Temple and Its Dedication
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reign of David his father and by the wise words and the magnificent
works of the earlier years of his own reign. Foreseeing the terrible
temptations that attend prosperity and worldly honor, God warned
Solomon against the evil of apostasy and foretold the awful results
of sin. Even the beautiful temple that had just been dedicated, He
declared, would become “a proverb and a byword among all nations”
should the Israelites forsake “the Lord God of their fathers” and persist
in idolatry.
Verses 20, 22
.
Strengthened in heart and greatly cheered by the message from
heaven that his prayer in behalf of Israel had been heard, Solomon
now entered upon the most glorious period of his reign, when “all the
kings of the earth” began to seek his presence, “to hear his wisdom,
that God had put in his heart.”
2 Chronicles 9:23
. Many came to see
the manner of his government and to receive instruction regarding the
conduct of difficult affairs.
As these people visited Solomon, he taught them of God as the
Creator of all things, and they returned to their homes with clearer
conceptions of the God of Israel and of His love for the human race.
In the works of nature they now beheld an expression of His love and
a revelation of His character; and many were led to worship Him as
their God.
The humility of Solomon at the time he began to bear the burdens
of state, when he acknowledged before God, “I am but a little child” (
1
[48]
Kings 3:7
), his marked love of God, his profound reverence for things
divine, his distrust of self, and his exaltation of the infinite Creator of
all—all these traits of character, so worthy of emulation, were revealed
during the services connected with the completion of the temple, when
during his dedicatory prayer he knelt in the humble position of a
petitioner. Christ’s followers today should guard against the tendency
to lose the spirit of reverence and godly fear. The Scriptures teach
men how they should approach their Maker—with humility and awe,
through faith in a divine Mediator. The psalmist has declared:
“The Lord is a great God,
And a great King above all gods....
O come, let us worship and bow down:
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”