Bible Commentaries

The Dedication of the Temple

1 Kings 8:5). The counterpart of this we find in the epistle to the 1 Kings 8:10). So intense was the manifestation of the divine presence, "that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord" ( 1 Kings 8:11). It was precisely the same in the case of Moses, concerning whom we read, "And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." The conclusion of man's work would seem to be the beginning of God's; in other words, when man can go no further, God takes up the line of 1 Kings 8:17). Solomon could not but remember this, for David had made a special communication to him upon the subject—"And David said to 1 Kings 8:18). Thus the purpose was commended as if itself had been a temple. We must not neglect the great principle which is suggested by this commendation. We shall be credited with doing many things which we only purposed to do. If we make a vow and indolently fail to fulfil it, then that vow shall be reckoned against us, and it shall be turned into an element increasing the severity of our judgment; but if for some reason, over which we have no control, we are unable to complete our wishes, or embody our intentions in actual fact, God will look upon those intentions as being themselves acceptable, and he will commend us as if we had brought them to maturity. "The Lord is very pitiful and kind." The Lord is infinitely generous in all his construction of human motive and purpose. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he reading the heart; and knowing how human life is limited by uncontrollable circumstances, it shall be found at the last that many who were by no means conspicuous for Christian activity have really been amongst the leaders of the age in which they were unknown. A purpose will be regarded in heaven as equivalent to a prayer, and the answer to that prayer may come through others rather than to and through the suppliant himself. One man prays and another receives the answer, as one man sows and another reaps; thus the interblending of human interests and relations is again and again illustrated from a thousand various points.

The temple, so beautiful and so costly, is not to be associated with anything that is merely religiously mystic. This is not a tent of superstition, nor a habitation created for the purpose of indulging spiritual romances which can never have any bearing upon actual human life. Throughout his prayer we discover on the part of Solomon how thoroughly he identifies the house of God with all human interests. We have seen before that the house of God is really the house of 1 Kings 8:27)

How natural it is that human imagination should be confounded by the impossibility of the infinite God locating himself within finite space. We do not consider that it is because God is infinite that he can so to say thus become finite. The finite never can become infinite, but it would seem to belong to infinite perfection to adapt itself to human limitation and necessity. God himself has addressed the ages in a tone precisely coincident with the language of Solomon: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?" Solomon was therefore strictly within the line of revelation when he propounded the solemn inquiry. Everything depends upon our point of view in considering this great question of God's condescension. Working from the point of our mere reverence, it would seem to delight us to put away the idea that God can trouble himself with any creature, how radiant and noble soever, which he has created: between the highest angel and himself there must always be the distance of infinity: so our very reverence may be turned into an instrument of temptation, or may be so perverted as to exclude from us all the blessings of heaven. This is a very subtle temptation, and is to be guarded against with no ordinary watchfulness. Strange as it may appear, man may think himself able to evade certain responsibilities by reducing his own dignity to a minimum and commenting in a tone of self-deprecation upon his littleness and worthlessness. On the other hand, the Christian teacher must insist that the very greatness of God constitutes no small part of his ability to accommodate himself to all the circumstances which mark the history of right. Let us therefore rather dwell upon the goodness of God than upon his majesty: upon his purpose in creating us, rather than upon his contempt for the things which he has created: whilst it is right to suppress anything like vanity concerning our own importance, it is also right to suppose that the purpose of God in our creation is his best warrant for coming to us in our insignificance and humiliation.

One might well think that the millennium had set in with the solemn dedication of the temple, and that all things would begin anew, and certainly that the time of tragedy, rebellion, and suffering had for ever passed away. We find however that Solomon orders his prayer in such a manner and tone as to recognise distinctly the fact that all things which had ever occurred which could try the faith, the patience, and the virtue of men would occur again and again to the end of the chapter. Thus we find in the prayer such words as these:—"If any man trespass against his neighbour;" "When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy"; "When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain; "If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities;" "If thy people go out to battle against their enemy;" "If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not)" ( 1 Kings 8:31-46). These are remarkable words to have been used upon such an occasion as the dedication of the temple. They show a wonderful conception of human life on the part of the royal suppliant He does not say, Now that this temple is erected there will be no more plague, nor sin, nor war, nor difficulty in human life: God will now from this point of time so order things that there will be no more sin, nor crying, nor pain, nor death; this temple shall be as heaven upon the earth. No; on the contrary: though the temple stands as a monument of human piety and as a fulfilment of a divine promise, human life will go on in all the variety of its experience much as it had gone on from the beginning. What then, is there nothing in the point of history thus established by the building of this holy house? Henceforth it is to be understood that whatever happens admits of religious treatment, and is to be taken to the temple itself for consideration and adjustment God does not prevent many things which are even evil and distressing; but he overrules all things to high ends. We cannot enter into the reasons which limit what may be termed the preventive ministry of God: we wonder indeed that Satan is permitted to live: that he is not slain in the night-time and prevented from ever going about as a roaring lion: why this does not take place we cannot tell: to such enigmas there is no reply. Our satisfaction is to know that even Satan is in the hands of the living God, and that he may be used in some mysterious way for assisting the spiritual education of the world. It is something to know that our real necessities are named in prayer, and are regarded by wise and great men as subjects for divine treatment and blessing. It does the heart good to hear one's own peculiar sorrow named in the prayer which is offered in the great congregation. A tender nearness is thus realised without the irritation of conscious personality. We feel that the pastor who thus prays understands human nature, looks upon human history with wise eyes, and knows exactly what blessings to ask for when he pleads with the king of heaven. Prayers that consist exclusively of adoration may exalt our sense of reverence; but prayers that descend into the details of personal suffering and loss come most healingly to the heart with all the gracious comfort of heaven. Such was the prayer of Solomon. The people who heard it heard their own history treated from a religious point of view; and they must have been conscious that judgment did not lie far from the language of entreaty.

