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NASB | 2 Chronicles 7:14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Chronicles 7:14 and My people, who are called by My Name, humble themselves, and pray and seek (crave, require as a necessity) My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear [them] from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land. |
Subject: God's people's land? |
Bible Note: Clarification on "all" in 2Ti 3:16. All Scripture is profitable. To impose an interpretive system which hedges on the plain meaning of the word "all" is perilous. We're hedging on our Old Testament Bill. Part of the reason for this, I believe, is wrong thinking about law and grace. The law is no more an enemy of grace than the sacrificial system was. It compliments grace. By the way, Ezekiel makes it clear that the "legalistic" sacrificial system is going to be reinstituted. Instructive. Bill, of course, "all" does not mean "all" the Old Testament applies to Christians. No one has said in 2Ch 7:14 notes that it does. What I am saying is that inspiration and profitability is assured for the entirety of Scripture. 2Ti 3:16 is inclusive. That is, each passage, all Scripture, is profitable for counsel: whether it be teaching, reproof, correction or training in righteousness. Some passages to a greater degree than others, true. But all are profitable. That, I believe, is the plainest sense of the grammar. There isn't single verb in 2Ti 3:16. Our English supplies one. Instructive in itself. Further, Timothy's mother Eunice was a Jewess. From a child he had been brought up with the Scriptures (2Ti. 3:15). Simple math makes it impossible for this passage to refer primarily to the New Testament. When Timothy's Jewish mother taught him the Scriptures as a child she was teaching him the Old Testament. Further, "rightly dividing" (KJV 2Ti. 2:15; NAS "accurately handling") means to "teach accurately" (Friberg's Analytical Greek Lexicon). To use that verse to cleave our Bibles in two is hardly useful instruction (pardon the generalization and play on words). 2Ch 7:14 is profitable, applies to all believers of every "covenant" and "dispensation," gives us a bright beacon in a very dark day, and allows us the hope that our land can again enjoy God's healing if we, as believers, turn from our wicked ways. There are many passages in the New Testament I could have used to provide this same instruction. But none so completely fit the catastrophe we witnessed on September 11, 2001. And none was so fitting after having seen Mrs. Tyner's note to my son Joshua (see "The Answer" note in this passage). Brother Bill, I may have seemed harsh here but I assure you nothing of the kind is in mind. Thank you for your reply. John |