Journal Through the Bible: Week 93 Saturday

Easley, Kendell H. Holman
QuickSource Guide to Understanding the Bible.
Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2002.
Print.
(Courtesy of Logos Bible Software)

II Chronicles chapter 8

Twenty years had passed. Solomon had completed the Temple, his own house, a house for his wife who was also the daughter of Pharaoh, and several cities. Some of the cities were storehouses, some were for defense, and some were seaports.

Solomon also made the Canaanite people that were left in the land - and whose ancestors had been living among the Israelites since the time of Joshua - servants who worked and paid tribute. The Israelites did not serve in those capacities but were military personnel. He made 250 of them his chief officers. The Levites and priests continued in their service rotation by families according to the order that David had arranged during his reign.

Does God issue any commands?

• Not in this chapter but we read that Solomon offered burnt offerings at a certain rate every day and kept the sacrifices and offerings on the special days as required by the LORD in Leviticus.

Does God make any promises?
Not in this chapter.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• When all was accomplished Solomon continued to worship God through the required sacrifices. When all the sacrifice was accomplished Jesus sat down at the right hand of God the Father.
• All of Solomon's enemies were put under his authority. Several scriptures say that the LORD told the Lord to sit at His right hand until He (the LORD) makes the Lord's enemies His footstool. (See Psalm 110:1, Matthew 22:44; I Corinthians 15:25, Luke 20:42-43; Acts 2:34-36.)

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• Solomon's kingdom in all of its glory was a type of the Kingdom of God yet to come.
• Solomon had mastery over his enemies. One day all of Jesus' enemies will be under His feet also. He is now at the right hand of God the Father awaiting that day.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 93 Friday

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II Chronicles chapter 7

Looking back over the events of Israel's history, the author of these chronicles, who was most likely the Priest Ezra, told those returning from captivity that God had answered Solomon's prayer on Mount Moriah in the same manner that He later would answer the prayer of the Prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices.

Once again it is noted that the glory of the LORD filled the house and the priests could not enter. The people who witnessed this event immediately fell to their knees with their faces to the ground in worship and praise.

Does God issue any commands?

• Solomon consecrated the Temple with offerings and sacrifices such as God had commanded in the book of Leviticus.
• God commanded Solomon to follow His commands and worship only Him.

Does God make any promises?

• Solomon sent the people to their homes on the 23rd day. They were "glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people" (verse 10). This was confirmation of God keeping His promises.
• The LORD appeared to Solomon by night and said that He had chosen the Temple for a house of sacrifice. 
• God promised that after the people sinned if they would humble themselves, pray, seek His face, turn from their wicked ways God would forgive their sin and heal their land.
• God promised that He would be attentive to the prayers made in that place.
• God made a personal promise to Solomon that if he would walk before Him as David did by doing according to all that God commanded him, He would establish his throne forever but if Solomon turned away from God He would remove the people from the land and tear down the Temple so that all would be astonished.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• When the people witnessed the glory of the LORD in a visible way they bowed and worshiped God. Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10 say that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. The Apostle John said in John 1:14 that "we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." John was a witness to the glorified Christ both in the Transfiguration and as the risen Savior. 
• During this dedication period the people kept the Feast of Tabernacles which was a time of celebrating both the tents they lived in during the Exodus and the fact that the Messiah would "tabernacle" with men. Jesus took on human flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
• God promised to be attentive to the prayers made in the Temple because the place was a symbol of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ who came to tabernacle among men. Jesus told His followers that if we ask anything in His name in repentance and faith and according to the Father's will He will hear and answer our prayers.
• Because Solomon and the people did not keep the commands of God and serve Him only, the covenant was broken. The continual rule of the family of David was broken, the people taken into captivity, and the Temple was destroyed at the time of the Babylonian conquest. Jesus restores the covenant once more. He is of the seed of David, He sets free those who are captive to sin, and He is our Temple (our altar of sacrifice, our High Priest, the dwelling of our God, the Chief Cornerstone, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, the sweet incense, the burnt offering, the sin offering, the Light that shines in the darkness, etc.).

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• When the people personally witnessed the glory of the LORD it caused them to fall to the ground on their knees and faces to worship and praise Almighty God. This will undoubtedly be the reaction of every believer when he encounters God face to face in eternity. (Why not practice this posture now?) 
• God made very specific appeals and promises to Solomon and the people. He promised to hear their prayers, forgive their sins, perpetually listen to the prayers made in that place on Mount Moriah, and heal their land if the people would worship only Him. They didn't. But God still makes specific appeals and promises to those who will turn from their sins and trust Him today. He hears our prayers, forgives our sins, and one day He will again heal the land and take possession of it where His people will be free to talk openly with Him and worship Him out of grateful hearts.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 93 Thursday

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II Chronicles chapter 6

Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. (verses 32-33)

After the glory of the LORD filled the Temple Solomon ascended onto a brass scaffold, got down on his knees, raised his hands to the heavens and prayed an eloquent, heart-felt prayer to God in front of all of the people. It contained all the elements of the ACTS of prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication). Many of Solomon's petitions for forgiveness paraphrase God's own words in Leviticus. The sacrifices that were offered as an atonement for sins following repentance were then going to be carried out in the Temple instead of in the tabernacle.

