Month: January 2024

2 Chronicles 7:22 And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshiped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

In future years, when God’s people are in captivity and the temple is destroyed, the world will ask, “Why has the Lord done this?” The answer: Because they forsook the Lord and worshipped other gods. Israel was saved from the world (Egypt) by grace, and then Israel was destroyed by the world (Babylon) by sin. The Lord did it, through a worldly instrument, because they responded to God’s grace and salvation by rejecting Him and looking for good from other sources (false gods with false promises).

So why? It was not God’s fault, or the world’s fault, but my own fault. We do not want to accept this verdict, so we blame others and ignore God. The better response to grace and salvation is daily repentance and receiving the blessing of forgiveness by faith in Christ. We acknowledge our own sin and blame, and we look to God alone as the source of all good. We confess, “I am bad, but God is good.” Daily repentance and faith is how the Christian lives life. This truth must be revealed to us: forgetting God brings evil; remembering God brings good.

2 Chronicles 7:17, 19 And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments….But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods and worship them…

God plainly set forth certain conditions for Solomon to meet if he wanted the kingdom to continue. If he walked before God, he and his descendants would prosper. If he turned away, the nation would be destroyed. The blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 27-28 outlined these conditions clearly. But sin is deceptively attractive. Solomon eventually turned away and as a result his son lost most of the kingdom.

Following God brings benefits and rewards, which are not necessarily always material. Turning away brings suffering, punishment, and destruction. Today, the conditions are just as clear. For us One Man finally walked before God and died an innocent death to take away sin. By the power of the Spirit through the Gospel we believe and are accounted righteous. Therefore, we enjoy the blessings and avoid the curses. On account of Jesus, the Lord established the kingdom in our lives, and no one can pluck us out of His hand. This is the promise we live by. Our faith response receives good things.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

This fairly famous Bible verse is used to encourage Christians to pray for their country. And the principle also applies to individuals, churches, families, and other groups and communities. If God’s people, the believers in Christ, pay attention to God, then He will hear, forgive, and heal. The conditional promise is that God will fix what is broken and make right what is wrong when we pray, repent, and believe. There is a direct correlation between our response of repentance, prayer, and faith and the Lord’s response of forgiving and healing.

When we pray “Hallowed by Thy name” and “Thy kingdom come” we apply that prayer to our family, as well as our nation. We humble ourselves and trust our Father to make His presence felt, His rule effective, and His will accomplished in our lives and families. And “voila!” life is better. God cares, God forgives, God heals. Life is still hard, but peace rules and guards our hearts and relationships.

Our humble prayer has great power in its effect. “The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” God calls us to a life of prayer, thanksgiving and joy. Forgiveness and healing result.

2 Chronicles 7:10 And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

After the dedication of the temple and its furnishings the people went home glad and merry in heart. Their God had done something great and good. He showed His goodness to David defeating the enemies and establishing the kingdom. He showed His goodness to Solomon giving him wisdom and prosperous rule. He showed His goodness to His people in granting a kingdom and a temple in which to dwell. All of this good news was exhibited in the lavish temple built for the Lord.

Because they saw and heard how good God is to them, they would go home with glad merry hearts. The same thing happens to us when we go to church, hear the Gospel, and receive forgiveness and life: we go home with glad and merry hearts. We leave church with a lighter spirit and full of joy. This kind of glad and merry heart can be our heart every day, after we spend some time with God in the Word and in prayer. And by God’s grace and goodness this Gospel is always available to us, day and night, in good times and in bad, in pleasant or in difficult circumstances.

Whatever, we always have Jesus with us, we can always hear the gospel, and we may at any time remember the goodness that God shows to us in our Baptism. As a matter of truth, Christian Joy fills our hearts day after day. And the more we see and hear God’s goodness the happier we are in response. And life is good!

2 Chronicles 7:3 And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

After the temple was finished and dedicated and prayers offered, fire came down from heaven and glory filled the temple. The people saw this glorious presence of God on the earth, and their response was to bow down in worship and to praise the Lord with the Psalm verse, “God is good and merciful.”

The experience of God in all His glory naturally brings forth the response of humble worship and praise. What else can one do but bow down when seeing the glory of God? Seeing the manifestation of God drives one to his knees. The same thing happens before the throne in heaven, as shown to John in Revelation.

We experience the same thing when we stand, or kneel, before the cross, and the empty tomb. In the cross we see the glory of God. Glory shows forth the inner character of someone, and with God it looks like love, unconditional, unlimited love. The cross is a shameful sight but it hides the beautiful and glorious sacrificial love of God. The eyes of faith see it, and the believing heart receives the Glory. When we believe it we fall on our face.

This actually happens in the spiritual world, although physical eyes don’t see the glory of God in the proclaimed Gospel, in the words of Absolution, in Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper. But faith sees, and the spirit is overcome with Love, whether the body feels it or not, and inwardly we bow down and worship. “In the cross of Christ I glory.”

2 Chronicles 6:21 Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive.

In Solomon’s dedicatory temple prayer, he asks the Lord to hear from His dwelling place in heaven and forgive. Prayer is our response to God coming to live among us and granting us access to Him through the blood of Christ our Sacrifice.

