2 Chronicles 7:1 – 22 Fire from Heaven (Psalm 135:1-21; Psalm 136:1-26)
“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.”
Sacrifices of Dedication (1 Kings 8:62-66; Ezra 6:16-18)
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.
The LORD’s Response to Solomon (1 Kings 9:1-9)
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 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 the 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 this temple that I have sanctified for My Name I will banish from My presence. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.
And though this temple is now exalted, 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.’”
AMAZING! STUPENDOUS! MAGNIFICENT! Really, there are no words adequate for what happened during the temple dedication. The Lord had already manifested His presence in the temple to such an extent that the priests could barely function, but that was only the beginning. ““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.”
Fire from heaven filling the temple so that the priests could not even enter! This worship service had to be the most incredible worship service of all time. Those gathered were so impressed that they prostrated themselves and worshiped the Lord. Solomon and the people responded by sacrificing huge numbers of animals and by offering extravagant praise. Solomon even consecrated the middle courtyard where most people would enter.
By the end of everything, the celebration actually lasted fourteen days. Then Solomon held a solemn assembly and dismissed the people to return home where they would be able to tell their stories for the rest of their lives.
Soon after the temple was dedicated and Solomon finished his palace, the Lord appeared to Solomon at night, making several promises:
- The Lord told Solomon that He had chosen the temple as a house of sacrifice.
- The Lord promised, that 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.”
- God further promised, “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.
- Then God warned Solomon that if Solomon or the Israelites turned away from God, God would turn away from them and they would go into exile and become a laughing stock for all the surrounding countries.
APPLICATION: If we think that God’s statements were only for Solomon, we are fooling ourselves! God wants our lives to be houses of sacrifice, places of worship and service. God knows that we may sin; however, God promises that if we will repent, He will hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our lands. We can pray these prayers individually for ourselves or over our countries and God will still hear and respond. But on the other hand, if we turn our backs on God, He will allow us to suffer the results. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” If we never suffer any consequences from sin and disobedience, we will never feel any need to change or to repent.
The temple of Solomon was destroyed when the Babylonians invaded Judah and carried off many of its citizens. The gold, silver, and bronze were looted and sent back to Babylon. But did God remove His presence? Ezekiel 10 describes how the Shekinah glory of the Lord left the temple in Jerusalem. But God has never removed His eyes or His heart from Jerusalem and the temple mount. Anyone who has ever had the privilege of visiting Jerusalem and particularly the temple mount knows that area has a special spiritual significance. There is a spiritual weight, a sense of awe that one can feel when close to the wailing wall that is the only remaining part of Solomon’s temple.
God always keeps His promises! In many respects, King Solomon is a tragic figure. Here is a man who spoke face to face with God at least twice. God gifted Solomon with wisdom and riches and honor and fame and power above all other kings in history. Solomon was the son of a man who had his failures but who was a giant of faith. Sadly, Solomon did not share his father David’s faith, but posed as a man of faith by making ringing pronouncements.
Solomon failed because he never took to heart the orders God gave in Deuteronomy 17. God wanted the kings of Israel to write out their own copies of the Laws of Moses and then to study those copies for the rest of their reigns. God ordained that the kings of Israel should marry only Israelite women who worshiped God and not foreign women who worshiped demons; yet, Solomon slept with a huge number of women, each of whom demanded he erect a shrine for her particular deity. The results spelled spiritual disaster for Solomon and for the Israelites as a whole. In the end, God’s warning came true.
Each of us must choose to follow God or to turn away from Him. If we claim we are postponing that decision until later, we are turning away at that very moment. None of us is promised tomorrow! Today is the only day in which we can decide to follow God and to serve Him. Choose life!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. Help us to serve You, to worship You, and to spend time studying Your Word and meditating on it. Thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. Thank You that because Jesus conquered sin, death, and hell and rose from the grave, we too can have eternal life if we will believe in what Jesus has done for us. We ask all these things in the mighty and precious Name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
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