Ask God to open your mind, heart
and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
Read 2
Chronicles 7-9 & John
13:1-17
To discover:
As you read consider the traits of
Solomon’s kingdom.
To ponder:
After Solomon’s prayer fire from
heaven consumed the offerings (as 1 Kgs 18v38-39). With the manifestation of
God’s glory that may have remained in the temple throughout, God therefore
signalled his approval by two means. The people rightly worshipped face-down,
joining the musicians in thanking God for his goodness and love. Worship is always
the most fitting response to a revelation of God’s glory and special presence,
whether in Jesus, in the conviction of his word, or witnessing him act within the
church.
The
king and people then offered 44,000 animals - a huge display of devotion and of
the necessity of atonement if God is to dwell amongst his people. The
implication is that this “dedicated” the temple to God, perhaps by reflecting
the devotion with which it had been built, or by making atonement for its
defilement by sin so the God could dwell there. The choir and orchestra
continued their praise with instruments David had ensured were made just for
this purpose. His grasp of the importance of praise moved him to ensure music
ministry was properly resourced.
See notes on 1
Kings 8v62-9v28 for 1 Chronicles 7v7-8v18 which is almost identical. Having
dedicate the temple, Solomon “consecrated” the courtyard. Again, this seemed to
be by numerous sacrifices. This may have taken days during the two week
festival. Some time after that God appeared to Solomon at night, presumably in
a vision or dream, affirming his choice of the temple, but also warning Solomon
(and by implication his descendents) that if he turned away, God would uproot
Israel and reject his temple. Unique to the Chronicles account is God’s promise
that if after suffering his judgement the people humbly pray and turn from
their sin, he will forgive them and heal the land. This would remind the
post-exilic readers of this need if they were to see the kingdom thrive again,
and reminds Christians that with such repentance they will receive a healed creation.
Although our own land is not promised us as Israel’s was and we are not under a
covenant that promises fruitfulness for faithfulness, God does afflict the land
of other nations because of sin (Lev 18v24-28) suggesting these principles may
still apply where many within a nation display true repentance.
It seems the
building of the temple and palace took twenty years. It is only having
completed this work that Solomon rebuilt other parts of the kingdom and
establishing its territories. There is a lesson here about prioritising the
building of the church (see Haggai). We read too that the priests and Levites
didn’t deviate from Solomon’s commands “in any matter,” a model for us before
Christ. And Solomon’s concern for what was right was such that he would not
even have his Egyptian wife live in David’s palace because it had been made
holy by the ark’s presence, and so, in not being an Israelite, she would defile
it.
2 Chronicles 9
is almost identical to 1 Kings 10 (see notes there). The Queen of Sheba is
“overwhealmed” by Solomon’s wisdom and greatness, praising God for his love in
giving Israel
such a king. This is followed by an account of Solomon’s wealth and
achievements with a note that he was “greater in riches and wisdom” than all other
“kings of the earth,” and that they came to hear his wisdom. This helps us
understand why his death is then recorded with no mention of his apostacy. The
author knows his readers are aware of these details from other sources.
Instead, his purpose is to portray the ways in which David and Solomon
exemplified ideal kingship as a model of what Israel were to look for in the
ultimate fulfilment of the Davidic covenant (1 Chr 17). The attraction of the
world to Solomon’s wise and righteous rule and the splendour, security and
prosperity of his kingdom centred on the worship of God and reliance upon his
presence, all patterns the coming kingdom
of Christ, whose rule we already
experience.
Praying it home:
Praise God for the incomprehensible
glory of the kingdom he is establishing in Jesus. Pray that he would grant you
an ongoing spirit of praise and thanksgiving for his goodness and love in
response.
Thinking further: The Temple
With all its detail that seems
quite obsolete to the modern reader, 1 and 2 Chronicles affirm how critical the
temple was for Israel.
It was the place of God’s attentive presence on earth, where atonement was made
so that his holy presence could remain within Israel
without breaking out against the Israelites for their sin. It was therefore
essential to God’s ongoing fulfilment of his promises, and a constant reminder
to Israel of
their need to worship God with praise and obedience, and of God’s readiness to
act for them if only they would call upon him. Indeed, its furnishings were
designed to bring home God’s holiness and majesty together with his goal of
reversing the curse and establishing a new Eden
for his people. The destruction of the temple by the Babylonians (and the
second temple by the Romans) was therefore profoundly symbolic. It demonstrated
that God had withdrawn his presence and so his protection and blessing, giving
the appearance that his promises and eternal kingdom would never be fulfilled.
How significant then, when the Word was said to have “tabernacle” amongst us
(Jn 1v14) and Jesus taught that his body is now the temple (Jn 2v13-22). It
meant he was the locus of God’s attentive presence in the world, the place of
atonement, and the centre for worship to whom we should look in prayer.
Moreover, he was the emobodiment of God’s holiness and majesty and the
firstfruits of the new creation. The church is only described as the temple in
the sense that it is united to him and so Christ’s spiritual body. It therefore
fulfils all these roles not apart from Christ, but in the sense that it is
filled with the Spirit of Christ and so looks people to Christ (Eph 1v22-23,
2v19-22). So the Bible ends with the New Jerusalem, which is the people of God,
not having a temple because the LORD and the Lamb are its temple (Rev 21v22-27).
In other words, there is no need of a building to house their presence and keep
it separate from a sinful people because sin will be no more, and so God and
Christ will be directly present, filling the entire city which is described
with temple-like language. The point is that God will then dwell permanently
with his people, ensuring their protection, blessing and the fulfilment of his
promises in the Eden-like new creation.
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