Dedication of The Temple

Transcript

GRS 2-91
12/2/2007
Dedication of the Temple
1 Kings 8
Gil Rugh

In the book of First Kings in the 8th Chapter in your Bibles, First Kings Chapter 8, we are studying the history of Israel basically, since God’s plan on Earth focused in Israel since Genesis Chapter 12 with the call of Abraham, the establishing of the Abrahamic Covenant, the promises to the descendents of Abraham. Saul has been the first king of Israel, David the second, now Solomon; Solomon has been entrusted with the responsibility of building the temple. The fact that makes Israel unique among all the nations is they are the people that belong to God. He chose to make them His own possession. He chose them when they were not a people, when they were not a nation, when basically they existed in two people, Abraham and Sarah, two childless people. And yet God said he would build the nation that would belong to him.

Come back to the Book of Deuteronomy, leave a marker in First Kings 8 and come back to the Book of Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. You can start in Deuteronomy Chapter 4 verse 20, I just want to read several passages, and we will just limit it to Deuteronomy for a time where God emphasizes that Israel has been chosen to be His special possession. Deuteronomy Chapter 4 verse 20, “But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace from Egypt to be a people for His own possession.”

Now you are going to see in these passages and it will be repeated a number of times in our section in First Kings 8 that God takes them back to Egypt to remind them because it was in Egypt that he built them into a great people. Remember when Israel the person of Jacob and his family went down into Egypt they were just a family, a large family 70 people, but nothing anywhere near a nation. But 400 years later when God brings them out of Egypt he has built them into a nation. So we go back to his bringing him out of the furnace, the iron furnace in the slavery of Egypt and he intended them to be a people for His own possession.

Over in Chapter 7 of Deuteronomy verse 6, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” What an honor, what a privilege? We are not reading the context, but both the previous context and this context is stressing why Israel must be very careful not to be involved in any way with the worship of other gods and so on. You are a holy people to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you. The initiator in this relationship of course was God and he has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

There is only one nation that God has chosen for himself and that is the nation Israel if you are aware. Chapter 14 verse 2, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Again the context of that statement is Israel maintaining their purity, their holiness by keeping separate from things which would defile them. Chapter 26 verse 18, “The Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments.” Because remember what Jesus said if you love me you will keep my commandments.

So obedience to the Lord is a mark of our love for Him and that he will set you high above all nations which He has made for praise, fame and honor, and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God as He has spoken. The uniqueness of Israel you have to think is that they heard these repeated declarations from the Lord. How could you keep but be overwhelmed then in awe that the sovereign God has chosen me, He has chosen our people, the physical descendants of Abraham and Sarah to belong to Him. What an honored position, what a high and holy calling. You can just jot down Amos Chapter 3 verse 2 where God says to Israel you only have I known of all the families of the earth. You are the only ones I have placed my love upon, I have chosen for myself.

So as you come back to First Kings Chapter 8, in this context God planned to manifest his presence among his people in a real, concrete, tangible way and this presence centered in the tabernacle. So all the nations on the face of the earth, the great and powerful nations, there was one nation where God would manifest his presence on the earth in this concrete way and so they built the tabernacle according to his instructions. And in the tabernacle there would be the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat and there God would meet with his people to manifest his presence in a unique way, not happening anywhere else on the face of the earth but was happening in Israel.

What’s happening in this nation that was still at that point a wandering people who had just come out slavery but God wasn’t manifesting his presence among the Egyptians because the Egyptians weren’t his people. He wasn’t doing among the other nations but he was doing it in Israel in the tabernacle. Now the tabernacle is a temporary structure and you are aware of something of the tabernacle. You have seen its pictures. We have materials available in the bookstore that has some very helpful and interesting color pictures, artist renderings of what the tabernacle was like, what the temple that Solomon built was like so you could look at those and get an idea of how they might have looked and compare them. The tabernacle was temporary. It was a tent type of structure made to be taken down and transported to other places and set up and then dismantled and carried as Israel wandered until they would come to the land that God had promised.

