Deeper Commentary
1Ki 8:1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the
heads of the tribes, the princes of the families of the people of Israel, to
king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out
of the city of David, which is Zion-
Solomon imitated David's bringing up of the ark to Zion (2 Sam. 6:2) in
1 Kings 8:1,4. He lived out his father's faith and devotion, but only on
an external level. He in due course was to turn away from Yahweh to idols,
and descend into the nihilism of Ecclesiastes. "The city of
David which is Zion" refers not to Jerusalem but to David's palace or
citadel which was within Jerusalem. The ark had been as it were in David's
back yard, and was now brought probably a short distance into the temple.
David had earlier claimed that Yahweh had chosen Zion as His dwelling place.
But it seems that Solomon now readjusts that, because the ark is now brought
from that place into the temple he had built.
1Ki 8:2 All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the
feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month-
This would have been the feast of tabernacles, which began on the
15th day of the seventh month and lasted seven days (Lev. 23:34). The
building finished in the eighth month of Solomon's 11th year of reigning (1
Kings 6:37), so he waited almost a year before this ceremony of dedication.
Perhaps for some reason he wanted to combine it specifically with the feast
of tabernacles. See on :36. The irony is that the feast of
tabernacles alludes to how God dwelt in a tent / tabernacle. David had
offered to build God a house, but God's reply had been that He preferred
dwelling in a tent to any house built by human hands. Now Solomon has built
Him a house- and dedicates it on the feast of tents / tabernacles.
It has been observed: "1 Kings 8 is built around the number seven: Solomon summons the people on the seventh month (8:2), feasts last fourteen days (Heb.: seven days and seven days; 8:65), the “fathers” are mentioned seven times, Solomon calls David his “father” seven times, and Solomon enumerates seven prayer occasions".
Chronicles is more specific, that the feast of tabernacles coincided with the second week of Solomon's two week dedication feast. But the feast of tabernacles was only five days after the day of atonement. It seems Solomon was so obsessed with dedicating the temple that he omitted to celebrate the day of atonement, and this would reflect his general lack of awareness of grace and the problem of sin.
1 Kings 6:37 says that the actual building was finished in the eighth month of the eleventh year. The seventh month must have been in the year following. Indeed the LXX in :1 suggests this dedication took place at the end of the 20 years required to build the entire palace-temple complex. This delay in dedicating the temple again reflects how Solomon was unconcerned with being practically useful to God's people. The hint seems to be in 2 Chron. 7:11 that the dedication of the temple and the completion of Solomon's house was at the same time: "Thus Solomon finished the house of Yahweh, and the king’s house. He successfully completed all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of Yahweh, and in his own house". This was after twenty years. Clearly Solomon saw his temple-palace complex as one building. The fact he waited so long to dedicate the temple shows it was all mere religion from his side, he had no genuine desire for the temple to be used by his people to draw closer to God.
1Ki 8:3 All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark-
2 Chron. 5:4 says that the Levites took up the ark, whereas 1 Kings
8:3 says that the priests did. Both were true; for Levites weren't allowed
into the most holy place (Num. 4:20). So the Levites did carry it,
according to the law; but the priests carried it into the most holy place.
Here we see how an apparent discrepancy on a surface level reveals a deep
evidence of the way the records do not contradict but dovetail perfectly,
as we would expect of a Divinely inspired writing. But this is only
apparent to those who respectfully search the entire scriptures, rather
than bandying around a surface level contradiction with an eagerness which
speaks more of their own fears the Bible is inspired than of deep factual
persuasion.
1Ki 8:4 They brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the Tent of Meeting, and
all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; all these the priests and the
Levites brought up-
We note the irony- God had clearly stated He preferred to
live in a tent and not in a building. And Solomon now arranges for the
tent to be taken into the building he had made, contrary to God's wishes.
There is no further mention of the tent within the temple, so we assume
this was a purely symbolic act and the tent was destroyed. He thereby went
directly against God's statements about His preference for a tent over a
temple. The priests took these things on the final part of their journey,
into the most holy place; as the Levites were forbidden from doing so
(Num. 4:20). But the Levites took them the first part of their journey;
see on :3.
1Ki 8:5 King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled
to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle, that
could not be counted nor numbered for multitude-
He offered huge numbers of sacrifices when the ark was brought into the
temple (1 Kings 8:63), just as David had sacrificed as the ark was brought
to Zion (2 Sam. 6:13 = 1 Kings 8:5). Yet he failed to feel and know the
truth of David’s conclusion that God doesn’t essentially want sacrifice
(Ps. 40:6). David had been forced to learn that lesson through the shame
of his sin with Bathsheba- Solomon was so sure of his own righteousness
that he never was driven to see the inadequacy of animal sacrifice in
itself, and the need in the end for the direct receipt of God’s grace.
2 Chron. 7:5 gives some figures: "Solomon offered a sacrifice of
twenty-two thousand head of cattle, and a hundred and twenty thousand
sheep". 22,000 oxen are 16.5 million pounds of steak, worth about 90
million US dollars in 2024. And 12 million pounds of mutton. These figures
are roughly the entire UK consumption of meat per year in 2024. Slaying
these animals would have created a literal river of blood.
Solomon offered sacrifices “that could not be told nor numbered for
multitude”. This is evidently to be connected with the
language of the promises to Abraham about the multiplication of the seed
of Israel. It could be that Solomon thought that his generosity in giving
of his wealth was what had brought about the fulfilment of these promises-
he almost forced God to fulfil them, at least in his own mind, by his
generosity.
1Ki 8:6 The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its
place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, the most holy place, even
under the wings of the cherubim-
The priests took these things on the final part of their journey,
into the most holy place; as the Levites were forbidden from doing so
(Num. 4:20). But the Levites took them the first part of their journey;
see on :3.
1Ki 8:7 For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the
ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above-
In the tabernacle the wings were "spread out on high" (Ex. 25:20;
27:9), but here their wings touch each other. Although Solomon claims he
built everything according to Divine revelation, we wonder whether in fact
he felt free to liberally reinterpret the tabernacle features. And he
changes wings uplifted to God's glory to wings which are closed in upon
each other; the mercy seat, or cover of the ark, is no longer exposed to
Heaven, as it were, but now closed over.
1Ki 8:8 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from
the holy place before the inner sanctuary; but they were not seen outside-
This may reflect a design fault in the lengths of the staves.
Although we are assured that a person looking from the outer sanctuary
would not have seen them even when the entrance to the holy place was
open. This kind of design fault would not have been present if indeed, as
Solomon claimed, the specifications were given by God. I suggest this was
just his claim, and he built the temple according to his own desire to
have a go at architecture and building- which he admits in Ecclesiastes
had been his passion and obsession, for a time. See on :64 for another
possible design fault.
