8:1-4 Solomon arranges for the ark of the covenant to be brought into the temple by the elders of Israel and heads of each tribe. The ark of the covenant has symbolized God's constant presence with His children. In celebration, Solomon and the elders place the ark in the newly built and furnished temple. It is an extraordinary moment because it becomes starkly apparent that the tribes are no longer a fragmented, weak and nomadic nation. Once they had claim to nothing, not even themselves, and now they prosper because God makes and keeps promises.
8:5 Solomon and all of Israel offer sacrifices to God. Although this practice is antiquated, Isaiah 1:11, it was once a way for people to show their gratitude for God in a physical state. They offered their best in trust that God would replace what they were brave enough to give away.
8:6-9 The ark is placed inside of the temple; inside of the ark are the two stone tablets Moses placed. The tablets are a reminder that there is a philosophy of life by which to live by, guidelines God has given us to live righteous lifestyles. The ceremony and the wealth do not negate what is written on the stone. The children of Israel have found prosperity because they have walked the path of righteousness. The law of God is the specific blueprint which has led them to where they are now.
8:10-11 In Exodus 13:21, God represented His presence as a cloud over the tribes of Israel. This cloud now fills the temple. The temple is so consumed by the cloud that the priests stop ministering. God's sense of humor makes a serious point: do not be so distracted by beautiful surroundings and eloquent words that you forget the purpose. The cloud which traveled over us in the beginning, travels over this generation too. God is not confined to a temple; He is not limited by any border. His presence makes a place holy and therefore His cloud blesses this temple.
8:12-13 Solomon identifies the cloud as God's presence, declares this exalted house to God and invites Him to dwell forever with them. And surely God's presence in our lives comes through invitation. He is the mastermind of our world, planet and universe but His presence in our soul comes from invitation. He does not force Himself upon us. Solomon constructs a physical place for God as a symbol for God to make a permanent spiritual place among him. Create a place within yourself for God to dwell.
8:14 Solomon now addresses the people by first blessing them. Solomon's love for the people is genuine: when he had an opportunity to make a selfish request, he chose selflessly instead. His wish is to lead with wisdom and discernment because he takes his responsibility to protect them seriously.
8:15-16 Solomon expresses gratitude for God who has kept his promises throughout generations. God has been present since (and before) slavery in Egypt. Generation after generation, he continued to place the pieces which would lead to this moment. He placed prophets like Moses and Samuel, leaders and brave men like David for the tribes to make strides toward their freedom.
8:17-18 David wanted to built this temple for God but God decided it would be Solomon who would build it. God appreciated David's desire to build the temple but God sticks to His perfect timing. David was kept busy repairing and establishing the tribes so that they could actually have this moment.
8:19-21 Solomon highlights the fact that God has been true to His word and consistent in His presence and ability. His word is fulfilled: Solomon sits on the throne, has built the temple and has rescued this people from the slavery and the wilderness. Never forget that Egypt is symbolic of our own slavery and journey through the wilderness. Whoever or whatever our master is, God promises a way to freedom. God is present and consistently faithful with us, if we are present and consistently faithful with him, we too will see His promises fulfilled in our lives.
8:15-16 Solomon expresses gratitude for God who has kept his promises throughout generations. God has been present since (and before) slavery in Egypt. Generation after generation, he continued to place the pieces which would lead to this moment. He placed prophets like Moses and Samuel, leaders and brave men like David for the tribes to make strides toward their freedom.
8:17-18 David wanted to built this temple for God but God decided it would be Solomon who would build it. God appreciated David's desire to build the temple but God sticks to His perfect timing. David was kept busy repairing and establishing the tribes so that they could actually have this moment.
8:19-21 Solomon highlights the fact that God has been true to His word and consistent in His presence and ability. His word is fulfilled: Solomon sits on the throne, has built the temple and has rescued this people from the slavery and the wilderness. Never forget that Egypt is symbolic of our own slavery and journey through the wilderness. Whoever or whatever our master is, God promises a way to freedom. God is present and consistently faithful with us, if we are present and consistently faithful with him, we too will see His promises fulfilled in our lives.
8:22-23 Let's unpack this beautiful message Solomon speaks to God: "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."
No God like You: There is no other God, no other entity who is like our spiritual Father. No person, thing or force has His capacity for love and wisdom, patience and power. Nothing chooses selflessness so consistently as He does.
Keep Your Covenant and Mercy: Though we break our commitment with Him, He never breaks His with us. His promises come into fruition. Magnanimously, He allows us to start and restart as many times as we need to finally see the way and the truth. He allows us to continue to repent and reclaim our blessings, even when our behavior should disqualify us.
Walk Before You With All Their Hearts: We are told so many times throughout the Bible that are entire heart is required in faith. Authenticity and sincerity are the transparency we need in order for blessings to come into our lives. We must genuinely seek the nature of God in order to understand it. Putting in the effort is the training we need to handle the reward. We request great wisdom and blessings from God, the journey of faith builds within us the capacity to receive and maintain those things.
8:24-26 God promised David that his son with reign as king and that if the king ruled righteously, He would remain with them. Solomon now requests the continued fulfillment of that promise. He endeavors to be a righteous king and a faithful servant of God. Like his father, Solomon sees his position as king as a blessed responsibility, a service to God. And no matter our position in life, we have the opportunity to serve God with a blessed purpose. The friend, the mother, the sibling, the granddaughter, father, child, spouse who has been given an opportunity to serve God from their position on earth.
We may not be kings or queens over nations but we have an impact in our relationships, homes and communities. Who we chose to be matters. God is willing and able to help prepare us for our roles. To establish us and equip us to rise in them. Our perspective must change: we must see as our lives as opportunities to serve Him. Blessing after blessing bloom into our lives when we choose to serve righteousness. Because blessing is the nature of God's instruction... if we're willing to keep learning, He's willing to keep instructing.
