Old Sandals

Now Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”

This is ironic.  If the daughter of Pharaoh was unfit to dwell in the City of David, how was she fit to be Solomon’s wife?

Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord.  King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

It was not necessary at all for Solomon to offer these many sacrifices.  As the prophet Isaiah would say later, “Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.”  And yet, the Lord looks on the heart.  And Solomon’s heart, at least on this day, was in the right place.

When they 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 have committed wickedness’; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: 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. 

King Solomon prays in a prophetic way, knowing how easy it is for the Lord’s people to be unfaithful.  “When they sin against you”, he prays (not if they sin against you), “…yet when they come to themselves and repent, …then hear from heaven.”

 

Indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever”, that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

In charismatic churches especially, there is often talk about the ‘presence of the Lord’.  But it is so much more than church talk.  It is the daily realization that from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; that we live and move and have our being in God, whose mercies do indeed endure forever.

Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of God: the altar of gold and the tables on which was the showbread;  the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn in the prescribed manner in front of the inner sanctuary, with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold, of purest gold; the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the censers of pure gold. As for the entry of the sanctuary, its inner doors to the Most Holy Place, and the doors of the main hall of the temple, were gold.

King Solomon felt that, as my Mom used to say, “the best is none too good”, especially where the Lord’s temple was concerned. He literally spared no expense in its construction. And yet, in the final analysis, it was just a building; it would in time succomb to the elements, and to the ravages of a foreign army.

Dear Christian, if you have surrendered your life to the Master Builder, you, like Solomon’s edifice, are a temple of Holy Spirit of God. Yet, unlike that ancient temple, that which God is building inside you is incorruptible; it will endure to eternity.

Ought we not strive to give Him our very best?

And he made the Most Holy Place. Its length was according to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits. He overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold.  The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold, and he overlaid the upper area with gold. In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim, fashioned by carving, and overlaid them with gold.

The Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies as it was also called, was the innermost chamber in the ancient tabernacle, where once a year God Himself would descend above the mercy seat, and meet  with the high priest on the Day of Atonement. King Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem after the pattern of the tabernacle in the wilderness.

The glorious, mysterious and wonder-ful gospel is that we—you and me gathered here in the name of and for the honor of Christ our Savior—are now that most holy place.  The Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of every believer. It is a truth far above our ability to grasp, yet nonetheless true according to God’s revelation: the Incarnation goes on…

And the temple which I build will be great,  for our God is greater than all gods.  But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?

Solomon had it straight.  Can he keep it that way? His destiny depends on it.

It is not that Solomon, even with all his wisdom, nor any one of us can earn our salvation.  But we can choose.  Choosing isn’t the same thing as earning.

Then God said to Solomon: “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life—but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king—wisdom and knowledge are granted to you.”

It is interesting that God says, “…nor have you asked long life”.  A long, happy life would seem to be on the top of anyone’s list, were one able to submit such a list to the Almighty.  God is not, of course,  concerned with granting our requests carte blanche.  His plans for us are eternal, not temporal.

As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.

The promise of God to Solomon was not unconditional. If you seek Him. It was conditional.  Part of a two-sided covenant.