Context No. 3837 of 4322 · 1 Kings

1 Kings 8:1-11: in context

1Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel with all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant out of David’s city, which is Zion. 2All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 3All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark. 4They brought up the LORD’s ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. The priests and the Levites brought these up. 5King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. 6The priests brought in the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, even under the cherubim’s wings. 7For the cherubim spread their wings out over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above. 8The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside. They are there to this day. 9There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the LORD’s house, 11so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the LORD’s glory filled the LORD’s house.

The great moment has come: the ark of the covenant is carried into the newly built temple and placed in the inner sanctuary, and as the priests withdraw, the cloud of God's presence fills the house so thickly that the priests cannot stand to minister, for the glory of the LORD filled his house.

All the preparation, the years of building, the assembling of the people, leads to this: God takes up residence among his people, and his glory is so overwhelming that ministry itself has to pause before it. Two things are worth pausing over. God graciously came to dwell among his people; the whole point of the temple was not the building itself but God's presence within it. And the sheer weight of that presence, so great that the priests could not remain on their feet. This is the God we approach, whose glory once filled a house until no one could stand. And the wonder of the gospel is that this same glorious God now dwells, by his Spirit, in his people themselves. The God whose glory filled the temple has made his people his dwelling place.

Do I approach God with reverence for the weight of his glory that once filled the temple, and do I marvel that this same God now dwells by his Spirit within his people?

Sources

1 Kings 8:10-11: "The cloud filled the LORD's house, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the LORD's glory filled the LORD's house."
1 Kings 8:6: "The priests brought in the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place."
1 Corinthians 3:16: "Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you?"