And there they are to this day-
This indicates that this record was written some time before the
exile ["to this day"]. But other parts of the history suggest it was
written after the exile. This means that some parts were rewritten or
edited, under Divine inspiration, but others weren't.
1Ki 8:9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which
Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of
Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt-
Inside the ark was intended to be "the golden pot that had manna, and
Aaron’s rod that budded" (Heb. 9:4; Ex. 16:34; Num. 17:10). They had
apparently been lost; so although they remained with the symbols of the
covenant, they were lacking in the things which spoke of new spiritual
life and the resurrection.
1Ki 8:10 When the priests had come out of the holy place, the cloud filled
the house of Yahweh-
Ex. 40:34,35 uses the same terms for God's acceptance of and dwelling
in the tabernacle. For all the pagan undertones in the temple, and
Solomon's unspirituality, God was willing to still dwell within this
structure; even though it was not what He wanted. Just as He had used the
human kingship, when it was deeply offensive to Him.
Chronicles adds that fire came down from Heaven and consumed the
sacrifices- and yet their huge number was of itself a reflection of
Solomon's refusal to accept what his parents had once learnt, that God
doesn't want huge numbers of sacrifices but just a broken contrite heart.
Yet God still accepts this lower level of spirituality, even
misunderstanding of His grace. Just as He works with His people today who
likewise forget or misunderstand His grace.
1Ki 8:11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the
cloud; for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh-
This was as at the erection of the tabernacle. The idea was that
Yahweh's glory was far above the mere religion of the temple system.
His glory was not just between the cherubim over the ark, but
everywhere in His house. This was as if to downplay the importance
attached to the ark. The allusion is to Lev. 16:3, where God says that "I
will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat". But the cloud was now
filling the entire house. God came to Moses "in a thick cloud" (Ex. 19:9;
20:21) but now all the people were being treated as if they were Moses.
The promise of 2 Samuel 7 was that God's Name would be in a new house of
people; and his glory and His Name are closely connected. By doing this,
God was seeking to nudge the people away from Solomon's religious approach
towards a spiritual one. The record in 2 Chron. 5-7 describes praise, the
interruption of the glory filling the temple, and then resumed praise. God
as it were interrupted their religious ritual with a powerful reminder of
His glory. We marvel that God did miraculously respond to such a prayer,
full of misplaced ideals, willful misunderstandings of God's word by
Solomon and his repetition and further spinning of David's similar willful
misunderstandings, pride, political overtones of centralizing all
spiritual power beneath Solomon in his palace-temple complex... and so
forth. Just as God sees all this in the hearts, lives, thinking,
churches... of His people. Yet still His presence is there, however
reluctantly, however much His reservations, anger and displeasure with it
all... yet still He so thirsts for relationship with man. And He as it
were ran a risk by accepting the temple and sending His glory into it- the
risk that He would appear to be thereby in agreement with Solomon's
various misunderstandings and wrong attitudes. Any Divine acceptance of
man has to run that risk. But it is only a risk for the superficial;
because the Solomon record is clearly written in such a way as to beg
comparison with other scriptures. The comparisons indicate so powerfully
how wrong he was.
1Ki 8:12 Then Solomon said, Yahweh has said that He would dwell in the
thick darkness-
Solomon like David (see on 2 Chron. 3:1; 2 Sam. 16:10)
came to assume
things about God in order to justify his passion for building a temple. He
claims that God “said that He would dwell in the thick darkness”, perhaps
alluding to the darkness of the most holy place in which there was no
natural light; but actually there’s no record God ever said that. What He said was
that He would dwell in the hearts of men and not in a house.
1Ki 8:13 I have surely built You a house, a place for You to dwell in
forever-
Solomon totally misses the point of God's response to David's desire
to build Him a house; God would build David a house, involving Him
dwelling in the "place" of the humble human heart. And "forever" was
conditional upon the obedience of David's son / seed. But here Solomon
effectively dictates to God that those promises are now fulfilled in him-
because he has built a temple for God.
1Ki 8:14 The king turned his face about-
From God to the people. The rest of this chapter is therefore Solomon
praying facing the people rather than God. He was effectively praying to
himself, praying to be seen of men. The Lord's criticism of such prayers
seems to have in mind Solomon's example here.
I suggest that here
we have another example of the record making implicit criticism of Solomon
rather than being specific, at least not until 1 Kings 11. Solomon was
praying with his back to the sanctuary, and this is exactly what was
condemned later in Ez. 8:16. The record there seems to allude to Solomon's
position: "At the inner court of Yahweh’s house... there, at the door of
Yahweh’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five
men, with their backs toward Yahweh’s temple, and their faces toward the
east".
And blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel
stood-
This blessing of Israel suggests Solomon was acting as the high
priest, although he was not of the tribe of Levi. David had done this kind
of thing, but from careful reflection upon the spirit of the law, whose
letter he says in Ps. 119 he studied constantly. And David came to this
sense through careful reflection upon God's grace to him, and through the
experience of Uzzah's death as a result of taking 'living the spirit of
the law' too far. Solomon's blessing of the people seems to be in
his subsequent statements that the temple would bring them blessing. He
ignored the connections between blessing and forgiveness by grace which
his father had been forced to, after his sin with Solomon's mother
["blessed are they whose sins are forgiven... blessed is the man to whom
the Lord will not impute iniquity"]. He sees the 'blessing' of external
religion rather than internal peace with God by grace.
1Ki 8:15 He said, Blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with His
mouth to David my father, and has with His hand fulfilled it, saying-
As discussed on :13, the promises to David were not at all totally
fulfilled at that point, just because Solomon had built a temple. They
were conditional upon Solomon's obedience to the law, which from a young
man he had not shown. We think of his marriage to Rehoboam's Ammonitess
mother, and to Pharaoh's daughter. As we will see on :16,
what Solomon claims God said was not what He said; Solomon twists God's
words. And that highlights the blasphemy of his claim here that God
actually spoke the words Solomon claimed "with His mouth". God did not say
those words.
1Ki 8:16 ‘Since the day that I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I
chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house that My
name might be there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel’-
This is a typical misrepresentation of God's word. What God had said
through Nathan was that He had not chosen anywhere for a temple to be
built, but had lived as it were a mobile life in the tent of the
tabernacle. And therefore, God would build David a house in the sense of a
family of believers sharing David's faith. They would manifest
Yahweh's Name in the sense of His characteristics, the fruit of the
Spirit, as the NT would put it. For God's Name in this sense cannot be in
a physical building or city.
