1 and 2 Kings - Lesson 5

Dr. John Oswalt
1 & 2 Kings
th630-05
Dedicating the Temple
Lesson Transcript

As we continue our study of the Book of Kings, we've come to one of the great passages in the book, and that is chapter eight, the dedication of the temple. The work has been finished. The years have passed. We're now in the 11th year of Solomon, and we're at the time of the fall festival, the time of the Feast of so-called Tabernacles. When I was a child, they referred to it as the Feast of Booze. And I always wondered, "What is this drinking festival about in the Bible?" But they meant Booths, and we're talking about tents, lean-tos, shacks, the kinds of things that the people lived in during those 40 years in the wilderness. And now as we come to the end of the harvest season, there's no time to go back and forth between the fields and the village. So people would simply camp out in the harvest field, especially the grape harvest where it's necessary to get the grapes right at the correct moment.

And so, this festival, the Festival of Tents or Tabernacles or Booths, is the climax of the agricultural year, September, October, just about the end of September, the beginning of October for us. And it's also then the time of the New Year. Now in the Near East, there were two New Year festivals celebrated from one country to another one. One New Year is in April, end of March, beginning of April, the beginning of the harvest year. That's when Passover occurred. The other New Year is at the end of the harvest season and the beginning then of the next cycle, if you will.

So this feast, this moment when the temple is being dedicated is the end, the end of the harvest season, but also the beginning, the beginning of the new cycle. I think that's very appropriate. In one sense, this is the end. This is the end of that period of exodus, of wilderness wandering, of settling in the land, of judges, of the establishment of kingdom. It's the end of that. And it's the beginning of a new period, a new period of great possibilities, but also a new period of great danger. And it's at this moment that the temple is completed and it is dedicated.

We begin with an opening ceremony in chapter eight, verses 1-21. In this opening ceremony, one of the big events is the bringing of the Ark into the Temple of the Lord. The Ark, remember has had about 20 or 25 years of uncertainty. As we mentioned in an earlier lecture, it appears that the Tabernacle of Moses was destroyed at Shiloh.

And in any case, the Ark was captured by the Philistines, but they discovered it was, in the vernacular, too hot to handle. They tried to put it in their temple as an offering to their god, and their god was found fallen down before the Ark. Eventually then, the Philistines had to get rid of the Ark. They had to get it out of there. And so, they chose a most interesting method. They put it in an oxcart, harnessed two milk cows who had recently given birth to calves to the cart, put the calves back in the barns, and said, "Let's see what happens. Will those cows leave their calves?"

And they did. And they went down the road mooing all the way. And eventually, the Ark ended up in Kiriath-Jearim. It was there for a number of years, while as I said, I believe there were competing tabernacles around. And I suspect it's because of the competition that the Ark was not placed in any one of those.

Then David conquered the, in one sense, neutral city of Jerusalem right on the border of Benjamin and Judah. It didn't really belong to any particular tribe, and he wanted to put his Ark there. So they had a great celebration and planned to move the Ark and put it in an oxcart. Hmm. That's not what the book of Exodus said, is it? But eh, it's just the Ark. And they hit a bump, and a Levite riding in the cart put out of hand to keep the Ark from tumbling over and died. David said, "Leave it right here." But then, the day came when they did it God's way.

There's a lesson there, isn't there? Do it God's way. They used the long poles to put through the rings at the corners of the box. And I suspect that the man at the end of the pole stood back as far as he could, and the man at the front of the pole stood as far ahead as he could, but they moved the Ark, and in great joy brought it to Jerusalem to a tent that David had made.

Now, after all that time, the house where God has chosen to place His name is finished, and the Ark can be brought in. That's the opening ceremony here as the Ark of the Covenant. And let me remind you, we've said it before, we'll say it again. In the temples of the day, in the Holy of Holies, there was an idol, a god made with human hands representing some force in this world. Not the case, not the case here. Here, in the Holy of Holies is a box, a beautiful box with cherubim over it. But in the box, no idol, not something made with human hands, but the tablets written with the finger of God, the tablets of the Covenant.

This is not about a means of manipulating a God for your own purposes. This is about a reminder that the God of eternity, the God who is not the cosmos, has stepped into time and space and offered a relationship, a relationship of blessing. So this moment, moment of bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the temple is a great moment, a high moment. Yes, in a sense, as I said a moment ago, it's a new beginning, a new opportunity, a new possibility that takes place here.

