Deeper Commentary
2Ch 6:1 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.
2Ch 6:2 But I have built You a house of habitation, and 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.
Ps. 127 is "For Solomon" (v.2 "beloved" = Heb. Jedidah), and warns him
that his labour for the temple will be in vain unless God
builds it. The Psalm basically says that God will build Solomon a house in
the sense of a family centred in the beloved seed who would die [“sleep”]
to enable it; and therefore Solomon should not be so sweating himself day
and night to build God a house / temple. This is the very message which
God had given David earlier. David and Solomon evidently shelved their
knowledge of the fact that Heaven is God's dwelling place. It would seem
that Solomon particularly was guilty of a false humility; there is a gross
contradiction within his words of 2 Chron. 6:2,18: "I have built an house
of habitation for thee, and a place for thy dwelling for ever...
But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and
the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which
I have built?". This is one of several hints that Solomon felt that the
full fulfilment of the Davidic promises was to be found in him (cp. 2
Chron. 6:10). He failed to look forward to the spirit of Christ, instead
becoming obsessed with the achievement of his own works. He was largely
encouraged in this by David, who seems to have felt that Solomon was the
Messiah figure the promises spoke about. Thus Ps.72 is dedicated to
Solomon, and yet it speaks clearly of the messianic Kingdom. In the same
way as David came to misquote and misapply the promises God made to him,
Solomon did likewise. God told David that He did not want a physical
house, because He had never commanded this to be done at any time in the
past. Solomon misquotes this in 2 Chron. 6:5,6 to mean that God had never
asked for a physical house in the past, but now he had asked David's son
to build such a house in Jerusalem.
2Ch 6:3 The king turned his face-
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.
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.
2Ch 6:4 He said, Blessed be Yahweh the God of Israel, Who spoke with His
mouth to David my father and has with His hands fulfilled it saying-
As discussed above, 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 .
2Ch 6:5 Since the day that I brought forth My people out of the land of
Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house
in, that My name might be there; neither chose I any man to be prince 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.
2Ch 6:6 But I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name might be there; and have
chosen David to be over My people Israel-
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. And so he kept thinking that 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 thy 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 thy 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 thou [David] hast 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.
2Ch 6:7 Now it was in 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. But he misses the point of God's response, that His
Name, His personality and character, dwells in persons and not buildings.
2Ch 6:8 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.
2Ch 6:9 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 above, 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.
2Ch 6:10 Yahweh has performed His word that He spoke; for I have
risen up in the place of David my father, and 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).
2Ch 6:11 Therein I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of Yahweh,
which He made with the children of Israel-
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.
“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.
2Ch 6:12 He stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the
assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands-
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.
2Ch 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)-
18 out of 21 occurrences, the Hebrew word translated "scaffold" is
translated "laver". The huge podium was perhaps basin shaped. This
confirms the suggestion on 2 Chron. 4:15 that the laver with the 12 oxen
beneath it was really a statement of Solomon's power over the 12 tribes of
Israel, with them serving him and being his power base.
2Ch 6:14 He said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like You, in
heaven or on earth; You Who keep covenant and loving kindness 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.
2Ch 6:15 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-
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.
2Ch 6:16 Now therefore, Yahweh the God of Israel, keep with Your servant
David my father that which You 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 in My law as you have walked
before Me-
He overlooks the condition as being that he personally must be
obedient. But he just slightly twists this, to make the conditionality
dependent upon Israel's obedience rather than his personal obedience.
2Ch 6:17 Now therefore, Yahweh the God of Israel, let Your word be
verified which You spoke to Your servant David-
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.
2Ch 6:18 But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven
and the heaven of heavens can’t contain You; how much less this house
which 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.
2Ch 6:19 Yet have respect for the prayer of Your servant and to his
supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which
Your servant prays before You-
I noted on :3 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.
2Ch 6:20 that Your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even
toward the place where you have said that You would put Your name; 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).
2Ch 6:21 Listen to the petitions of Your servant and of Your people Israel
when they shall pray toward this place. Yes, hear from Your dwelling
place, even from heaven; and when You hear, forgive-
2Ch 6:22 If a man sin 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-
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 was not somehow from then on conditional upon the
temple.