Now Israel is settled in the Promised Land, the land that God had promised to them. The kingdom has been secured primarily under David’s kingship. Now with Solomon the temple has been built and the temple is a permanent structure. So it is modeled on the same plan as the tabernacle, just large not huge. We noted that the temple area being twice as large, the temple itself twice as large as the tabernacle. So it is not a huge overwhelming structure but no expense spared; gold covering everything then the abundance use of silver and so on. So no expense was spared in the building of this center of worship. It took seven years to build. Solomon was the one who oversaw its construction following the instructions of God and here you have the wisest man on earth involved in the intimate details of the construction of this temple.

Now the temple has been built with what we have in Chapter 8 and it is time to complete the transition. And with the events of Chapter 8, the tabernacle and all the items associated with it now are just historical items. There will be one item carried over from the tabernacle and that is the Ark of the Covenant. The other items in the tabernacle have been replaced with new items constructed according to God’s plan and of course they can be constructed more permanently. So much more use of precious metals, gold and silver and so on because they are going to permanently reside in this location. And so what we have in Chapter 8 is the moving of the Ark of the Covenant. Remember David had brought it to Jerusalem and constructed a tent in which it was placed. Now we are ready with the temple having been built to move the Ark of the Covenant into the temple and that is the final action that prepares it for the worship of the nation and this really will be the center of worship in the nation down to its suffer, its destruction, its ultimate destruction in the Babylonian captivity.

All right the opening verse is really the first 11 verses talk about the moving of the Ark to the temple; the Ark of the Covenant isn’t just a chest and not a large chest but the dimensions a little over three feet long, that’s all. So it’s not huge, overwhelming structure but it is the place where the presence of God is focused and where God meets with the people. You need to come back to Exodus 25, one more verse before we proceed into details here. Exodus 25, here you have the original instructions for the Ark of the Covenant, it’s called the Ark of the Covenant because remember the tablets containing the ten commandments representing the law of God with Israel, his law covenant with them is placed in this Ark. Remember the Ark is a chest and it has a lid on it. So the tablets that Moses received from God on the mountain are placed in there. So we called it the Ark of the Covenant.

Verse 10 of Exodus 25, they construct an Ark of acacia wood and here you have two and a half cubits long and a cubit is about 18 inches, one a half cubits wide, one and a half cubits high. You overlay it with pure gold inside and out, made gold molding, four gold rings and the instructions. So the Ark itself, chest the Ark, is made out of wood but it is overlaid in its entirety inside and out with pure gold. Then you come down and the rings in it that are gold, remember, poles are to go through the rings, they will be mentioned in our passage in First Kings 8 because the Ark was to be carried as it was transported from place to place by those poles. When David was moving the Ark they made a serious mistake, they put it on an ox cart. It wasn’t to be transported that way and there was disaster associated with that.

You will note in verse 17, “You shall make a Mercy Seat of pure gold.” So the Mercy Seat, the lid of the Ark if you will, was not wood covered with gold; it was pure gold. And then you make two cherubim and these are angelic creatures that one on each side facing the Ark and their wings are spread out over the Ark and the lid of the Ark is the Mercy Seat, where the blood is applied and forgiveness takes place for Israel. You will note in verse 22, “There I will meet with you and from above the Mercy Seat from between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the testimony I will speak to you about all that I would give in commandment for the sons of Israel.” So this is a tremendously significant item. On all the earth, in all the world, there is only one place where God is coming to meet with man and that is above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle and now the temple; so, tremendously significant for the nation of Israel.

So come back again to First Kings, “Then Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, leaders of the fathers, households of the sons of Israel to Solomon in Jerusalem to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the city of David which is Zion.” In other words everyone who is anyone, we would say today. All the key people in the nation, the elders, the overseers in Israel, the heads of the various tribes, the leaders of family lines within the tribes, they are all called to this assembly so it would be a large assembly that comes to Solomon in Jerusalem.

All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast. They have all the leaders and now you have the people of Israel joined as well because we have a feast time, the time when particularly the men of Israel are required to assemble. We are in the month of Ethanim which is the seventh month. Now it helps us time wise here. We are in the seventh month.

