>> Jen: Well, hello and good morning, friends and faithful listeners. Today we're going to be reading first kings, chapter eight. So grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and stay tuned. I have a lot to read today. I'm going to be reading one kings, 814 66. So there's a lot to read. And this is all Solomon dedicating the temple to God and praying these prayers to God as well and blessing the people. So there's a lot to talk about. Let's go
ahead and read this. I'll be reading from the web this morning. The king turned his face around and blessed all the assembly of Israel. And all the assembly of Israel stood.
He said, blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and who has with his hand fulfilled it, saying, since the day that I brought my people, Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all of the tribes of Israel 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 David my father, to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the
God of Israel. But Yahweh said to David, my father, whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name. Yahweh has established his word that he for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of
Israel. There I have set a place for the ark, in which is Yahwehs covenant, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. Solomon stood before Yahwehs altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and
spread out his hands toward heaven. And he said, Yahweh, the god of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart, who has kept with your servant David my father, that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth and have fulfilled it with your
hand as it is today. Now therefore, may Yahweh, the god of Israel, keep with your servant David my father, that which you have promised him, saying, there shall not fail from you a man in my sight, to sit on the throne of Israel. If only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me. Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David, my father. But will god in very deed dwell on earth?
Behold heaven, and the heaven of heavens can't contain you. How much less than this house that I have built. Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant and for his supplication. Yahweh, my God to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today, that your eyes may be opened toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said my name shall be there to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place.
Listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, here in heaven, your dwelling
place. And when you hear, forgive if a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, Izez and he comes and swears before your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness.
When your people Israel, are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and if they pray towards this place and confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them, then here in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel, when you teach him the good way in which they should walk and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance, if there is famine in the land, if there
is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar, if the enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart and spread out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and forgive and act and give to every man according to all of his ways, whose heart you know for you, even only you
know the hearts of all the children of men, that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers. Moreover, concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name's sake, for they shall hear of your great name and of your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm when he comes and prays towards this house here in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you.
For that all the people of the earth may know your name to fear you, as do your people Israel, that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.
If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name, then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause if they sin against you, for there is no man who doesnt sin, and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or
near. Yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again and make supplication to you in the land of those who carry them captive, saying, we have sinned, and we have done perversely, which we have dealt
wickedly. If they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen and the house which you have built for your name, then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your
dwelling place, and maintain their cause. And forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you, and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them, for they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt from the middle of the iron furnace, that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of
your people, Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you, for you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance as you spoke by Moses, your servant. When you brought our fathers out of Egypt, LORD Yahweh, it was so that when Solomon finished praying all this prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before Yahwehs
altar. From kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven, he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people, Israel, according to all he promised. There has not failed one word of all of his good promise, which he promised by Moses, his servant. May Yahweh, our god, be with us as he was with our
fathers. Let him not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts toward him to walk in all of his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances which he commanded our fathers. Let these my words, which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our god, day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people, Israel, as every day requires that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh himself is
God. There is no one else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh, your god, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments as it is today. The king and all of Israel with him sacrificed offerings before Yahweh. Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to Yahweh, 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated Yahwehs house. The same day the king made the middle of the court holy. That was before
Yahwehs House. For there he offered the burnt offering and the meal offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was too little to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering and the fat of the peace offerings. So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all of Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God. Seven days and seven more days, even 14
days. On the 8th day, he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents, joyful and glad in their hearts for all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people. To start out, the temple has been built. It's already been built for eleven months, and Solomon is
just now beginning to dedicate it to God. And it's possible that Solomon decided to dedicate it to god eleven months later, because it was during the feast of booths, when a lot of people would already be in the city and would already be joyful and would already be in, like, preparation for a feast. And on top of that, it does say at the very end here that Solomon sent the people away and they all went back to their own
tents. It does not say their own houses, which is interesting, because during the feast of booths, people would actually erect tents for themselves to stay in, because the whole point of the feast of booths was to remember how god
protected the Israelites in the wilderness. And God actually commanded everybody, all the Israelites and even foreigners, to live in little structures that they build for themselves, either tents or, like, little shacks that they build for the week and they were supposed to enjoy. And remember how when they were in tents in the wilderness, God sustained them and protected them throughout all of that. You might even say that the feast of booths is intense.