Solomon frequently references the exodus from Egypt with the implication that the completion of the temple meant that their journeys were over (:16,21,51,53). But there is no Divine word to this effect. When they entered Canaan, there was no special ceremony to celebrate the end of their journeys. There are allusions to the wilderness journeys throughout the Bible, suggesting God sees His people like Abraham, on a journey that will only end in the establishment of His Kingdom on earth at the last day. Solomon claims God spoke of how "I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house that My name might be there". But what He said was that He was always a God on the move. That is why Ex. 20:24 speaks as if God would have various places where He put His Name: "In every place where I record My name I will come down to you and I will bless you".
The implication is that God "chose no city" for a temple apart from Jerusalem. The LXX and some Hebrew manuscripts make this explicit, as does the parallel in 2 Chron. 6:5,6: "From the day that I brought out my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any one tribe of Israel to build a house, so that my name should be there: but I chose Jerusalem that my name should be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel" (LXX). But this is Solomon's twisting of God's words to David. He stated that He would not need a temple because His manner had always been that He "moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle" (2 Sam. 7:6). He would appoint a place not for the ark but for His people- in the future Messianic Kingdom which His begotten Son would establish: "I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place" (2 Sam. 7:10). And the One chosen to be over His 'house' or people would be David's future Messianic son, God's begotten Son, to be born well after David had died.
1Ki 8:17 Now it was with the heart of David my father to build a house for
the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel-
This much was true, but it is sandwiched between various untruths and
misrepresentations in :16 and :18-20.
1Ki 8:18 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-
This is not recorded in the historical account, and given Solomon's
tendency to misrepresent God's word we wonder whether this was said by God
at all. Because God's response had been that He didn't want a house. He
wanted to build a non physical house for David. Those reasons He gave for
declining David's offer are not at all in the spirit of what God is now
reported to have said.
1Ki 8:19 Nevertheless, you shall not build the house; but your son who
shall come forth out of your body, he shall build the house for My name’-
As noted on :18, this would have been contrary to the spirit of the
reasons God gave for declining David's offer. He had explained that He had
never asked for any permanent sanctuary to be built for Him, and tent life
was His style, as He doesn't live in buildings but in hearts. And instead
of building a house for Yahweh, David was instead to focus upon the
wonderful grace of Yahweh's plan to turn his Messianic seed and all "in
him" into an eternal spiritual house for His abode. Yet Solomon presents
God as having been in eager agreement with the idea, but simply had some
reservations about David doing it, and instead asked Solomon to build it.
That would have been a contradiction of the reasoning God gave for saying
He didn't want a physical house built for Him.
1Ki 8:20 Yahweh has established His 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-
The establishment of the promises to David was to be conditional upon
David's son walking in God's ways. But now Solomon wrongly presents the
promises to David as having come to total fulfilment in him, just because
he had built a temple for God.
Solomon speaks about him being King in Jerusalem (Ecc. 1:1,12; Prov.
1:1) as if this was the ultimate fulfilment of the Davidic promises.
Consider the implications of 2 Chron. 1:9: "O Lord God, let thy promise
unto David my father be established: for thou hast made me king over a
people like the dust of the earth... give me now wisdom, that I may go out
and come in before (i.e. lead) this people". Solomon was asking for wisdom
because he thought that he was the Messiah, and he saw wisdom as a
Messianic characteristic. He failed to realize that the promises to
Abraham and David were only being primarily fulfilled in him (e.g. 1 Kings
4:20); he thought that he was the ultimate fulfilment of them (1 Kings
8:20 states this in so many words). His lack of faith and vision of the
future Kingdom lead him to this proud and arrogant conclusion (cp.
building up our own 'Kingdom' in this life through our lack of vision of
the Kingdom of God).
1Ki 8:21 There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of
Yahweh which He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land
of Egypt-
By saying this, Solomon was careful to omit mentioning that the pit
of manna and Aaron's rod were now no longer within the ark. See on :9.
Solomon's argument about the ark comes to a climax in 2 Chron. 6 where he bids the ark to enter its place of rest. He reasons as if he has built a place for the ark, which was as it were homeless. But the ark was designed to be kept in the tabernacle, a tent. There was no need for a temple for it. And the ark didn't remain permanently in the temple; for many years later Josiah commanded "the Levites... Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built" (2 Chron. 35:3). And God emphasizes that in the restoration and the true Messianic kingdom, the ark will no longer be important: "People will no longer talk about my ark. They will no longer think about it or remember it; they will not even need it, nor will they make another one. When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called 'The Throne of the LORD,' and all nations will gather there to worship me" (Jer. 3:16,17). God's plans for a rebuilt temple in Ez. 40-48 make no mention of an ark, nor is the ark listed in the inventory of things taken into captivity in Babylon (2 Kings 25:13-17; Ezra 1:7-11).
“There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which
Moses put there at Horeb ... the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord”
(1 Kings 8:9,21). Those tablets, on which were the ten commandments, were
the covenant.
1Ki 8:22 Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all
the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven-
This altar appears to be the special bronze scaffold Solomon
erected especially for the occasion (2 Chron. 6:13 "for Solomon had made a
bronze scaffold, five cubits long, five cubits broad and three cubits
high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and on it he stood, and
kneeled down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread
forth his hands toward heaven"). Solomon was hardly
praying in his closet! It seems the Lord was alluding to Solomon in Mt. 6:6,
interpreting what he does here in a very negative light, and a reflection
of Solomon's pride rather than his spirituality.
1Ki 8:23 and he said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above nor on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and grace with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart-
David spoke of seeking and praising God's grace with his "whole heart" (Ps. 9:1; 119:58; 138:1). Solomon uses the phrase, but speaks of being obedient with the "whole heart" (1 Kings 8:23; 2 Chron. 6:14) and applying the "whole heart" to the intellectual search for God (Ecc. 1:13; 8:9). There is a difference. The idea of whole hearted devotion to God was picked up by Solomon, but instead of giving the whole heart to the praise of God's grace, he instead advocated giving the whole heart to ritualistic obedience and intellectual search for God. This has been the trap fallen into by many Protestant groups whose obsession with "truth" has obscured the wonder of God's grace.
