It’s funny how we can interpret the word ‘if’. For the glass half-empty among us, then ‘if’ is merely a possibility and not a promise; it might happen… but then it might not… it is just a possibility; not a certainty! I believe, however, this verse is meant to be read with hope and expectation and a sure and certain promise that when God’s people, who are called by His Name, take a step of faith and humbly seek God’s face, then healing will come to our land.
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The word ‘if’ doesn’t actually appear in the Hebrew text. A more literal translation of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is “and humbled, My people who are called by My name and pray upon, and seek My face, and turn back from their evil ways, then I will hear from the heavens, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land”. Admittedly it is a little bit more awkward to read this way so translators have inserted the word ‘if’ but the emphasis is most definitely more on the fact that when ‘A’ happens, ‘B’ will follow! But I would go a stage further and say that the promise is there that this chain of events will happen, ie God’s people will humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn back from their/our evil ways.
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This is where the challenge comes! The word ‘evil’ is not a word that we easily take ownership of – ‘other’ people, ie those who are not God’s people can be evil – but surely God’s people have been redeemed and forgiven?!
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There is a concept in Hebrew thinking that we should regard everything in life with one of two mindsets. The ayin-tov (literally a ‘good eye’) or an ayin-rah (literally a ‘bad/evil eye’). We are probably familiar with the expression that someone has an ‘evil eye’ if they are involved with witchcraft and divination, but in the most simplest of terms the godly should have a ‘good’ eye to looks to God’s ways of doing things while the godless (those who live life without realising any need for God) have a ‘bad/evil’ eye as they look at things from their own perspective and motivation. It is the same idea as ‘sheep and goats’ – sheep follow the Shepherd while goats wander off and do their own thing.
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English translators needed to find a straightforward way to express ‘doing something my way rather than following the Shepherd’ so they used words like ‘evil’ and ‘wicked’ but unfortunately this has resulted in us assuming that the words refer to someone else! Maybe this is why we are still waiting for God’s people to humble them (our) selves, and pray and seek God’s face and start looking to see this land, this world through God’s good eye and start to do life God’s way, following in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd.
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Incidentally, the words ‘tov’ and ‘rah’ (good and evil) are the very same words found in Genesis 2:9 with reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I am not denying that we are seeing some terrible atrocities in our news at the moment and they are indeed ‘pure evil’ but let us not make the mistake of thinking that God is waiting for the ‘really evil’ who may be taking refuge in a church somewhere to repent. This is about us, me, you, all of us. As living sacrifices, we are so easily inclined to crawl away when the heat intensifies on the altar. But when we continually and consistently re-align ourselves with His ways, doing life His way, and through His eyes then we will see healing in our land. And that’s a promise!
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- Written by Roz Mitchell