In the context of this opening ceremony, not only the bringing of the Ark into the temple, but a blessing in chapter eight, verses 12-21. "When the priests withdrew from the holy place, the cloud filled the temple." That reminds us of the tabernacle, doesn't it? When they completed the tabernacle, the cloud filled the temple. It reminds us of Isaiah as well. The cloud filled the temple.

What's the imagery there? What's the symbolism? I think it is the idea that ultimately, God is beyond our seeing, beyond our perception. I like what CS Lewis once said. He said, "When we see love, we will understand how pitifully helpless were our conceptions of love."

I think it's the same here, the cloud. "Oh yeah, we know about God. God's in that box." No, he isn't. No, he isn't. "The cloud filled the temple. The priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple."

Now I want to take a moment to talk about that term. The term is, in Hebrew, kabod. The B is soft and so it's pronounced as a V. Now in English, glory is something which is thin and passing and ephemeral. It's beautiful at the moment, like the glory of the sunset. And you turn to look the other way and look back, and it's gone. Or the glory of this year's 0-13 team, that was last year's 13-0 team, a glory that is fading and passing. That's not what this word conveys in Hebrew.

As I mentioned to you earlier, in Hebrew, the basic meaning is carried by the consonants. K, B, D conveys something which is weighty, something which is heavy. Thus, the liver is the kabod. It's the heaviest organ in the body. So kabod is not something thin and passing. The glory of God is His reality, His weightiness, His solidity. To run into the glory of God is like running into a brick wall.

Now I make that point because of what we find in the New Testament. Jesus, in what is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer, John chapter 17, says some interesting things. This is the night before He is to be crucified, the night before He is to be horribly humiliated. People hung on crosses did not have loin cloths. They were hung naked. And Jesus prays, "Father, glorify me with the glory that we shared before the foundation of the earth."

Oh, my goodness. In the cross, that instrument of torture and humiliation, the glory of God is to be seen? Yes, yes. Here is the reality of a God who cannot be defeated by death, the reality of a God who cannot be defeated by sin, the reality of a God who will triumph through weakness, through pain, through loss. That's glory.

And so, here in our passage, "They could not perform their duties because the glory of the Lord filled the temple." And the interesting thing about that prayer of Jesus is He says, "I have shared your glory with them." Oh, my. Is it possible that you and I could share the reality, the weightiness, the solidity, the eternity of God? Oh, yes, oh, yes, through what the temple is symbolizing. As God comes home to the temple, His glory can fill our lives.

This is the opening ceremony of the dedication. Solomon then prays. "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who with His own hand has fulfilled what He promised." Promised, promised. The God of the Old Testament is a God of promises.

Why is it that in the West we believe in the possibility of progress? Because of that book. You see, a promise necessitates a future. Will He keep His promise? Will He fulfill His promise? Yes, He will. Yes, He will. And so, we can see yesterday He made the promise, today He remained faithful, and tomorrow He fulfills His promise.

And so, Solomon begins, "He's the God who keeps His promises. He kept His promise with my father, David. Since the day I bought my people Israel out of Egypt, I've not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built so that my name might be there, but I have chosen David." Isn't that interesting? He didn't choose a city, He chose a man.

God is not interested in buildings, He's interested in people. Now I hasten to say again, this does not mean that buildings are unimportant. Spirit and matter need to be linked, but you've got to keep the priorities straight. "I didn't choose a city, I chose a man. Now then, having chosen a man, I've chosen a city and I've chosen a house. I've chosen." But it was the man, the man who came first.

You have here then this great, great picture. "My father, David, wanted to build it. God said, 'No, you can't.'" But verse 20, "The Lord has kept the promise He made. I have succeeded David, my father, and now I sit on the throne of Israel just as the Lord promised." He's trying to make a point, isn't he? "And I have built a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. I've provided," and I think this is significant as the conclusion. "I have provided a place there for the Ark, in which is the Covenant of the Lord that He made with our ancestors." What's the importance of this building? The importance of this building is the relationship lived out in faith and by faith with the living God. That's the opening ceremony.

We move then to the Prayer of Dedication. Again, one of the great, great high moments in Solomon's life. We see the man who prays this and we are moved to admiration. Again, I've said this all the way through our discussion of the narrative. "Oh, oh, all right. This is that author who thinks that Solomon could do no wrong." No, no. This is the author who's looking at Solomon and looking at him honestly in his great high moments, and looking at him honestly in the tragedies. And this is a high moment.