1Ki 8:24 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 this day-
Again we note the blasphemy of Solomon claiming God had
spoken things with His mouth about Solomon and his temple, which He never
said. Solomon misses the conditional nature of God keeping covenant grace
with His people; He kept it if they were obedient (Dt. 7:9,12), which
David was not. Yet God still kept His word with David. That was by grace,
but the grace of it is missed by Solomon. He failed to meditate upon the promises beyond what they seemed to
offer him in the here and now; and the result was that he felt they were
totally fulfilled in him (1 Kings 8:20,24). He dogmatically
declared to Shimei: “And King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of
David shall be established before the Lord for ever” (1 Kings 2:45). And
in all this, of course, we see our warning.
1Ki 8:25 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 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’-
Another example of Solomon misquoting God is in 2 Chron. 6:6. Solomon
claims that God said: “I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name might be
there”. God had chosen no resting place, although it would have been
politically convenient for Solomon if the city of Jerusalem as a city was
where God had chosen to dwell. 2 Chron. 6:41 portrays the
temple as God's resting place: "Now therefore arise, Yahweh God, into Your
resting place, You and the ark of Your strength".
And the whole point of God's response to David about the temple was
that He is not a God at rest and neither are His people. The people
suffered under Solomon's taskmasters building his treasure cities just as
they did under Pharaoh; they hardly found rest under his reign let alone
through the building of a temple on the backs of their labour and taxation
sacrifices. The people were drafted into labour gangs, whereas the
building of the tabernacle and resourcing of it was purely voluntary (Ex.
25). And God's Name was to be in a house of people, for a Name /
personality / characteristics cannot dwell in a house of stone and cedar
and gold. It was this misunderstanding that led the Jews to lament how the
destruction of the temple had actually destroyed the dwelling place of
God's Name: "They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground, they have
profaned the dwelling place of Your Name" (Ps. 74:7). The truth was that
God's Name dwelt in the hearts and personalities of His true people. And
it was God who destroyed the physical temple to try to get them to realize
this (Lam. 2:6,7). But
Solomon kept thinking his own way until he
persuaded himself that in fact this was what God had said. David had
charged Solomon with the words which God had spoken to him about Solomon:
“If your children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with
all their heart and with all their soul” (1 Kings 2:4). But Solomon subtly
changes this when he reminds God of how He had supposedly told David:
“There shall not fail thee a man to sit on the throne of Israel; so that
they children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou
hast walked before me” (1 Kings 8:25). Two things become apparent here:
- The conditionality of the promise to David about Solomon is totally
overlooked. “If
your children…” becomes “so that…”, with the
implication that David would always have descendants on the throne who
would walk obediently before God. The possibility of personal failure had
been removed by Solomon from his own perception of God.
- God’s desire that Solomon should “walk before me in truth” was
changed to “walk before me as you [David] walked before me”. This
defined walking before God personally as having the relationship with God
which your father had. And so often we have made the same mistake. The
call to personally follow the Lord has become displaced by a following Him
through others.
Notice how Solomon says these words to God Himself. Solomon had
persuaded himself that this truly was what God had asked of David and
himself, and so he comes out with these words to God.
1Ki 8:26 Now therefore, God of Israel, please let Your word be verified,
which You spoke to Your servant David my father-
Solomon keeps saying that his zealous work for the temple was the result
of God's promise to David having fulfillment in him (1 Kings 8:24-26),
and to some extent this was true. David earnestly prayed for Solomon to
be the Messianic King (e.g. Ps. 72), and therefore David asked for Solomon
to be given a truly wise heart (1 Chron. 29:19). These prayers were
answered in a very limited sense- in that Solomon was given great
wisdom, and his Kingdom was one of the greatest types of Christ's
future Kingdom. Our prayers for others really can have an effect upon
them, otherwise there would be no point in the concept of praying
for others. But of course each individual has an element of
spiritual freewill; we can't force others to be spiritual by our
prayers; yet on the other hand, our prayers can influence their
spirituality. David's prayers for Solomon is the classic example of
this. Those prayers were heard most definitely, in that God helped
Solomon marvellously, giving him every opportunity to develop a superb
spirituality; but he failed to have the genuine personal desire to be like
this in his heart, in his heart he was back in Egypt, and therefore
ultimately David's desire for Solomon to be the wondrous Messianic King of
his dreams had to go unfulfilled.
1Ki 8:27 But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and
the heaven of heavens can’t contain You; how much less this house that I
have built!-
It was exactly because of this that God didn't want a physical house
built for Him. Yet Solomon has misrepresented God as saying He
did
want such a house. So these words are fake humility from Solomon, seeking
to cover his proud obsession with building projects beneath an appearance
of humility. This statement of Solomon's is not in fact quite as
humble as it may seem- for his argument is that God lives in Heaven, but
Heaven cannot contain Him. And so he has built a house for God, but even
that cannot contain Him. He totally misses God's redefinition of a "house"
as a family of people manifesting His Name, made possible through the work
of His future begotten Son.
1Ki 8:28 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 this day-
I noted on :14 that Solomon is praying all this facing the people, to
be seen of men. This prayer would have been better said facing toward God.
His showmanship is apparent.
1Ki 8:29 that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day toward
the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to
the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place-
God never said that. It is Solomon's twist of the word of promise to
David, that if his son / seed were obedient, then "He shall build an house
for My Name". But that house was to be built up from persons, and had no
reference to any physical building; indeed, the very opposite. God's eyes
are open upon His children wherever they are, as David had learned whilst
far from the sanctuary and on the run from Saul. Nehemiah felt God's eyes
were open upon him even when the temple was in ruins (Neh. 1:6).
Literally, "pray with the face toward... the house"; Solomon later in the prayer will urge Israel to do this. The hypocrisy was that Solomon was praying facing Israel and with his face away from the temple. But he reasons that prayer must be made facing towards the temple.
God had stated many times in Deuteronomy that in the place wherever He placed His Name, His presence, His special ownership, there His people were to come and worship. But as He explained to David when rejecting the idea of a temple, that place had always changed from time to time, because Yahweh is a God on the move. Solomon twists Yahweh's statements to mean that He was going to name a place where His Name would eternally be, and that place had now been chosen- in Jerusalem at the temple of Solomon. But God had in fact said that wherever, in whatever place He placed His Name, there the people should offer sacrifice. He agreed to place His Name in Jerusalem at the temple, but within the context of His being a God always on the move, a tent dwelling God. He had earlier placed His Name at Shiloh, "My place which was at Shiloh, where I set My name at the first" (Jer. 7:12). The place where He places His Name was variable and it was not a case of Him choosing such a place for His Name and it therefore eternally being there.God did choose Zion in a sense when He went along with the plan to build the temple there. But this doesn't mean He chose it for all time from then on. Zech. 1:17 says He will again choose Zion, implying that for now He has not chosen it, and as it were unchosen it. Solomon and David liked to assume that God had looked all over the earth and chosen the hill of Zion for an eternal dwelling from their time onwards. But He was to tear down their temple in fury, He was angry with it from the day it was built till the day He tore it down.
