Solomon's Temple

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning. Good morning. All right, yeah, good morning. If you are, if you have grade schoolers or if you are a grade schooler, I would invite you. We have a time for kindergarten through fifth grade, our small group, and so you can go right out those doors and to your left. The train just left, but you can still go. Okay. This morning, we are, we're going to be talking about Second Chronicles chapter seven. I'm sure that's right where you had your quiet time this morning. If you don't know where Second Chronicles is, there is a table of contents at the beginning of your Bible for a reason. Okay. Second Chronicles seven, and we're continuing on with our series Bible World Tour. So Bible World Tour, we are, we're looking at different geographies, different eras in the Bible, but it's not just to learn maps or learn about kind of the, you know, the connected history of scripture.

Really it's for, like today's passage, it's for us to be able to see how God is moving in a specific area, to, to, in a specific set of circumstances. And in that we learn about the Lord, we learn about God. We also learn about our relationship with Him. And so even as we're doing something that seems, I'm sure, very strange, the dedication of the temple, the dedication of Solomon's Temple, it is something where I believe if we, if we can concentrate, if we can figure it out, if we can look at it, if we can let it sink into our hearts enough, then it's going to be something that is going to be beneficial. All scripture is God-breathed, even the dedication of Solomon's Temple. Okay. So 2 Chronicles chapter 7, and we're going to be going through most of that chapter, we find God's people, Israel, we find them in 2 Chronicles chapter 7, they are at the end

of a long journey. They have spent seven years, excuse me, they have spent seven years building this temple. And this temple wasn't just any temple, it was the best temple. There was a first temple, oh, there was a, sorry, there was a, it was kind of a makeshift temple, there was another temple that came later, but Solomon's Temple was beautiful, it was ornate, it was huge. And really it marks the beginning of a new era with God and His people, His covenant people. And you can see how big of a deal this is in verse 1, 2 Chronicles 7, chapter 1. If you don't know where 2 Chronicles is, and that's okay, we're going to have the verses up here. And so you can read. So Solomon has spent chapter 6 praying, so he's been inviting the people in, he's been praying, he's been asking the Lord to bless this temple. And as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, it says in verse 1, fire came down from

heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Okay? That had not happened ever. And it would be a long time until that happened again. For God to send fire down and consume the sacrifices, that hadn't happened since way back during the, it hadn't happened a long time. And the glory of the Lord filled the temple. It was a sight to behold. Everybody that's looking at this is terrified. They're filled with awe. And the next couple of verses you can see, chapter 3, everybody bows. Everybody bows. Okay? The glory of the Lord is filling the temple, everybody bows. There are tens of thousands of sacrifices that are made right after this moment happens in verses 4 through 7. In verses 8 through 10, there is a huge seven-day feast. All of God's people, they're all kind of out, they're out of their homes, and they're

together and they are feasting for seven days because this has been completed, because this has happened, because God has kind of sealed all of this with his presence. Verse 11 kind of summarizes, 2 Chronicles 7, 11. Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house, all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord. And in his own house, he successfully accomplished. This was momentous for God's people. This is all-time high material. God was putting his name on this place. He's saying to his people with this temple, by filling it with his glory and his presence, what he's saying is, I'm always going to be available to you in a special way. You and I, we have a relationship that is significant. No other nation has a temple to me. No other nation is building a temple and I'm filling it with my glory. It's not happening. You are special.

You are mine. It was a very public display, if you will, of fidelity, of favor, of affection. And later that night, and here's kind of where the story turns just a little bit, later that night, so after all that's done, okay, so the feast is over, the sacrifices have been sacrificed, everybody's done bowing, everybody's done, it's all, so now we're into normal mode and that night, that first night, God comes to Solomon privately, which is strange. Usually does not happen in scripture, this is kind of a significant deal. So after all this public stuff, there's a private encounter that happens that we see and it starts in verse 12. Second Chronicles 7-12, then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. Okay, what we don't, what you probably don't know is that in this moment, what God is doing,

he's meeting Solomon at night and he's recapping, okay. So if you read the previous chapter, Solomon, in kind of this long form, prays this long prayer and God, when he comes to Solomon, he's kind of recapping that prayer. He's talking through the prayer, but in summary fashion and he's saying like, yes, this is how it's going to be. Yes. So you can even see like, I have heard your prayer and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. And what I want to do is I want to study, I want to study God's recapping of this prayer or even you can go back and read Solomon's prayer just a little bit longer in the previous chapter and the reason I want to study that this morning is because I believe it is a clarifying picture of what it is to follow Jesus. The prayer that God recaps in response to with Solomon at night, it is a clarifying picture

