CHAPTER 6

(1004 B.C.)

SOLOMONS MESSAGE

¹Then said Solomon, The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick darkness (Solomon may have taken this idea from the fact of Gods appearance in darkness at Sinai [Ex. 20:21]).

²But I have built an House of habitation for You, and a place for Your dwelling for ever (after this Message, the Lord would, in fact, occupy this House).

³And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood (this was a great moment in the history of Israel, as should be obvious!).

⁴And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, Who has with His hands fulfilled that which He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,

⁵Since the day that I brought forth My people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the Tribes of Israel to build an House in, that My Name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over My people Israel (for approximately 500 years God had not chosen any particular place among Israel where a House should be built for Himself, nor had He chosen any man to be a permanent ruler over Israel. Now, He makes it clear that He has chosen Jerusalem as the place of His headquarters on Earth, and David as the one through whom all the future kings of Israel should come [II Sam., Chpt. 7; I Chron., Chpt. 17]. This makes it clear that God did not choose Saul as He chose David):

⁶But I have chosen Jerusalem, that My Name might be there; and have chosen David to be over My people Israel.

⁷Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an House for the Name of the LORD God of Israel.

⁸But the LORD said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in your heart to build an House for My Name, you did well in that it was in your heart (the Lord was pleased with Davids motives):

⁹Notwithstanding you shall not build the house; but your son which shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the House for My Name (Solomon knew exactly what the Lord had told his father David).

¹⁰The LORD therefore has performed His Word that He has spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the House for the Name of the LORD God of Israel.

¹¹And in it have I put the Ark, wherein is the Covenant of the LORD, that He made with the Children of Israel (the Law of Moses).

SOLOMONS PRAYER OF DEDICATION

¹²And he stood before the Altar of the LORD (Brazen Altar) in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands:

¹³For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long (7 feet), and five cubits broad (7 feet), and three cubits high (4 feet), and had set it in the midst of the Court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward Heaven,

¹⁴And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like You in the heaven, nor in the Earth; which keeps Covenant, and shows mercy unto Your servants, who walk before You with all their hearts (no man will ever be able to say, in all eternity, that God has not kept His part of every agreement with men or that He has not fulfilled every Promise to them):

¹⁵You Who have kept with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him; and spoke with Your mouth, and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.

¹⁶Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that your children take heed to their way to walk in My Law, as you have walked before Me (regrettably, Solomon himself, even after praying this prayer, did not take heed to walk in Gods Law).

¹⁷Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let Your Word be verified, which You have spoken unto Your servant David.

¹⁸But will God in very deed dwell with men on the Earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built! (Most definitely, the Lord will indeed dwell with men on this Earth. Rev., Chpts. 21-22 proclaim this fact.)

¹⁹Have respect therefore to the prayer of Your servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which Your servant prays before You (prayer includes every thought and word from the heart that is Godward):

²⁰That Your eyes may be open upon this House day and night, upon the place whereof You have said that You would put Your Name there; to hearken unto the prayer which Your servant prays toward this place.

MERCY AND GRACE

²¹Hearken therefore unto the supplications of Your servant, and of Your people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear You from Your dwelling place, even from Heaven; and when You hear, forgive (possibly one could say that the great thought of Solomon now is that the center and core of all worship is prayer).

²²If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before Your Altar in this House;

²³Then hear You from Heaven, and do, and judge Your servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness (vindicate the righteous).

²⁴And if Your people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against You; and shall return and confess Your Name, and pray and make supplication before You in this House;

²⁵Then hear You from the heavens and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which You gave to them and to their fathers (in this prayer, Solomon seems to sense the future of Israel prophetically; sin is the only reason that Israel was ever defeated; in fact, sin is to blame for all the troubles among men; as well, the Lord gave the land of Canaan to Israel, and not the Arabs, even as this Verse proclaims).

²⁶When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess Your Name, and turn from their sin, when You do afflict them;

²⁷Then hear You from Heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, and of Your people Israel, when You have taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon Your land, which You have given unto Your people for an inheritance. (Praying toward the Temple, Jerusalem, and this land is referred to eight times in this prayer. It was done so because, at that particular time, that is where God dwelt. Today, in this great dispensation of Grace, it doesnt really matter which direction a person faces while praying. The reason is that the Lord, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, now lives in the heart of Born-Again man [I Cor. 3:16], wherever such a man is, and not in some particular temple or building. This was all made possible by the Cross.

As well, the land between the River Euphrates and the Mediterranean, and from the Red Sea on the south to Hamath on the north, is the only land promised in all Scripture for all the Tribes of Israel. Theories which teach that America and England are new Promised Lands for Israel are all error. There is no hint of such in Scripture.)

PESTILENCE

²⁸If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be:

²⁹Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Your people Israel, when everyone shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this House:

³⁰Then hear You from Heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart You know; (for You only know the hearts of the children of men:)

³¹That they may fear You, to walk in Your ways, so long as they live in the land which You gave unto our fathers (in the absence of a healthy fear of God is involved the absence of a healing hopefulness).

GENTILES

³²Moreover concerning the stranger (Gentile), which is not of Your people Israel, but is come from a far country for Your great Names sake, and Your mighty hand, and Your stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this House;

³³Then hear You from the Heavens, even from Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger (Gentile) calls to You for; that all people of the Earth may know Your Name, and fear You, as does Your people Israel, and may know that this House which I have built is called by Your Name. (Solomon, in his wisdom, did not forget the Gentiles, whom God had in mind to bless from the very beginning of His calling of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All nations were to be blessed through Israel and their seed.

As well, this would imply the preaching of the Gospel, for how could individuals come to the God of Israel, if they do not hear? [Rom. 10:9-17; I Cor. 1:18-24].

In fact, in the Millennium and the New Earth, all nations will go up to Jerusalem to pray and to worship, exactly as they do now [Isa. 2:2-4; Zech. 8:23].)

WAR

³⁴If Your people go out to war against their enemies by the way that You shall send them, and they pray unto You toward this city which You have chosen, and the House which I have built for Your Name;

³⁵Then hear You from the Heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause (God does maintain the cause of His people, as long as they live right, but when sin is committed, He Himself becomes their Judge and metes out the penalty for sin).

³⁶If they sin against You, (for there is no man which sins not,) and You be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near (Solomon was right; all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God [Rom. 3:23]);

³⁷Yet if they bethink themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto You in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly;

³⁸If they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which You gave unto their fathers, and toward the city (Jerusalem) which You have chosen, and toward the House which I have built for Your Name:

³⁹Then hear You from the heavens, even from Your Dwelling Place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your People who have sinned against You (this speaks of true, heartfelt Repentance, which God will always honor!).

⁴⁰Now, my God, let, I beseech You, Your eyes be open, and let Your ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

⁴¹Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into 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. (The word Saints in the Hebrew reads men of grace, that is, those who are subjects of the Grace of God. This plainly shows that those in Old Testament times were under Grace, as well as we are in New Testament times. Actually, everyone who has been saved has been saved by Grace, for there is no other way that an individual can be saved [Eph. 2:8]. And yet, Grace, as we know it under the New Dispensation, which came by Jesus Christ, means that it was all made possible by the Cross. Christ is always the Source, while the Cross is the Means.)

⁴²O LORD God, turn not away the face of Your anointed (Gods Anointed is the Messiah; every blessing that we receive comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us at the Cross): remember the mercies of David Your servant.