Promises
of Judgment; 1 Kings 8:25-30
In
the first part of chapter eight we saw Solomon bring the ark into the temple
and all of the pomp and circumstance related to that, showing how serious they
were about the worship of God and showing all of the things that they did
making sure that the people focused on God, not observing ceremony for
ceremony’s sake, and honouring the God who is not only the creator of the
heavens of the earth but is the God who redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt.
Solomon
began his introductory address in verse 12 and he focused on what God had done
in the past and the promises that God had made to David and to Moses. So this
sets the context of his prayer in terms of these two covenants. As we have
studied many times we see that God establishes His relationships with man on
the basis of these legal contracts—from the creation covenant, it’s
modification in the Adamic and Noahic covenants, and then with Israel under the
Abrahamic covenant. It is that Abrahamic covenant that provides the framework
for all subsequent history is the promise “those who bless you I will bless,
and those who curse you I will curse.” That promise is in relationship to how
Gentiles treat Israel and that all subsequent history is Israel-centred.
Whether they are apostate or whether they are in obedience all human history is
related to the Abrahamic covenant and to God’s working in Israel, even in the
church age because the New covenant is a covenant with Israel and the church,
but it is because that covenant shift from the old covenant to the New covenant
brings in a new priesthood, a new high priest which is Jesus Christ, and we are
related to the new covenant by virtue of our relationship as believer priests
to the high priesthood of Christ. The New covenant is the expansion of the
third paragraph in the Abrahamic covenant, “those who bless you I will bless,
those who curse you I will curse.” And it manifests the specifics of how God is
going to bless all people through the seed of Abraham who, according to Galatians
chapter three, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then
in verse 22 Solomon stand up before the altar of the Lord and offers his
introductory prayer. The key verse in this prayer is verse 25 NASB
“Now therefore, O
LORD,
the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have
promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel,
if only your sons take heed to their way to walk before Me as you have
walked.’” That reminds God in the opening of the prayer that he is grounding
his prayer in previous revelation: “God, this is what you promised.”
Then
in verse 28 NASB “Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and
to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your
servant prays before You today.” We saw as we went through this that there are
at least four different words for prayer in this verse and in these verses
which are repeated again and again as we go through the rest of this chapter,
and that is what ties it together. The words for prayer and the word salach
for forgive are the words that are constantly woven through the rest of the
chapter, giving it a tight unity in the Hebrew. It show the tremendous wisdom
and skill that Solomon had even in the writing. The requests of verse 28 are
infinitives but they all lead to the final and ultimate request which is in
verse 30 NASB “Listen to the supplication of Your servant and of
Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven Your
dwelling place; hear and forgive.” That sets the theme for the whole prayer of
dedication, that when the people of Israel turn to this place, putting their
focus on the temple as the place where God resided, the place where He
manifests His name upon the earth, He will forgive them and restore them to the
land.
Now
when we enter into the main body of the prayer from verse 31 to 51 there are
seven petitions contained in it. The first request is in verses 31 and 32 NASB
“If a man sins against his neighbour and is made to take an oath, and he comes
{and} takes an oath before Your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and
act and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing his way on his
own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his
righteousness.” This is about a man who has some how violated his neighbour. He
is now in a courtroom situation and he has to take an oath and swear out
exactly what he has done under oath. The situation here is about where a man
has expressed a false witness against his neighbour. It appears that there is
an accusation against the neighbour where there is no witness or evidence. So
they have come in before the Lord in the temple in order to have it adjudicated
in the house of the Lord. What Solomon is praying is to “hear in heaven and
judge Your servants.” So it is an appeal to the fact that God is the ultimate
source of righteousness and justice in the land. All law in human history
ultimately derives from a divine standard. As Christians we know that in
principle law has its origin in the integrity of God and in His righteousness
and in His justice. Specifically under the Mosaic Law it is God who is the
ultimate judge in the affairs of Israel and so Solomon says that it is up to
God to secure and maintain justice in Israel. He calls upon God to oversee the
justice of Israel and to make sure that those who violate the Law are to be
discovered and condemned and those who obey the Law are dealt with according to
righteousness, i.e. the standard of the Mosaic Law. Leviticus 19:18; 8:30, 31
cf. Exodus 22:8-11.
The
second request begins in verse 33. In this situation it has to do with the
military defeat of the people. NASB “When Your people Israel are
defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, if they turn to
You again and confess Your name and pray and make supplication to You in this
house.” The situation is that Israel is defeated because of sin. The ultimate
causative factor in history is spiritual, it is not material, not economic, not
education, etc. We see this in Israel’s history and in the Law because they
could have a free market manual and be doing everything right according to the
Chicago School of Economics or whatever free market system you want to go with
and if they are not right with God then no matter what they do it is going to
fail. God rules in the affairs of men, and God is going to rule those affairs
of men in terms of His plans and purposes. It was understood on the basis of
what Moses had said that Israel would eventually be removed from the land. So
the situation in the second request has to do with their military defeat. There
are various examples of this in Israel’s history—at Ai, in the book of
Judges, the defeat by the Philistines, etc,. all of which were examples of this
type of discipline. We see the parallel in Deuteronomy 28:25 NASB
“The LORD shall cause
you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them,
but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be {an example of}
terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.” This divine discipline is targeted to
Israel.
We
see the response at the end of the verse: “if they turn to You again and
confess.” The word for “turn” is shub, meaning to turn or to
return, to go back. It also has the idea of change and it relates to a
spiritual change. The reason they are now going to have victory instead of
being defeated militarily is not because they gained a greater understanding of
military tactics or because they acquired more advanced technology, it is
because their relationship to God changed. Their basic problem, and this is the
problem with all of us when we are defeated in any area of life, has to do
ultimately with sin. We have to learn to be honest enough with ourselves to
evaluate ourselves in terms of where there is continuing or ongoing sin. It is
not just enough in spiritual growth to confess our sins. Confession of sin is
enough to be restored to fellowship but if 30 seconds later we commit the same
sin and keep that cycle going, then we are not growing. There is no forward
momentum. “…if they turn to You again and confess Your name and pray and make
supplication to You in this house.” Turn again and confess are simultaneous
actions, it is not first one and then the other. The issue of confessing “Your
name” is that they have been involved in idol worship and now they are turning
back to the true God and they are going to apply the first commandment to have
no other God’s beside the God of Israel. 1 Kings 8:34 NASB “then
hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back
to the land which You gave to their fathers.” This is related to what we find
in the covenant in Deuteronomy. When we read through Deuteronomy 29 we see the
affirmation of the land covenant.
Then
we have the third request. 1 Kings 8:35 NASB “When the heavens
are shut up and there is no rain [2nd cycle of discipline, Lev. 26:19], because
they have sinned against You,” … Notice that sin is what caused the drought.”…
and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin
when You afflict them, [36] then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your
servants and of Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which
they should walk. And send rain on Your land, which You have given Your people
for an inheritance.” The point to see here is how Solomon is praying on the
basis of the Scripture. God made promises of judgment and what Solomon is
saying here is that God promised to judge Israel, and he will, but He also promised
that when the people turned back He would bring them back to the land. His
whole prayer here is a manifestation of the faith-rest drill.