For the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.(Verse 5)
God established Himself in a movable sanctuary until Solomon built the temple his father, David, longed to create for God's permanent dwelling place among His people. Moses and the people of God knew when He descended upon the tabernacle in a cloud that the skakina of God fell on the Holy of Holies. But it had been many years since God lived among the people. The ark of the covenant had disappeared and been mishandled. In fact, the Jewish people had forgotten even how to carry the sacred box which held the commandments of God. At great price, they relearned their God's demands. So on the day Solomon and the Israelites dedicated the new temple to God, there was much holy ado.
The sacred vessels were placed ceremoniously in the inner and outer courts and the sacrifices so abundant they lost count. The last thing to be done was for the priests to place the ark of the covenant into the Holy Place. Upon the appearance of the priests who'd been consecrated to enter the sacred room, 120 trumpeting priests along with an orchestra dressed in fine white linen and a massive choir were called to one task: Sing in unison praise and thanksgiving to God. Their song: "For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!" Then the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so thick and heavy the priests fell to the ground as the glory of the Lord responded to the music of thanksgiving and praise.
Solomon built a bronze box upon which he then stood before all of Israel and before the Lord. It was placed before the altar where there was no doubt copious amounts of blood still flowing from the sacrifices of the countless animals. In the presence of the odor of fresh slaughter and with all of Israel breathless from the cloud of God's presence, Solomon knelt on the bronze box and lifted his arms high toward heaven. "O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart...But will God indeed dwell with man 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, O Lord my God!"
Solomon's plea? That God never cease to look on His dwelling place to hear His people when they pray. For forgiveness, retribution, provision, success in battle and even the prayers of a foreigner who wishes to know the One True God. He concludes the prayer this way: "Hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayers and pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. Now, O my God, let Your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place. And now arise, O Lord God, and go to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be robed in salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in Your goodness...." Italics mine
Solomon's hands are still lifted and the last words from his mouth not left even to echo throughout the vast structure when fire crashes down from heaven, searing the altar and lapping up the blood from its sacrifices along with the slain animals themselves. The glory of the Lord came in such force that no one could enter the temple for its fierceness. The thousands and thousands of Israelites who'd joined the celebration bowed down on the hot pavement of the Jerusalem streets, awed by the rushing in of their God to His earthly dwelling place. And they worshipped loudly, giving thanks, saying: "For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever."
The next time our God came, it was with less visible fanfare. A few shepherds on a hillside, a magnificent star in the sky, some astrologers and a teenaged mother in a manger with her betrothed. He entered the temple early on teaching his elders when he was only twelve years old. By then, the outer courts of the temple had become a place for merchants to cheat the devout in order to make money from the necessary temple sacrifices. And His Father, the Lord God, couldn't live there any more. Jesus, on a holy day--Passover--became the atoning sacrifice Whose blood soaked the altar for our sins. He didn't enter the temple with a rush of fire and a cloud of glory. The Lord God Himself, the One Who is good, Whose steadfast love endure forever, loved enough to bleed out and be consumed Himself for me...and you.
The new temple? Me. I wasn't born again in a sacred holocaust rushing in to burn up my sinfulness. I was rebirthed from within by the Lord Himself tabernacling in me. It's what changed me. And I felt it. Was and am still awed by it. O may I be a holy place. Consumed by the fire of my passion for such a Savior. May I, like Solomon, kneel and lift my arms high to my God and cry out with all I am: "You, my God, are good! Your steadfast love endures forever, and Your faithfulness to all generations." And may my God respond to my heart's cry by rushing once again into my barren soul!
God established Himself in a movable sanctuary until Solomon built the temple his father, David, longed to create for God's permanent dwelling place among His people. Moses and the people of God knew when He descended upon the tabernacle in a cloud that the skakina of God fell on the Holy of Holies. But it had been many years since God lived among the people. The ark of the covenant had disappeared and been mishandled. In fact, the Jewish people had forgotten even how to carry the sacred box which held the commandments of God. At great price, they relearned their God's demands. So on the day Solomon and the Israelites dedicated the new temple to God, there was much holy ado.
The sacred vessels were placed ceremoniously in the inner and outer courts and the sacrifices so abundant they lost count. The last thing to be done was for the priests to place the ark of the covenant into the Holy Place. Upon the appearance of the priests who'd been consecrated to enter the sacred room, 120 trumpeting priests along with an orchestra dressed in fine white linen and a massive choir were called to one task: Sing in unison praise and thanksgiving to God. Their song: "For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!" Then the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so thick and heavy the priests fell to the ground as the glory of the Lord responded to the music of thanksgiving and praise.
Solomon built a bronze box upon which he then stood before all of Israel and before the Lord. It was placed before the altar where there was no doubt copious amounts of blood still flowing from the sacrifices of the countless animals. In the presence of the odor of fresh slaughter and with all of Israel breathless from the cloud of God's presence, Solomon knelt on the bronze box and lifted his arms high toward heaven. "O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart...But will God indeed dwell with man 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, O Lord my God!"
Solomon's plea? That God never cease to look on His dwelling place to hear His people when they pray. For forgiveness, retribution, provision, success in battle and even the prayers of a foreigner who wishes to know the One True God. He concludes the prayer this way: "Hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayers and pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. Now, O my God, let Your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place. And now arise, O Lord God, and go to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be robed in salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in Your goodness...." Italics mine
Solomon's hands are still lifted and the last words from his mouth not left even to echo throughout the vast structure when fire crashes down from heaven, searing the altar and lapping up the blood from its sacrifices along with the slain animals themselves. The glory of the Lord came in such force that no one could enter the temple for its fierceness. The thousands and thousands of Israelites who'd joined the celebration bowed down on the hot pavement of the Jerusalem streets, awed by the rushing in of their God to His earthly dwelling place. And they worshipped loudly, giving thanks, saying: "For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever."
The next time our God came, it was with less visible fanfare. A few shepherds on a hillside, a magnificent star in the sky, some astrologers and a teenaged mother in a manger with her betrothed. He entered the temple early on teaching his elders when he was only twelve years old. By then, the outer courts of the temple had become a place for merchants to cheat the devout in order to make money from the necessary temple sacrifices. And His Father, the Lord God, couldn't live there any more. Jesus, on a holy day--Passover--became the atoning sacrifice Whose blood soaked the altar for our sins. He didn't enter the temple with a rush of fire and a cloud of glory. The Lord God Himself, the One Who is good, Whose steadfast love endure forever, loved enough to bleed out and be consumed Himself for me...and you.
The new temple? Me. I wasn't born again in a sacred holocaust rushing in to burn up my sinfulness. I was rebirthed from within by the Lord Himself tabernacling in me. It's what changed me. And I felt it. Was and am still awed by it. O may I be a holy place. Consumed by the fire of my passion for such a Savior. May I, like Solomon, kneel and lift my arms high to my God and cry out with all I am: "You, my God, are good! Your steadfast love endures forever, and Your faithfulness to all generations." And may my God respond to my heart's cry by rushing once again into my barren soul!
No comments:
Post a Comment