Session 2 1 Kings 8:46-60
1 KINGS 8:46-60
MEMORY VERSE: 1 KINGS 8:30
A sign on an empty lot announces a new business is COMING SOON! Week after week, workers make progress clearing the land, digging footings, pouring the foundation, and erecting walls. Construction crews are busy working with concrete, steel, wood, roofing, plumbing, wiring, glass, and finally, furnishings. The sign out front changes from COMING SOON! to GRAND OPENING! with a date posted. On that day, city officials, the owners, investors, builders, and new employees gather for the ceremony. Oversized scissors are used to cut a wide ribbon, and all the people cheer.
(In PSG, p. 19)
When Solomon became Israel’s king, Hiram, king of Tyre, contacted him (1 Kings 5:1). Solomon asked Hiram to help him build a temple to God in Jerusalem (5:2-6), and Hiram agreed to Solomon’s request. The two leaders formed an agreement (5:7-12).
Solomon organized his team of builders to work with Hiram’s team (5:13-18), and work on the temple began in Solomon’s fourth year as king (6:1). Construction of the temple required seven years (6:37-38).
Solomon led all Israel in dedicating the completed temple (8:1-2). The priests and Levites brought the ark of the covenant into the temple as the king sacrificed many animals (8:3-9). God showed His approval by filling the temple with His glory (8:10-11).
The king blessed the people and testified to God’s work (8:14-21). He then spread his hands toward heaven and offered a prayer of dedication (8:22-53). He asked God to watch over the temple and hear His people’s petitions (8:28-30). He also asked God to forgive and restore them when they confessed their sin (8:33-36). Solomon also wanted foreigners who came to Jerusalem to know God’s glory (8:41-43). Even if God’s people faced exile because of their sin, Solomon prayed that God would hear their cries in exile and restore them (8:46-53). When Solomon finished his prayer, he again blessed the people, and they spent fourteen days celebrating (8:54-66).
EXPLORE THE TEXT
46 When they sin against you — for there is no one who does not sin — and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, and their captors deport them to the enemy’s country — whether distant or nearby — 47 and when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported and repent and petition you in their captors’ land: “We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,” 48 and when they return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to you in the direction of their land that you gave their ancestors, the city you have chosen, and the temple I have built for your name,
Solomon affirmed, there is no one who does not sin. The apostle Paul also confirmed that because all have sinned, all fall short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). Everyone needs Jesus because everyone has sinned.
Solomon described a situation in which God would be angry with His people and hand them over to the enemy. God sometimes used other nations as His instrument of judgment. In later centuries He sent the Assyrian army against the Northern Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 17:5-7) and the Babylonian army against the Southern Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 25:1-12). Solomon further described what would happen: their captors would deport them to the enemy’s country—whether distant or nearby. The prophet Amos later mentioned how neighboring peoples sold captured Israelites into slavery (Amos 1:6,9). God’s people believed the land of Israel was their given home; consequently, exile was the worst punishment they could experience. !
Solomon asked for God’s mercy on His people when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported. When God’s people transgressed the terms of His covenant with them, they received the judgments of the covenant, but they remained His people and He still loved them. The word repent also can mean “return” and implies returning to God. The word petition literally means “to implore grace.” The people did not deserve to come home but pleaded with God that He would grant their request. Their confession, we have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked, further affirmed this. The word sinned is the same word that occurred in verse 46. Done wrong translates a strong word that denotes deliberate evil. The word wicked is a term that also indicates serious sin. !!
Solomon described God’s people as turning to God with all their heart and all their soul. This deeply sincere repentance would occur in the land of their enemies who took them captive. Centuries later, the prophet Jeremiah wrote to Jewish exiles in Babylon and told them they would find God when they sought Him with all their heart (Jer. 29:13). God’s discipline likewise should lead us to repentance. God demonstrates His love for us by using trials or challenges to turn us back to Him or to draw us closer (Heb. 12:4-11). !
Solomon called on God to hear His people when they pray to you in the direction of their land that you gave their ancestors. Praying toward Jerusalem reinforced the people’s tie to the land and the centuries-old covenant God had with them. Solomon also mentioned to God that Jerusalem was the city you have chosen. He also called God’s attention to the temple I have built for your name as a place God would dwell among His people.
(In PSG, p. 22)
49 may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and petition and uphold their cause. 50 May you forgive your people who sinned against you and all their rebellions against you, and may you grant them compassion before their captors, so that they may treat them compassionately.
In verses 46-48, Solomon’s prayer had described the Israelites’ response to God when they came to repentance for their sins. In verses 49-53, Solomon focused on God hearing the people’s prayers and responding favorably. In response to the people’s hypothetical petitions, Solomon asked of God, may you hear in heaven. The word translated hear can also mean “listen” with a sense of moving to action. Solomon was asking God to hear and respond.
