FRAMEWORKS:
2 Chronicles 7: Dedication
of the temple & a serious warning
[Introductory
Notes: The temple building has been finished and the
glory of the Lord fills it [ch.6 & v.1]. Now Solomon and his
people offer sacrifices to dedicate the Temple to the Lord, following
which the Lord comes to Solomon at night and lays down conditions
for blessing and a strong warning against disobedience.
The
tragedy is played down in Chronicles by the recorder but is seen
in the stark contrast between 1 Kings 10 – the visit of the Queen
of Sheba, seen here in chapter 9 – and 1 Kings 11 displaying Solomon's
incredible folly in going after the gods of his many wives, which
receives the Lord's rebuke and division of the kingdom. After
a reign of immense blessing, the sinfulness of [all] mankind is
revealed in this man. What a tragic warning to all!]
PART
ONE: v.1-10: Dedication of the Temple
v.1-3
The Presence & Power of God comes
v.1
When
Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the
glory of the Lord
filled the temple.
v.2
The
priests could not enter the temple of the Lord
because the
glory of the Lord
filled it.
v.3
When
all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the
Lord
above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces
to the ground, and they worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord
, saying,
‘He
is good;
his love endures for ever.'
v.4-7
Solomon's dedication of the temple
v.4
Then
the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord
.
v.5
And
King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of
cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the
king and all the people dedicated the temple of God.
v.6
The
priests took up their positions, as did the Levites with the Lord
's musical
instruments, which King David had made for praising the Lord
and which
were used when he gave thanks, saying, ‘His love endures for ever.'
Opposite the Levites, the priests blew their trumpets, and all
the Israelites were standing.
v.7
Solomon
consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple
of the Lord
, and there
he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings,
because the bronze altar he had made could not hold the burnt
offerings, the grain offerings and the fat portions.
v.8-10
The Celebration continues for three weeks
v.8
So
Solomon observed the festival at that time for seven days
, and all Israel with him – a vast assembly, people
from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt.
v.9
On
the eighth day they held an assembly, for they
had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and
the festival for seven days more.
v.10
On
the twenty-third day of the seventh month he
sent the people to their homes, joyful and glad in heart for the
good things the Lord
had done for
David and Solomon and for his people Israel.
PART
TWO: v.11-22: The
Lord
appears to Solomon
v.11
The Lord comes to Solomon
v.11
When
Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord
and the royal
palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to
do in the temple of the Lord
and in his
own palace,
v.12-14
The Lord's ‘formula' for dealing with sin
v.12
the
Lord
appeared to him at night and said:
‘I
have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as
a temple for sacrifices.
v.13
‘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,
v.14
if my people, who are called by my name, will
[i] humble
themselves and [ii]
pray and
[iii] seek my face
and [iv] turn from their
wicked ways, then
I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive
their sin and will heal their land.
v.15,16
This place where God receives their prayers
v.15
Now
my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered
in this place.
v.16
I
have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be
there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
v.17-21a
Conditions of blessing and a serious warning
v.17
‘As
for you, if [i] you
walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and [ii]
do all I command,
and [iii] observe
my decrees and laws,
v.18
[Then]
I will establish your royal throne,
as I covenanted with David your father when I said, “You shall
never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.”
v.19
‘But
if [i] you
turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you
and [ii] go
off to serve other gods and worship them,
v.20
then
[i] I
will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and
[ii] will
reject this temple which I have consecrated for my Name. I will
make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.
v.21
[iii] This
temple will become a heap of rubble.
v.21b,22
The world will see and know
All
who pass by will be appalled and say, “Why has the Lord
done such
a thing to this land and to this temple?”
v.22
People
will answer, “Because they have forsaken the Lord
, the God of
their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced
other gods, worshipping and serving them – that is why he
brought all this disaster on them.”'
Continue
to Ch.8