You might be surprised what it means when you make that prayer — “Lord, heal our land.”
The whole thing is cached within the Hebrew intellectual tradition. It goes all the way back to the Covenant of Noah, with references to a natural order. God established a moral order and made the natural order dependent on the moral. If you obey His revelation, you can expect certain things from nature. It was more formalized and explicit in Moses, but implied in Noah. To ask God for healing of the land is, by implication, a request for moral correction.
We think in terms of asking God to come visit. That’s a request that He come and perform an inspection. In the process, He heals the victims but also punishes the guilty. He sets things right = righteousness. So His divine Presence is a threat to sin and sinners — Adam and Eve in the Garden hiding from the Presence after they sinned. His Presence is a blessing to those He has cleansed.
I’ve already pasted enough electrons on this blog pointing out how virtually no government on this earth satisfies the requirements of the Covenant of Noah. Yes, that Covenant remains applicable to both persons and governments, because it was the first covenant by which a form of government was required. It stands so long as their are rainbows. That form of government is so utterly foreign to Westerners that they can’t imagine it. It’s called Ancient Near Eastern feudalism. We won’t rehash that here, but all human governments currently operating are a failure in God’s eyes. By praying that He heal your land, you are begging Him to come and destroy your government.
You are also begging Him to come and destroy your society. No part of Western society is even on the same planet as God’s ideal. That ANE feudalism is also a social order, the one God designed Himself. Our entire social structure is deeply offensive to God. If He comes to visit, the whole thing will be shredded. Yes, He is coming and our prayers will hasten that day.
Lord, heal our lands.
