The Temple has been built and the Ark of the Covenant installed. Before we move on let's just remind ourselves of the message from God that Nathan the prophet relayed to David (2 Samuel 7:12-15):
12 when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
Again there will be a lot of narrative, with little comment – I suggest the readings are shared out among those who are willing.
Read 1 Kings 8:22-30
22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands towards heaven 23 and said:
'Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below – you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. 24 You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it – as it is today.
25 'Now Lord, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, “You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me faithfully as you have done.” 26 And now, God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David my father come true.
27 'But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 28 Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. 29 May your eyes be open towards this temple night and day, this place of which you said, “My Name shall be there,” so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays towards this place. 30 Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
Solomon was very aware that God could not be contained in any structure made by man – 'The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you'. Yet God had said (in the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 7:16) 'I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.'
What was the significance of the Temple?
What does 'My Name shall be there' mean?
What does 'My eyes and my heart will always be there' mean?
This was to be a specific place where God would meet his people and where they could come to offer praise and worship, offerings and sacrifices.
God's presence did fill the Temple, but not exclusively – in the same way that his Spirit now fills every believer.
2 Corinthians 6:16 tells us that as Christians we are the Temple of God! So it is reasonable to apply the 2 Chronicles verse to ourselves:
'I have chosen and consecrated you so that my Name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.'
There now follows six passages where we would have put 'if' rather than 'when' – Solomon was inspired to be totally realistic, and at least twice, very prophetic.
Read 1 Kings 8:31-36
31 'When anyone wrongs their neighbour and is required to take an oath and they come and swear the oath before your altar in this temple, 32 then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing down on their heads what they have done, and vindicating the innocent by treating them in accordance with their innocence.
33 'When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and give praise to your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, 34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.
35 'When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray towards this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, 36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.
When was this prophetic statement (v 35-36) fulfilled? Wicked king Ahab and the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17)
Read 1 Kings 8:37-51
37 'When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, 38 and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel – being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts, and spreading out their hands towards this temple – 39 then hear from heaven, your dwelling-place. Forgive and act; deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know every human heart), 40 so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.
41 'As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name – 42 for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm – when they come and pray towards this temple, 43 then hear from heaven, your dwelling-place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.
44 'When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to the Lord towards the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name, 45 then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.
46 'When they sin against you – for there is no one who does not sin – and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; 47 and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, “We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly”; 48 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you towards the land you gave their ancestors, towards the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; 49 then from heaven, your dwelling-place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. 50 And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offences they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy; 51 for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.
And sadly, as Solomon had predicted (and in verses 33-34), because of the people's continual and repeated sins, they were eventually taken into exile.
Read 1 Kings 8:52-53
52 'May your eyes be open to your servant's plea and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they cry out to you. 53 For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you, Sovereign Lord, brought our ancestors out of Egypt.'
An interesting phrase 'May your eyes be open'. Why not 'ears'? Could someone paraphrase it?
Let's move on
Read 1 Kings 8:54-61
54 When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out towards heaven. 55 He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:
56 'Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. 57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. 58 May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors.
59 And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day's need, 60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. 61 And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.'
I can only comment: an amazing inspired prayer!
We are now about to read about the dedication of the Temple.
Read 1 Kings 8:62-66
62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. 63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the Lord.
64 On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the Lord, and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar that stood before the Lord was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.
65 So Solomon observed the festival at that time, and all Israel with him – a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. They celebrated it before the Lord our God for seven days and seven days more, fourteen days in all. 66 On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.
This passage may well raise questions like Who? How? Where? When? At least in people's minds.
To answer the 'When?' question, it coincided with the feast of Tabernacles (1 Kings 8:2 and 65, Leviticus 23:26-36.)
During the fortnight of festival there could have been thousands of priests, and hundreds of thousands of people, in and around the temple courts, each keen to join in the dedication service, and many would have brought an animal to sacrifice for the 'Day of Atonement'
Where we read 'Solomon sacrificed' we should probable note that the first phrase in verse 62 refers to 'the king and all Israel with him'.
The regulations for sacrifices in Leviticus chapter 1 says that it has to be the person bringing the sacrifice who kills and prepares it, the priest's job is to sprinkle some of the blood on the altar and burn the fat. Some offerings were to be totally consumed by fire, but not all.
(For the offeror to have to kill his own animal reinforced the message that it was his personal sin that required the substitutionary death as atonement.)
It is hard to find specific verses, but certainly at times of festival it appears that the Priests received their portion, internal organs and fat were burnt, and the rest was eaten by the offeror (and family) partly as a way of associating themselves with the sacrifice. 1 Samuel 2:12-17, and 1 Samuel 9:12-13 shed some more light on this.
Read verse 66 again:
66 On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.
We have reached the pinnacle in the life of Solomon and his people. But if this is the pinnacle the only way to go from here is down. I can't face that now – it will have to wait for next time.
