What is our hope in sin? The world is full of sin and we are all guilty. Humans hurt and demean one another. We objectify and use one another. Consequently, the world is full of pain, full of war and full of evil.
Have you ever watched the news and thought, "What is wrong with the world?" The answer is simple: We are. It doesn't take a graduate degree in sociology to see that we have a propensity to damage the planet and the occupants of it.
That's the problem. The problem is human sin.
So what's the solution?
Better education? More money? A valiant call to unity? More rights? Some even suggest fewer people.
But that is not the picture we have in scripture.
At the final convocation of the Temple Solomon builds, there is a wonderful picture of Solomon praying before the people in their presence and on their behalf. Solomon is king and yet note the posture of humility and hunger for God. Would that we had more national leaders like this:
2 Chronicles 6:12–15 (ESV) Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 13 Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, 14 and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, 15 who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him.
For the rest of the chapter, Solomon prays continually for the same thing concerning the people of Israel: The forgiveness of their sins.
If they suffer defeat:
2 Chronicles 6:24–25 (ESV) “If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, 25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers.
When nature works against them:
2 Chronicles 6:26–27 (ESV) “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, 27 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel...
When they are taken captive by their enemies and repent of their sins:
2 Chronicles 6:38–39 (ESV) if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 39 then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
Solomon is a picture of Jesus here. The righteous Son of David who builds a houseand then lives in the presence of God to intercede on our behalf.
Hebrews 7:25 (ESV) (Jesus) is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Solomon also prays that foreigners will come and find the Lord (see 2 Chronicles 6:32-33). He prays that God will hear them and do for them what they ask. This seems strange for an ancient king to pray. He's literally asking his God to bless people other than his people.
And yet this is the complete picture of Christ and the Gospel - the message of forgiveness and redemption. The prayer Jesus offers God on our behalf is a prayer of hope for a sinful world that oftentimes cannot and will not stop destroying itself. It is a prayer for those far from God that NO ONE is too far gone. And it is the answer to our most devastating problem, the problem of human sin.
Praise be to God!
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