Rev. Don Campbell

1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 8

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, June 13, 2019

“GOD HAS NEVER TURNED HIS BACK ON TRUTH-SEEKERS”

One might conclude from a misunderstanding and misapplication of Ephesians 4:24-27 that when God chose Israel and made a covenant with them that he slammed the door of salvation in the face of Gentiles: “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” That God had no side-covenant with other nations cannot be disputed, but that is different from the idea that the door was closed to individuals who were not Jews.

Our reading for today which is a part of Solomon’s prayer, which he prayed when the temple was dedicated, is very enlightening: “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name” (1 Kings 8:41-43).

That God heard Solomon’s prayer is verify by Christ on two occasions. In the first he quotes the Old Testament: “And he was teaching them and saying to them, ‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den of robbers’” (Mark 11:17). The second was spoken earlier before his hometown folks in Nazareth, who, upon hearing it, tried to throw him over a cliff: “And he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian’” (Luke 4:24-27).

Some use John 9:31 to prove that God hears no one who is not in covenant relationship with him: “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” Consciously or unconsciously, they insert “God does not listen to [alien] sinners.” His enemies argued that Jesus was a sinner because he profaned the Sabbath by healing the blind man (John 9:16), not that he was not a Jew. The blind man’s argument is that God does not hear those who profane his ordinances.

CONNECTIONS

1. What does Isaiah say about foreigners? (Isaiah 56:3-7)

2. Whom does he say God will not hear? (Isaiah 59:1-2)