The Berean Pursuit
So all the work that Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed.
Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated-the silver, the gold, and all the furnishings-and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of God.
At that time Solomon assembled in Jerusalem the elders of Israel-all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites-to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David. So all the men of Israel came together to the king at the feast in the seventh month.
When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark, and they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting with all its sacred furnishings. The Levitical priests carried them up.
There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its poles.
The poles of the ark extended far enough that their ends were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.
There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.
Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, all the Levitical singers-Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives-stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps, and lyres, accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They lifted up their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD:
"For He is good;
His loving devotion endures forever."
And the temple, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
Then Solomon declared:
"The LORD has said that He would dwell
in the thick cloud;
and I have built You an exalted house,
a place for You to dwell forever."
And as the whole assembly of Israel stood there, the king turned around and blessed them all and said:
"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying, 'Since the day I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be ruler over My people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.'
Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said to my father David, 'Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart. Nevertheless, you are not the one to build it; but your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name.'
Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. And there I have provided a place for the ark, which contains the covenant of the LORD that He made with the children of Israel."
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven, and said:
"O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth, keeping Your covenant of loving devotion with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day.
Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: 'You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.' And now, O LORD, God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant David.
But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built. Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You.
May Your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your Name, so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place. Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.
When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple, then may You hear from heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing down on his own head what he has done, and justifying the righteous man by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading before You in this temple, then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to them and their fathers.
When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them, then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.
When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come, then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make-each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple- be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart-for You alone know the hearts of men- so that they may fear You and walk in Your ways all the days they live in the land that You gave to our fathers.
And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm-when he comes and prays toward this temple, then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.
When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name, then may You hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and may You uphold their cause.
When they sin against You-for there is no one who does not sin-and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to a land far or near, and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,' and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name, then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who sinned against You.
Now, my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
Now therefore, arise, O LORD God, and enter Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your might.
May Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation,
and may Your godly ones rejoice in goodness.
O LORD God, do not reject Your anointed one.
Remember Your loving devotion to Your servant David."
When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it.
When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD:
"For He is good;
His loving devotion endures forever."
Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD and with which David had offered praise, saying, "For His loving devotion endures forever." Across from the Levites, the priests sounded trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.
Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar he had made could not contain all these offerings.
So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him-a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt-kept the feast for seven days. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.
On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the good things that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.
When Solomon had finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace, successfully carrying out all that was in his heart to do for the house of the LORD and for his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him:
"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. For I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.
And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, 'You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.'
But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.
And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' And others will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them-because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.'"
A song of ascents.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
your Protector will not slumber.
Behold, the Protector of Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is the shade on your right hand.
The sun will not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will guard you from all evil;
He will preserve your soul.
The LORD will watch over your coming and going,
both now and forevermore.
Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.
They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
By pointing out these things to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of faith and sound instruction that you have followed.
But reject irreverent, silly myths. Instead, train yourself for godliness. For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come. This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance.
To this end we labor and strive, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, and especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things.
Let no one despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.
Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you through the prophecy spoken over you at the laying on of the hands of the elders. Be diligent in these matters and absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to your life and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by so doing you will save both yourself and those who hear you.