Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this special Friday.
In America and a few other countries, today is called “Black Friday” and is projected to be a very significant financial day, as both in person and online spending will be at a frenzied pace in response to bargain deals. Today formally launches the Christmas spending spree on the heels of a wonderful Thanksgiving Day yesterday. But in our journey, through God’s “Grand Narrative”, today is a far more significant day.
Yesterday we witnessed the phenomenal dedication of the great Temple of God in Jerusalem. Solomon prayed a remarkable Dedication prayer as recorded in 1 Kings 8:22-61 & 2 Chron. 6:12-42. Following his prayer Solomon and all in attendance witnessed another spiritual phenomenon as God sent FIRE from heaven to the great Altar in front of the Temple! The record explains it this way: “When Solomon finished praying fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices on the Altar…When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down from heaven and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with the faces to the ground and they worshiped…” (2 Chron. 7:1-3)
What followed was perhaps the largest sacrificial offering every given in Israel, either before or since, as thousands of animals were sacrificed before the LORD in thankfulness and adoration. This great celebration involved so many people that it required several days after the dedication ceremony, to complete all the sacrifices and worship. (2 Chron. 7:4-10)
Eventually, the people all dispersed from this historic event, and we presume settled into their homes with a sense of great anticipation as they contemplated what life in Jerusalem would become with this great Temple casting its spiritual shadow over the entire city. I doubt Solomon expected it, but as he rested from all these festivities, suddenly God appeared to Solomon for a second very significant time! You’ll recall the first time had been at Gibeon, after Solomon’s coronation to the throne, and God had initiated that contact with Solomon inviting Solomon to ask God for anything he desired! (2 Chronicles 1:3-12) Solomon on that occasion had requested wisdom and discernment to govern well, and God promised Solomon would be blessed with those two things and much more in abundance.
This visionary encounter with God after the dedication of the Temple is just as historic and is recorded for us in 1 Kings 9:1-9 & 2 Chronicles 7:11-22. God’s Words were staggering and have been quoted and claimed by God’s people many times since. God said to King Solomon: “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.” (1 Kings 9:2,3) Now if that was all God had promised Solomon and His people it would have been enough! For the people of Israel to know that for the remainder of human history God’s eyes and heart would be focused in a special way on that one place in all the earth...oh my what a great assurance from God!
But God had much more to say to Solomon that we need to hear today: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever…” (2 Chronicles 7:13-16)
You’ve heard those words before haven’t you, my friends? May I invite you to pause and reflect on them today within the context of what we now understand to be a many day Dedication of the Temple experience in Jerusalem?
Do you hear God saying there WILL be times when HE initiates disaster upon His people of drought or famine or locusts or plague? Those are significant disciplinary actions God has taken many times in history attempting to teach His people important lessons about the price of turning away from God. Have you lived long enough and are you spiritually astute enough to recognize when what some people may call a natural disaster is actually a God sent discipline with important lessons intended?
Do you see the very clear formula God presented to Solomon about moving from that place of rebellion and discipline to a place of repentance, restoration and blessing from God? There are four very specific steps in that process: “…if My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves (that’s ONE) and pray (that’s TWO) and seek My face (that’s three) and turn from their wicked ways, (that’s FOUR) then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.”
Can you hear God asking us today: “Now, what don’t you understand about this? What is unclear to you?” And do we clearly see God’s progression of His holy response? “…then will I hear from heaven,(that’s ONE) and I will forgive their sin (that’s TWO) and I will heal their land.”(that’s THREE) And my friends as we have watched God’s people, both Israel and the global church, over the past nearly 3000 years, since God made this promise to Solomon, what do we conclude? What has history taught us about our understanding of and our response to this promise of God to King Solomon?
It’s vitally important we also embrace the remainder of God’s message to Solomon in this historic event: “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from My land, which I have given them, and I will reject this temple I have consecrated for My Name!” (2 Chronicles 7:19,20) Pause.
Look closely at history recorded both in the Bible and history books. How and when does history show us God was faithful to this warning? How long were the people of Israel scattered around the world and their land occupied by Gentiles who refused Israelites any claim to the land or any significant population in that land? As you may know it has been in our lifetime, 1948, that the land has once again been called “the State of Israel” and the people of Israel have returned, from all over the world, in large numbers, to live in their God given land.
We need to pause and reflect on the very powerful significance of God’s promise to Solomon in response to Solomon’s dedication of the Jerusalem Temple. I urge you to read those chapters of God’s Word very carefully asking God to show you today how God is fulfilling those promises in 2025! Again, more notes are at the “Grand Narrative” link below, and I’ve found a wonderful worship song sung in Hebrew, English and Arabic, recorded and filmed in Jerusalem, last year. Oh my, how appropriate for today! And I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: 1 Kings 9:1-9 & 2 Chronicles 7.
Choose below to read or listen.
1 Kings 9:1-9
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2 Chronicles 7
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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