1Ki 8:30 Listen to the supplication of Your servant, and of Your people
Israel, when they shall pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, Your
dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive-
1Ki 8:31 If a man sins against his neighbour, and an oath is laid on him
to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before Your altar in this
house-
Verses 31-51 contain seven possible cases of sin for which
the temple could bring forgiveness; and seven cases of possible Divine
judgment. The number seven suggests Solomon saw all sin and all possible
judgment as being dealt with through the temple. Whereas his parents ought
to have learnt for all time that forgiveness doesn't depend upon ritual
but God's grace alone and the contrite hearts of sinners. God's awareness of who was telling the truth was not, however,
predicated upon the altar being situated within a physical building. God's
presence and omniscience is not somehow from then on conditional upon the
temple.
The rabbis interpret this verse as specifically concerning a man who is suspected of sinning against his neighbour through adultery with the man's wife. The male equivalent for the trial of jealousy for a woman suspected of adultery (Num. 5). Solomon is asking God to judge the man if guilty and swearing by the temple was to be some kind of way of forcing truth to come out. Given the background of Solomon's parents, we marvel at how Solomon just didn't "get" the huge grace shown to his father. Who had not been judged according to his just deserts in this matter.
1Ki 8:32 then hear in heaven, and do, and judge Your servants, condemning
the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head, and justifying the
righteous, to give him according to his righteousness-
1Ki 8:33 When Your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because
they have sinned against You; if they turn again to You, and confess Your
name, and pray and make supplication to You in this house-
Again, Solomon devalues the power of prayerful repentance and
confession of God's Name; for he implies that this is made somehow more
powerful through praying to the God "in this house". But Solomon is as it
were bringing God down from heaven to earth by suggesting He is somehow
located "in this house". Whereas He is in heaven, as he contradictorily
admits in :34. It was because of this mindset that there was such a
collapse of faith in Judah when they saw the temple in ruins. It meant,
according to Solomon's logic, the death of God.
1Ki 8:34 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel,
and bring them again to the land which You gave to their fathers-
See on :33. The restoration to their land was to be because they, or
those who remained in the land, would pray to God in the temple (:33).
Solomon is hereby assuming that even if Israel sin and go into captivity,
the temple will be an eternal house for God which will always be there. He
is so very wrong. The temple was not eternal and was destroyed; but the
exiles could still pray to God, quite independently of the existence of
the temple. The destruction of the temple was for multiple reasons, but
perhaps one of them was to rid God's people of these wrong ideas about
God's presence in the temple building. And God answers this idea that the
temple was to be eternal in 1 Kings 9:7,8.
1Ki 8:35 When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have
sinned against You; if they pray toward this place, and confess Your name,
and turn from their sin, when You afflict them-
Solomon inserts parts of his father’s Bathsheba psalms in his prayers
for how all Israel could be forgiven if they “confess thy name... when
thou afflictest them... saying, We have sinned... forgive thy people...
and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed” (1 Kings
8:35,47,50 = Ps. 32:5 etc.). On the basis of David’s pattern, all God’s
people can find forgiveness, if they make a like confession. Indeed, this
has long been recognized by Jewish commentators; and many of the Psalms
understood by them as relevant to the Nazi holocaust are Bathsheba Psalms.
“Out of the depths” they cried like David; and at the entrance to
Bergen-Belsen it stands written: “My sorrow is continually before me” (Ps.
38:17), in recognition of having received punishment for sin [note how
these kind of plaques contain no trace of hatred or calling for Divine
retribution upon the persecutors].
But Solomon, as ever, is mixing truth with error. Because the turning again to God was not dependent upon praying towards the temple building. It was to be destroyed, and the direction of their prayers was to be towards "the God of heaven" and not some ghost in a ruined temple. This phrase "the God of heaven" or similar is often found in the restoration histories, indicating that God's people had been forced to learn this lesson.
1Ki 8:36 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, and of
Your people Israel, when You teach them the good way in which they should
walk; and send rain on Your land, which You have given to Your people for
an inheritance-
The reference to rain was appropriate in the immediate context
because as explained on :2, Solomon was speaking in the month of Ethanim,
literally, the rain month, and likely the latter rains were pouring down
at this time as he was speaking. His implication would be that this rain
was part of the promised blessing for obedience because of the temple.
Perhaps this was why, as noted on :2, Solomon had purposefully arranged
the dedication festival at this time.
1Ki 8:37 If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there
is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in
their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is-
These things clearly allude to the curses for breaking the covenant
in Dt. 28. But those curses were to be lifted by repentance and renewed
faithfulness to the covenant, and their lifting was not predicated upon
the existence of the physical temple and praying in it or towards it.
1Ki 8:38 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 forth his hands toward this house-
As Pharaoh’s heart was plagued (Ex. 9:14), so was Israel’s (1 Kings
8:38); as Egypt was a reed, so were Israel (1 Kings 14:15). As
Pharaoh-hophra was given into the hand of his enemies, so would Israel be
(Jer. 44:30). She would be “Condemned with the world...”.
1Ki 8:39 then hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive, and do,
and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know;
(for You, even You only, know the hearts of all the children of men;)-
This reference to God dwelling in heaven makes a nonsense of the
idea of building a house for God to inhabit on earth. And this was exactly
why God had not wanted David to build the temple. So Solomon is here
merely giving lip service to these ideas.
Descriptions of God’s dwelling place clearly indicate that He has a personal location: “God is in heaven” (Ecc. 5:2); “He has looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth” (Ps. 102:19,20); “Hear in heaven your dwelling place”. Yet more specifically than this, we read that God has a “throne” (2 Chron. 9:8; Ps. 11:4; Is. 6:1; 66:1). Such language is hard to apply to an undefined essence which exists somewhere in heavenly realms.
1Ki 8:40 that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land
which You gave to our fathers-
This is repeating the idea of Ps. 130:4: "There is forgiveness with
You, that You may be feared". Solomon reasons that the experience of
forgiveness [on behalf of his temple] will make the people fear Yahweh.
And that is so; if we realize the awesome nature of forgiveness, we will
fear / respect the God who grants it on a scale and of a nature so beyond
our forgiveness of others. "All the days that they live in the land" could
hint that Solomon wrongly thought that the people would live eternally in
the land, because he was the Messianic king and the temple had now been
built.