of what it is to follow Jesus, to bear the name of Jesus Christ because that's just what happened with these people. These people are now responsible to bear the name of God. And they were before, but it's a little bit more significant now with the dedication of this temple. They've taken a step in that direction. And I believe that if we allow ourselves to kind of let this sink deep, it can really wipe away a lot of the distraction, a lot of the noise and this season of 2024 where the noise level is going to go up and up and up. And look, even if you don't follow politics, the noise level of your fall semester is going to go up and up and up. And before you know it, it's going to be Christmas. What we need is not more noise. What we need is something to cut through the noise, something to be clarifying. And that is what we see in this prayer that God is responding to.

So God comes to Solomon at night. He says, I've heard, I've chosen. He begins responding to Solomon's prayer here, verse 13. This is an odd kind of next sentence here. So he says, OK, I've chosen this place. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people. OK, that feels like a big left turn. Because God's saying, yeah, yeah, I've chosen this place. This is my place. My people. My stamp is here. When I don't send rain. It's weird. Now he's recapping Solomon's prayer, but he's saying, when, not if, when, when I cause a drought, when I bring along a famine, when I send an infestation to you. And kind of our first question as we look at this, and even in looking at Solomon's prayer, it's the same kind of question that you get. Why? Why is, why is God planning to do this? Why is this on his calendar?

He's God. Can he just not send a drought? Can he just hold back a pestilence? Surely he's able. Let's keep reading. Verse 14. The beginning of verse 14 says, when these things happen, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Okay. Let's stop right there. Context. Okay. Get a little bit of context here because it's not, God's not just saying, I'm going to send a drought when I feel like it. I'm going to send an infestation whenever the mood strikes me. God is saying, I'm going to send a drought when my people are proud. I'm going to send a famine when people are not seeking me. I'm going to, I'm going to bring an infestation when my people have decided to live on their own terms. God is saying, look, I'm going to give space for my people to make choices, but I am well aware, God says, I'm well aware that sin is going to happen.

And when it's gone on long enough, when the string has been played out, I'm going to make sure that I get their attention. I'm going to make sure I'm going to, I'm going to cut off something that they have no control over. I'm going to get their attention. Why? To hit us where it hurts? To show us he's boss? Is this a power trip? What is this? Why? Why, why does God respond that way? There's two big reasons. The first reason is what we've just read the first 11 verses simply because they are God's people. God's name is upon them. And God has a plan for his people. His plan is he's going to bless his people so that they can be a blessing to everybody else. If his people are not walking with him and not receiving that blessing, they can't be a blessing to everybody else. That's the first reason. The second reason is because truly the best life that anyone could ever live is to follow

Jesus. It's to follow God. The most loving thing that your creator can do for you is give you himself. The most joy that you can have, the joy that beats all others is joy in knowing Jesus. It's a satisfaction that goes all the way down. It's not cheap. When God gives us himself, when God says I'm going to make sure that our relationship is square, that you can talk to me and I can talk to you, that we can walk together. What God is saying is that I'm going to ensure that you have meaning and purpose in your life. I'm going to ensure that you have joy. I'm going to ensure that you are satisfied at a level that you have previously not known. I'm going to make sure those things are happening. And when we are out of step with that, rather than just let our lives run into the ground, God is merciful and faithful to get your attention and call you back. When you are stubborn, when you are high handed and running away from it, when you

are just hoping to not get caught, God sees you. I imagine it's somewhat comical from God's perspective because if you've ever played with a two or three year old and they put a blanket over themselves and they're like, I'm hiding from you. You're like, okay, that's cute. Because that two or three year old thinks if I can't see you, you can't see me. So that's what they're doing. They're hiding. Spiritually, you and I do something very similar that whenever we mess up or whenever we feel shame or whenever we don't feel like somehow that we measure up, I don't know. There's so many ways that that can play out. But whenever you are feeling that, you just want to throw a blanket over you and hope nobody notices. You want to hope that God can't find you because you feel all that shame. And God says, look, I know that you feel shame. I know that you are hurting.