Now there's something that is critically absent from this prayer. There's not a word about sacrifice. "What's the temple? The temple is a place of sacrifice." No it isn't. Well, yes it is, and we'll talk about that in a moment. But before that, it's a place of prayer. It's a place where we speak to the speaking God. The mystery of language that we are alone in the creation gifted with the ability to communicate through sounds. And our God spoke the world into existence, and He continues to speak to us and invites us to speak to Him. So Isaiah said, "My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations." And Jesus echoed those words when He said, "You've made it a den of thieves."

So it's very significant that there is no mention of sacrifice here in the prayer, but the prayer is about prayer. We have here this understanding that sacrifice is not the end. It is a symbol, it is a means of expressing spiritual reality.

We also have in the prayer a great conception of God. Notice verse 23, "Lord, Yahweh, I Am, the God of Israel." Oh, my. "The one who is the source of all being has given Himself to this small insignificant people. There is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below." Yeah. Yahweh is unique. There is no other God. He is in a class by Himself, and there is none like Him.

And we say, "Well, yeah, okay." How many religions are there in the world that believe that? Three: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and they all get it from one single source. Remember, Muhammad was a Jew and then a Christian before he formed his own religion.

So it's not obvious that there is only one God who is not this world, but there it is. "Oh, Yahweh, God of Israel, like whom there is no other in heaven or on earth." But now look at the next sentence. I think this is so significant. "You who keep your covenant of love with your servants." What is it that marks God so specifically as the only God, the unique God? He's a covenant keeper. Oh, my goodness. What good is it being a god if you have to keep your word? No, to be a god, and this is of course exactly what you see in the gods. To be a god is to be able to do anything you want and nobody can talk back to you.

Not this God, not this God. This God is unique in that He keeps His covenant. This version says covenant of love. The Hebrew says, "keeps your covenant and hesed." Unmerited favor, passionate, undying devotion of a superior to an inferior especially when undeserved. That's our God. And that's the God to whom Solomon is dedicating this building.

But go on. This sentence is so pregnant with meaning. "You who keep your covenant of love with your servants." He is the King. He is the King. And we are His servants. Those who recognize reality and accept it. "Your servants who walk before you with a whole heart." Here's this idea that we've talked about before. What is it to be in a relationship with God? Is to walk with Him, to walk uphill and down, through difficulty and pleasure, to walk with Him day after day, and to walk with a whole heart.

Here's another Hebrew concept that I want to talk with you about. It's the same terminology that is used back in Genesis 17:1 that we've talked about before. And let me put that chapter, chapter 17 of Genesis, in its context. What happens in chapter 16? The birth of Ishmael. God had promised, "You, Abraham. You are going to have a son." And Abraham and Sarah then worked out how they were going to keep God's promise for Him. They named him. "God hears." That's the meaning of the name Ishmael. And God said, "N., that's not my work. That's your work."

And then, there's a 13-year gap between the end of chapter 16 and the beginning of chapter 17. Was it 13 years of silence? We don't know, but there's a 13-year gap. And God appears and He renews His covenant. Personally, I think there was a 13-year gap. I think there was 13 years of estrangement between Abraham and Yahweh. And I can imagine Abraham wondering, "Have I sinned away any possibility of relationship with God?" But no. Chapter 17:1, God appears. And He renews the covenant, and He says, "Walk before me with a whole heart."

What are we talking about? What is a whole heart? The word that is used is tam, to be whole, to be complete, to be total. The noun used from it is tamim, a thing that is whole, a thing that is complete. That word is used most frequently for a sacrificial animal. Any sacrifice you give must be whole, meaning what? Meaning it has to be everything that that animal ought to be. If it's a sheep, it should have wool and not be bald. It should have four legs, not three. It should have two eyes, not four. It should be just exactly what it was meant to be.

The King James will say "a perfect lamb." And we can read that and think, "Oh, it has to be a show lamb. It has to be the lamb that would get the purple ribbon, the best of show at the state fair." No, not necessarily, but it has to be whole, all there.

And that's what God is saying here. That's what Solomon is saying here. That's what God meant in Genesis 17. "If you'll walk before me, you can become whole, all that you were meant to be as a man or a woman of God." So Solomon says here at this high moment, "You who keep your covenant of love with your servants who walk with a whole heart in your way." Yes. Our task is to be all His. His task is to keep all of His promises to us. That's the covenant in a nutshell.

