1 Kings 8:27-30 Forgiveness!

 ““But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive.” I Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭27‬-‭30‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. How much less this temple which I have built: We are glad that Solomon said this. From his statement in 1 Kings 8:12-13, we might have thought that he drifted towards a superstitious idea that God actually lived in the temple to the exclusion of other places. It was important to recognize that though God had a special presence in the temple, He was far too great to be restricted to the temple.

b. May You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place: Solomon asked God to incline His ear towards the king and the people when they prayed toward the temple. For this reason, many observant Jews still pray facing the direction of the site of the temple in Jerusalem.

c. When You hear, forgive: Solomon knew that the most important thing Israel needed was forgiveness. This was the greatest answer to prayer Israel could expect from God. (Guzik)

Forgiveness!

We all need forgiveness of sin on a daily basis. 

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

‭‭I John‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Jesus said,

““Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”” Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭10‬-‭11‬, ‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

This bears repeating, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

When we approach God in this manner He is more inclined to forgive us.

Do you believe that?

1 Kings 8:24-26 God’s Promises!

 “You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have walked before Me.’ And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father.” I Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭24‬-‭26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. You have kept what You promised: Solomon first thanked and praised God for His past fulfillment of promises.

b. Now keep what You promised Your servant David: Solomon called upon God to keep the promises that He made. This is the great secret to power in prayer – to take God’s promises to heart in faith, and then to boldly and reverently call upon Him to fulfill the promises.

i. “God sent the promise on purpose to be used. If I see a Bank of England note, it is a promise for a certain amount of money, and I take it and use it. But oh I my friend, do try and use God’s promises; nothing pleases God better than to see his promises put in circulation; he loves to see his children bring them up to him, and say, ‘LORD, do as thou hast said.’ And let me tell you that it glorifies God to use his promises.” (Spurgeon)

ii. This kind of prayer lays hold of God’s promise. Just because God promises does not mean that we possess. Through believing prayer like this, God promises and we appropriate. If we don’t appropriate in faith, God’s promise is left unclaimed. (Guzik)

God’s Promises!

“For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” II Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The Bible is full of God’s promises and I claim that He has given me the Spirit in my heart, sealed me with the guarantee of everlasting life!

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” ‭‭

John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬

Do you claim those promises?

Blessings 

1 Kings 8:22-23 God in Heaven!

 ”Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.“ I Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Stood before the altar of the LORD: Solomon did not dedicate the temple from within the temple. It would be inappropriate for him to do so, because he was a king and not a priest. The Holy Place and Most Holy Place were only for chosen descendants of the High Priest.

b. And spread out his hands toward heaven: This was the most common posture of prayer in the Old Testament. Many modern people close their eyes, bow their head, and fold their hands as they pray; but the Old Testament tradition was to spread out the hands toward heaven in a gesture of surrender, openness, and ready reception.

i. “It is worthy of remark concerning this prayer that it is as full and comprehensive as if it were meant to be the summary of all future prayers offered in the temple.” (Spurgeon)

ii. “One is struck, moreover, with the fact that the language is far from new, and is full of quotations from the Pentateuch, some of which are almost word for word, while the sense of the whole may be found in those memorable passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.” (Spurgeon)

c. There is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You: Solomon recognized that God was completely unique. The pretended gods of the other nations could not compare to Him in any way. (Guzik)

God in Heaven!

I’m reminded what Jesus said to Satan when He was tempted by the devil!

“Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Are you serving God in heaven?

Blessings 

1 Kings 8:14-21 500 Years Before!

 ”Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. And he said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David, and with His hand has fulfilled it, saying, ‘Since the day that I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel.’ Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel. But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body, he shall build the temple for My name.’ So the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; and I have filled the position of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised; and I have built a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And there I have made a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”“ I Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭14‬-‭21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Who spoke with His mouth to my father David, and with His hand has fulfilled it: Solomon recognized that the temple was the fulfillment of God’s plan, more than David’s or Solomon’s. David and Solomon were human instruments, but the work was God’s.

b. Out of Egypt… out of the land of Egypt: Solomon pressed the remembrance of the Exodus. Though it happened 500 years before, it was just as important and real for Israel as the day it happened. (Guzik)

500 Years Before!

During the Exodus some of the people grumbled about the hardships and wished they were still slaves! Then the majority refused to trust the Lord so they wandered for 40 years until that generation died off.

The Israelites needed to be reminded of their history of the Exodus!

I’m reminded of a saying:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Do you know your history?

Blessings 

1 Kings 8:10-13 The Cloud!

 ”And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon spoke: “The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud. I have surely built You an exalted house, And a place for You to dwell in forever.”“ ‭‭I Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭10‬-‭13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. The cloud filled the house of the LORD: This was the cloud of glory, seen often in the Old and New Testaments, sometimes called the cloud of Shekinah glory. It is hard to define the glory of God; we could call it the radiant outshining of His character and presence. Here it was manifested in a cloud.

· This is the cloud that stood by Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21-22).

· This is the cloud of glory that God spoke to Israel from (Exodus 16:10).

· This is the cloud from which God met with Moses and others (Exodus 19:9, 24:15-18, Numbers 11:25, 12:5, 16:42).

· This is the cloud that stood by the door of the Tabernacle (Exodus 33:9-10).