1Ki 8:41 Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of Your people
Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for Your name’s sake-
The acceptance of the Gentile within the community of Israel was not
simply predicated upon the existence of the temple. Ruth was the classic
case of coming out of a Gentile country for the sake of Yahweh's Name. And
her acceptance was not at all predicated upon any temple building, because
there was none in existence at her time.
1Ki 8:42 (for they shall hear of Your great name, and of Your mighty hand,
and of Your outstretched arm); when he shall come and pray toward this
house-
There seems implicit in the reasoning here that the fame of Yahweh's
temple would spread to the surrounding nations, and some would wish to
come and worship in it. But proselytes were not to be attracted to Yahweh
because of any physical temple, but because of who He is- the things
implicit in His Name. No matter how cool and slick the external
presentation, this is not what legitimately converts people to the true
God.
1Ki 8:43 hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all that
the foreigner calls to You for; that all the peoples of the earth may know
Your name, to fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know
that this house which I have built is called by Your name-
As discussed on :42, God's response to Gentile proselytes, and their
turning to Him, is not predicated upon the existence of a physical
building. Solomon asks God to answer prayers of Gentiles made toward the
temple so that the Gentiles would know that Yahweh's Name was really
there- in "this house which I have built". The agenda of Solomon's pride
is evident. God had told David that He didn't need a temple for
His Name because His intention was that David's descendant, Messiah, would
create a house of people who would bear God's Name, His characteristics,
the fruits of His Spirit.
1Ki 8:44 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-
Solomon is alluding to Dt. 20:1, but Israel were told that when they
went out to battle (s.w.), they were to remember that Yahweh was present
with them. Solomon has distorted this idea, by suggesting that Yahweh's
presence was specifically in the temple, and the people were to pray
towards it there. When in reality, His presence was with His people on the
battle front and in their hearts.
1Ki 8:45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and
maintain their cause-
"Maintain their cause" is the same phrase translated "do judgment /
justice". But Israel were to do justice (Lev. 18:4 and often, as David
did, 2 Sam. 8:15), and in response, Yahweh would do justice for them (Dt.
10:18). But Solomon overlooks this conditional aspect in Israel's
relationship with God, as he did in his own life. He thought that merely
praying to a temple would somehow obligate God to 'do judgment' for His
people. This is the mentality of mere religion, and not of relationship
with God. Under the old covenant, victory against enemies
was predicated upon obedience to and faith in the covenant; whereas here
Solomon suggests that mere prayer to the temple will as it were do the
trick. Again and again, we see form eclipsing content, the religious
displacing the spiritual.
1Ki 8:46 If they sin against You (for there is no man who doesn’t 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-
Solomon often emphasized the importance of keeping ones’ heart (Prov.
2:10-16; 3:5,6; 4:23-5:5; 6:23-26); he had foreseen that the essential sin
of God’s people was “the plague of his own heart” (1 Kings 8:46), and he
imagined how for this sin God’s people would later pray towards the
temple. And yet his wives turned away
his heart, for all this
awareness that the heart must be kept. It was as if the more he knew the
truth of something, the more he wanted to do the very opposite. And this
is exactly true of our natures. Perhaps with Solomon he reasoned that in
his case, foreign wives wouldn’t turn away
his
heart. Just as our flesh thinks ‘Yes, but it can’t happen to
me’. Perhaps too he reasoned that if the temple somehow could
bring forgiveness for the plague of the heart, his heart was incorruptible
because of the temple.
1Ki 8:47 yet if they shall repent in the land where they are carried
captive, and turn again, and make supplication to You in the land of those
who carried them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done
perversely; we have dealt wickedly'-
Again, Solomon assumes that even if Israel were to go into captivity,
the temple would still stand, and prayer toward it would bring the
restoration. But the temple was destroyed, so that they would be forced to
quit this kind of religious tokenism and turn to God in Heaven with their
hearts and souls. Daniel prayed these words (Dan. 9:5), but there was no
temple then standing to add efficacy to them. And they were prayed in Ps.
106:6 before any temple stood.
1Ki 8:48 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 towards their land, which You gave to their fathers, the city which
You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name-
The old covenant clearly taught that all Israel would be exiled from
their land if they broke the covenant. Solomon's dedication of the temple
seemed to assume that only the wicked would be exiled from the land, and
the temple would stand eternally; to express repentance in exile, they
just needed to pray towards it. But all Israel were sent
into exile, and his temple was razed to the ground. But Solomon's belief
that "The upright will dwell in the land; the perfect will eternally
remain in it" (Prov. 2:21) meant that he totally refused to accept the
extent of judgment predicted in the curses of Dt. 28. All Israel would be
exiled from their land. He liked to assume that his Kingdom would
eternally endure; because of his lack of faith in the nature of the future
Kingdom, and his mistaken imagination that he was the eternal Messianic
king. He refused to recognize that his father David in Ps. 72 had wrongly
imagined that he would be that eternal king, and disregarded the
conditionality of the promises made to him. And God answers this idea
that the temple was to be eternal in 1 Kings 9:7,8.
1Ki 8:49 then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your
dwelling place, and maintain their cause-
When exiled from Absalom, David had prayed toward God's "holy hill"
of Zion, and had been regathered there (Ps. 3:4). David had fled Jerusalem
and the "holy hill" of the temple mount, which was then under Absalom's
control. But he believed Yahweh was still there, present as it were in the
temple, and answering his prayer. He perhaps alludes to the promises that
if Israel sinned and were exiled, they could always pray to God and hope
for regathering to His holy hill (Dt. 30:1-4; Neh. 1:9). Solomon now
develops these thoughts further, in teaching that Israel in their
dispersion were to pray to God toward Jerusalem, His "holy hill" of Zion
(1 Kings 8:48,49). We see therefore how Solomon would have reflected upon
his father David's experience; David had prayed towards God's "holy hill"
when in exile from it, and had been heard. Solomon may well have been in
David's retinue at the time, and would have experienced the wonder of
return to Zion because of his father's prayer towards God in Zion.
1Ki 8:50 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-
God's giving of compassion to His people depended upon their holiness
before Him (s.w. Dt. 13:17). But Solomon implies that it will be
predicated upon the temple he had built. Form was replacing content,
external religion was trumping true spirituality, physical symbolism was
obscuring true repentance. The irony is that when Judah were in
exile God gave them this compassion in the eyes of their captors. But they
were not very penitent, nor was there any temple standing for them to pray
towards. This fairly obvious observation is surely to highlight the
bankruptcy of Solomon's thoughts here. He has no understanding of grace.