The words concerning the repentance of captives in a foreign land (verses 36-39) must have been very comforting to those who were returning from Babylonian captivity. Ezra himself may have been comforted when he copied them from Solomon's prayer.

Does God issue any commands?

• God did not speak in this chapter but Solomon asked several times for God to forgive the people if they confessed their sin. The only way sin can be recognized is if there are commands to be broken. In essence then, Solomon is referencing the commands of God in his prayer.

Does God make any promises?

• Solomon rehearsed before the people the promises of God that they were seeing fulfilled that day including the choosing of Jerusalem as God's city, the choosing of David as God's ruler, and the choosing of King Solomon to build the House of God.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• Solomon asked in verse 18, "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" Yes! Jesus is God in the flesh who came and dwelt among us! And He will come again and dwell among us!
• In Solomon's prayer he said that the Temple was to be for all people including strangers. He wanted everyone to know the LORD because of the testimony of Israel and their house of worship. Jesus also wanted the redeemed of Israel to spread the gospel of God the Father and His Son to all the world. God always had a plan in place for a world-wide gospel but in the time of the Temple He expected people to "come" and be introduced to the God that loves them. Later, Jesus told His followers that made up the church He established while He was here on the earth to "go" to all people and introduce them to the God that loves them. We are still doing this today.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• Solomon had every intention for the House of God that he built to last forever as God's dwelling place among men, but it did not because it was a man-made structure. Jesus has prepared a place for us that will never pass away because it is God-made. One day we will live there with Him, Emanuel: God with us! Solomon's Temple was a place where God and sinful men were to meet, but the man would leave and return to his sinful environment. When we are permanently dwelling in the place that Jesus prepared for us men shall never return to a sinful environment or be tempted by their own fallen natures.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 93 Wednesday

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II Chronicles chapter 5

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; . . . that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God. (verses 13 and 14)

The work was finished! Solomon brought in all the things that his father, David, had dedicated to the LORD. Solomon then brought the Ark of the Covenant up (without incident!) out of Zion and placed it in the Holy of Holies. The priests and Levites also brought up the tabernacle and its vessels out of Gibeon and placed them in the Temple.

Verse 9 says that the Ark and its staves were there "unto this day" but we are told elsewhere in scripture that it was not found in the post-exilic temple built by Zerubbabel. It would seem that Ezra copied the whole passage from the notes taken during the reigns of David's descendants, which ended at the time of the Babylonian captivity. Although the people would have rejoiced at being allowed to return to their home in Jerusalem in Ezra's time, they would have mourned that the symbol of their covenant with God had vanished. It seems to me that this is only fitting since the Davidic dynasty was not restored at that time either and that also is a symbol of God's covenant with Israel.

At the placement of the Ark of the Covenant the singers/psalm writers and their families as appointed by David, led a worship service with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, which was then blended with 120 trumpets blown by priests. At that time the glory of the LORD filled the house and the priests could not see to minister!

Does God issue any commands?

• Solomon learned a lesson from his father about the proper way to move the Ark of the Covenant. This time there was no breach upon anyone for improperly touching the most holy symbol of the atonement because Solomon rightly sanctified the priests for their responsibility of moving it as per God's previous commands given to Moses.

Does God make any promises?

• God showed His approval of the Temple when His glory came down upon it and filled it just as He had done to the tabernacle during the Exodus. This was His promise that He accepted this new place of worship which was meant to be a permanent structure and sign of their mutual covenant.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• The work of Solomon was complete. He had done his father's will. This is a type of Jesus who said on the cross that the work is finished! He had done His Father's will!
• The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. It was the curtain of the Holy of Holies that tore from top to bottom when Jesus shed His blood for the remission of our sins.
• Jesus is the fulfillment of the Covenant, the personification of the Mercy Seat of the Ark, and the Sovereign who meets the qualifications for the everlasting dynasty of David. The Ark was a symbol of the covenant between God and the Children of Israel and the Children of Israel had broken their covenant. Jesus is the fulfillment of that covenant.  

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• This chapter rehearses the time when the Ark of the Covenant (or Testament) was placed in Solomon's Temple. It is a symbol of God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, Israel, David, and Solomon, and their descendants. It remained in the Temple until the time of the Babylonian conquest, which was the judgment that came because the Children of Israel and their kings had broken the covenant. The Ark was not put into the second temple which was built by Zerubbabel. This fits with Jeremiah's prophecy in Jeremiah 3:16. However, in Revelation 11:19 John said that he saw the Ark of the Testament in the temple of God in heaven and since it was seen by John it is likely that we will see it when we are there.