2 Chronicles 7-9: Visiting the Temple

Fire descends on Solomon’s dedication, God answers with a call to humble prayer, and a watching world learns what faithful witness looks like. We trace wisdom, wealth, warning, and why 2 Chronicles 7:14 still speaks to how we live today.

• temple dedication and the people’s response
• God’s promise to hear, forgive, and heal
• covenant warning against idolatry
• Solomon’s building, organization, and reforms
• Queen of Sheba’s visit and public praise
• wealth, power, and the limits of prosperity
• obedience as witness to a watching world
• legacy, succession, and the call to return

Chapters

• 0:34 Home Stretch And What’s Next
• 2:42 Temple Dedication And Fire From Heaven
• 4:26 God’s Reply And The 7:14 Promise
• 6:21 Solomon’s Building, Reforms, And Empire
• 8:31 Queen Of Sheba And Royal Wealth
• 13:31 Solomon’s Legacy And Rehoboam
• 15:16 Repentance, Prosperity Myths, And Witness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Hey, welcome back to the Outloud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. So thankful for what God has done through Outloud Bible this year, where the podcast has been going on at this point for about three years, and we're frankly on the home stretch. We're almost done reading through the whole Bible. Don't worry, when we get done reading the Bible in this way, we're gonna start right back up again. Probably do it in a different order, maybe with a different emphasis and angle. We'll talk more about that later. Uh but uh so don't worry if if you're you've been with me this far and this has become part of your routine. Well, guess what? We're allowed to read the Bible more than once. In fact, the more we read it, the more we learn, the more we discover we never get to the bottom of it, we never get to the end of it. There's always more. And I find that as we go through life and have different experiences, especially difficult or painful ones, uh, we find different aspects of the Bible, different verses even, kind of unlocking for us that now that there's a context, it's like a box that it fits in in our minds and in our lives that's like, oh, yeah, I really needed to hear this. I've never I've seen this verse before, but I never really knew what it meant. And now I understand it and I need it. That's the that's the power of reading a living word of God. That's it's a living and active book. We don't have that anywhere else. We don't have another book like it, but it's so important. So uh we'll we'll we're gonna cycle right back around, but we got more work to do. We're in 2nd Chronicles. And uh we're we're looking forward to to what lies ahead here and beyond. And um, thank you also to those who have supported Outloud Bible as a ministry, uh, outloudbible.com. We've we're continually adding more resources and more experiences for in in-person live experiences at a church or conference or event. And uh it's been really great to see how those have grown and how those have been received. Thank you if you joined this podcast because you saw us live. Thanks for joining us here and uh excited to have more conversations with you. So we're in 2nd Chronicles right now. If you're just joining in, then uh it's probably important to know that King David, Israel's most famous king and one of God's best friends, passed on the responsibility of building a temple to his son Solomon, gave him all sorts of resources and blueprints and uh plans and blessings, and Solomon took it, ran with it, and sure enough, got the temple completed. God moved in, his presence settled into the temple. Not that a temple could contain him, of course, and Solomon and the people realized that, but they were just shocked to consider the fact that God would make his dwelling among his people. And man, would he be shocked to find how we live today with the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us? Whew. Let's not take that for granted. But last time we read, Solomon was praying through a bunch of different situations, a bunch of difficult times and different scenarios that if the Lord's people prayed toward this temple, prayed to the Lord and in this place or toward this place that God would hear them. Let's see the result of Solomon's prayer and dedication here in Second Chronicles chapter seven, and we'll read through chapter nine in the New English Translation. When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the Lord's splendor filled the temple. The priests were unable to enter the Lord's temple because the Lord's splendor filled the Lord's temple. When all the Israelites saw fire come down and the Lord's splendor over the temple, they got on their knees with their faces downward toward the pavement, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, Certainly he is good, certainly his loyal love endures. Isn't that a really fascinating response after seeing this terrifying display of fire from heaven? God's not simply a god of wrath. This resulted in a response of wow, he is good and his loyal love endures. Fascinating response. Let's keep going. The king and all the people were presenting sacrifices to the Lord. King Solomon sacrificed twenty two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. Then the king and all the people dedicated God's temple. The priests stood in their assigned spots along with the Levites who had the musical instruments used for praising the Lord. These were the ones King David made for giving thanks to the Lord, and which were used by David when he offered praise, saying, Certainly his loyal love endures. Opposite the Levites, the priests were blowing the trumpets while all Israel stood there. Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that's in the front of the Lord's temple, and he offered burnt sacrifices, grain offerings, and the fat from the peace offerings there, because the bronze altar that Solomon had made was too small to hold all these offerings. At that time Solomon and all Israel with him celebrated a festival for seven days. This great assembly included people from Lebel Hamath in the north to the stream of Egypt in the south. On the eighth day they held an assembly, for they had dedicated the altar for seven days and celebrated the festival for seven more days. On the twenty third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people home. They left happy and contented because of the good the Lord had done for David, Solomon, and his people Israel. After Solomon finished building the Lord's temple and the royal palace and accomplished all his plans for the Lord's temple and his royal palace, the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, I've answered your prayer, and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made. When I close up the sky so that it doesn't rain, or command locusts to devour the land's vegetation, or send a plague among my people if my people who belong to me humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I'll respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. Now I will be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place. Now I've chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home. I will be constantly present there. You must serve me as your father David did, do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations, and then I will establish your dynasty, just as I promised your father, you will not fail to have a successor ruling over Israel. But if you people ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, and decide to serve and worship other gods, then I will remove you from the land I've given you. I will abandon this temple I consecrated with my presence, and I will make you an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. As for this temple which was once majestic, everyone who passes by it will be shocked and say, Why did the Lord do this to the land in this temple? Others will then answer, Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who led them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshipped and served. That's why he's brought all this disaster down on them. After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord's temple and his royal palace, Solomon rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given him and settled Israelites there. Solomon went to Hamath Zoba and seized it. He built up Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities he had built in Hamath. He made Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon fortified cities with walls and barred gates. He built up Balath, all the storage cities that belonged to him, and all the cities where chariots and horses were kept. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom. Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Hittites, Amorites, Perizites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Their descendants remained in the land. The Israelites were unable to wipe them out. Solomon conscripted them for his work crews, and they continue in that role to this very day. Solomon didn't assign Israelites to work crews. The Israelites served as his soldiers, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. These men worked for King Solomon as supervisors. There were a total of two hundred and fifty of them who were in charge of the people. Solomon moved Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, My wife must not live in the palace of King David of Israel, for the places where the ark of the Lord has entered are holy. Then Solomon offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built in front of the temple's porch. He observed the daily requirements for sacrifices that Moses had specified for Sabbaths, new moon festivals, and the three annual celebrations, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of shelters. As his father David had decreed, Solomon appointed the divisions of the priests to do their assigned tasks, the Levitical orders to lead worship and help the priests with their daily tasks, and the divisions of the gatekeepers to serve at their assigned gates. This is what David, the man of God, had ordered. They didn't neglect any detail of the king's orders pertaining to the priests, Levites, and treasuries. All the work ordered by Solomon was completed. From the day the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid until it was finished, the Lord's temple was completed. Then Solomon went to Ezon Geber and to Elot on the coast of the land of Edom. Hiram sent him ships and some of his sailors, men who were well acquainted with the sea, they sailed with Solomon's men to Ophir and took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon. When the Queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, she came to challenge him with difficult questions, as she arrived in Jerusalem with a great display of pomp, bringing with her camels carrying spices, very large quantity of gold and precious gems, and she visited Solomon and discussed with him everything that was on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions. There was no question too complex for the king. When the Queen of Sheba saw for herself Solomon's wisdom, the palace he had built, the food in his banquet hall, his servants and attendants in their robes, his