· This is the cloud from which God appeared to the High Priest in the Holy Place inside the veil (Leviticus 16:2).

· This is the cloud of Ezekiel’s vision, filling the temple of God with the brightness of His glory (Ezekiel 10:4).

·This is the cloud of glory that overshadowed Mary when she conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).

· This is the cloud present at the transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:34-35).

· This is the cloud of glory that received Jesus into heaven at His ascension (Acts 1:9).

· This is the cloud that will display the glory of Jesus Christ when He returns in triumph to this earth (Luke 21:27, Revelation 1:7).

i. “There is a parallel to this event in Acts 2:1-4 in which God marks the inception of the church as the temple of the Holy Spirit by making his presence known through the sound of a mighty rushing wind and by filling those present with the Holy Spirit.” (Patterson and Austel)

b. So that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud: The extreme presence of the glory of God made normal service impossible. The sense of the presence of God was so intense that the priests felt it was impossible to continue in the building.

i. We know that God is good and that God is love; why should an intense presence of goodness and love make the priests feel they could not continue? Because God is not only goodness and love, He is also holy– and the holiness of God made the priests feel that they could no longer stand in His presence.

ii. The intense sense of the presence of our holy God is not a “warm and fuzzy” feeling. Men like Peter (Luke 5:8), Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5), and John (Revelation 1:17) felt stricken in the presence of God. This was not because God forced an uncomfortable feeling upon them, but because they simply could not be comfortable sensing the difference between their sinfulness and the holiness of God.

iii. We can also think of the priests as those who ministered unto God under the Old Covenant. The New Covenant - the covenant of grace and truth (John 1:17) – offers us a better access to God.

iv. This glory remained at the temple until Israel utterly rejected God in the days of the divided monarchy. The prophet Ezekiel saw the glory depart the temple (Ezekiel 10:18).

c. I have surely built You an exalted house, and a place for You to dwell in forever: Solomon rightly sensed that the presence of the cloud meant that God dwelt in the temple in a special way. As long as this did not slip into a superstitious misunderstanding, it was good to recognize a special place to come and meet with God.

i. “Language experts say the poem is incomplete and fragmented, and that it apparently had another opening line in its original form.” (Dilday)

(Guzik)

The Cloud!

”While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”“ ‭‭

Matthew‬ ‭17‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I don’t believe I would react any different than Peter, James and John when they fell on their faces, with the presence of the cloud because of His holiness!

Would you stand of fall on your face?

Blessings 

1 Kings 8:3-9 Dwelling of God!

 ”So all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. Then they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. The poles extended so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.“

‭‭I Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭3‬-‭9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. The priests took up the ark: Solomon was careful to obey what God commanded about transporting the ark of the covenant, that it was only to be carried by priests. He would not repeat the error of his father David in 2 Samuel 6:1-8.

b. And all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle: The ark of the covenant was the most important item in the temple, but not the only item. They also brought the lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense from the tabernacle into the temple.

i. “It is generally agreed that there were now two tabernacles, one at Gibeon, and the other in the City of David, which one David had constructed as a temporary residence for the ark.” (Clarke)

c. Sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude: Solomon went far beyond custom and expectation in his effort to honor and praise God on this great day.

d. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb: At an earlier point in Israel’s history, there were three items in the ark of the covenant. Earlier, inside the ark were the golden pot that had the manna (Exodus 16:33), Aaron’s rod that budded (Numbers 17:6-11), and the tablets of the covenant (Exodus 25:16). We don’t know what happened to the golden pot of manna and Aaron’s rod, but they were not in the ark when Solomon set it in the Most Holy Place.

e. When the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt: The reminder of the deliverance from Egypt is significant, because there was a sense in which this – some 500 years after the Exodus – was the culmination of the deliverance from Egypt. Out of Egypt and into the wilderness Israel (out of necessity) lived in tents - and the dwelling of God was a tent. Now since Solomon built the temple, the structure representing the dwelling of God among Israel was a building, a place of permanence and security. (Guzik)

Dwelling of God!

”Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.“

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭BSB‬‬

These verses should give the Christian great pause!

Blessings 

1 Kings 8:1-2 Feast of the Tabernacles!

”Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David, which is Zion. Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.“ I Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel: Solomon intended this to be a spectacular opening ceremony for the temple. It was probably on the scale of the large productions in our modern Olympic Games opening ceremonies.

b. That they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD: The temple wasn’t ready to operate until the ark of the covenant was set in the Most Holy Place. The ark was the most important item in the temple.

c. Which is the seventh month: The temple was finished in the eighth month (1 Kings 6:38), but Solomon chose the seventh month for the dedication, eleven months later.

i. “Which time he chose with common respect to his people’s convenience, because now they had gathered in all their fruits, and now they were come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.” (Poole)

ii. There may have also been another reason. “It has already been observed that Solomon deferred the dedication of the temple to the following year after it was finished, because that year, according to Archbishop Usher, was a jubilee” (Clarke).

(Guzik)

Feast of Tabernacles!

Solomon waited until a jubilee year and feast of the tabernacles for the grand opening of the temple!

Jesus said during the feast of the tabernacles, 

“anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” 

(John 7:37–38).

Do you have rivers of living water 💦 flowing from within you?

Blessings 

Feast of the Tabernacles?