1Ki 8:51 (for they are Your people, and Your inheritance, which You
brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron)-
This is the language of Dt. 4:20, which taught that because God had
brought Israel out of the "iron furnace" of Egypt, therefore they should
thereby be motivated to quit all idolatry. But here Solomon uses this
great deliverance as a way of almost manipulating God to save His sinful
people- if they prayed toward or in the temple he had built. He alludes to
scripture throughout this prayer, but nearly always out of context and to
justify his own narrative- that Israel's forgiveness, blessing and
salvation was predicated upon the temple Solomon had built.
1Ki 8:52 that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant-
God's eyes are open upon His children wherever they are, as David had
learned whilst far from the sanctuary and on the run from Saul. Nehemiah
felt God's eyes were open upon him even when the temple was in ruins (Neh.
1:6).
And to the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever
they cry to You-
Solomon saw himself as Moses, fully representative of Israel, and
thereby their saviour (1 Kings 11:1,5-7 cp. 33;
8:52; and note the ye... thee confusion of 1 Kings 9:4-7); his prayer was
their prayer (2 Chron. 6:21); his worship was theirs (2 Chron. 1:3,5).
His prayer of 2 Chron.6:33 speaks as if the heavens where God lived
were actually the temple; he bid men pray towards the temple where God
lived, rather than to God in Heaven. Yet theoretically he recognized the
magnitude of God (2 Chron. 6:18); yet the vastness of God, both in power
and Spirituality, meant little to him; it failed to humble him as it
should have done. It is a feature of human nature to be able to
perceive truth and yet act the very opposite. His enthusiasm for his own
works lead him to lose a true relationship with God. The idea of salvation
by grace became lost on him, loving response to God's forgiveness was not
on his agenda, true humility was unnecessary for him, given his certainty
that he was King as God intended. He reasoned that God would hear his
prayers because they were uttered in the temple of his own hands, rather
than because of any personal faith (1 Kings 8:52). Indeed, Solomon
legalistically demands that God maintain [as in a court of law] the legal
cause or "right" of His people if they pray towards the temple (1 Kings
8:45,49). Legalism and faith are opposed to each other, and Solomon's
usage and conception of the temple was legalistic rather than faith based.
When dedicating the temple, Solomon asks God to incline the hearts of
Israel to be obedient to His commandments (1 Kings 8:57); and whilst God
can and does do this, Solomon's implication seems to be that any
disobedience would therefore effectively be God's fault for not making His
people obedient. He failed to see the need for personal election to obey
God's ways.
1Ki 8:53 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-
Solomon's argument is that since God had made Israel His people, then
they would always be His people and inheritance. All they needed to do if
they broke their relationship with God was to pray before the temple.
Solomon saw the temple as the failsafe method of keeping Israel always as
God's inheritance and special people, regardless of their sins. But the
truth was that God was to disinherit His people, and return them to the
nations whose gods they worshipped. And no temple was going to stop that
happening. Solomon likewise assumed that he was the chosen seed of David,
and his having built the temple meant that sin was no ultimate problem
between Yahweh and himself. He thereby overlooked the conditional nature
of God's promised relationship with him. And so many have used religious
symbolism likewise, to release them from any sense of personal
responsibility towards God.
1Ki 8:54 It was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this
prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before the altar of
Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward
heaven-
We get the impression that his prayer was but showmanship, and a
parade of a fake humility. See on :14.
1Ki 8:55 He stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud
voice saying-
This public prayer for the sake of appearance, facing men rather than
God (see on :14), makes us think that the "loud voice" of prayer and
blessing was hypocritical. Solomon uses the very phrase in Prov. 27:14:
"He that blesses his friend with a loud voice... it shall be counted a
curse to him". But he refused to perceive the personal truth of the
Proverbs he spoke. A loud voice (s.w.) doesn't mean God has heard the
speaker (Ez. 8:18); the phrase is used of the priests of Baal he
mistakenly believed this.
1Ki 8:56 Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to His people Israel,
according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all
His good promise, which He promised by Moses His servant-
God's words not falling / failing means that they were fulfilled (1
Sam. 3:19). Solomon is making the same mistake as preterism, claiming that
all the prophetic word had been fulfilled. He decided this on the mere
basis that he had built a temple, which he wished to see as the fulfilment
of the promises to David, which he now wished to understand as meaning the
promises to Moses had been totally fulfilled as well. It was this lack of
any perspective of future fulfilment, of the Messianic Kingdom to come and
the resurrection of the dead, which led Solomon to fail to appreciate
God's grace. He also therefore had no sense of personal failure and the
wonder of acceptance by grace, because he thought he had been given full
acceptance right now.
The record is clear that Solomon did not have total "rest". Damascus was taken from him and he never regained it; he was surrounded by 'adversaries', his people were restless and groaning under his abusive taxing of them for labour and harvests... And he is forcing his own interpretation of Dt. 12:10,11 as referring to the temple he had built: "When you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, then to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause His name to dwell there, you must bring all that I command you". The Hebrew maqom translated 'place' can mean simply a locality, yet Solomon likes to insist that it means a 'place' as in a building. Yet maqom in its 400 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible usually refers simply to a locality and not some 'holy place'. And God has used the term in describing the situation which would come about through David's future son who would be God's begotten son: "I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. Neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the first" (1 Chron. 17:9). That future appointed "place" was not the temple; for God in this context says He doesn't want a temple, but will instead give His future people a "place" in eternity through the great Son. It is this "place" which the Lord has in view when He says that His death on the cross is "to prepare a place for you" (Jn. 14:2,3). "I will appoint a place" is the same Hebrew as in God's 'appointing a place' for the innocent murderer to flee to for refuge (Ex. 21:13), and that "place" was a city of refuge not a temple. And again, that "place" is understood in the New Testament as the Lord Jesus. The place appointed was one where Yahweh's Name would be placed (Dt. 12:21; 14:24 etc.). It is far too literalistic to assume that the letters YHWH would be placed in a physical place. Surely we are to understand the Name as His characteristics, to be placed supremely in the "place" of His Son, through whom a family / house of people would arise bearing that Name. God's response to David's plan to build a temple had been to state that through His Son, He would "plant" Israel never to be moved again, and this language is repeated about the Lord in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Is. 66:1,2 is crystal clear that God's Name can never "rest" in a physical place, but in humbled hearts after the pattern of David after his sin with Bathsheba: "And what place shall be My rest? For all these things has My hand made, and so all these things came to be, says Yahweh: but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a broken spirit, and who trembles at My word". However, there are references to God's Name dwelling in Zion in the Kingdom age. It will be then "the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion" (Is. 18:7), "for Yahweh dwells in Zion" (Joel 3:21), in that His Name is supremely in the Lord Jesus who will rule from Zion. Isaiah uses the term in his personal speech, perhaps reflecting his own misadjusted perspective that somehow Yahweh was physically dwelling in Zion: "I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion" (Is. 8:18).
