WWUTT 444 A Temple For His Name?

The Temple Built for God’s Name and the Church as His Temple

Solomon built unto the Lord a house for his name, that is the temple. Now we who are in Christ, we are described as a temple of the Holy Spirit from God. So we must be a temple unto his name when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.

And greetings, everybody. We are in 1 Kings 8. Memory serves, I got through verse 11, and then we were going to pick up from there and continue probably through at least chapter 9 today. So 1 Kings 8, beginning in verse 12, the temple has been constructed, Solomon's palace has been built, the Ark of the Covenant has been brought into the temple, and God has shown His presence has now moved into that place, which was built for him as a dwelling place to tabernacle with his people.

The cloud of God descended into the temple, into the Ark and the Holy of Holies, so that the presence of God prevented even the priests from entering. And it was only the priests who could go into the Holy of Holies, but when God's presence came upon there, even they couldn't go in.

And so God's presence is now with Israel. He has blessed this house that Solomon has built. And so now Solomon blesses the Lord, 1 Kings 8, verse 12. Then Solomon said, the Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.

I have intended, I'm sorry, I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever. Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel while all the assembly of Israel stood.

And he said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David, my father, saying, since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that my name might be there.

But I chose David to be over my people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to David, my father, whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name. Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made, for I have risen in the place of David, my father, and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised.

And I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. And there I have provided a place for the ark in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Notice verses 16 and 17 there where it says that God is saying through Solomon, I chose no city of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.

Then Solomon says in verse 17, now it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord. That wording is very deliberate because Solomon doesn't mean to indicate that God is actually in the temple, but that the temple is for his name.

God doesn't dwell in buildings made by hands. We considered that last week when we were reading out of Acts chapter 17. We read in Psalm 11 for the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.

His eyes see his eyelids test the children of man. That is where God is. God is, is seated on his throne in heaven. He does not dwell on earth with man because man has fallen. We are not worthy to be in the presence of God until Jesus Christ came in the form of a man.

He is the son of God and the son of man, very God and very man, God in the flesh. And so Jesus is our fellowship with God. God was not with us on earth until Christ came and now he has ascended into heaven and is interceding for us at the right hand of the father.

So Jesus has become that fellowship with God and we are the temple of his spirit. So God's Holy Spirit dwells inside all those who believe in Jesus Christ and follow him. So that is, that's why Solomon chooses that wording for the house to be a place for the name of God, but it is not God having come down from heaven to sit in the temple that has been built for him.

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication and the Meaning of Repentance

So then we go on here. Solomon's prayer of dedication starting in verse 22. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and he spread out his hands toward heaven and he said, Oh Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

Walking before God means they doesn't mean that they precede God. It means that they present themselves before God. They present themselves before him for judgment, that he would examine their hearts and find them to be worthy, walking in obedience in all of his statutes.

Verse 24, you have kept with your servant, David, my father, what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. Now, therefore, Oh Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant, David, my father, what you have promised him saying, you shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel.

If only your sons pay close attention to their way to walk before me as you have walked before me. Now, therefore, Oh God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant, David, my father.

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, Oh Lord, my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, my name shall be there.

Here we have that statement again, the Lord's name there in this temple that has been built for his name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place and listen to the plea of your servant and of your people, Israel, when they pray toward this place and listen in heaven, your dwelling place.

And when you hear forgive, if a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then here in heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

When your people, Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you. And if they turn again to you and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, then here in heaven and forgive the sin of your people, Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to their fathers.

When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them, then here in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people, Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people, Israel, each knowing the affliction of his heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, then here from heaven in your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know according to all his ways.

For you, you only know the hearts of all the children of mankind, that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers. This is some sincere praying right here. This is sincerely pouring out a heart before God and saying, we have sinned, examine our hearts when we ask for forgiveness to see that we're genuine, that we're truly mournful of the sin that we have committed against God and against this house.

And if you see in our hearts that we are worthy, that we are genuine, that we are repentant before God, then in your righteousness, bless this people, forgive sin, heal the land, restore to the land. And of course, what it sounds like I'm quoting is from 2 Chronicles 7, which is the same account that we're reading here in 1 Kings 8, and we'll go to that here in just a moment because the Lord's response to Solomon is a little bit different, worded a little bit differently than his response here in 1 Kings 9 is where we get the response from the Lord.

So this is a great example of what a truly repentant heart should look like. And this is preemptively asking for forgiveness. Like there's not presently a pestilence on the land. There's not a famine.

There's not an enemy that has come and taken over. But Solomon is saying when these things happen, examine our hearts. May our repentance be genuine. I think another great example of genuine repentance is in Psalm 51.

That's the prayer of repentance that David lifted up before the Lord after he had sinned against God, having an affair with Bathsheba and then having her husband Uriah the Hittite murdered just this past week in current events.

This was Monday, I believe it was when the whole firestorm that started with Kathy Griffin, right? She was photographed holding the severed head of Donald Trump. Of course, it was a mannequin's head. It was covered in fake blood, but it was still an extremely gruesome image and a huge backlash, a firestorm of controversy erupted over these particular photographs.

Well, Kathy Griffin, this comedian immediately took to Twitter to apologize for what it is that she had done. And this is her apology. Word for word, this is what her apology sounded like. I sincerely apologize, she said.

