2 Chronicles 5-6: Filling the Temple

We trace the dedication of Solomon’s temple from the Ark’s arrival to the cloud of glory, then unpack Solomon’s sweeping prayer as a blueprint for conflict, scarcity, repentance and restoration in ordinary life. We connect temple imagery to our bodies, marriages and communities as living places of worship.

• Solomon completes the temple with excellence and humility
• Ark brought in amid unified worship and music
• Cloud of God’s presence halts routine work
• Blessing recalls promises to David and Jerusalem
• Prayer names conflict, defeat, drought, plague and exile
• Turning toward God, confession and mercy as a pattern
• God teaches the right way and reads motives
• Welcome of foreigners and public witness to God’s name
• Restoration after repentance and return from captivity
• Applying themes to bodies, marriages and daily choices

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene In Chronicles
• 1:30 The Temple As A Heavenly Model
• 2:56 Ark Brought In With Worship
• 4:56 Glory Cloud Fills The Temple
• 6:14 Solomon’s Blessing And Perspective
• 7:23 The Long Prayer For Every Season
• 10:53 Justice, Defeat, And Return
• 12:41 Drought, Plagues, And Heart Motives
• 14:16 Nations Drawn To God’s Name

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. Last episode, we started the book of 2 Chronicles, which is really a continuation of 1 Chronicles, where Solomon began the work of building the temple. He had all the resources that his father, King David, had put aside. He made some connections with the King of Tyre to get some more resources and skilled workers, and a great peaceful collaborative effort, really marked by excellence and dedication to the task, and ultimately not for anyone's particular glory other than God's. Even Solomon admitted, like, hey, like, I know it's like a temple for God, but the whole heavens is his temple and the earth is his footstool. So like it's we can't build anything that contains him. It's just honestly, this is a place for us to make sacrifices to him. So uh even even the perspective on the project was was correct and humble and uh and God focused. So uh we're gonna continue today after the work had been done to complete it. Now we're gonna see what happens next. And maybe keep in mind the last episode uh we concluded with making this parallel between the temple, building the temple, and building our marriage, or we're taking care of our own bodies and our own lives, how they're all models that God has given us to reflect some heavenly reality. The temple, the tabernacle, is a model of God's throne room in heaven. We just have to take his word for it because we can't see it, and anyone who has seen it isn't coming back to tell us. Uh, we have to take his word for that. And also, marriage is a model of how Christ and the church have a relationship, and our bodies, our lives are a temple where we sacrifice, we make sacrifices and we serve him and uh and we reflect his glory. Even your you're you are the image of the Lord. You are the image of God because he created you to be that. Keeping in mind that these things, our bodies, our lives, our marriages, are reflections or models of heavenly realities, just like Solomon's temple was a reflection of the heavenly reality of God's throne room. Let's see what happens when the temple was completed with God-driven excellence, and make some parallels in our own lives in those areas that we've been talking about. Let's see where it goes here in 2 Chronicles 5 through 6 in the New English Translation. When Solomon had finished constructing the Lord's temple, he put the holy items that belonged to his father David, the silver, gold, and all the other articles, in the treasuries of God's temple. Then Solomon convened Israel's elders, all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families in Jerusalem, so they could witness the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the city of David, that is Zion. All the men of Israel assembled before the king during the festival in the seventh month. When all Israel's elders had arrived, the Levites lifted the ark. The priests and Levites carried the ark, the tent where God appeared to his people, and all the holy items in the tent. Now King Solomon and all the Israelites who had assembled with him went on ahead of the ark and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted or numbered. The priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its assigned place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place under the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim's wings extended over the place where the ark sat. The cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. The poles were so long their ends extending out from the ark were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but they cannot be seen from beyond that point. They've remained there to this very day. There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb. It was there that the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt. The priests left the holy place. All the priests who participated had consecrated themselves, no matter which division they represented. All the Levites who were musicians, including Asaph, Heman, Jedophon, and their sons and relatives, wore linen. They played cymbals and stringed instruments as they stood east of the altar. They were accompanied by a hundred and twenty priests who blew trumpets. The trumpeters and the musicians played together, praising and giving thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, they loudly praised the Lord, singing, Certainly He is good, certainly his loyal love endures. Kind of a picture of heaven, isn't it? It's beautiful. Look what happens next. Then a cloud filled the Lord's temple. The priests couldn't carry out their duties because of the cloud. The Lord's splendor filled the temple. Then Solomon said The Lord has said that he lives in thick darkness. Oh Lord, I've built a lofty temple for you, a place where you can live permanently. Then the king turned around and pronounced a blessing over the whole Israelite assembly as they stood there. He said, The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise, because he's fulfilled what he promised my father David. He told David, Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I've not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a temple in which to live. Nor did I choose a man as leader of my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem as a place to live, and I've chosen David to lead my people Israel. Now my father David had a strong desire to build a temple to honor the Lord God of Israel. The Lord told my father David, It's right for you to have a strong desire to build a temple to honor me, but you will not build the temple. Your very own son will build the temple for my honor. The Lord has kept the promise he made. I've taken my father David's place and have occupied the throne of Israel as the Lord promised. I've built this temple for the honor of the Lord God of