2 Chronicles 6:37
and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,'
Sermons
The Sevenfold IllustrationT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 6:22-39
Departure and ReturnW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 6:36-39














It seems a melancholy thing that, at this hour of sacred joy and triumph, Solomon should have been under the necessity of contemplating national unfaithfulness, Divine displeasure, a return of the people of God to ignominious captivity and all its consequent distress. But he felt that it was necessary, and the issue abundantly justified his forecast.

I. DEPARTURE FROM GOD. In the case of Israel, departure from the Lord their God meant either

(1) the formal substitution of another deity for Jehovah, or

(2) widespread disobedience to his Law, moral or ceremonial, or both. With ourselves it signifies one or more of three things.

1. A growing disregard, ending in an absolute indifference, or even denial, of God's claims.

2. A serious and, in the end, a shameful violation of his moral Law; doing that which is grievous in his sight and injurious to ourselves and our neighbours.

3. Gradual but growing declension after acquaintance with God; the heart allowing itself to become loosened from sacred ties and attaching itself to other objects - separating itself from him and quitting his service.

I. ITS PENALTY.

1. Divine displeasure. "Thou be angry with them." A moss serious and most deplorable thing it is to abide beneath the displeasure of our heavenly Father. The anger of love, the righteous anger of holy love, is ill to bear, indeed; it is a heavy weight upon the heart; it is a darkening of the life of man.

2. The triumph of our enemy. "And deliver them over before their enemies," etc. A sad thing it is for the human soul to be at the mercy of its enemy. Sin is a cruel enemy, and exacts a full penalty.

(1) How it robs us of our true treasure - of our joy in God, of our gladness in his service, of our likeness to him, of the friendship of Jesus Christ, of the hope of eternal life!

(2) How it smites us - with inward compunction, with a sense of our guiltiness and folly, with humiliation at our low estate 1

(3) How it degrades us - bringing us down into captivity, so that we are no longer masters of ourselves, but are at the mercy of any tyrannous habit we may have contracted! We are in the land of the enemy; his bonds are upon our soul.

III. OUR REPENTANCE AND RETURN.

1. Distress leads to thoughtfulness. "They bethink themselves." We "come to ourselves" (Luke 15:17), as those who were created to consider and act reasonably; we weigh our condition and our prospects.

2. Thoughtfulness leads to self-rebuke. We reprove ourselves for our folly. We compare or contrast the present with the past, the land whither we have been "carried away captive" with the home of freedom and of sacred joy. We reproach ourselves with our guilt. We are pained and ashamed that we have left him, who is worthy of the riches of our strength, for all that is unworthy; him, to whom we owe everything, for that or for those to whom we owe nothing. We repent of our decision and our deed.

3. Repentance leads to return. We return unto God "with all our heart and with all our soul." We come with confession; we say freely and sincerely, "We have sinned" (ver. 38). We come with consecration; we offer ourselves, our hearts and lives, unto God, that henceforth we may walk in his ways with a perfect heart. We come in faith; we have hope in his mercy, for we know what will be -

IV. HIS RECEPTION OF US. He will "forgive his people that have sinned against him" (ver. 39). He will cordially welcome; he will immediately and magnanimously restore (see Luke 15:20-24). - C.

If Thy people go out to war.
I shall take these words as a political maxim and moral precept comprehending these two propositions.

I. THAT HERE IS COUCHED A SUPPOSITION, THAT UPON JUST GROUNDS AND LAWFUL CAUSES ANY NATION MAY DECLARE AND MAKE WAR UPON ANOTHER, implied in the expression, "If they go out to war against their enemies, by the way that God should send them." The just grounds of war according to the Laws of Nations and Arms are —

1. Those that concern the maintaining the public faith.

2. Those that respect the vindication of the honour of the Crown.

3. Those that relate to the prevention of the great and apparent dangers that threaten the general peace.

II. THE POSITIVE DUTY AND OBLIGATION THAT ALL NATIONS LIE UNDER, IN CASE OF THE DECLARATION OF SUCH A WAR, TO SEEK GOD WITH A SOLEMN HUMILIATION AND REPENTANCE, FOR HIS ASSISTANCE AND SUCCOUR TO MAINTAIN THEIR CAUSE OR RIGHT.

1. Because war is an appeal to God for the justice of a national cause.

2. Because of the great dangers and uncertainties that attend war. How many armies have their designs and themselves ruined by the little advantage of ground, the pass of a river, a sudden surprise, an undermining stratagem, the alteration of the weather, the fall of snow or rain, the misunderstanding of a word given, the spreading a false rumour or alarm; nay, the start of a horse, the mere error of the eye, or the information of a deserter! Which has overturned all policy, made power impotent, and victory unexpected. How many fleets have been dissipated with a mist, broken and sunk with a storm, and blown up with a spark of fire! (Ecclesiastes 9:11; chap, 14:11; Leviticus 26:8).