I know that you don't feel worthy in this moment right here. But I don't care. I'm coming after you. I want you. I want you to be with me. And it's not some, you know, God's not inviting us to some slavish life where we just don't have any fun. No, man, following the Lord is the most satisfying. It's the most joy. It's a win-win. And I just want to remember this morning. I just want to remember this morning that this, this is what following Jesus is like. This is what following Jesus is like. This is what it's like to bear His holy name. It's not sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and just, you know, flitting from one awesome experience to the next. Following Jesus, bearing the holy name of Jesus is continually being called back to Him when you sin, when you run away. It's continually being called back because your life is part of a bigger plan to be a blessing to everybody else.

And because Jesus is faithful to you. If you follow Jesus, He is faithful to you. Second Timothy 2:13 says if we are faithless, He is faithful. For He cannot deny Himself. Let me read that again. Second Timothy 2:13, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. For He cannot deny Himself. Jesus will remain faithful to us by getting our attention, by sending pain to us. And this is the problem, right? That Jesus getting our attention, it often does not feel like faithfulness in the moment. It doesn't feel like Jesus is being our bestie whenever we are in the midst of some pretty heart wrenching pain or whenever we are suffering loss or whenever life isn't going like we thought it would go, right? When significantly derailed, it doesn't feel like faithfulness. We are trying to live life on our own terms, our own plans, our own ethic, our own vision for what it should be.

And Jesus is calling us back. We feel that conviction. And we see in our lives, we see 2 Chronicles 7:14 come true in our life. Because Jesus is bringing this deep frustration to us. These things that we can't understand. These things that we cannot control. We wish we could, but we can't. And so what Jesus is saying is what we see in 2 Chronicles 7:14, it says if my people will humble themselves. If you will admit that you have tried to go it alone and have failed. If you, it says if they will pray and seek my face, this is more than just feeling bad about something. This is turning to God. If they will turn from their wicked ways, and this turning to God includes turning away from sin. And none of this means perfection. None of this means you never mess up again. But this is part of the program. This is part of the program. This is what it is to follow Jesus.

That you're not perfect. That you do mess up. And when you do, Jesus is faithful to you to call you back. To admit you're wrong. And to run to Him. Turn away from sin. Here's the second part of 2 Chronicles 7:14 it says if my people call by my name will humble themselves. They'll pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. If you're keeping score at home, we have 3 wins, 3 ifs, and 3 thens. And these 3 thens. Then I will hear. Then I will forgive their sin. Then I will hear their land. And this is what it is to actually be blessed. All the stuff that you see with people posting about being blessed, a lot of times they're on vacation somewhere. They're not talking about being blessed. When they say blessed, when we say blessed, usually we mean the absence of problems. Usually we mean all the bills are paid and we're feeling good about life in that moment.

But it's not that. Being blessed, living a blessed life is actually walking in repentance. It's actually walking, what Philippians 1:27 says is walking in a manner worthy of the gospel. And when we hear that phrase, when we hear things like walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, our first thought might be, okay, then that's not messing up. If I'm walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, then I'm not messing up. But walking in a manner worthy of the gospel is repenting when you do. That's what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. It's grace and salvation to people who mess up all the time. This is what it is like to be blessed, to walk in repentance. And this is where we need some of the most deep clarification because we mistakenly believe that following Jesus means that we live better than anybody else, that we have fewer problems than anybody else, or it at least means that we act like it.

It at least means that we act like it. And if you follow Jesus for any amount of time, you will come across this kind of mistaken understanding of what it is to follow Jesus. You will find people that will treat you like you don't ever mess up and they're surprised when you do. They're surprised when you apologize. This is kind of the prevailing understanding of what it is to follow Jesus. But the reality is that you and I mess up like everybody else. Our lives are still full of problems. In 2 Chronicles 6, whenever Solomon is praying that long prayer, he says, he's praying for his whole people, and he says, when we sin, and then it has this little caveat, for we all sin. When we sin, for we all sin. And he continues his prayer. The reality is that we mess up like everybody else and that Jesus is faithful to us. He won't let sin ruin our lives, ruin our soul.

And he will use pain and despair and deep frustration and things that we think are ruining our lives to actually bring us back to himself. It's ironic. Sometimes, you know, I talk to a lot of people and I've met some people, one guy, he got caught. And it kind of ruined everything for him. And his wife separated from him and he didn't get to see his little girls. And it was just bad. And as I'm just counseling him and kind of walking him through some things, eventually I was able to kind of help him see like that you getting caught was a grace of God in your life. You getting nailed to the carpet was the best thing that ever happened to you. Didn't feel like it. He didn't love it. He didn't love getting caught, right? Nobody does. But it was the best thing that ever happened to him. Because it was his chance to repent. It was his chance to come clean. It was his chance to be free from all of it.