So that's the opening of this prayer, this great, great conception of God. And you notice again, "You have kept your promise to your servant, David, my father. With your mouth you have promised, and with your hand you have fulfilled it." So not only is He the only God who keeps covenant, He is the God who is true.

Here we are again with a Hebrew concept. We, in the West, have believed that there is such a thing as objective truth. Things that are so, whether we like it or not. Things are so, whether we believe it or not. Things that are simply so. Now we still believe that in the world of nature, in the physical world. We don't believe that if you jump off a tall building and just believe hard enough you will fly. No. Gravity is so, whether we like it or not.

But what's happening to us is we are denying that there is objective truth in the world of the spirit. "Oh, no. I can be whatever I want to be. I can dream it and I can be it. There are no limits on my possibilities. There is no truth." Now, where did we get this concept of objective truth in the West, and why are we losing it? The answer is the Bible. We met a God who is true. And many times in your English Bible you will find the word faithful. "God is faithful." Well, actually what the Hebrew is saying is, "God is true." That is, He is true to His word. He will do what He says He will do. That's exactly what Solomon has emphasized here. He has emphasized that God said it with His mouth and He fulfilled it with His hand. He is true.

So if that's so, if there is one Creator, and that Creator is true, utterly reliable, utterly faithful, utterly dependable, then it makes sense that in His creation there is that which is true. So we have believed in objective truth because of what we believed about God. Now tragically, in the West drifting away from our belief in the one Creator God who is true, we are losing the concept that there is that in life which is true.

So again, so much is hidden in these short words, but so much that is profoundly true and so much that is so admirable in Solomon. He's got it. He understands. "Yes, you have kept your promise to your servant, David, my father. With your mouth you have promised, and with your hand you have done it as it is today." What a great thought. What a great thought.

So who is this God? He is a prayer answering God. And as we move on in the prayer, we see another important point in verse 27. Back in the very beginning, Solomon said, "I have built this house in which God will dwell." But now he makes it clear God doesn't live in a house. "Will God really dwell on earth? The heaven, even the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this temple I've built?" He says, "I'm not kidding myself. You don't live here. The pagans may believe that their gods live in those beautiful houses. I don't believe that for a moment. You don't live here. The heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you." What an amazing thought. What an amazing thought. In a small people, surrounded by great pagan nations, no, they've got it wrong.

Wow. That's faith and courage. God does not dwell in a house on the earth. But He will hear prayer. Verse 28, "Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord, my God." You're not in this house. We can't do things in this house that will make you do what we want. If you hear us, you hear us by your grace. And so, he goes through a whole host of situations where prayer is made to God and where Solomon says, "Please answer these prayers." Let's look at them.

First of all, right at the outset, in verse 31, "In this place, distinguish between righteousness and guilt." There's sort of the bottom line. "Is my prayer a righteous prayer? Is it the prayer of a righteous person? Or is it the prayer of somebody who's trying to manipulate and use God?" Then in verses 33 and following, "When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, when they repent, when they turn around and praise your name, then hear from heaven and forgive."

Forgiveness is rooted in the concept of quitting the sin you were engaging in and turning around and going the opposite direction. "Oh, God. I did this. Please forgive me. I'm going to do it again tomorrow, and I'll ask you to forgive me again tomorrow." No, no. Forgiveness is based on a genuine intent not to do that anymore. Now, if we should happen to do it again, as the New Testament tells us, there's grace. But the grace of forgiveness is for the person who honestly and intentionally intends to quit that way of behavior, to turn around.

He goes on to say in verse 40, well before that, verse 35, "When the heavens are shut up and there's no rain because your people have sinned against you, when they pray toward this place, give praise to your name and turn from their sin, then hear from heaven and forgive." Connection between repentance and notice, "praise your name," that's relational. Then here, verse 37, "When famine or plague comes to the land or when an enemy besieges them, when a prayer or a plea is made by anyone among your people, Israel, being aware, then hear from heaven." So this continuing idea that God will indeed hear an honest prayer rooted in repentance and rooted in an understanding of God's goodness and grace and power, expressed in praise to Him.

Not only God's own people, but foreigners. Verse 41, "As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people, Israel, but has come from a distant land because of your name. Someone who says, 'I want to be part of this people because of the God whom they worship.' For they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm. When they come, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place." Take them in, take them on.

Notice again, verse 46, "When they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin." Yes. No one on earth can claim, "I don't need forgiveness." Solomon says it here. John says it in his first letter. We cannot say, "I am clean before God. I do not need forgiveness." Can't do it.