Back up to Chapter 6 verse 38, “In the eleventh year the month of bull which is the eighth month the house was finished with its parts and according to all its plans.” The temple construction had been completed in the eighth month; 11 months have gone by, now we are the seventh month where 11 months have gone by. So it’s not like the week following the completion the Ark was brought to the temple. It seems like a long delay and what else was going on we are not told. There are specific reasons for this.

Back in Chapter 8, and when it brings to the king Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, we are at the feast of Booths which was designated in Leviticus Chapter 23 verses 33 to 43 to take place in the seventh month. And the feast of Booths called that because booths were constructed out of branches and leaves and so on as temporary dwellings. So, for the week of this feast Israel moved out of their houses and lived in these temporary structures made out of tree branches and leaves and so on. And it was a reminder to Israel that during their time in the wilderness after God brought them out of Egypt they had lived in these temporary structures.

See what God is doing, taking them back to the deliverance from Egypt again in a reminder of his deliverance from the iron furnace of Egypt and when they now came out to be a nation that belonged to him and to be his people. Interesting note, here you wait until the feast of Booths and then in connection with that feast which reminds Israel of their deliverance and what their live was like in the wilderness after God brought them out of Egypt and in the coming millennial kingdom the feast of Booths is one of the feasts that all people Jews and Gentiles alike will be required to come and observe.

Turn over to The Book of Zechariah, all the way at the end of Old Testament next to the last book in The Old Testament. Zechariah Chapter 14 and we are in the coming earthly kingdom of Christ a period we call the millennium which we will be talking about in our coming studies on Sunday mornings. Verse 9 of Zechariah 14, “And the Lord will be king over all the earth and that day the Lord will be the only one and his name the only one.” And some of the geographical changes at Jerusalem, verse 12, now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who have gone to war against Jerusalem, and you see the destruction of the enemies of the Lord.

Come down to verse 16, “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations went up against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the king the Lord of hosts and to celebrate the feast of Booths, and it will be that whichever of the families of the earth who does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king the Lord of hosts there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up no rain will fall on them and he will smite the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

So, it is an important feast that God will require all peoples not just Israel but all the gentile nations that have opposed Israel but now are part of the earthly kingdom. And we will talk about they get in it and so on at another time but we want to know here in that coming earthly kingdom this feast is significant enough anybody who fails to come up to observe at Jerusalem at the appointed time comes under the judgment of Christ who is reigning at that time. So it helps us appreciate obviously in God’s plan perhaps the revelation has come to Solomon that this is how this is to be done and is to be observed at this time and the final formalizing of worship now centering in the temple will occur in connection with this important feast.

Verse 11, “They brought up the Ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils which are in the tent and the priests and the Levis brought them up,” now they bring up all the items that had been made and were used in the worship of the tabernacle but only the Ark will be used now in the new temple. The other items are evidently stored there in some of the storerooms that were associated with the new temple and they have of course an importance because they were used in the worship of the Lord and were only to be used for that but remember and through the descriptions the other items except for the Ark have been remade and so these other items and utensils being brought up were evidently brought up for storage at the temple but not for use in the actual worship.

Verse 5, “King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled to him who were with him before the Ark sacrificing so many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered.” I mean we are talking thousands upon thousands of animals being sacrificed. When David brought the Ark to Jerusalem the place and into the tent he had made there, he offered a bull and a calf every six steps that the priest took. So the priest carrying the Ark to Jerusalem from Kiriath-jearim where it had been stored or kept for some time now it is coming to Jerusalem. Every six steps the priest took two animals were sacrificed.

Now as they bring the Ark from its temporary place in the tent David had placed it to the temple there are so many animals sacrificed as part of these procedure that they don’t even attempt to count a record here. The priest brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place into the inner sanctuary of the house; to the most holy place under the wings of the cherubim for the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the Ark, the cherubim made a covering over the Ark and its poles from above. But the poles were so long, the ends of the poles could be seen and so on, some of these descriptions and again if you look at some of the pictures that we have attempted this draw this out you might get a little better idea of how it might have looked. There was nothing in the Ark, verse 9, except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb.