This is why Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 39, says whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The life that we lose is fading away anyway. The life that we lose is a life of trying to spin as many plates as possible and to look as good as possible and to make sure that everybody knows that we're great and we're cool and our vacations rock. That's the life that we need to lose and when we let go we actually find life. We find abundant life. Life in Jesus. And that's a life of being called back into his presence, being called back into repentance. It's a life where he doesn't let go even whenever we run away, even when we are faithless. You need to understand this is for particularly for people that follow Jesus, that have said yes to following Jesus. That might not be where you are, that's fine, but don't mistake.

I'm not saying that there's nothing that you need to do. There's no kind of move that you have to make toward Jesus. He's just faithful to you, kind of just period. No, it's people that have chosen to follow him. People that have chosen to walk with him. It doesn't mean it's perfect, but this is more than just saying a prayer one time. This is more than just being baptized when you were 10 without really repenting. Man, just the question should come up in your mind. Like if that's not you, if you've never experienced what I'm talking about here, if you've never said hey I'm going to come clean to where the Lord is calling me, if I've never been like sought his face, sought his presence, then I would just encourage you, we're going to have a time of response at the end and in a few minutes and I just want to encourage you, man, make sure, man, have a time where you repent, you call Jesus your Lord and your

Savior and you turn away from those things and go after him. And when you do, like I'm not, when you do, I will just tell you and people can testify to this too, either quickly or slowly you will feel the presence of the Lord rush into you like his glory filled that temple in 2 Chronicles 7. I'm not saying you're going to float on air, but I am saying you're going to have power, you're going to have a new power in a way that you never realized. You're going to have a new ability to pray to, your heart is going to be softer. These things are going to happen. There's one last thing I want to see in here in 2 Chronicles 7 and it's where God turns from recapping Solomon's prayer and he actually turns his attention to Solomon himself. So he comes to Solomon at night, he's saying, look, all these things that you've prayed for, these things I'm going to do and when I send the pain, if my people will come to

me, they will repent, then I'm going to heal, I'm going to bring them back, I'm going to heal their land, I'm going to heal them. But look at verse 17, 2 Chronicles 7, 17, it says, and as for you, so talking to Solomon in particular, this is God saying, and as for you, if you will walk before me as David, your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, this is another set of ifs, but these are different ifs, this is about keeping God's law, so it's a little bit different, look at the next verse, if you do these things, then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with David, I promised David your father, saying you shall not lack a man to rule Israel. This seems pretty straightforward, Solomon, if you keep my law, then you're always going to have a descendant on the throne, okay? But now it takes a turn, look at verse 19, it says, but if you turn aside and forsake

my statutes and my commandments that I have made, I've set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, okay, this is bad, okay? If you do these bad things, so this is different than what Solomon's praying for the people, this is different than God's covenant with his people, this is something else, this is something extra, this is something with the king personally, look at verse 20, it says, if you do these bad things, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I've consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. What you see here in Solomon, in God's covenant with Solomon, is that it's more severe, it's a heavier weight. It's not like the promise that you and I have, it's something different, something extra, something that actually has some pretty terrible consequences if he messes up.

And you kind of get the impression that Solomon is hearing that, I mean, you put yourself in that position, you're like, okay, that's not exactly the pep talk I was hoping for, okay? Don't mess it up. If you mess it up, it's messed up for everybody. Now if you succeed Solomon, if you succeed, everybody succeeds. But if you mess up, it's not just, man, you know, should have done better, I'll try again, you don't get some after action report, you don't get some second chance at this. The people, if you mess up Solomon, your people are exiled. Your people are gone. This temple is gone. Solomon's burden is heavier because he's the king, because he is God's representative to the people and his actions have ramifications for everybody. And we know from history, you don't have to read very long, we know from history Solomon indeed failed. And God's people indeed were plucked from that land.