Heaven was God’s dwelling place. Solomon knew that ultimately, Jerusalem’s temple could never contain all God was; however, he asked that God would give attention to the people’s prayer and petition. He also asked God to uphold their cause. The expression uphold their cause literally means “to carry out their judgment or justice.” Solomon wanted God to respond favorably to the people’s repentant prayers.
Solomon also asked, may you forgive your people who sinned against you. The word translated forgive also can mean “pardon” and always refers to a work of God in setting aside an offense. By forgiving the people, God was choosing not to hold their sin against them.
Solomon also asked the Lord to forgive all their rebellions. The word rebellions denotes a willful defiance of God’s commands. The exiled people had sinned grievously against God, but Solomon asked God to forgive them if they repented. He also asked God to grant them compassion before their captors, so that they may treat them compassionately. God could guide the hearts of those who ruled His people to treat them gently. The words translated compassion and treat them compassionately come from the word from which the Hebrew “womb” derives. Elsewhere the prophet Isaiah used the same word to speak of the compassion a nursing mother had toward her infant child (Isa. 49:15).
51 For they are your people and your inheritance; you brought them out of Egypt, out of the middle of an iron furnace. 52 May your eyes be open to your servant’s petition and to the petition of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to you. 53 For you, Lord GOD, have set them apart as your inheritance from all peoples of the earth, as you spoke through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.
Solomon stressed a reason God should forgive the Israelites: they are your people and your inheritance. God had a special relationship with them that He had established with their ancestor Abraham over a thousand years earlier (Gen. 12:1-3).
Further, Solomon reminded God, you brought them out of Egypt, out of the middle of an iron furnace. God’s rescue of His people from Egypt was the great act of salvation in the Old Testament, just as Jesus’s death and resurrection comprised the great act of salvation for the New Testament and for the entire Bible. God delivered His people after they spent more than four centuries in slavery (Ex. 12:40-41). Solomon used the imagery of an iron furnace to describe Egypt’s hot climate—a term Moses also had used (Deut. 4:20).
Solomon also asked of God, may your eyes be open to your servant’s petition. He probably intended himself, as well as perhaps other leaders who would follow him and would offer petitions on behalf of God’s people. He also asked that God’s eyes would be open to the petition of your people Israel. Whether the petition came from a leader or from the general population, Solomon prayed God’s eyes would take note of it.
Furthermore, Solomon asked that God would be listening to them whenever they call to you. New parents know what it means to listen for the sound of their baby’s cry. A parent can discern the reason the baby is crying—whether she is hungry, tired, hurting, or wet. How much more so can God hear the cries of His people and know what they need (Matt. 6:8).
Solomon then affirmed God’s special selection of Israel: for you, Lord GOD, have set them apart as your inheritance.God shared a special relationship with His people distinct from all peoples of the earth. Solomon earlier had recognized God’s concern for the foreigner as well (1 Kings 8:41-43). However, God did choose Israel as His special channel of blessing to the nations. Solomon told God that this relationship was as you spoke through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt. Solomon began to build the temple 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt (1 Kings 6:1). Now, almost five centuries later, he highlighted the continuing relationship God maintained with His people.
God will hear our prayers. We are never so far from God that He cannot hear our cries of repentance, and when He hears them, He will respond. The apostle John echoed Solomon’s sentiment by telling us God wants to forgive us quickly when we confess our sins (1 John 1:9).
54 When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD, he got up from kneeling before the altar of the LORD, with his hands spread out toward heaven, 55 and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice: 56 “Blessed be the LORD! He has given rest to his people Israel according to all he has said. Not one of all the good promises he made through his servant Moses has failed.
Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD. The king had interceded for his people before the God whose temple he had completed. He had asked God to bless Israel and his kingdom and to forgive them when they repented of their sin.
When he finished, Solomon got up from kneeling before the altar of the LORD—the altar of burnt offering in the temple courtyard (1 Kings 8:22; Ex. 27:1-8). He thus would have prayed in full view and in full hearing of the people of Israel who attended the dedication. He also had prayed with his hands spread out toward heaven, which was a common posture of praying both in the Old Testament and the New Testament (Neh. 8:6; Ps. 63:4; 1 Tim. 2:8). Today, some believers lift their hands to God when they pray or worship. Such a gesture provides a way to affirm His greatness and our dependence on Him.
Solomon stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice. He wanted to assure his people that God had heard his prayer. They could rejoice over what God had done in them as a people, as well as what He would do through them in the future through His temple in Jerusalem.