Now in The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament we are told that Aaron’s rod that budded and the jar of manna was there and we were told that only these two items are here. We are not told what has happened to the other items. But the two tablets that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai are here and they are a reminder of his covenant with Israel. Note the end of verse 9, when they came out of the land of Egypt. This is crucial because this is the beginning if you will of the nation as a nation. Now they had their beginning I realize back with Abraham some 500 years earlier but the nation as a nation now, not just as a family, that God would build into a nation but with an identity as a nation is connection with the exodus from Egypt and that period of time.

Now, verse 10 and 11 are crucial. It happened where the priest came from the holy place the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand to administer because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. They come, they put the Ark in the temple and the glory of the Lord comes down and with such overwhelming presence the priests are not able to function in the temple. This is the same thing that happened in the tabernacle. Go back to Exodus Chapter 40, so you see a continuity as God continues to express himself in basically the same way and at the same place, the noting, the continuity that these are his people, he is their God.

Exodus Chapter 40 verse 34, “He erected the court all around the tabernacle, the altar hung the veil for the gateway of the court. Thus Moses finished the work.” Verse 34, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” So you see here God declaring in a visible way to his people that he is their God, they are his people. And this is the place where he will meet with them. While you are Exodus there, verse 36, “Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle the sons of Israel would set out. When it remained they would stay and so on.” So this is the place where God would meet with his people and the center of his presence in the nation.

Now clearly it takes permanent residence in this permanent dwelling that has built according to his instructions. So we have a change of the place of worship but it is still God present with Israel and his people based on the covenant that is contained in that Ark. Solomon gives a speech and so that is contained herein verses 12 to 21. God had promised that he would dwell among his people in the thick cloud. We won’t back to the verses in Exodus numerous times, God reiterated that. Solomon declares the truth in verse 12, “The Lord had said he would dwell in the thick cloud.” He declared that in Exodus 19, 9, 20, 21, 34, 35 places where God had said he would dwell. Solomon is aware of what the law says and so he refers to that and verse 30, “I have surely built you a lofty house, a place for your dwelling forever.” But Solomon is aware that God is contained in the temple.

Down in verse 27, “But God will indeed dwell in the earth, behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house which I have built?” So when he says he has built a lofty house for him, a place for your dwelling forever in verse 13, he is simply acknowledging a place for God’s presence in the nation and a place for his presence to be manifested. But Solomon is aware you cannot contain God in a place. Heaven can’t contain him. He understood something of the omnipresence of God. But he still recognizes that God has chosen to manifest his presence in a unique and special way among the people that he chose for himself.

He speaks basically centers on the fact that God has fulfilled the promises he gave to David and particularly out of the Davidic covenant in Second Samuel Chapter 7 verse 14, “The king face about and blessed all the assembly of Israel for all the assembly of Israel was standing there.” He gives the speech and then says basically blessed be the Lord the God of Israel who spoke with his mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it. Down in verse 20, “Now the Lord has fulfilled his word which he spoke for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised and have built a house for the name of the Lord the God of Israel and have set a place for the Ark.” In this context there is a reminder repeatedly. This is the God who brought us out of Egypt. Verse 16, “Since the day I brought my people Israel from Egypt,” repeating what God had said to his father David.

Down in verse 21, “I have set a place for the Ark in which the covenant of the Lord which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.” So we are at the feast of Booths which is a reminder of God bringing his people out of Egypt and they dwelled in these temporary structures in the wilderness. Now we have the permanent structure but you go back and remember our beginning as a nation. We came out of Egypt. That’s what God did so this reminder then God made promises to my father David. He established covenant with him and he is fulfilling that covenant and now we have this permanence residence became the nation now resides in the land that God had promised. He follows up the speech with prayer and Solomon’s prayer is longer than his speech beginning in verse 22 down through verse 53 is the prayer of Solomon and basically his prayer is a request to God to hear the prayers of his people and forgive them for their sins when they commit them. So much of Solomon’s prayer focuses on asking God to be gracious and hear the prayers of his people when they sin and ask for forgiveness.