I had to throw that one in there. So it was a big, joyous occasion, the feast of booths. And it sounds like it was going on when Solomon was holding this dedication to the temple, because he sends the people back home to their own tents, not to their own homes, which is interesting. And actually another interesting thing is that the feast of booths is happening right now. So if you look on your calendar, it might say, uh, Sukkot. Sukkot is just
the feast of booths. So right now, jewish people all over the world are celebrating Sukkot, and it's kind of cool that we're talking about it today in some detail. We're almost like, celebrating the anniversary, I suppose, of Solomon dedicating this temple to god. So, thousands of years ago, most likely on this same week, uh, King Solomon dedicates the temple to God. But first he blesses the people Israel. It says that the king turned his face around and
blessed all the assembly of Israel. And all the assembly of Israel stood to hear this blessing. He said, blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David, your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying, since the day that I brought my people, Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city, out of all of the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there, but I chose
David to be over my people Israel. Now, we know that when God had spoken to Moses in the wilderness and to all of the Israelites in the wilderness, he had told them that once they get to the promised land, which was Israel, that he would choose a location for his tabernacle. But God never really did choose that location that we know of. The tabernacle kind of just wandered all over the place, and God never specifically chose a location.
But now Solomon is claiming that god has finally chosen a location, Jerusalem, which is where the temple, this brand new temple, is located. Solomon continues in verse 17. Now, it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel. But Yahweh said to David, my father, whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.
Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son, who shall come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name. And Solomon claims to be that son. In verse 20, he says, Yahweh has established this word that he spoke. For I have risen up in the place of David, my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the god of
Israel. Therefore, I have set a place for the ark, in which is Yahweh's covenant, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. So Solomon claims to be the son who God said was going to build the house for his name. And you know what? Until today,
I actually believed that this was the case. I believed that God was talking about Solomon, that David was not supposed to build the temple because Solomon was supposed to build it, because David was a man of war and god wanted Solomon to build it, even though God never asked for a temple. And there's some question if God even wanted a temple. But god was basically like, you know what? If you're going to build me a temple, do it the right way.
And here's how I want it to be done. I want Solomon to build it because he's a man of peace. He can focus on it more intently, and, uh, he can just do it better, honestly, than you can, David. That is actually what I believed. And I recently talked to you guys about that only a few, uh, episodes ago. But now that I'm reading it, I don't think god was talking
about Solomon at all in this verse. And I think David misinterpreted and misunderstood what god was saying, and Solomon did as well, because I think god was actually talking about Jesus, that Jesus was going to be the one to build a house for the name of God. which is why from the very beginning, god had told David not to build the temple to begin with, that Jesus someday was going to build it, and he was going to build it so much better than anybody ever could, that any human
hands could ever build. But David misunderstood the words of god, as did pretty much everybody. Solomon also misunderstood the words of God because Solomon says, you know, God has now established the words that he said to David, my father. He told David, no, David, you are not going to build the temple instead. Your son, who comes out of your own body is going to build a house for my name. Obviously, Solomon would think that was him, because Solomon was truly
David's son. But Jesus was also of David. David was Jesus's ancestor. So you can see how it actually makes sense that god the father was talking about Jesus here and not Solomon. But everybody misunderstood. And David was so dead set on making this temple to god that he actually kind of got obsessed with it. He gathered all of the, the building materials for it. He even, like, made floor plans for it. And, uh, there's a psalm, I think it's psalm 138, I think.