3. Because it will engage God to be on our side, and to vindicate our cause.

4. Because this solemn invocation of the Divine assistance, joined with a public humiliation and repentance, will be a means to avert those judgments that were otherwise due to our sins, and which we should have reason to fear might prevent the success of our arms, and provoke God to give us up to the will of our enemies.

5. Because prayer is an absolutely necessary and conditional means to success in war.

(Henry Sacheverell, D. D.)

(preached on a day of general humiliation on account of war): — Under most of the ordinary occurrences of life, there is the strongest tendency to overlook the relationship subsisting between ourselves as human beings and the providence of God. In many instances it is only on extraordinary occasions that individuals are first led to a practical recognition of the supremacy of God. It is when sickness produces its enfeebling effects on the frame; or when the angel of death gains admittance to their dwellings; or when adversity demonstrates to them the vanity of centring their affections on earthly treasures; or when pestilence extends its ravages throughout the land, or when war, with its horrors, thins their armies at home or abroad; it is often under such circumstances that men are primarily led to think of their souls and their Maker. An occurrence which shall generate in the minds of any a fitting sense of their dependence for succour on the Lord of heaven and earth, in whatever way that occurrence may have originated, must at least be, overruled by Providence for good.

I. THAT WHEN A PEOPLE ARE ENGAGED IN THE CHASTISEMENT OF THEIR ENEMIES IT IS REQUIRED THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE RECOURSE TO UNITED SUPPLICATION, that their efforts might be crowned with victory. Men are as much bound as ever to make national entreaties for the bestowal of national mercies, and for the successful issue of legitimate national movements.

II. THE SPIRIT IN WHICH OUR UNITED SUPPLICATIONS SHOULD BE OFFERED. We should pray, as penitents for pardon; as sinners for salvation; as patriots for our country; and as followers of Him who has taught us to love our enemies, for those enemies themselves.

(H. B. Moffat, M.A.)

People
David, Solomon
Places
Egypt, Holy Place, Jerusalem
Topics
Acted, Amiss, Bethink, Captive, Captivity, Carried, Change, Committed, Crying, Dealt, Evil, Heart, Held, Iniquitously, Iniquity, Lay, Perversely, Plead, Prayer, Prisoners, Repent, Saying, Sinned, Sinners, Supplication, Themselves, Turn, Turning, Whither, Wickedly, Wrong, Yet
Outline
1. Solomon, having blessed the people, blessed God
12. Solomon's prayer in the consecration of the temple, upon the bronze platform.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 6:34-39

     7241   Jerusalem, significance

2 Chronicles 6:36-39

     6029   sin, forgiveness
     6624   confession, of sin

Library
December the Eighth Judged by Our Aspirations
"Thou didst well, it was in thine heart." --2 CHRONICLES vi. 1-15. And this was a purpose which the man was not permitted to realize. It was a temple built in the substance of dreams, but never established in wood and stone. And God took the shadowy structure and esteemed it as a perfected pile. The sacred intention was regarded as a finished work. The will to build a temple was regarded as a temple built. And hence I discern the preciousness of all hallowed purpose and desire, even though it
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Eleventh Lesson. Believe that Ye have Received;'
Believe that ye have received;' Or, The Faith that Takes. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.'--Mark xi. 24 WHAT a promise! so large, so Divine, that our little hearts cannot take it in, and in every possible way seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable; instead of allowing it, in its quickening power and energy, just as He gave it, to enter in, and to enlarge our hearts to the measure of what
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer

Sanctification.
VI. Objections answered. I will consider those passages of scripture which are by some supposed to contradict the doctrine we have been considering. 1 Kings viii. 46: "If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near," etc. On this passage, I remark:-- 1. That this sentiment in nearly the same language, is repeated in 2 Chron. vi. 26, and in Eccl.
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate,
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Entire Sanctification
By Dr. Adam Clarke The word "sanctify" has two meanings. 1. It signifies to consecrate, to separate from earth and common use, and to devote or dedicate to God and his service. 2. It signifies to make holy or pure. Many talk much, and indeed well, of what Christ has done for us: but how little is spoken of what he is to do in us! and yet all that he has done for us is in reference to what he is to do in us. He was incarnated, suffered, died, and rose again from the dead; ascended to heaven, and there
Adam Clarke—Entire Sanctification

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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