On this second run through Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple, make note of two things as you read:
- The conditions upon which God’s response to His people’s prayers would be based. How can you apply these to your own life?
- What Solomon asked God to do. What verbs did he use to describe the actions he wanted God to take on behalf of His people? How does this inform the way you pray for what you want God to do in your own life? How does it reveal how you can pray for others?
I hope you didn’t fail to notice that God held up David as a standard for future kings’ faithfulness to God, and an example of one who walked before God, did all that He commanded and observed His decrees and laws. We never fail to remember David as much for his sin with Bathsheba as for courageously killing Goliath, but his sin wasn’t fatal because he did the very thing God presented as a condition upon which He would “hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal….” He humbled himself, prayed, sought God’s face and turned from his wicked ways. God doesn’t count us total losses if we sin, either, as long as we respond to it by humbling ourselves, praying, seeking His face and turning from our wicked ways.
God’s promise to Solomon on the occasion of the dedication of the Temple reminds us of His faithfulness to His promises. It also reminds us of man’s unfaithfulness. David’s descendants weren’t faithful, and the people of Israel weren’t faithful. The nation was cast from their land in 70 A.D. when the Temple was flattened, never to be rebuilt. Israel ceased to be a nation from that time until it formed again in 1948. That is a lot of years for Israel to suffer the judgment for their sin – and they surely suffered in those years. If God said that His eyes and His heart will always be in Jerusalem, His eyes and His heart are still there.