And you then take them into captivity. Here now he opens a possible future, but he sees something in God. We touched on this earlier. Exile is intended to destroy a people, to wipe them out, to merge them into the imperial culture. But Solomon sees something different. Verse 49, "Then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea and uphold their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. Forgive all the offenses they've committed against you, cause their captors to show them mercy, for they are your people and your inheritance whom you brought out of Egypt." You delivered them already from one captivity. You can deliver them from another. So again, Solomon has an understanding of God that overcomes the "historical realities of the day." How tragic that ultimately his choices are going to direct the people in that way.

"May your ears be open to your servant's plea and the plea of your people, Israel. May you listen to them whenever they cry out to you, for you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance just as you declared through your servant Moses, when you sovereign Lord brought our ancestors out of Egypt." What is this building? It is a house of prayer. It is a place where God and His people can connect, a place where the repentance and the faith of the people can meet the desire of God to forgive.

So we've seen the opening ceremony, we've seen the prayer. Now there is a closing ceremony. Verses 54-64. "When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications of the Lord, he rose, extended his hands." And in this, again, blessing, benediction, whatever you want to call it, we see again these thoughts that have run through here. "Not one word has failed of all the good promises that you have made." Verse 58, "May He turn our hearts to walk in obedience to Him, to keep His commands." Why? Look at verse 60. "So that all the peoples of the world may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. And may your hearts be whole," perfect, complete, one, single, "to the Lord our God, to live by His decrees and obey His commands at this time."

I think that's terribly significant. Why do I want you to answer our prayers? Why do I want you to preserve this people through whatever difficulties may come to them? "Well, so that they can be blessed." So that the world may know. Forgive, cleanse, renew, make our hearts one so that the world may know. That hasn't changed. It's still the same.

Finally then, you have sacrifices. And again, I think this is quite significant. "Many, many sacrifices, so many that the whole outer court became an altar." But do you see the order? Get the spiritual straight, get the heart whole, and then represent that in physical material ways, and God is pleased. Reverse it, and God's not pleased at all.

We move then to Yahweh's response to all of this. Oftentimes, because there's a chapter division here, we separate these. But we ought not to do that. Chapter nine, verse one. "When Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he desired to do," that's interesting, isn't it? "the Lord appeared to him a second time as He had appeared to him at Gibeon."

The Lord had talked to him in various ways through prophets, perhaps in his own heart, but now it's an appearance. It'll be interesting in heaven to see some of these things and what actually occurred here. But it's quite significant. The Lord appeared to him like that time back there at the beginning. Once again, there is a great deal of approval here, but there's also an element of conditionality. Let's look at it.

"I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple which you have built by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there." That element of name has appeared all the way through here. And it's quite significant that we understand what's being talked about when we talk about the name of the Lord. In English, name is largely restricted to label. My label is John. But in the Old Testament and in the New as well, name much more commonly refers to reputation and character and nature.

When we say in music, "There's just something about that name." There's nothing magical about J-E-S-U-S or G-O-D or L-O-R-D or Y-H-W-H, nothing magical about those labels. What we're talking about is God's character, His nature. And God says, "This temple is going to represent who I am, the I am that you've just described in your prayer. The God who is unlike any other in covenant keeping and in hesed and in truth. My name is going to be there. And this building is going to say to people, 'This is the kind of God that we are worshiping.'"

"As for you,' here it is again, "if you walk before me in truth, faithfully, with a whole heart and uprightly." My, my. That's our calling. We're to walk like God walked, with utter reliability and faithfulness, with a heart that is wholly dedicated to Him. And as I said in a previous lecture, heart, perhaps the closest word in English now is personality. My whole personality devoted to Him and uprightly. That word, the Hebrew word yashar, means straight, not crooked, not bent, but straight. I can never get away from the old chorus, "All for Jesus, all for Jesus, all my days and all my hours. All for Jesus, all for Jesus, all my living hours."

"If that's true, Solomon of you, if you walk as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father." But verse six, "But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I've given you, and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my name. Israel will become a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, 'Why has the Lord done such a thing to His land and His people?' And people will answer, "Because they have forsaken the Lord, their God.'"

I wonder if some of these trends that we've observed, the excessive opulence, the overwhelming luxury, the power, the wealth, I wonder if these have begun to emerge in ways that God is saying, "I see some trouble brewing here. If you avoid it. But if you don't avoid it. Solomon, you are, as they say in sports, on the bubble. You can succeed gloriously or you can fail horribly. Which is it going to be?"