Daily Bible Study

May 19, 2018 Bible Study — Solomon’s Prayer and God’s Reply

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 5-7.

    I like Solomon’s prayer dedicating the Temple. I just noticed that it is similarly constructed to Jesus’ prayer which we call the Lord’s Prayer (I am not going to go over those similarities). It starts out praising God and thanking Him for keeping His promises. It reaffirms our need to follow God’s commands. Solomon went on to admit that the Temple, or any other structure, is incapable of containing God. He then lists a series of things that he asks God to listen to our prayers if we pray in the direction of the Temple. So, in addition to praying towards the Temple are the conditions which Solomon acknowledges must be part of these prayers?

  • humble and ernest
  • turn back to God
  • acknowledge God’s name
  • turn from our sins
  • pray about our troubles or sorrow

There are a couple of other types of prayer which Solomon asks God to honor, but the essence of Solomon’s prayer is a request to God that if we do these things He will forgive our sins and uphold our cause.

    Sometime later God replied to Solomon’s request. God’s reply was that if people humble themselves, pray and seek God, and turn from their sins He will forgive their sins and answer their prayers. The way that reads to me is that God told Solomon (and us) that He would grant Solomon’s request to hear prayers, but would not require people to pray towards the Temple. But God added one more thing to His reply. If God’s people served other gods and disobeyed God, God would turn the Temple into an example for the whole world of the results of doing so.

    In some ways, modern Israel shows the fruition of Solomon’s prayer and God’s reply. The Jewish people sinned and went into exile. There, many of them turned back to God and prayed for His deliverance. God heard their prayers and brought them back to the land which He had promised to Abraham’s descendants. Yet, the Temple still lies in ruins, standing as an example for us of what happens when God’s people turn their backs on Him.