Don't quote me on that. There's a psalm that actually says that David was actually thinking about building the temple so much that it was keeping him awake at night. That is how obsessed he was at making this temple to god. And David's heart was probably in the right place. David saw that the ark of the covenant was inside of a tent, and David was living in a palace. And he was like, who am I to live in a palace when God's ark of the covenant lives inside of
a tent? And I think god saw David's heart behind the whole thing and saw that David was, uh, his intentions were good in building the temple, but it is kind of clear from the very beginning that first and foremost, god never asked for a temple. And also God told David he didn't really want the temple. But David misunderstood God's words. When god said, yes, eventually a house for my name will be
made, and one of your sons will do it. David misunderstood that and thought that it was Solomon who was supposed to build the temple. But now that I'm reading this and studying it a little bit more, I don't think God was talking about Solomon at all. I'd love to hear your opinion on this, though, but Solomon clearly thinks that he is the one who was supposed to build the temple. And obviously he did. And God's spirit did come down and dwell in this temple that Solomon made, because god
understands the human condition. He understands that we don't understand things, and he also understands that, uh, we try. And so God did come down and in his kindness, stay in the temple, even though it probably was not something god really wanted all that much. But anyway, going on with the dedication to the temple, Solomon stands before Yahweh's altar in the presence of the assembly of Israel, and he spreads out his hands toward
heaven. And this is really, honestly the posture that we should be taking when we worship God. There are verses that talk about that. And it was funny, I was raised in a baptist denomination where, like, people would look at you funny if you raised your hands in church or anything like that. You had to stay still, like, uh, a stick. And so to this day, I still feel uncomfortable raising my hands in church sometimes because of how I was raised in the baptist church, and that was not looked
upon favorably. But it's interesting because scripture actually does tell us to raise our hands to god when we are worshipping. In fact, there's a verse in the New Testament that directly commands it from the men in church. It says that when the men, uh, pray or worship in church, they are supposed to be spreading their hands, their holy hands to heaven, is what it says. So, yes, we are supposed to maintain the posture of spreading our hands to heaven when we are worshiping or praying.
And Solomon understood this, and this is what he is doing. And he's also kneeling, it says, later on. But anyway, he gives this long prayer to god. First he starts out by praising God's name. He says, God, there is nobody like you. There is nobody in heaven above or on earth beneath who is as kind as you are. He says, you have kept all of your promises, and so now, god, keep the promise
that you made with your servant David. And he says, the promise you made is that there shall not fail from you, David, a man in my sight, to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way to walk before me as you have walked before me. And that was a promise that god made to David, that if David and his children maintained worship of him and followed all of his commandments, that, yes, god would continually establish the throne of David
forever. And god actually did do that. Even though David's children all abandoned god, God still actually fulfilled his promise there and blessed David's entire, uh, lineage through Jesus, who is going to reign forever when he comes back. So God did fulfill that promise, and Solomon's reminding god of this promise. But then in verses 26 through 30, Solomon, it's kind of interesting here he mentions that the temple to god cannot contain him. So he goes back to
glorifying and worshiping God once again. He says, god, even the heavens above cannot contain your glorious presence, and the earth can't contain it. So what is this house that I have just made for you that can't contain your presence? It cannot. But this is really weird because in verse 13, earlier on in this chapter, we talked about this last week, Solomon kind of gave this weird little
poem to God. And, uh, he says in verse 13, I have surely built you, god, a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever. So I'm not really sure what that's about, because Solomon flip flops on that several times. And maybe it was a source of pride for Solomon that he built this temple, something his dad really wanted. And he's like, God, look, this is your house of habitation. Look what it is. It's so cool. Look at it.
But then he comes to his senses when he's, like, praying and worshiping and he's like, God, you're so big, you couldn't possibly fill this house. But then later on in this prayer, he calls it a house of god once again. So he kind of like, flip flops back and forth between like, yes, god, this is your house. To know God you can't possibly dwell in this house to, yes, god, this is your
house. And I would just imagine that this is Solomon's excitement and maybe pride over this accomplishment that he did, because really, this was a major accomplishment for Solomon because he was fulfilling what his dad really wanted. That all came to fruition under Solomon. On top of that, this temple was gorgeous. It was a beautiful temple by any human standard. And so it was a spectacle to be beholden. And, uh, I'm sure Solomon felt some pride with that and wanted god to appreciate it
as much as Solomon appreciated it. And so maybe that's why Solomon flip flops back and forth, because he's going from pride of his accomplishment to understanding the nature of god back to a pride of his accomplishment, which is just the human condition. So then he continues on, after praising god once again by saying, God this little temple that I just made couldn't possibly house you. This is nothing compared to your house.
