TUESDAY
When the temple was completed after 7 years of construction Solomon held a ceremony to dedicate it. This was quite the party as it lasted two weeks (1 Chron. 7:8-10). The first week was the Feast of Tabernacles, then they celebrated an extra week after that for the dedication of the temple.
2 Chronicles 6:12–15 (NIV)
12 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 13 Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the center of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. 14 He said:
“Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. 15 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.
2 Chronicles 6:18–21 (NIV)
18 “But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 19 Yet, Lord my God, give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. 20 May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 21 Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.
Here Solomon is wrestling with the theme we’ve been talking about in this campaign as well. The temple only represented God’s dwelling place. It didn’t matter if this place was bigger, contained more gold, and more sacred objects, it could never contain God. It was God’s chosen place to represent sacred space, but God’s presence cannot be contained to a building. As Solomon says here, “The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain [God].”
What happens after the dedication ceremony further emphasizes this point.
2 Chronicles 7:1–3 (NIV)
7 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “He is good; his love endures forever.”
I’m sure the temple was magnificent, but it didn’t compare to fire falling from heaven. Although the temple represented God’s presence, it was not God himself. Fire falling from heaven to consume the sacrifice would remind the people that Yahweh is the living, true God. He is the all-powerful One. The temple should aid his people in worship of him, but it is not to be worshipped itself.
The people of Israel will repeatedly make this mistake in the generations to come after Solomon. We will talk about this the rest of the week.
The body of Solomon’s prayer lists seven situations (likely not a mistake that there are 7): 1. administration of justice (vv. 22-23), 2. defeat in war (vv. 24-25), drought (vv. 26-27), lack of food (vv. 28-31), foreigners seeking God (vv. 32-33), just war (vv. 34-35), and sin leading to exile (vv. 36-39). Many of the prayers deal with the punishment God has promised to bring upon the people if they violate the terms of the covenant. He is calling the people to repent when they have sinned. The temple served as the place where atonement was to be made for sin.
The temple then serves as the place for God to hear his people. The temple is to be a place of justice, forgiveness, and witness.
Justice
Solomon prays for God to condemn the guilty and vindicate the righteous. The temple served as the place of administering justice in complex civil affairs. Deuteronomy 17:8-13 instructs the people to bring complex cases that couldn’t be decided by elders at the city gates to bring their cases to the priests who would later be in the temple. Of course cases were often brought to the kings to decide as well. In the post-exilic period the Sanhedrin, as the ruling class, would meet in the inner court of the temple.
Forgiveness
The terms of the covenant stipulate that God will provide for his people and protect his people as long as they obey his law. When they fail, which they will often, they are to seek the forgiveness of God at the temple. So when they face famine, drought, loss in battle, and exile, they are to seek God’s forgiveness at the temple.
Witness
Solomon prays that God would hear when foreigners come from distant places to inquire of the Lord at the temple. The reason is so that “all the people of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.” (2 Chron. 6:33) The temple was to serve as a witness to the one true God.
Additional Content
Reflection
These themes echo through the ages to us today: justice, forgiveness, and witness. As the people of God, who dwell in the presence of God, we should be seeking God for these as well.
Justice (don’t just think following our civil laws, think following God’s laws in what is truly right and good): Do we seek God for justice in all areas of our society—justice for the unborn, justice for the immigrant and the foreigner, justice for the fatherless and the widow?
Forgiveness: Do we repent when we sin and find the complete forgiveness in Christ for our personal sins? Do we repent from our corporate sins as the church? (I know this might stir up a hornets nest in you but there is biblical precedent for this. See Daniel 9)
Witness: Do we model to the world the fullness of life in following Jesus? Do we show the world that love, joy, peace, and hope are to be found in the presence of God? Do we readily share with others the beautiful gospel that reveals our path to salvation?