Solomon's temple has been built and dedicated. The ark has been moved into the temple and God has demonstrated His physical presence with a cloud.
Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever."
While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them.
Then he said:
"Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hands has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David. For he said, `Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my Name to be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be the leader over my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.'"My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said to my father David, `Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart. Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, who is your own flesh and blood--he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.'"The LORD has kept the promise he made. I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. There I have placed the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with the people of Israel."
Solomon reviews God's promises to David, that a temple would be built and that David's dynasty would last forever. In the ark are the two copies of the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 40: 20.)
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the center of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.
Note the prayer posture. Ezra's posture of prayer in Ezra 9: 5-6 is the same. Payne says that the Chronicler is stressing Solomon's position as a petitioner; Solomon is not a priest.
2 Chronicles 6: 14-21,
He said:
"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 mouth 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 sons 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."But will God really dwell on earth with men? The 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 prayer that your servant is 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.
Solomon's prayer begins with God as Creator and promise-keeper. He then asks that God's promises to David, that of an eternal dynasty, come true. (The Old Testament, as we will see, does not record the fulfillment of this promise; indeed it seems to record the opposite, the defeat of the David dynasty. More on that later, at the end of this book.)
Solomon recognizes that although a temple has been built for YHWH, and His presence has been signaled by the cloud, in reality YHWH is too great to be contained in a temple, indeed, He cannot be contained even in the entire universe. Solomon proceeds to ask that still, despite the tiny temple and the tiny humans around it, that YHWH listen to and answer the prayers made in that place.
"When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath and he comes and swears the oath before your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty and so establish his innocence."When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you and when they turn back and confess your name, praying and making supplication before you in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their fathers."When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.
YHWH is asked to judge between parties when one person wrongs another. He is asked to give the people of Israel victory if, after defeat, theyh repent and turn back to YHWH. In the same way, if after a drought the people repent and turn back to YHWH, He is asked to forgive them and send rain on the land.
In this prayer one might note that it is assumed that both military defeat and meteorological disasters like droughts are caused by the sins of God's people, the people of Israel. We also note the ancient Near East desert dwellers' view of rain as a beautiful gift.
"When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel--each one aware of his afflictions and pains, and spreading out his hands toward this temple--then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men), so that they will fear you and walk in your ways all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers.
Other feared disasters are famine, plague, crop blight, locusts, and ... other miscellaneous enemies. As the people suffer, they are to spread their hands out towards heaven and turn to YHWH and walk in His ways.
"As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm--when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.
Solomon requests that YHWH answer even the foreigner, when he shows up at the temple and prays to God. Foreigners are attracted to Jerusalem by God's "great name", by his "mighty hand and outstretched arm" (Deuteronomy 26: 8.)
"When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to you toward this city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.
"When they sin against you--for there is no one who does not sin--and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, `We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly'; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you.
Solomon repeats the concerns about military defeat in times of apostasy and pleads for grace and forgiveness at those times. (Those times will occur often throughout the remainder of this book!)
Solomon confesses that "there is no one who does not sin", a message repeated in both the Old and New Testament.
"Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
In summary, Solomon pleads, that God be attentive and supportive of prayers offered in this temple.
2 Chronicles 6: 40-42, Arise and come to your resting 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."
This passage is repeated in a song of ascents (Psalm 132: 8-10) used by pilgrims as they approached the temple. Clearly God does not need a place to "rest" but the ark and temple is to represent His home.
In the last verse there is an emphasis on God's hesed ("great love") promised to David. That Hebrew word, hesed, often translated "lovingkindness" in the King James Version, has an aura of time associated with it, of covenantal love stretched across years, maybe, in this case, centuries.
A parallel passage is 1 Kings 8: 12-61.
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