2Ch 6:23 then hear from heaven, and do, and judge your servants, bringing
retribution to the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and
justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness-
2Ch 6:24 If Your people Israel be struck down before the enemy because
they have sinned against You, and shall turn again and confess Your name,
and pray and make supplication before 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 :25. 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.
Who God is, as expressed in His Name, is an
imperative to prepare ourselves to meet Him in judgment. The confession of
the Name is paralleled with repentance here. If Israel sin and repent
''and confess Your Name", they will be
forgiven. But instead of ''confess thy name'' we expect ''confess their
sins: the point being that to confess the name is effectively to confess
sins. The name is the characteristics of Yahweh. The more we meditate upon
them, the more we will naturally be lead to a confession of our sins, the
deeper we will sense the gap between those principles and our own
character. Likewise in 2 Chron. 12:6 the statement that ''the Lord is
righteous'' is effectively a confession of sin. And thus we are not to
bear or take the Name of Yahweh called upon us at baptism in vain- the
realty of the implications of the name are not to be lost upon us.
2Ch 6:25 then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel,
and bring them again to the land which You gave to them and to their
fathers-
See on :24. The restoration to their land was to be because they, or
those who remained in the land, would pray to God in the temple (:24).
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.
2Ch 6:26 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.
2Ch 6:27 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 Chron. 5:3, Solomon was speaking in the seventh 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.
2Ch 6:28 If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight or
mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land
of their cities; whatever plague or 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.
2Ch 6:29 whatever prayer and supplication be made by any man, or by all
Your people Israel who shall know every man his own plague and his own
sorrow of heart, and shall 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...”.
Solomon, the man with every available pleasure, laments that his days are full of sorrow and grief and he can't sleep peacefully at night (Ecc. 2:23). Yet Solomon had prayed that when God's people were in grief and sorrow because of their sins, they could pray to God using his temple, and be forgiven and have their grief assuaged. Yet in Ecc. 2:23, Solomon laments that all his days are spent in grief and sorrows (s.w.). The way out of the depression with which he ended his days was repentance and acceptance of God's free grace and forgiveness. But he refused to do this, and turned his heart away from Yahweh.
We are forgiven on account of the fact we truly sorrow for our sins, knowing them as our own sore and our own grief (2 Chron. 6:29,30). The Lord carried our sorrows, i.e. our sins. It is only these sins, for which we have sorrowed, that He carried. This is why we need to appreciate that sin is serious.
2Ch 6:30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place and forgive, and render
to each man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; (for You,
even You only, know the hearts of 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.
Rabshakeh confirmed the threatened destruction of Jerusalem with a
letter which Hezekiah took “before the Lord”. His first response was not
to turn to Egypt; he’d learnt the wrongness of that. He went to the house
of the Lord. Whilst we are always in God’s presence, there is surely a
sense in which coming into His presence through prayer is drawing yet
closer to Him. And so it was with the special presence of YHWH in the
temple at that time. Hezekiah was aware that YHWH ‘dwells between the
cherubim” (2 Kings 19:15). Presumably standing before the ark, Hezekiah
“spread out” the letter (2 Kings 19:14). The Hebrew word translated
‘spread out’ is the same as that usually used about how the wings of the
cherubim were ‘spread out’ over the ark (Ex. 25:20; 37:9). It’s also the
word used in Solomon’s prophecy of how repentant people would spread out
their hands in the temple at the time of the punishment for their sins,
and receive forgiveness and help: “Whatever prayer, whatever plea is made
by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction
and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands in this house, then hear
from heaven your dwelling place and forgive” (2 Chron. 6:29,30). And
Hezekiah would also have been only too aware of Isaiah’s judgment against
Judah of a few years earlier: “When you spread out your hands, I will hide
my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen”
(Is. 1:15). But Hezekiah summoned his faith in God’s forgiveness, and
spread out his hands as he spread out the letter. He showed his deep
repentance, and his faith in forgiveness to such an extent that he was
bold enough to ask God for deliverance. Faith in forgiveness of our sins
is perhaps one of the hardest things to believe in- strangely enough,
seeing that God delights in forgiveness.
2Ch 6:31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways, so long as 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 mayest 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.
2Ch 6:32 Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of Your people
Israel, when he shall come from a far country for Your great name’s sake
and because of Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm; when they shall
come and pray toward this house-
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. 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.