Solomon began with a doxology: Blessed be the LORD! The king had begun his words to the people with this expression (1 Kings 8:15), and it occurs many other times in the Old Testament (1 Sam. 25:39; Pss. 41:13; 72:18; 89:52). The apostle Paul began his letter to Ephesus with similar words (Eph. 1:3).
Solomon affirmed of God, he has given rest to his people Israel according to all he has said. The king was stressing God’s answering His people’s petitions and providing for them. The Lord had given them rest through the conquests of King David, who had secured all Israel’s borders. Solomon stressed the completeness of God’s faithfulness by affirming not one of all the good promises he has made through his servant Moses has failed. As the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness, God faithfully provided for them many times, and as they settled the land, none of His promises had failed (Josh. 21:43-45). The apostle Paul told the Corinthian church that God would fulfill all His promises to them through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).
57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us 58 so that he causes us to be devoted to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors. 59 May my words with which I have made my petition before the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night. May he uphold his servant’s cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires. 60 May all the peoples of the earth know that the LORD is God. There is no other!
Solomon asked, may the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. The Lord had shown His faithfulness even when His people repeatedly tested Him. Moses told the Israelites as they stood ready to enter the promised land that they had been a rebellious people from the day they left Egypt (Deut. 9:7). Nevertheless, God had set His saving love on them and had chosen to forgive and bless them. Solomon’s prayer was that God would be with this generation as well.
Solomon also said of God, may he not abandon us or leave us. The writer of Lamentations later wondered if indeed God had abandoned His people when they faced exile in Babylon (Lam. 5:21-22). However, God brought them home through the edict of King Cyrus (Ezra 1:1). The Lord would not abandon His people.
Solomon expressed another idea he hoped would be true of God: that he causes us to be devoted to him. The king literally asked God to incline the people’s hearts toward Him. Only then could the people demonstrate their devotion through obedience. First, they would walk in all his ways. Walking in God’s ways implies a close relationship with God. Enoch is the first person the Bible mentions who walked with God (Gen. 5:22,24). Noah also did (Gen. 6:9), and God invites believers today to do the same (Col. 2:6-7).
Second, Solomon said the people would demonstrate their devotion if they would keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors. The word translated keep also carries the idea of watching or guarding carefully. The word statutes comes from a word that means “to inscribe,” and signifies the permanence of God’s words. The word ordinances describes the righteous decisions God renders. The Israelites had received God’s ways at Mount Sinai after they left Egypt, and those words continued to have relevance almost five hundred years later, just as they do today (Ps. 19:7-11).
Solomon expressed his heartfelt desire: may my words with which I have made my petition before the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night. The king was asking that God’s will would perfectly align with the people’s hearts. Then life would be as God intended it to be, and His people would know the joy of following Him. Solomon further asked God to uphold his servant’s cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires. This expression carries the same meaning here as in verse 49. Solomon asked God to answer his own petition but also asked that God would tend to whatever matters His people faced. Circumstances would change from day to day, but God would not change with respect to His purpose or will.
Solomon then expressed his desire for the world: may all the peoples of the earth know that the LORD is God. Moses had told the people God gave them His laws partly so other nations would come to know Him (Deut. 4:5-8). Other nations would see Israel’s blessing and would want to know Israel’s God as well. The psalmist also prayed for God’s blessing upon Israel so all people everywhere would know God (Ps. 67:1-2,7).
God did not choose Israel to be a reservoir of God’s blessing; He chose Israel to be a channel of His blessing. Likewise, God calls us today to be channels of His salvation, not to keep His salvation to ourselves. We should share the good news with others and live in such a way that people desire the faith we profess.
Everyone needed to know Israel’s God because there is no other! The idols other nations worshiped had mouths that could not speak, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear (Ps. 115:5-6). All people needed to meet the one true God.
Believers today can honor God and demonstrate gratitude for our salvation by giving our lives totally to Him. People today pursue so many things they consider important, only to find these things are all dead ends. We need to yield our lives to God and lay hold of the life He intends for us.
Solomon’s prayer reminds us that God will accept our repentance and respond with forgiveness. We repent when we recognize we have a deep spiritual need only God can meet, and cry to Him to meet it. As we do, we will find the One God has provided to meet that need—Jesus Christ, His only Son.
The Bible tells us salvation comes by grace through faith, not by works (Eph. 2:8-9). Yet, how does know-ing this motivate us to serve God (Eph. 2:10)?
God’s Purpose of Grace
Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. (See Hebrews 12:6; 1 Peter 2:1-5.)
Compare a passage that demonstrates a similar theme.
Jesus shared a parable about a wayward son in Luke 15:11-24. Compare the actions of the wayward son with the actions called for in Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8. What actions are seen in both? What can we learn about repentance as a result of this comparison?