Verses 22 to 30 are something of an introduction to the prayer and we won’t turn over but in Second Chronicles Chapter 6 you have a parallel account and Second Chronicles 6:13 we are told that Solomon builds a bronze platform to stand on and you can sure it was not just the temporary table but when would have a platform fitting for the occasion this is what he is on so he can address the people and he will down on this platform and you can read that parallel account some time at your leisure. Then he leads the assembly in prayer as he kneels on this platform before the people. He first acknowledges that God is totally unique, verse 22, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven.

In the Chronicles account then we are told that he went down to his knees as he goes to prayer. He said O Lord the God of Israel there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath keeping covenant, showing loving kindness, the covenant faithfulness of God, the covenant love to your servants who walk before you with all their hearts. You have kept with your servant my father David that which you promised with him. So you see God’s faithfulness, you have done what you promised. You have spoken with your mouth, you have fulfilled it with your hand, and it is this day. And he asked God now to continue to honor his promises.

Now therefore O Lord the God of Israel keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him saying you shall like a man to sit on the throne of Israel if only your sons take heed to their way to walk before me as you have walked. Now therefore O God of Israelite your word I pray be confirmed which you have spoken to your servant. Now there will be a break in the line. There won’t be an end to the promises but there will be break in the line and Solomon recognizes that promises to David where you will not like a man to sit on the throne of Israel if only your sons take to walk in their way to walk before me as you have walked. That is not going to happen.

So today Israel is without a king on the throne of David and it has been millenniums but the promises stand, sure. But the interruptions in the line come as a result of the judgment of God. Solomon is aware of that. David was aware of that. Solomon’s desire is that it wouldn’t happen and so that is what his prayer is based. You know how the prayer is it is based on what God has promised. So you have sureness of response from God because all Solomon is doing is coming and asking God to do what he said he would do and that there would be successor to the throne as long as the descendants remain obedient. So God do what you have promised. You may say why would you even bother asking him; well that's the foundation of prayer.

You are praying according to the will of God. How do you will know the will of God? Well, he revealed it. He spoke. So I come before you Lord asking you to do what you said you would do. You are a God who keeps your word. But then in that verse we read will indeed dwell on the earth. Behold heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house? Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication. Listen to the cry, to the prayer which your servant prays you today that your eyes may be open toward this house, night and day. The place which you said my name will dwell there, to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place and it goes on that on or all the prayers that are offered by your people not only in my time but will come to you down through the years.

Solomon comes not with arrogance but with humility. He realizes he has no grounds except the grace of God. Verse 30, “Listen to the supplication of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place hear in heaven your dwelling place, hear and forgive.” We will come as a sinful people, an undeserving people, hear our prayer and forgive us and God graciously does that. He is willing to forgive them, but Israel was not willing to come anymore and to seek the forgiveness of their God. That’s where they were going, sad. Interesting to me as I went through this again and I just marked the places where Solomon emphasized heaven is your dwelling. He has just built the temple which he said in verse 13, “I built you a lofty house, a place for your dwelling forever.”

Verse 27, he says heavens can’t contain you and as they come and pray at this place of worship, he acknowledges, here in heaven your dwelling place, verse 30. Then verse 32, “Then here in heaven.” Verse 36, “Then here in heaven.” Verse 39, “Then you’re in heaven in your dwelling place.” Verse 43, “Here in heaven your place.” There is no paganism in this. It is not the God of the nations that were localized and contained here. This is the place where God manifest his glory and his presence among his people but the God of glory resides, it manifests his presence most fully in the heaven of heavens and Solomon acknowledges that. So you come to this place where you dwell but your ultimate dwelling is in the glory and splendor of heaven.

And so he goes on to ask for forgiveness. In verses 31 to 53, there are seven requests and I will just list them for you with the verses. Verse 31 and 32, the first request, ask for God justice in difficult cases that will come up. Here in heaven, in verse 32, act and judge your servants condemning the wicked, justifying the righteous and so on. So in the difficult that will come up in the nation because this is the people of God. Disagreements are serious and they must be resolved in a manner consistent with God’s righteousness and God’s glory so they will need God to answer their prayers and give them the wisdom and direction necessary.