I'm just now seeing the reaction of these images. I'm a comic. I cross the line. I move the line. Then I cross it. I went way too far. The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people. It wasn't funny.

I get it. I've made a lot of mistakes in my career. I will continue. I ask for your forgiveness. I'm taking down the image. I'm going to ask the photographer to take down the image and I beg for your forgiveness.

I went too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong. Might I put it before you that this is exactly how not to apologize. And you might have heard that go. Why? What's wrong? She admits that she did something wrong.

She said that she's going to do something to change it. She's asking for forgiveness. I put before you that there's nothing in her words that indicates from her heart that she truly understands what it is that she has done wrong.

What she's sorry about, at least just going off of the words that she put in this apology, what she's sorry about is that it offended anybody or that this huge controversy and backlash was erupted by what it was that she had done.

And she knew exactly the controversy that was going to come about from this. There is a video of her taking the photos in which she's saying to the photographer, we have to leave the country now because we're going to get thrown in federal prison.

And she looks in the camera and says, Tyler and I, referring to the photographer, are not afraid to make some noise. So she was totally out to be controversial. But then when the when the firestorm came out the way that it did, maybe a little bit more than she was expecting, maybe she did not have the liberal friends on her side like she thought she was going to have.

Then she issued this apology. And what we do not have in her apology is any understanding that Donald Trump is a fellow human being. He is a man who is a husband and a father. Doesn't matter what you think of Donald Trump and his politics, whether you agree with him or disagree with him.

He's a man. And we have it instructed of us in the scriptures that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, thanksgivings for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

That is First Timothy, chapter two, verses one and two. If Kathy Griffin had any understanding of the scriptures whatsoever, she would understand that what she has done is not has not just erupted a firestorm of controversy from the public.

It's not just degrading a man who is a fellow human being, a husband and a father, but she has sinned against God with this very act that she has done. And so from her apology, we don't have any true, genuine remorse of having depicted an act of violence against a fellow human being for entertainment to stir the pot.

That's really all she was out to do it for. She's a comedian, and she even uses that as an excuse in her apology. I'm a comic. I crossed the line. I moved the line. Then I cross it. I went way too far.

She's making excuses. She's not genuinely acknowledging that she made a mistake. She even goes as far as saying, I've made many mistakes in my career, and I'll continue to make more mistakes. That's that's no excuse for what it is that you have done or what she has done.

You must acknowledge in your sin, you must acknowledge that what you have done is sin against God. And when we come before God and we seek his forgiveness, when we when we repent and ask for him to forgive us, there must be an understanding in our hearts of what our sin looks like to God.

We must hate our sin as God hates sin, and we must be so grieved by its presence within our hearts that we are driven to repentance, to beg and ask for the mercy and the love and the grace of God. That is a truly repentant heart.

When we know sin as God sees sin, or we desire to see our sin as God sees sin, I hate this sin. I don't want to be in it anymore. God, forgive me and take this from me. Cleanse me with your righteousness.

And that is what Solomon is asking for preemptively in the way that he is praying before God. This is not just an appeal before God, but it is also a lesson that is being taught to the entire assembly of Israel who is hearing Solomon pray these words before the Lord God.

We're not done with the prayer yet. I must keep going. Verse 41. Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people, Israel comes from a far country for your name's sake, for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm.

When he comes and prays toward this house here in heaven, your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you in order that all the peoples of the name and fear you and do as your and as do your people, Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.

If your people go out to battle against their enemy by whatever way you shall send them and they pray to the Lord toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then here in heaven, their prayers and their plea and maintain their cause.

If they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin. What a great acknowledgement there. And you are angry with them and give them to an enemy so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy far off or near.

Yet, if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors saying, we have sinned and we have acted perversely and wickedly, if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies who carried them captive and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then here in heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their plea and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions that they have committed against you and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them.

For they are your people and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt from the midst of the iron furnace. Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people, Israel, giving ear to them whenever they call to you.

For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses, your servant, when you brought your fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. Now, as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven.

And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice saying, Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people, Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses, his servant.

The Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us nor forsake us that he may incline our hearts to him to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes and his rules, which he commanded our fathers.

Let these words of mine, which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night. And may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people, Israel, each as each day requires that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God.

There is no other. Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments as at this day. Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord.

Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord, 22 ,000 oxen and 123 ,000 sheep, 120 ,000 sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. The same day, the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord.

For there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burn offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings.

So Solomon held the feast at that time and all Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo Hamath to the brook of Egypt before the Lord, our God, seven days. On the eighth day, he sent the people away and they blessed the king and went to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, his servant and to Israel, his people.

A House for His Name and the Call to Be a Temple for the Lord

And so as we glean from what we have read in this chapter today, may we not only see a lesson in true repentance, how to repent before the Lord, understanding our sin as God sees it and mourning over our sin, knowing truly what it is that we have done wrong before God.

But let us also see that this temple was built as a house for the name of God. And now we who are in Christ Jesus are indwelt with the Holy Spirit and we are the temple of the Lord. So let us be a temple for his name, that when people look at us, when people hear from us, what they hear is of the great name of our Lord God, who rescues from our sin and has delivered us into his righteousness.

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