1 KINGS 8 (Part 2)
Read 1 Kings 8:22-66
Having praised God and recounted his deeds and his faithfulness, Solomon then turned to prayer. And again, he starts with praise speaking about the uniqueness of God, “there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below” (v23). In ancient times, most nations worshipped a whole pantheon of gods who were seen to fight amongst themselves and to have a capricious attitude towards mankind, sometimes favouring them, sometimes not. Israel was different. Their god was the one true God and Solomon again praised God for his faithfulness, for his constancy.
Solomon, having acknowledged that God has kept his promises in the past then prayed that he would keep them in the future (vv25 & 26). Solomon also expressed, with a sense of amazement, the greatness of God. How can God, who is so great that he cannot be contained by Heaven and Earth, really dwell in the temple that Solomon built, so small as it is in the grand scheme of things? God is immense, we cannot comprehend exactly how big, and yet he invites prayers from individuals like you and me. It brings to mind Psalm 8, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him” (vv3 & 4)
Solomon then brought before the Lord the need for forgiveness and asked for mercy. He envisaged several scenarios in which the people would sin against God and would then receive God’s judgement – and we will see that over the next few hundred years that all these scenarios would take place. The Israelites would continually turn away from God and would sin again and again and they would suffer his judgement upon them. But at this stage, Solomon prayed to God and while acknowledging that God’s real home was in heaven and not the house that Solomon built said, ‘hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive’.
Solomon had the confidence that when he prayed to God, that God would hear his prayer and forgive his sins. We, too, can have that same confidence. We know, just like Solomon did, that we are sinners in so many different ways. But we also can have confidence that he will hear our prayers, even though we are small and insignificant and he is so great. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his word has no place in our lives.” (1 John 1:8-10) Solomon knew this, and thanks to God’s written word, the Bible, so do we.