But then he goes on to talk about various issues that Israel might encounter if they fall away from god. First, he talks about a famine and no rain because the people sinned. And he asks god, he says, but god, you know, if the people sin and you decide to send no rain or a famine on the land or sickness or anything else like that, please listen to the prayer of the people when they turn back to you and remove the sickness and the famine and the rain. And these people, they don't even have
to come to the temple. They just have to face the temple, is what Solomon says. Face the temple and pray to you, and you will hear their prayers. Then, in verses 41 through 43, Solomon actually blesses the foreigners here, which is really nice. We don't often see the kings doing this, uh, in the Old Testament, or really anybody doing this
in the Old Testament, foreigners were pretty well hated. But Solomon says, if there's a foreigner that's coming to Israel because your name has become so great and they want to come and immigrate here because they want to start worshiping you, or they just want to come and worship at the temple, then hear their prayers as well. Anybody from around the world that worships your name hear their prayers also in verses 44
through 53. Then Solomon talks about if the people sin so much that they become, uh, captives to other nations. Solomon then asks god to hear the prayers of those people when they eventually come to their senses and start worshiping god once again. So say, several years down the line after Solomon has died, a, uh, uh, foreign enemy comes in because the people have sinned terribly against god, and they are led away as captives to
this foreign land. Solomon says, when they are in this foreign land and all they have to do in that foreign land, even though they can't get to the temple, all they have to do is face in the direction of the temple and pray to you, please god, hear their prayers and restore them and bring them back to
Israel. Verse 48. If they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them away captive to pray to you toward their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name.
So there's that house thing again. Then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you. And give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them, for they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt from the middle of the iron
furnace. So after all of these prayers are done, it says that Solomon rose up from the altar, and he blessed again the entire assembly of Israel and encouraged them and admonished them to continue to follow Yahweh for the rest of their lives. He says, may Yahweh, our God, be with us as with our fathers. Let him not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts toward him to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, which
he commanded our fathers. So this entire prayer was honestly a very beautiful prayer from Solomon. But you can see because I'm always very critical. You can see one problem with his prayer, the fact that he actually leaves himself out of it. He mentions all of these sins of, like, the israelite people and how, you know, the Israelites always sin, but he does not mention himself anywhere in this prayer or the kings.
And, you know, the kings were a very important part of what Israel was going to do and who Israel was going to worship and the culture that Israel was going to adopt. The kings were a big part of it. So it's kind of weird that Solomon leaves out himself and also future kings from this particular
prayer. He does not mention them. And I don't know if that shows that Solomon's heart, uh, was kind of prideful and arrogant, that he thought that he couldn't do anything wrong, or if he just forgot to mention himself and maybe prayed about himself in other areas at other times, or if his heart was already starting to turn away from god, as we're going to see in the next couple chapters or so, which is sort of unfortunate.
So I don't know. I don't know if, uh, this was intentional or not, but Solomon does not mention himself anywhere in this very long prayer that he gives. He only mentions the sins of all the people. And to top it all off, in verse 61, he says, let your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh, our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments as it is today. Quite honestly, he should have said, let our hearts therefore be perfect with Yahweh. But he left himself out.
Verse 62 through 66 is kind of just completing the whole, um, story here and the whole end of the dedication of the temple. There's a big, long feast. There's like a trillion animal sacrifices. I talked all about animal sacrifices last week. Not going to
go back into those again. But if you're interested in does God appreciate animal sacrifices, I highly recommend you listen to last week's episode about that, because god, I think, does not appreciate animal sacrifice as much as, um, some people think that he did. But anyway, this long feast lasts for 14 days, and everybody just has the time of their lives enjoying the bounty that god has
given them. It says in verse 66, on the 8th day, he sent the people away and they blessed the king and went to their tents, joyful and glad in their hearts for all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David, his servant, and to Israel, his people. Israel was extremely successful at this point in time. Solomon was the most financially successful king for Israel in all of Israel's history. So the Israelites were doing very well. They were in peace during this time. There was no enemies, and also
they were financially secure. So they had a lot to be thankful for and a lot to be happy for. Man, I did notice my episodes are getting longer and longer. But, you know, if you guys want to become members and tune in on Friday's podcast episodes, then I highly recommend that you go over to Ko Fi and become a Ko fi tier member on Ko Fi, because I have a whole separate podcast specifically for members, and that podcast takes place once a week on Fridays, and it's called the bible explained
on Fridays. Right now we are going through the book of psalms, and I'm very much enjoying doing that particular podcast. So for those of you who want to become members, check all of that out linked in the description of this episode. But faithful listeners, I really hope that you have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your week. I will see you guys tomorrow as we discuss first Corinthians chapter. What are we on tomorrow? I don't even know. first corinthians
eight. No, I guess we're in first corinthians nine tomorrow, so, yeah, tune in tomorrow, 06:00 a.m. or whenever you choose to wake up. We'll be discussing first Corinthians chapter nine, happy listening, and God bless. Mhm.