2Ch 6:33 then hear from heaven, even from 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 and fear You, as does Your people Israel,
and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by
Your name-
As discussed on :32, 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.
His prayer 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. 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.
2Ch 6:34 If Your people go out to battle against their enemies, by
whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city
which You have chosen, and 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.
2Ch 6:35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and
uphold their case-
"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.
2Ch 6:36 If they sin against You (for there is no man who sins not) and
You are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry
them away captive to a land 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.
2Ch 6:37 yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are
carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to You in the land
of their captivity saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and
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.
2Ch 6:38 if they return to You with all their heart and with all their
soul in the land of their captivity to where they have carried them
captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers and to
the city which You have chosen, and toward 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.
Daniel understood that after 70 years Jerusalem must be restored; but
he earnestly prayed for their forgiveness so that this would
happen (Dan. 9:2 cp. 19). Perhaps he opened his window and prayed towards
Jerusalem exactly because he wanted to fulfil 2 Chron. 6:37,38: “If they
shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and
turn, and pray unto thee… toward their land… and toward the city which thou
hast chosen”. He knew that repentance was a precondition for the promised
restoration to occur.
2Ch 6:39 then hear from heaven, even from Your dwelling place, their
prayer and their petitions, and uphold their case and forgive Your people
who have sinned against You-
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 now under Absalom's
control. But he believes Yahweh is 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.
2Ch 6:40 Now, my God, let, I beg You, Your eyes be open, and let Your ears
be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place-
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). "Attentive" is the word used by Nehemiah in
Neh.
1:11
"Lord,
I beg You, let Your ear be attentive now to the prayer of Your servant".
"Attentive" is s.w. 2 Chron. 6:40; 7:15, where we read of God being
"attentive" to prayers offered in the temple. But Nehemiah
was praying in
exile, not in the temple. The desperation of the situation made him learn a
lesson- that God wasn't only accessible in the temple. This may sound
obvious to us, but it wasn't for those used to the temple cult. The lesson
is that God uses punishments for sin, hard situations, to break our
paradigms and lead us to a greater spirituality- if we will follow. S.w.
also Neh. 9:34- Israel weren't "attentive" to God's word, but in their
time of need they hoped He would be "attentive" to their word of prayer.
And He was. His grace isn't 'measure for measure'; He treats us out of
proportion to our attentiveness to Him. We must show the same grace.
2Ch 6:41 Now therefore arise, Yahweh God, into Your resting place, You and
the ark of Your strength-
The same root word for "Noah" is found here, where the ark of God
'rested' or 'Noah-ed' in the tabernacle. When the ark 'rested' on Ararat
['holy hill'] the same word is used (Gen. 8:4). A case can be made that
Ararat was in fact Mount Zion, where the ark was later to 'rest' in the
temple. The 'resting' of the ark was therefore the fulfilment of God's
intention in Noah- God's salvation is described as a "promised rest" (Heb.
4:10,11), and it was prefigured in the final resting of the ark. Thus the
final salvation of God is to be understood in terms of God 'resting' with
us, in us, within His ark. He labours and struggles too... for us. And
those struggles will only be at rest when we are saved in the last day; a
Father's eternal struggle for His children. The 'rest' spoken of in Noah's
name was thus a rest for God. Noah's going out of the ark into a cleansed,
pristine world was therefore symbolic of our going forth into the Kingdom
at Christ's return.
Let Your priests, Yahweh God, be clothed with
salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in goodness-
2Ch 6:42 Yahweh God, don’t turn away the face of Your anointed. Remember
Your graces to David Your servant-
Solomon's zealous organization of the temple worship was an exact
fulfillment of the order laid down by his father David (1 Kings 7:51; 2
Chron. 7:6; 8:14). Solomon wanted God to bless the temple as a sign of His
pleasure with David his father (e.g. 2 Chron. 6:42). Solomon's personal
enthusiasm for service to God became subsumed by the huge psychological
spiritual dominance of his parents. His zeal for the temple was almost
purely a result of living out his father's expectation; he almost admits
as much in 1 Kings 8:20: "I am risen up in the room of David my
father... and have (therefore, in the context) built an house for the
name of the Lord".
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