Israel, and set up in it a place for the ark containing the covenant the Lord made with the Israelites. He stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze platform and had placed it in the middle of the enclosure. It was seven and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide, and four and a half feet high. He stood on it, and then got down on his knees in front of the entire assembly of Israel. He spread out his hands toward the sky and prayed, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. You maintain covenantal loyalty to your servants who obey you with sincerity. You've kept your word to your father, my servant David, this very day you've fulfilled what you promised. Now, O Lord God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said you will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your descendants watch their step and obey my law as you have done. Now, O Lord God of Israel, may the promise you made to your servant David be realized. God doesn't really live with humankind on the earth. Look, if the sky and the highest heaven can't contain you, how much less this temple I've built? But respond favorably to your servant's prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer the desperate prayer your servant is presenting to you. Okay, and as I read this prayer, think about your life, think about your marriage, think about your body, think about your family. Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. May you answer your servant's prayer for this place, respond to the requests of your servant and your people Israel for this place. Hear from your heavenly dwelling place and respond favorably and forgive. When someone's accused of sinning against his neighbor and the latter pronounces a curse on the alleged offender before your altar in this temple, listen from heaven and make a just decision about your servant's claims. Condemn the guilty party, declare the other innocent and give them both what they deserve. If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they sinned against you, and if they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you, and pray for your help before you in this temple, then listen from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave them and their ancestors. The time will come when the skies are shut up tightly, and no rain falls because your people sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you, and turn away from their sin because you punish them, and listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly you will then teach them the right way to live and send rain on your land that you've given your people to possess. The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, a blight and disease, or a locust invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs. When all your people pray and ask for help, as they acknowledge their intense pain and spread out their hands toward this temple, then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin, and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of their motives. Indeed, you're the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people, and then they will honor you by obeying you throughout their lifetimes as they live on the land you gave our ancestors. Foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will come from a distant land because of your great reputation and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds. They'll come and direct their prayers toward this temple. Then listen from your heavenly dwelling place and answer all the prayers of the foreigners, and then all the nations of the earth will acknowledge your reputation, obey you as your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I built belongs to you. When you direct your people to march out and fight against their enemies, and they direct their prayers to you toward this chosen city and this temple I built for your honor, then listen from heaven to their prayers for help and vindicate them. The time will come when your people will sin against you, for there's no one who's sinless, and you will be angry at them, and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their land, whether far away or close by. And when your people come to their senses in the land where they're held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting we have sinned and gone astray, we've done evil, and when they return to you with all their heart, and being in the land where they're held prisoner, and direct their prayers toward the land you gave their ancestors, your chosen city, and this temple I built for your honor, then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help, vindicate them, and forgive your sinful people. Now, my God, may you be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place. Now ascend, O Lord God, to your resting place, you and the Ark of your strength. May your priests, O Lord God, experience your deliverance. May your loyal followers rejoice in the prosperity you give. O Lord God, do not reject your chosen ones. Remember the faithful promises you made to your servant David. Pretty good prayer, don't you think? I love all the different scenarios that Solomon presents. And again, I'm really thinking about this in terms of our own lives as we bear the image of God in our lives, as we are temples and our bodies are temples of the living God today, and our marriages reflect God's relationship with people. We're going to come across scenarios like Solomon laid out. There are going to be personal conflicts and issues that we have to bring to God. We're going to be defeated by our enemies. We're going to go through desperate times where we don't have enough. People outside the faith are going to come to us with questions of what's going on here with God and what's what's your relationship with God like. We're going to go out and fight battles in his name and we're going to sin. And our sin is going to put us back in the enemy's camp and he's going to torment us until we repent. In all of these situations, in our lives, in our marriages, in our relationships as the body of Christ, are we going to God? Are we turning our face toward him? Are we repenting when we're wrong? Are we going to him to resolve our conflicts and to give us strength? God wants to fill every corner of your life like the cloud of his presence filled every corner of the temple. The people working the temple, they had to quit their jobs and their daily duties because God's presence was so thick. When God settles and fills your life or fills your marriage, you don't get to keep doing things the way you've been doing them anymore. His presence is too thick. I believe just like this temple and God filling this temple, I believe that God wants to fill your life, fill your marriage, fill your relationships, and be who you turn to in every situation. He wants to smoke you out of your normal routines and he wants to settle and be the center of your entire life. It's not just about being saved when you asked God for salvation. If you've done that, great.