Solomon recognises God as the ruler of providence and the controller of all nature. He is not afraid to trace the absence of rain to an ordinance of the Most High. A perusal of the history of his own people would make it clear that from early times God had been recognised as ruling over the elements of nature—"I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass." "Thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron." "Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains." Not only is God regarded as ruling over providence and nature, but as penetrating human hearts and reading human motives—"Give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men)." If there is one truth in the holy record presented more consistently than another it is this power of God to read the human soul. "The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts." "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off." Nor is this a discovery on the part of 2 Chronicles 5:5) and brought to the new temple. The choirs of the priests and Levites met in their fullest force, arrayed in white linen. Then, it may be, for the first time, was heard the noble hymn, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in." The trumpeters and singers were "as one" in their mighty Hallelujah—"O praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever" ( 2 Chronicles 5:13). Throughout the whole scene the person of king Solomon is the one central object, compared with whom even priests and prophets are for the time subordinate. Abstaining, doubtless, from distinctively priestly 2 Chronicles 6:32; 2 Chronicles 7:8)—all were assembled, rejoicing in the actual glory and the bright hopes of Israel. For the king himself then, or at a later period (the narrative of1Kings9,2Chronicles7 leaves it doubtful) there was a strange contrast to the glory of that day. There was a danger near at hand.

Prayer

Almighty God, we bless thee that thy tabernacle is with men upon the earth. Thou hast a house even here, in the very world which has been spoiled and darkened by sin. Thou hast not forsaken the prodigal earth; still there remain upon it proofs of thy daily care, thy continual and abounding love; still, therefore, may we say, The earth is the Lord"s, and the fulness thereof, and the fulness of the sea is also thine. We thank thee for the house which is as a strong tower to which we may continually resort. When thou dost shut the door, no man can open it; when thou hast enclosed us within the rock of thy protection, no enemy can come nigh unto us. Have us ever in thy holy keeping; give us to feel that thou dost so value us, through Jesus Christ thy Son, that no hair of our head shall be hurt, nor shall the smell of fire pass upon us in the furnace of trial. If thou wilt thus comfort us, thy comfort will become our strength; we shall be inspired by it, and repay all the tender solace by fuller obedience and more urgent industry; so shalt thou have answer to thine own reply: we pray unto thee, and thou dost answer us, and we return our reply in life well spent because of the inspiration and sustenance of the Holy Ghost. Our whole life is thine: the shape and purpose thereof thou knowest, and the end of it, soon or late, stands clearly before thee. Thou dost see the end from the beginning. There is no beginning to thee, nor is there any end. Thou sittest upon the circle of eternity. All things are set before thee now and evermore. Enable us, therefore, without urgency and impatience, to await the will of God, and to do that will with all love, simplicity, and earnestness; knowing that whether the Son of man come early or late, at midday or at midnight, we shall be ready, by the grace which he has given, to begin the eternal feast at his bidding. We commend one another to thy loving care. Thou knowest what a trial life is to many: how heavy its burdens, how entangled its perplexities, how stinging its disappointments, and how its fairest buds are often blighted and withered ere they be fully shaped. Thou knowest all these things. Thou knowest what medicine we have need of to heal our diseases, what comforts we specially need to overcome the severest distresses, and nothing wilt thou withhold from us that is good for the upholding and strengthening of our frail life. The Lord's own morning shine upon us; the light that is above the brightness of the sun make day for us, and that day shall be as the summer of heaven. We pray now and always in the sweet name of Jesus, the great name Jesus Christ, the glorious name: Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Herein we know not the meaning of all we say, but the saying of it, under the inspiration of thy Spirit, makes our hearts warm, and makes life worth living. Amen.