cupbearers in their robes, and his burnt sacrifices which he presented in the Lord's temple, she was amazed. She said to the king, The report I heard in my own country about your wise sayings and insight was true. I didn't believe these things until I came and saw them with my own eyes. Indeed, I didn't even hear half the story. Your wisdom surpasses what was reported to me. Your attendants, who stand before you at all times and hear your wise sayings, are truly happy. May the Lord your God be praised because he favored you by placing you on his throne as the one ruling on his behalf. Because of your God's love for Israel and his lasting commitment to them, he made you king over them so that you could make just and right decisions. She gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very large quantity of spices and precious gems. The quantity of spices the Queen of Sheba gave King Solomon has never been matched. Hiram's servants, aided by Solomon's servants, brought gold from Ophir as well as fine timber and precious gems. With the timber the king made steps for the Lord's temple and royal palace, as well as stringed instruments for the musicians. No one had seen anything like them in the land of Judah before that. King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba everything she requested, more than what she had brought him. Then she left and returned to her homeland with her attendants. Solomon received six hundred and sixty six talents of gold per year, besides what he collected from the merchants and traders. All the Arabian kings and the governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold. Six hundred measures of hammered gold were used for each shield. He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, three hundred measures of gold were used for each of those shields. The king placed them in the palace of the Lebanon forest. The king made a large throne decorated with ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. There were six steps leading up to the throne, and a gold footstool was attached to the throne. The throne had two armrests, with a statue of a lion standing on each side. There were twelve statues of lions on the six steps, one lion at the end of each step. There was nothing like it in any other kingdom. All of King Solomon's cups were made of gold, and all the household items in the palace of the Lebanon Forest were made of pure gold. There were no silver items, for silver wasn't considered very valuable in Solomon's time. The king had a fleet of large merchant ships manned by Hiram's men that sailed the seas. Once every three years the fleet came into port with cargoes of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. King Solomon was wealthier and wiser than any of the kings of the earth. All the kings of the earth wanted to visit Solomon to see him display his God given wisdom. Year after year, visitors brought their gifts which included items of silver, items of gold, clothes, perfume, spices, horses, and mules. Solomon had four thousand stalls for his chariot horses and twelve thousand horses. He kept them in assigned cities and also with him in Jerusalem. He ruled all the kingdoms of the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines as far as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones. Cedar was as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the foothills. Solomon acquired horses from Egypt and from all the lands. The rest of the events of Solomon's reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the annals of Nathan the Prophet, the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the vision of Ido, the seer pertaining to Jeroboam son of Nebad. Solomon ruled over Israel from Jerusalem for forty years. Then Solomon passed away and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam replaced him as king. Now I gotta be honest, there aren't that many verses from 2 Chronicles that are quoted very often, but we did come across one today. 2 Chronicles 7.14. It's one of those promises that was spoken to Solomon and about Israel, but we do recognize the heart of God here, and we recognize our responsibility to repent, turn from our sin. It's a great verse and a great soundbite, and it's often used for those who are trying to spark a revival, recognizing that if we want God to heal our land and revive our nation, revive the church, then it's going to need to come through prayer and seeking the Lord's favor and repentance of sin. And that's true and that's correct. But in this entire context here, I think we get to see another reason why this is so important to God and why God says this. Because when Solomon starts off and the people are faithful to the Lord, we see a great season of wealth and peace and happiness. Now, what I'm not saying is that God will give us great wealth and peace and happiness when we obey him. God owes us nothing, and all of that prosperity gospel stuff is trash. The goal is to live a life of obedience so that we can be at peace with God, and that others, like the Queen of Sheba, can come into our lives and recognize, wow, may the Lord your God be praised because of what he's done for you. If we're not faithful to God, then we look like the rest of the world, and there's no reason for the rest of the world to look like us and want what we have. We may not have the wealth, we may not have the power, we may not have the organizational structure of Solomon, but we do have the glory of the Lord living in us, and that should be something that sends people our way with some questions. That's the thinking out loud thought for the day.