2 Chronicles 7:12-16 And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, I have heard your prayer… I. IT IS A DUTY CALLED FOR BY PROPHETS AND APOSTLES AND SPECIALLY RESPECTED BY GOD (Micah 6:8; James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6; 2 Kings 22:19; Leviticus 26:41, 42). 1. It emptieth the heart of self-confidence and is the root of the fundamental duty of self-denial. 2. It fits for approach to God. 3. It disposeth to a confession of sin (Luke 15:17-19; Luke 18:13). 4. It prepares the heart for the entertainment of mercy. 5. It makes way for the forsaking of sin; the more a soul is humbled for it, the more it is fearful of it and watchful against it. II. IT IS TWOFOLD IN ITS NATURE. 1. Passive, when God breaks the heart by the hammer of His Word (Jeremiah 23:29), or by some sore affliction. 2. Active, when the soul humbleth itself under sin and wrath. This may be — (1) Legal, proceeding from a spirit of bondage, when the heart roars on a rack, or melts in a furnace, is filled with consternation and anguish under the weight of sin and wrath, as in the case of Pharaoh, Ahab, Belshazzar, Felix, the jailor, and the murderers of Christ. (2) Evangelical. When the soul is not only broken and battered with the horror and dread of wrath (this it may be and remain hard, as every piece of a broken flint is hard still), but when it is kindly melted and softened with apprehensions of God's goodness and free-grace. A compounded duty made up of love and sorrow; Hezekiah, Josiah (Jeremiah 26:19; 2 Chronicles 34:27). III. THIS IS A PERPETUAL DUTY. As long as sin remains there must be a sense of it, and sorrow for it. But in some times and cases it is to be specially renewed. In times — 1. Of extraordinary sins and provocations. 2. Of public dangers and distresses. 3. Of great enterprises attempted. 4. Of successes and blessings desired (Ezra 8:21). (Edward Reynolds, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. |
    |