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Solomon’s Magnificent Temple
23
“When Your people ... sin against You (for there is no one who
does not sin) and You become angry with them and deliver them
to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; yet
when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried
captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of
their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and
committed wickedness’; and when they return to You with all their
heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, ... then hear
from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications,
and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned
against You. Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let
Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.
“Now therefore, arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You
and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be
clothed with salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in goodness.”
Verses 18-41
.
As Solomon ended his prayer, “fire came down from heaven and
consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices.” The priests could
not enter the temple because “the glory of the Lord had filled” it.
2
Chronicles 7:1, 2
. Then king and people offered sacrifices. “So the
king and all the people dedicated the house of God.”
Verse 5
. For
seven days the multitudes kept a joyous feast. They spent the week
following in observing the Feast of Tabernacles. At the close of the
celebrations the people returned to their homes “joyful and glad of
heart for the good that the Lord had done for David, for Solomon,
and for His people Israel.”
Verse 10
.
[17]
The Lord Warns the King Against Backsliding
Now once more, as at Gibeon early in Solomon’s reign, God
gave him evidence of divine acceptance. In a night vision the Lord
appeared to him with the message: “I have heard your prayer, and
have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When
I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to
devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people
who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and
seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ... For now I