Solomon prays, and expects the people to pray, for several specific requests: crime, enemies, drought, famine, foreigners, war, and sin (6:22-39). This prayer list is a representative sample. God is concerned with whatever we face. He wants us to turn to Him in prayer. Prayer is our response to God’s promises. We come into God’s presence (within the heart) through Jesus’ blood and righteousness. We present our needs, and we know God cares and hears. We don’t let our suffering or lack of resources cause us to doubt His care.

We don’t any longer go to the dwelling place of stone; we go into the Presence of God in the dwelling place of the believing heart.

2 Chronicles 6:19 Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry, and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee.

At the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed a long prayer to God about this place. He opened his prayer by asking God to listen. This is not a plea raised in doubt, but rather an affirmation of faith that the Lord does hear. He is not pleading so much as preaching. And in the prayer he asks, or rather states the fact, that God will hear the prayers of both the citizen and foreigner who prays in this place: “Hear Thou in heaven.”

The gateway or entry into the unseen spiritual world is the place where God dwells on earth, where the unseen touches the seen. It is the temple. Jesus comes from heaven to earth and his body is the temple. Then the Holy Spirit comes into the body of the believer, as a temple, through faith in the Gospel. The human body of a believer and the gathering of believers in His name is a temple, the presence of God on the earth.

In Jesus’ name we may pray to that place (the heart where God dwells) in the confidence of faith and the guarantee of Grace knowing that God the Father who art in heaven hears, listens, and answers.

Wherever we are God is there also. Whether we are in the closet or in the street God is there, and He is listening. We are not praying to ourself, for the self can do nothing, but we are praying to the God who dwells in the body alongside the self. It may look like we are praying to our self, but faith sees the true God, the Father who art in heaven, in us and prays to Him. We are not fooled by appearances, but we trust in the Promise. And the promise is: God hearkens!

2 Chronicles 6:12-13 And he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubitsbroad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven.

At the dedication of the temple Solomon prayed. He assumed the posture of humble praise. He kneeled down upon his knees as an outward expression of his own unworthiness to stand before a Holy God. It is the sign of a sinful beggar, humbling himself in the presence of the King. He spread forth his hands toward heaven as an outward expression of the worthiness of God, whose love and mercy we praise. Then, in that posture, he prayed to the Lord.

This response exemplifies the same inward posture in which we come before the Holy, Almighty God in prayer. We are humble, confessing our sinfulness and unworthiness to approach God. We also at the same time praise God for granting us His worthiness because of Jesus. Thus we pray in Jesus’ name. For His sake He hears our pleas and prayers.

There is a kind of paradox to our prayerful relationship with God: humility and glory at the same time. The humbleness is ours; the glory is His. The sin is mine; the forgiveness is His. I am worthy of death and damnation; Jesus for me is worthy of life and salvation. Therefore, this beggar asks with faith in the goodness of the king.

2 Chronicles 6:2 But I have built an house of habitation for thee, and a place for thy dwelling for ever.

After Solomon had finally finished the Temple, he dedicated it to the Lord with prayer in a grand ceremony. The Lord had said that He dwells in the thick darkness, meaning that He is deus absconditus, the hidden God that cannot be seen with sinful human eyes. We cannot fully comprehend Him or understand His ways and thoughts. “My ways and thoughts are higher than yours [Isaiah 55:9].”

This hidden God in love has determined to come out of the dark cloud and reveal His loving character through the Word and the Spirit. He is deus revelatus, the revealed God, and through the Gospel by faith we see Him as Love. He comes into the temple prepared as His dwelling place. Then He comes to the earth as the man, Jesus, to live among us and bring us back to Himself. Then the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts through baptism and faith. Our body is the temple of the living God.

We build a house for God to dwell in our hearts by repentance and faith in the Gospel. We receive Him into our bodies and lives, not as a guest, but as Lord. Faith, created by the Spirit through the gospel, receives God into that place in the heart built for Him. The Gospel gives faith; God sees it, and swoops in to the place prepared. Where is God? He is in the temple (the body) and we may approach Him there.

1 Chronicles 5:13-14 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; and his mercy endureth forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.

When the priests and Levites brought the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy of Holies inside the newly finished Temple, the musical instruments and the vocal singers made one sound of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. The response to God coming to live among His people was harmonious and beautiful, but also loud. The event was certainly awe-inspiring and powerful, as humans are able to make glorious sounds of praise with voices and instruments.

But even the awesome response of the people was overshadowed by the cloud of glory that filled the temple. The glory of God is so overwhelming that the priests could not stand before the glory. They fell in humble worship. This is actually what happens to us when we experience baptism and conversion. We still kneel in Holy Communion when we are faced with such glorious love and grace. We fall in abject adoration when we experience God. Look what happens to the angels in heaven when one sinner repents: “There is more joy among the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents.” Inwardly, we cannot stand when the Lord reveals His glory in mundane, visible things like Word and Sacrament. That’s why we go to church.