The second request, restoration from defeat in verses 33 and 34, “When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you no man is not under any misconceptions that it is only going to be glory and obedience from here on.” Israel will disobey, and as a result of disobedience God will bring justice and they will be defeated by their enemies. But he asked then that God would graciously restore them from their defeat.

Verse 34, “Here in heaven forgive the sin of your people, bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers.” You see the reality in this that his desire is that there would be an unbroken line as God had promised if they are obedient, but he also knows the real probability that they wouldn’t be in so there will be breaks and Israel will be removed from the land but forgive them and bring them back.

Verse 35 and 36, part of God’s judgment would be famine, droughts. So he asked for God to respond to prayer. In verse 35, “The heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, then they come and pray.” Verse 36, “Hear respond send the rain.” The fourth in verses 37 to 40, deliverance from disasters, famine in the land, pestilence, locust plagues, whatever enemy besieges them, whatever sickness when they pray and come before you in prayer here in heaven your dwelling place.

Forgive and act, you know the hearts of men. Solomon has no conception to God whatever totally discard his people because remember he is praying on the basis of God’s word, God’s covenant promises. God’s covenant promises include discipline for sin but never ultimate rejection. So see the balanced theology in Solomon as he comes before the Lord and his burden of his heart and the desire of his heart is that the covenant and promises to his father David could be fulfilled without the punishments because Israel would be faithful. So they would never lack a man to sit on the throne. But in reality in his heart he knows the people. He is the wisest man who has ever lived. He knows the law of God that has been given and he also comes to ask God’s gracious forgiveness for the people of Israel when they come seeking forgiveness from their God.

Verses 41 to 43 are responding to prayers of foreigners, those who are not Jews but come to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel because in verse 42, “They will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm and they will know that God resides in the nation.” So he anticipates there will become time when gentiles will come to worship God, and so he asked that their prayers be heard as they come and acknowledged the God of Israel. The sixth request is that God would hear their prayers in the battles. Verse 44, when your people go out and battle against their enemy and they come and pray before you; verse 45, then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication. This emphasis on heaven continues in verse 45, verse 49, same thing. The last request, the seventh, is restoration from captivity.

In verses 46 to 51, “When they sin against you for there is no man who does not sin” and he would write in The Book of Ecclesiastes, “There is not a just man upon the earth who does good and does not sin.” I believe that’s Ecclesiastes 7:20. And you are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy so that they take them captive to the land of the enemy far or near. If they take side in the land where they have been taken captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of those who have taken them captive saying we have sinned and committed an iniquity and have acted wickedly; then if they return to you with all their heart, with all their soul in the land of their enemy who have taken them captive, I pray to you then hear their prayer, their supplication in heaven, maintain their cause, forgive your people who have sinned. We want to go back here but we won’t take time. You could just circle all the time he refers; Solomon refers to Israel as your people. So, again just burns they bring before the Lord are on the basis of what the Lord has said. These aren’t just prayers in request to come out of the blue. They founded in the promises of God. But he comes and asks God and beseeches God for his graciousness in responding to his people.

Verse 51, “For they are your people and your inheritance which you have brought forth from Egypt from the midst of the iron furnace that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant to the supplication of your people Israel for you have separated them from all the people of the earth as your inheritance as you spoke through Moses your servant.” When you brought our fathers forth from Egypt O Lord God, I mean I am coming before you and we don’t deserve it. We are not here because we are of that I am asking you on the basis of your promises to Moses, on your promises to my father David that you would indeed do this. And God did, he has in Israel’s history. If you read the Prophets and you will find God responding graciously to Israel when you say I wouldn’t have given them another chance. Isn’t it amazing now we find Israel in a time of judgment and it will take the judgment of the tribulation to bring Israel to their knees? We will get into a little bit of that when we talk about the millennium.

Isn’t it amazing what we through in our sin? Why it will take the judgments of the tribulation? Israel, read First Kings 8, turn and call but they won’t do it. But they will someday because God’s promises hold true ultimately which Solomon would love that they would be spared. Imagine he could not have known that Israel what 500 years BC they go into the Babylonian captivity. 2,500 years have gone by without a king. What about Herod but Herod wasn’t even a Jew? So nobody legitimately on the throne of David and Israel, he will be stubborn 2,500 years of holding out. That’s stubbornness but God wins in the end. His promises have to be accomplished. So Solomon concludes his prayer, gives a benediction. We don’t need to through it; you can read through it, now I am not saying it is not important but 66 verses in this Chapter we just highlight these things. He finished his prayer in verse 54. He arose from praying. He stood and blessed the assembly.

