A Call To The Remnant

1Ki 8:35  When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain,

Solomon prays to God for what is to come. He does not say “If the heavens are shut up.” He says “when heaven is shut up.” The inevitable  nature of rebellious man is so predictable. Mankind, in its general state, does not change. Confessors of Jesus, in their general state, do not change. What do I mean by their general state? I mean when they forget God. When they forget where God took them from. When they forget that everything they have comes from the hand of God. When they forget that without God they are merely rebellious creatures. Drift away from God and see that the high tide of humanity comes roaring in and overwhelms you. I would argue, that this is the general state of Christendom today. Heaven is shut, there is no rain. There is a famine of the Word of God preached with power throughout the land. Men are dying of thirst and starving to death.

Solomon gives the remedy in verse 38-39 “when each one knows the plague of his own heart and spreads out his hands towards the temple, then hear in heaven, your dwelling place and forgive…” When each one knows the plague of his own heart. The definition of plague is “an epidemic disease that causes high mortality, pestilence.” If one has a plague in his heart, then you can be assured that the multitude are affected by this epidemic. We are in the midst of a plague, an epidemic. We are plagued by unbelief. We are plagued by lukewarmness. Much of those in Christendom are practical atheists. Practical adulterers. They say one thing, but they live as laws unto themselves. Solomon says “when each one knows.” One has to know their state in order to repent of it. There are no specific calls to repentance, for in doing that there would have to be an acknowledgement of sin and a heart riddled with plague. The pestilence of our age is worldliness.

Verse 47 “Yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent and make supplication to you in the land of those who took them captive…….and when they return to You with all of their hearts and with all of their souls in the land of their enemies……….forgive your people who have sinned against You.” Father in Heaven, hear the prayers of your saints in the land of their captivity, in the land where the heavens have been shut and famine and pestilence stalk the land and the hearts of those who profess your name are sickened. Hear from heaven Father and give us eyes to see the sickened and dying hearts that they may confess and repent to you and that you may heal them for your own names sake one last time. Glorify yourself Lord in all the earth. May Your glory cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.