day 144 - Bible in a year

1KINGS 8:1-11. 2CHRONICLES 5:1-14, 1KINGS 8:12-21, 2CHRONICLES 6:1-11, 1KINGS 8:22-53, 2CHRONICLES 6:12-42

• 1 kings 8:¹¹So the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house.
• 2 chron 5:¹⁴So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
• footnote:
  1. 2 Chronicles 6:5 God is plainly saying here that it was not His desire for Israel to have a king. To be sure, when to Samuel's attempt to dissuade them they replied, "No! We will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations" (I Sam. 8:19-20), God said to Samuel, "They have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them... appoint them a king" (I Sam. 8:7, 22). But Saul was originally the people's choice, not God's choice. The Bible nowhere teaches that "the voice of the people is the voice of God." But it does teach that when people make demands of God that are not in harmony with His will, He may grant them to their sorrow, and send "leanness into their souls" (Ps. 106:15)

  
  

  1 kings 8:²³And he said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing mercy and loving-kindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart.

  
  

  1 kings 8:³⁸Whatever prayer or supplication is made by any or all of Your people Israel--each man knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading forth his hands toward this house [and its pledge of Your presence]--

      ³⁹Then hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart You know, for You and You only know the hearts of all the children of men,

      ⁴⁰That they may fear and revere You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

  
  

  footnote:2 Chronicles 6:42 Young Solomon seems, and doubtless is, utterly sincere as he offers this prayer of which God shows His approval by the miraculous demonstration of His presence in the next verse. It raises the ever-present question, How could Solomon have begun his career like this, and have written his unquestionably divinely inspired books, and yet have fallen eventually into utter defiance of God's will? Not as the result of one false step, as with David, but as the habit of his life for the remainder of his days! Not broken with unspeakable sorrow for his awful sin, as was his penitent father (Ps. 51), but without ever apparently repenting or confessing his awful defiance of God and His explicit commands and warnings, given specifically to Solomon himself (II Chron. 7:17-22). Possibly in this closing sentence of Solomon's prayer we detect the fallacy in the young king's thinking. He seems to be saying in substance, "O Lord God, I am Your responsibility now; it will be for You to see that my face does not turn away from You; and not for my sake, but [since my name is identified with this temple as well as Yours, You must keep my face turned toward You] for Your own sake!" God lost no unnecessary time in attempting to set the young man straight as to whose is the responsibility for sin--in his case specifically (II Chron. 7:12, 17-22). But there is no evidence that Solomon applied it to himself; though he preached a bit to others, he seems to have considered himself exempt from obeying God's commands--an attitude which has brought disaster upon every person who has ever taken it, however great, or wise, or rich, or otherwise sufficient.