Verse 56, “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised, not one word is failed of all his good promise which he promised to Moses his servant. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us that he may incline our hearts to himself, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinance which he commanded our fathers that these words of mine with which I have made supplication before the Lord be near to the Lord our God day and night that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel as each day requires so that all the peoples of the earth may know the Lord is God; there is no one else. Let your heart therefore be holy, devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, to keep his commandments as it is this day.”

Then you have the record of the sacrifices that go on. Verse 23, 22,000 oxen, 120,000 sheep; that is you know in addition to what they were offering as they brought the Ark over that they didn’t even bother counting as there is so many going on. This is tremendous; in fact the seven-day feast is expanded to 14 days we are told in this closing down verse 65. He sent the people home, the baulk of the people after eight days and the leaders in that would have continued here but then the baulk of the people are sent home.

So the temple now is functioning, a permanent center of worship. Remarkable chapter, remarkable prayer, reminder of God’s faithfulness; it is easy to look at Israel and say my just I can’t understand such foolishness. I often say sin makes you stupid but there Solomon is praying and when the people come back Lord hear their prayer and honor your word as you promised you would. Israel will soon, very soon turn and be unwilling to do this and experienced the devastating, withering judgment of the Lord. Here they have God residing in their midst and you are aware of the transition, God manifested his presence in Israel in the temple at the Ark of the covenant over the Mercy Seat, where does he do it today?

Well, we study First Corinthians Chapter 6, “What do you not know your bodies are temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within you; you are not your own, you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.” Now you expected Israel to glorify their Lord by their obedience because he resided in the temple at Jerusalem in the midst of the nation, how much more would you expect obedience from the people who have the living God not dwelling in a church building, not dwelling at a physical site in the body of each individual believer? I mean I would study Israel and I said I can’t believe that they wouldn’t turn to the Lord and be obedient to him.

And here they have God residing in the midst of the nation; here I have God residing in the midst of my body personally. And he wonders he says therefore glorify God in your body. He easily will become careless you know. Israel just didn’t wake up one morning and decide not to obey the Lord. They just become careless, indifferent. And the wonder of it soon becomes common place, and they become careless and pretty soon what becomes acceptable to them is what is not acceptable to God because he requires holiness, complete obedience, same requirements he told Israel you shall be holy for I am holy. What did Peter write; you shall be holy for I am holy. But we have a much greater privilege, we don’t have to go to a tabernacle or a temple marvelous as that would have been because here he is within me. And now I am to live to bring him glory.

Verse 61 if it applies to Israel how much more to us? Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God to walk in his statutes, to keep his commandments. At this day we don’t the Mosaic Law but what did Jesus say if you love me you will keep my commandments. So, we walk in obedience of the Lord. This is not a minor thing, and we have much greater privilege, much greater honor has been bestowed upon us and so much greater accountability of all people. We ought to be manifestations of the glory of our God, his holiness, his righteousness and the wonder of his character.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for the account of your grace at work in the nation Israel. How important that they never forget that you brought them out of Egypt. You were with them to make them your people that you might be their God that they would be your special possession. Thank you Lord for this time of blessing, this time of spiritual commitment evidenced in their leader Solomon, the devotion of the people how sad that it waned and grew coo and they drifted and wandered and left you their God.

Lord, we are aware of how easily we drift, we become complacent. The wonder of the glory of the splendor of your presence within the body of each individual believer becomes commonplace. We take it for granted. We become careless about holiness. We become indifferent about passionate devotion to you and we wander and go astray. Lord, may we take the truth of your word to heart and count it our greatest honor that we should be the people of the living God and that we should be the temple of that God, place for his glory is to be seen and manifest where holiness is required, obedience is a privilege. May that be true of us in our walk with you in the days or the week before us, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.