Scripture Daily

Context No. 143 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 8:22-30: in context

22Solomon stood before the LORD’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; 23and he said, “LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart; 24who has kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today. 25Now therefore, may LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ 26“Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father. 27But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 28Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant and for his supplication, LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today; 29that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place. 30Listen to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

The temple is finished, the ark has been brought in, and Solomon stands before the altar in front of the whole assembly and spreads out his hands. This passage is the opening of his dedication prayer, and its most striking move is that it undercuts the building it is dedicating.

He begins with covenant: there is no God like you, keeping covenant and steadfast love with your servants who walk before you wholeheartedly. He notes that what God promised David has been fulfilled with his own hand. Then, at the height of the ceremony, he asks the question: but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built.

He has just spent seven years and an enormous fortune on it, and he says at the dedication that it cannot hold God. What he asks instead is that God's eyes be open toward this place night and day, and that he hear the prayer his servant prays toward it. Not a container for God, a direction to face. The rest of the prayer is a list of situations, defeat, drought, famine, exile, in which people will turn toward this place. What have I built or maintained that is worth keeping precisely because it points somewhere rather than holds something?

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