their own land and they regained sovereignty over their nation.
Throughout this prayer of dedication Solomon asks that God would hear the prayers of His people when they turned towards the temple and prayed. The temple was a dwelling place for God among His people. In verse 18 Solomon recognizes that the heavens cannot contain God so a building constructed by human hands certainly could not contain God. Turning towards the temple to pray was, in reality, turning towards God to pray. Turning towards God means turning your back on the thing that took you into captivity—sin.
Sin still angers God. When we sin God still allows us to be taken into captivity by our enemy. Once we start down a road of sin there seems to be no turning back. We resist temptation and we enjoy a season of success but eventually give in to the desire of our flesh—whatever that desire might be. Once we give in, we indulge in our sin like a hungry glutton before a table of food. We are given to captivity to our sin and we cannot seem to escape.
Our efforts are just that, our efforts. We cannot escape captivity anymore than we can secure our own salvation. Our only recourse is turn back towards God and cry out in repentance. We must turn our back on our sin and acknowledge that only He can restore us to fellowship with Him.
Are you abiding in Christ right now or are you being held captive by the enemy? Have you tried everything to break the chains of bondage except asking God to forgive and restore you? Turning towards God means turning away from the sin that caused led to your exile. You cannot bring it back with you. The Gatekeepers remain on watch.