1Ki 8:57 May Yahweh our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. Let
Him not leave us, nor forsake us-
This can be translated not so much as a request but as a joyful
statement of present reality. He felt that his prayer and his temple would
somehow guarantee the permanent presence of God. God would not leave or
forsake Israel because Solomon assumed that the temple had God's presence,
and it would be eternal; for he had interpreted God's promise to build an
eternal house as fulfilled in his building of the temple.
1Ki 8:58 that He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways,
and to keep His commandments, His statutes and his ordinances which He
commanded our fathers-
We're wrong to think that God passionlessly waits for us to repent or pray
to Him, and then He will forgive or act for us. He loves us, simply so;
and with all love's manipulation of circumstances, seeks to pour out His
love upon us. Thus repentance itself is a gift which God gives and is not
totally upon human initiative (Dt. 4:29-31; 30:1-10; 1 Kings 8:58).
As noted on Ps. 119:36; 141:4, David believed that God could act deep within the psychology or heart of man, to incline us toward righteousness and away from evil. This is how the Holy Spirit works today. Solomon believed the same (s.w. 1 Kings 8:58), but only in theory; for his Gentile wives inclined or turned away his heart from God (s.w. 1 Kings 11:3,9). God will not turn our hearts anywhere we ourselves don't want to go. Solomon often appeals for us to incline our hearts to wisdom (s.w. Prov. 2:2; 4:20; 5:1; 22:17), but he himself was inclined to apostasy (s.w. 1 Kings 11:3,9). All his emphasis is upon the need to incline ourselves, whereas his father David trusted in the work of the Spirit to incline his heart to good and away from evil (Ps. 141:4; 119:36 etc.).
1Ki 8:59 Let these my words, with 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 each day
shall require-
Just as Solomon considered the existence of the temple as the
guarantee that God would ultimately be with His people, so he similarly
argues that his prayer was some kind of magic incantation which would mean
that God would day by day for ever and eternally maintain the cause of His
people. But his whole logic is 'religious' rather than spiritual.
1Ki 8:60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh, He is
God. There is none else-
Solomon had a genuine desire for the surrounding nations to accept
Yahweh, just as his father David did. But it was all tied up with his own
pride; people coming to admire Solomon's temple and thereby himself. For
as mentioned above, he thought that the physical temple would be the basis
of their attraction and loyalty to Yahweh.
1Ki 8:61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh our God, to walk
in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as you do at this day-
Solomon considered that the fulfilment of the promises to Moses and
David (which he was mistaken in thinking had fully happened just because
he had built a temple) was because Israel "at this day" had a perfect
heart with Yahweh. They didn't, but just as he assume his own perfect
obedience, so he assumed theirs. Unlike David, he had not been forced by
God to engage with the issues of his own sinfulness.
And I discussed on 1 Kings 7:1 how even at this point,
Solomon himself was far from wholehearted in his devotion to God; 1 Kings
11:4 specifically says he wasn't.
1Ki 8:62 The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before
Yahweh-
We again see the connection between Solomon and "all Israel", whom he
considered to be as perfect as he was; see on :61.
1Ki 8:63 Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he
offered to Yahweh, twenty two thousand head of cattle, and one hundred and
twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel
dedicated the house of Yahweh-
The peace offering was to be eaten the same day it was
killed, and nothing of it was to left until the morning (Lev. 7:15). There
is no way Solomon could have personally eaten this massive amount of meat,
and so again we see his interest being merely in external religion rather
than personal spirituality. And a peace offering was a personal statement
between the offerer and God, celebrating their peace with God. There is no
way Solomon could legitimately do this for the people. The usual pattern of sacrifice was sin offering (obtaining
forgiveness), burnt offering (promising complete dedication to God) and
then peace offering, celebrating the resultant peace with God then
experienced. But Solomon has no sense of personal sin (see on :61), and
considered himself dedicated to Yahweh by reason of being David's son. And
so he only offers the peace offerings. The huge numbers of sacrifices were
not at all what God wanted. But unlike David, he had not been brought to
realize that God wants broken, repentant hearts and not offerings (Ps.
51:16). Mic. 6:7 perhaps references Solomon's huge numbers of offerings,
again commenting that God doesn't want them; just as He didn't want a
physical temple. And yet God went along with Solomon, as He does with us
so often, even on the basis of our misplaced idealism. For His glory
appeared within the temple and He in that sense agreed to dwell there,
just as He agreed to work through a human kingship, even though it meant a
degree of rejection of Him as Israel's king.
1Ki 8:64 The same day the king made the middle of the court holy that was
before the house of Yahweh; 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-
The huge numbers of animals required more altars, which were
presumably placed in the middle court. Although we wonder on what basis
Solomon as a non-Levite had the right to declare the court holy. We also
wonder as to whether the huge laver, and the ten smaller lavers, were only
built with a view to this opening dedication. For the huge laver was too
large for normal usage, and there was surely no need for 10 lavers when
the tabernacle had only had one. We wonder whether this sudden erection of
more altars was also as it were a design fault, and indicates that what he
was doing was not according to God's command, but rather his flawed human
initiative. See on :8 for another possible design fault.
1Ki 8:65 So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him,
a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt,
before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days-
The dedication coincided with the seven day feast of tabernacles (see
on :1), and to that was added this seven day feast of dedication. There
were representatives from the very borders of the land promised to
Abraham, implying these areas had been settled by Israelites; or perhaps
those who attended from those places were Gentile proselytes.
However if "the feast" was the latter seven days, then we observe that the
day of Atonement wasn't kept, as this was only a few days before the feast
of tabernacles. Indeed they ate and drank joyfully on Yom Kippur when they
should have been afflicting their souls for their sins. Again we see
Solomon assuming that personal confession of sin could be eclipsed by
focus upon merely external religion.
1Ki 8:66 On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the
king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the
goodness that Yahweh had shown to David His servant, and to Israel His
people-
The people rejoiced that the promises to David had been fulfilled in the
temple and in the prosperity of the nation. But they had only uncritically
accepted Solomon's narrative. For this was not at all the fulfilment of
the promises to David. They "blessed the king" because they assumed it was
Solomon who had brought about this fulfilment; and that was exactly what
he thought. And they had bought into that false narrative.
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