burnt offering and the sacrifices.” The priests could not enter the temple
because “the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.” “When all the
children of Israel saw ... the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed
themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshiped,
and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for his mercy endureth forever.”
Then king and people offered sacrifices before the Lord. “So the king and all
the people dedicated the house of God.” 2 Chronicles 7:1-5. For seven days the
multitudes from every part of the kingdom, from the borders “of Hamath unto
the river of Egypt,” “a very great congregation,” kept a joyous feast. The week
following was spent by the happy throng in observing the Feast of Tabernacles.
At the close of the season of reconsecration and rejoicing the people returned to
their homes, “glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had showed
unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.” Verses 8, 10.
The king had done everything within his power to encourage the people to
give themselves wholly to God and his service, and to magnify his holy name.
And now once more, as at Gibeon early in his reign, Israel’s ruler was given
evidence of divine acceptance and blessing. In a night vision the Lord appeared
to him with the message: “I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to
myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I
command the locusts to devour the land, or if I
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send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name,
shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked
ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their
land. Now Mine eyes shall be open, and Mine ears attent unto the prayer that is
made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name
may be there forever: and Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually.”
Verses 12-16.
Had Israel remained true to God, this glorious building would have stood
forever, a perpetual sign of God’s especial favor to his chosen people. “The sons
of the stranger,” God declared, “that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him,
and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone that keepeth the
Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring
to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt
offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar; for Mine house
shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” Isaiah 56:6, 7.
In connection with these assurances of acceptance, the Lord made very plain
the path of duty before the king. “As for thee,” He declared, “if thou wilt
walk before Me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I
have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments; then
will I establish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with
David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.” 2
Chronicles 7:17, 18.
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Had Solomon continued to serve the Lord in humility, his entire reign would
have exerted a powerful influence for good over the surrounding nations, nations
that had been so favorably impressed by the reign of David his father and by
the wise words and the magnificent works of the earlier years of his own reign.
Foreseeing the terrible temptations that attend prosperity and worldly honor, God
warned Solomon against the evil of apostasy and foretold the awful results of
sin. Even the beautiful temple that had just been dedicated, He declared, would
become “a proverb and a byword among all nations” should the Israelites forsake
“the Lord God of their fathers” and persist in idolatry. Verses 20, 22.
Strengthened in heart and greatly cheered by the message from heaven that
his prayer in behalf of Israel had been heard, Solomon now entered upon the
most glorious period of his reign, when “all the kings of the earth” began to seek
his presence, “to hear his wisdom, that God had put in his heart.” 2 Chronicles
9:23. Many came to see the manner of his government and to receive instruction
regarding the conduct of difficult affairs.
As these people visited Solomon, he taught them of God as the Creator of all
things, and they returned to their homes with clearer conceptions of the God of
Israel and of his love for the human race. In the works of nature they now beheld
an expression of his love and a revelation of his character; and many were led to
worship him as their God.
The humility of Solomon at the time he began to bear the burdens of state,
when he acknowledged before God,
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“I am but a little child” (1 Kings 3:7), his marked love of God, his profound
reverence for things divine, his distrust of self, and his exaltation of the infinite
Creator of all—all these traits of character, so worthy of emulation, were revealed
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during the services connected with the completion of the temple, when during
his dedicatory prayer he knelt in the humble position of a petitioner. Christ’s
followers today should guard against the tendency to lose the spirit of reverence
and godly fear. The Scriptures teach men how they should approach their
Maker—with humility and awe, through faith in a divine
