Saturday, July 2, 2022

Bible in one year 7/1/2022 2Chronicle Chapter 4-7 Solomon prayer and Lord’s answer By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

 Bible in one year 7/1/2022 2Chronicle Chapter 4-7 Solomon prayer and Lord’s answer

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Christian Arts Ministries : Biblical precepts & Gospel music; Pastoral ministry & Counseling

 

2 Chronicle Chapter 4 Construction of the Temple

            Solomon made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it. Below the rim, figures of bulls encircled it-ten to a cubit. The bulls were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.(vv.1-3).

            He made ten gold lampstands according to the specifications for them and placed them in the temple, five on the South side and five on the north.(v.7). He made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the North. He also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.(v.8). He also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work he had undertaken for King Solomon, in the temple of God: the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl shaped capitals on top of the pillars).(vv.11-13). All the objects that Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of polished bronze.(v.16).

2Chronicle Chapter 5 Dedication of the Temple

Installing the Ark 5:1-14  When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated –the silver and gold and all the furnishings and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.(v.1). Then Solomon summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Zion, the City of David. And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month. (vv.2-3). Zion. A name for Jerusalem or, as here, the portion of it located in the SE part (2Sam.5:6-7).Moriah, where the Temple was, is N. of this area. The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its carrying poles.(vv.7-8)(1Kings8:7-8). The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions. All the Levites who were musicians -Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives-stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:

“He is good; His love endures forever”

Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God. (vv.13-14).

Chapter 6 Solomon speaks to the people and pray to God 6:1-11

            Then Solomon said, “ The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I have built a magnificent temple for you, palace for you to dwell forever.” While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. and pray to God,

“ O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth-you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your month you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it –as it is today. Now Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, “ you shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your son are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.” And now, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David come true.”(vv.14-17).

            But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens even the highest heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the praying in your presence. May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.(vv.18-21).

            Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. Now arise, O Lord God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, may your saints rejoice in your goodness. O Lord God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember the great love promised to David your servant.(6:40-42)

 

2Chronicles 7 God’s glory and the Lord answered Solomon

             When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.(vv.1-2). When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “ He is good, His love endures forever.” (v.3). The Lord appeared to Solomon at nigh and said,

 “ I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people.(vv.12-13). If my people, who are called by my name, will 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.” (v.14). Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.(vv.15-16).

            As for you, If you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, “you shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.” (vv.17-18).

            But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then, I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.(vv.19-20).

 And though this temple is now so imposing, all peoples who pass by will be appalled and say, “ Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple? People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”(vv.21-22).

            The Lord’s answer to Solomon states God’s requirements for blessing : humility, prayer, devotion, repentance and do not turn away and forsake the decrees and commands, and go off to serve other gods and worship them. Solomon’s final stage was strayed from the Lord, and wasn’t devoted to the Lord wholeheartedly, because he had so many foreign wives who worshiped other gods. Therefore, the Lord uproot Israel from His land in his son’s generation after Solomon died.     

Bibliography,

 Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986 

No comments:

Post a Comment