8:27 Solomon knows and acknowledges that God cannot be contained. All of these people are gathered to celebrate the completion of the temple. Solomon is quick to remind everyone to celebrate God; who is so absolute that He makes this magnificent temple seem like a useless pile of stones. To Solomon, this temple is a construction of physical gratitude and love for God. But the temple does not match God; it cannot contain Him nor can it even contain all that God has done for the tribes and each individual committed to Him.
8:28 But Solomon asks God to receive his humble offering. He asks God to continue to listen to his prayers and his cries.
8:29-30 If nothing else, Solomon hopes this temple will serve as a beacon proclaiming God's children's plea for Him to be receptive to their prayers: "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."
8:31-32 Solomon asks God to discipline His people. Solomon does not deny our fallible nature. He confronts it and asks God to deal with it as He seeks fit, teaching us to be better and kinder.
8:33-34 Solomon also knows that people have, do and will, fall away from God and neglect His word and will. Solomon asks for God's forgiveness. He asks God to reel us back in when we stray too far. This is a humble and prudent request, essentially Solomon says something we should all say to God: I will make mistakes, please love me through them. Please do not let me run too far from You.
8:35-36 Solomon asks God to discipline in a manner which teaches us to come back to Him. Only God has the capacity to be as generous as this request requires. Hold the rains, Solomon asks God, so that we can experience the wilderness again. The difference between the deserve and the living water of God will quickly and thoroughly reroute us back to a righteous path.
8:37-40 Like Solomon, welcome God into your heart. He is able to analyze it and make the corrections which transform a whole life. He is able to coax the darkness out. He is able to heal the raw and tender. Solomon asks God to embrace the children who acknowledge their failure or ugliness and stretch their hands out to Him in effort to be better. Kinder. Literally or figurative, God is able to clear the pestilence that maybe we allowed in... but have since decided is unwelcome.
8:41-43 The prosperity and reputation of the tribes of Israel and their God draws other people to them. It is Solomon's hope that those people will experience the love and truth of the God they have heard about and will be welcomed into His arms. Everything Solomon continues to ask God are already guarantees made by God. Solomon asks God to accept people outside of the tribes of Israel. God already claims and loves each individual. Regardless of our origin here on earth, He knows we all first came from Him.
Notice that Solomon and the tribes of Israel do not wish to hide or horde their blessings. They understand that God's provision is given in abundance and is without limits. How can that be? Love is a limitless resource. It cannot be contained or quantified. The heart, soul and spirit continue to make space for love. No matter how many people are in our lives, we have the infinite capacity to love them all and deeply. This is how God loves His children: whoever walks into the house is given a room and His whole heart.
8:44-45 God knows who our enemies are better than we do. That is why, when we fight against injustice, we can count on God's support. He has already sized up the enemy and drawn a plan of their inevitable defeat. Solomon asks God to protect and support His righteous children who go out against evil.
8:46-53 Solomon is wise enough to anticipate that all of God's children will have moments of weakness and corruption. He makes this beautiful plea on our behalf for God to discipline us, draw us back to Him, and love us into forgiveness in the way that only He can:
“When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness’; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them (for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace), that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by Your servant Moses, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.”
Such a crucial component of faith is an individual's ability to acknowledge their own fallibility. We grow only when we realize we are inadequate in some way. When we acknowledge our weakness, God makes us strong. When we admit our ignorance, God teaches to be wise. Solomon does not make the mistake of believing that he or the people are perfect. He knows that their prosperity has been given by God because of their ability to grow in spite of their imperfection.
8:54-57 Solomon stands up after making these prayers on his knees. He began his address to the assembly with gratitude to God and he finishes the same way. He thanks God for the rest the tribes now have. He acknowledges the journey of faith over several generations in order to get to this place. He thanks God for the fulfillment of His promises: because God does not have to be faithful and generous with us, He chooses to be.
8:58 "...that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statues and His judgements which He commanded our fathers." Solomon's prayer is that when temptation tries to lure us away (the temptation that is greed, and evil in all of its forms) may God redirect us straightforward back to Him.
8:59-60 It is Solomon's hope that we will be as stalwart with God as He is with us. God is intimately present in every moment; may we all realize the manifestation of His presence in our lives, day and night. Solomon's hope is that we will always realize that our God cannot be compared to. That we will choose Him because of His un-matachable nature, every time there is a choice to be made. That we will realize nothing can or will sustain us the way that He nourishes our souls.
8:58 "...that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statues and His judgements which He commanded our fathers." Solomon's prayer is that when temptation tries to lure us away (the temptation that is greed, and evil in all of its forms) may God redirect us straightforward back to Him.
8:59-60 It is Solomon's hope that we will be as stalwart with God as He is with us. God is intimately present in every moment; may we all realize the manifestation of His presence in our lives, day and night. Solomon's hope is that we will always realize that our God cannot be compared to. That we will choose Him because of His un-matachable nature, every time there is a choice to be made. That we will realize nothing can or will sustain us the way that He nourishes our souls.
8:62-64 After Solomon's address, he and the people make sacrifices to God. Sacrifice looks different in our time and generation: the selfless gifts we give God are the selfless actions we make on behalf of others. When we donate our resources, and not just the monetary ones. Our time and friendship is valuable. An honorable sacrifice to God that we give out of cheerful willingness but also out of love and service to Him.
8:65-66 The people feast and celebrate for seven days, twice. They return home with contented and faithful hearts. Gratitude for God and acknowledge of all that He has orchestrated and brought into fruition.
8:65-66 The people feast and celebrate for seven days, twice. They return home with contented and faithful hearts. Gratitude for God and acknowledge of all that He has orchestrated and brought into fruition.