And Solomon's temple was indeed destroyed. It's gone. We have some renderings of it that I didn't show you this morning, it's okay, you can look it up, Solomon's temple. It was grand, it was beautiful, it would have been a great monument, but it is gone. God's people were evicted, they were shamed. And yet, and yet, that's not really the end of the story. This is the end of what happens in 2 Chronicles 7, it is the end of kind of this, what God is working out with King Solomon, but it's not the end, because there is this idea that remained of a representative for God's people whose actions had ramifications for everybody. And Solomon could have been that guy, but he wasn't. And there were other people throughout the Old Testament that could have been that guy, Moses could have been that guy, but he wasn't, David could have been that guy, but he wasn't,

Abraham could have been that guy, but he wasn't, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Gideon, Samson, Nehemiah, Ezra, the list goes on. Joshua even heard from Daniel Sutor a couple of weeks ago on Joshua. Joshua ultimately, at the end of his life, he failed. All these people did, they all failed. Nobody could carry that burden. Nobody could say, you know what, all of you guys, I'm going to put your spiritual vitality, your very relationship with God on my back, and if I mess up, you're done, you're cooked. But all of that comes to fruition in Jesus, doesn't it? When Jesus comes, he is the fulfillment, it says, Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He's the fulfillment of all these things that were attempted over and over and over and over ad nauseam in the Old Testament. People could not do it. Solomon couldn't do it. Solomon was everybody's best guess. There was nobody like Solomon.

His wisdom surpassed everybody. The nation of Israel, their wealth was like at the apex under Solomon's reign. He was a global influencer, even without TikTok. He was everywhere. Solomon was great. I mean, he was the apex, man. I mean, like, there was no king better than Solomon, but he still failed. You and I, if we're in Solomon's position, we aren't faring any better. I would probably have fared much worse than Solomon. He was a good guy. But when Jesus comes, he says, I'm the fulfillment of all of that. All of those promises, all of that, that set up, whenever Jesus comes, his righteousness covers me. What he does on my behalf speaks all the words that need to be spoken about my life. When it comes to me standing before God in judgment, what Jesus has done for me is he's allowed me to stand before God and say, hey, I don't deserve to be here. But Jesus gave his life for mine.

Look at Jesus' life instead of mine. That's what Jesus was able to do by living a perfect life. He could put all of us on his back and just say, I'm going to run the course. I'm going to complete this thing. I'm going to make it through death. I'm going to beat death. And I'm going to do that with you on my back. I'm going to do that so that you can have a whole relationship with your creator God so that you can find joy and meaning and satisfaction, all just as a byproduct of having this relationship with God. Jesus is going to do that for us. Jesus is our hero. He's our king. He's our representative. He's the one where if we're waving any banner, we're waving Jesus. If we're waving any banner, we're not waving our church name. We're not waving denominational lines. We're not waving anything like that. We're waving Jesus. Because it's Jesus that saves us. It's Jesus that ran the gauntlet for us.

My encouragement to you, even as we're looking at the dedication of the temple in 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles 7, my encouragement to you is just to see that burden that Solomon couldn't bear and to understand and to be filled with gratitude, quite honestly, and worship that Jesus could and did hold up that end of the bargain on our behalf. We all benefit from it. But here's the kicker. The kicker is that we try to be Solomon. We want the fame, the glory. We want to be our own savior. We want to make it on our own merit. And if you don't believe that, if you don't believe that, just think of the last time somebody didn't give you credit for something that you did that was good. What was your response? Or when you got blamed for something that wasn't your fault. How'd that go? Right? Not great. Didn't go great. I don't know you, but it probably didn't go great.

We like earning our own merit. We like being good enough. It's a really attractive thing. But as a lifestyle, it's death. As a way to commune with the Lord God, it doesn't work. We can't be Solomon. Solomon couldn't even be Solomon. We need a hero. We need somebody to save us. My encouragement, I'm going to call the band back up. I just want to encourage you, just as we sing, as we are, excuse me, as we are trying to just kind of understand what the Lord is calling us to do. My encouragement to you is I'm going to be back here where those two lamps are, and those two chairs and that couch. I'm just going to be hanging out. You can say hi to me. It's cool. You don't have to worry about me over there. What I want you to do, though, is I want you to consider what your next step is. Is that next step for you? Is that next step for you just learning how to repent?

Or maybe repenting for the first time in a long time? Is that next step for you saying yes to Jesus for the very first time? What is that for you? Man, even if you just need some prayer, even if you don't really know what that next step is, and you want some help on that, man, I am back there. I would love to listen and pray with you, to talk with you. You can come while we're singing. You can come after we're dismissed. I'm going to be hanging out there for a bit. Let me pray for us, and then we'll sing. Lord, thank you for this morning. I pray that you would help us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel and repentance, feeling the call back when you say come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Lord, help us just to be convinced that you are our rest. You are our hero, our salvation. You are everything that we could not earn and that we pray.

Would you please stand as we sing?