“He prayed, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today. “And now, O Lord, God of Israel, carry out the additional promise you made to your servant David, my father. For you said to him, ‘If your descendants guard their behavior and faithfully follow my Law as you have done, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’ Now, O Lord, God of Israel, fulfill this promise to your servant David. “But will God really live on earth among people? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you. May you watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have said you would put your name. May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive. “If someone wrongs another person and is required to take an oath of innocence in front of your altar at this Temple, then hear from heaven and judge between your servants—the accuser and the accused. Pay back the guilty as they deserve. Acquit the innocent because of their innocence. “If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn back and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave to them and to their ancestors. “If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and if they pray toward this Temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path, and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession. “If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is— and if your people Israel pray about their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart. Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors. “In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands when they hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name. “If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to you by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name, then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause. “If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far away or near. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’ If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their captivity and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name— then hear their prayers and their petitions from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. “O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place. “And now arise, O Lord God, and enter your resting place, along with the Ark, the symbol of your power. May your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation; may your loyal servants rejoice in your goodness. O Lord God, do not reject the king you have anointed. Remember your unfailing love for your servant David.””
2 Chronicles 6:14-42 NLT
As we read the invocation surrounding Solomon’s temple, it is hard not to do so knowing that there are three basic details. First is that it was, in essence, a concession for a relationship with God. God does not need a house on earth, nor is it his desire. Secondly, the temple would be destroyed because of the idolatry of the Jewish people. Lastly, the temple system was replaced by God, who installed humans as the true temple. Interestingly, both of the final points have led to a clash of systems. The temple system, intending to bring man closer to God, actually created its own sense of idolatry when not allowed to collapse under the weight of the Messiah. Indeed, the nation of Israel continues to reject the Messiah but still longs for the restoration of temple worship. This is interesting if you consider that the analogy in the NT is that Christ’s people are the temple. In this light, Solomon’s prayer actually reads inverted. It repeatedly says that if men focus on themselves, then God should bless them. If there is continuity in Gods examples, then it is no wonder that temple worship did not protect people from idolatry. It encouraged it. This trend continues today with self-help Christianity. Solomon’s prayer may have been uniting, and even honored by God for a moment, but it shouldn’t be prescriptive for us. Our worship should move outward from the temple within, rather than inward to the temple without.
Temple’s Purpose: A concession for a relationship with God, not a necessity for God.
Temple’s Fate: Destroyed due to idolatry and replaced by humans as the true temple.
Temple’s Impact: Fostered idolatry by focusing on the temple rather than God, a trend mirrored in modern self-help Christianity.
JOSH McGARY.COM 