208. God Hears in Heaven
1 Kings 8:30, 32, 34, 36, 39, 43, 45, 49 And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive….hear thou in heaven….hear thou in heaven….hear thou in heaven….hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place….hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place…hear thou in heaven….hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place.
Martin Luther said we have two motivations to pray: 1) God commands it, and 2) God promises to hear it. The implication in Solomon’s Temple Dedicatory Prayer is that God promises to hear our prayers in heaven, where God dwells. The Temple was now the place on earth where heaven can be found, the place where God dwells with His Presence to Hear and to Bless. The Temple is “heaven on earth.” Since Jesus died and rose again, the body of the believer is now the temple of God, the place where God dwells on earth. It is “heaven on earth.”
My human body does not feel like heaven, and it does not always feel like God is there, but it is: God said it is, so it is. God promises to hear from inside the body of the Christian, for there is the heaven where God dwells. We need to go no further than the lips and the heart to confess and believe. God couldn’t be closer. We don’t need to travel to Jerusalem, for we may pray in spirit and in truth wherever we are. But the problem is that Sin also resides in the human soul, and our sinful flesh is trying desperately to deny God’s Presence and get us to disbelieve His promise.
For this reason we need the promise of “hearing.” The promise is for all who pray to “this place,” whether they are Jew or Gentile, as long as they have heard the word and believe it. Then Solomon gives several examples: 1) when Israel prays, 2) when one trespasses, 3) when smitten by the enemy, 4) when there is no rain, 5) when there is famine or pestilence or other disaster, 6) when a Gentile, a God-fearer not a Jew prays, 7) when there is battle with the enemy, 8) when they sin against God, These are just some examples out of the thousands of needs and issues that arise in our daily lives. No problem is beyond God’s solution. “What a privilege we have, to carry everything to God in prayer.”