Solomon Dedicates the Temple
7:1 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. 7:2 The priests were unable to enter the LORD’s temple because the LORD’s splendor filled the LORD’s temple. 7:3 When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and the LORD’s splendor over the temple, they got on their knees with their faces downward toward the pavement. They worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “Certainly he is good; certainly his loyal love endures!”
7:4 The king and all the people were presenting sacrifices to the LORD. 7:5 King Solomon sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. Then the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple. 7:6 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. 7:7 Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that is in front of the LORD’s temple. 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. 7:8 At that time Solomon and all Israel with him celebrated a festival for seven days. This great assembly included people from Lebo Hamath in the north to the Brook of Egypt in the south. 7:9 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. 7:10 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.
The Lord Gives Solomon a Promise and a Warning
7:11 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, 7:12 the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have answered your prayer and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made. 7:13 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, 7:14 if my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 7:15 Now I will be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place. 7:16 Now I have chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home; I will be constantly present there. 7:17 You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. 7:18 Then I will establish your dynasty, just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor ruling over Israel.’
“If my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land” –
‘These expressions are best understood as four facets of one attitude, that sinners should seek God himself in humble repentance, rather than four separate steps on a long road to forgiveness.’ (Selman)
Guzik notes:
- We can see what it means to humble one’s self by looking at Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 12:6, 7, and 12), Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:26), and Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:12, 19, and 23).
- We can see what it means to pray by looking at Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 30:18 and 32:20) and Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:13).
- We can see what it means to seek by looking at the returning priests and the faithful (2 Chronicles 11:13-16) and Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:3-4).
- We can see what it means to turn by looking at Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 30:6 and 30:9)
Fee & Stuart (How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth) caution against the error of redefining the terms of a text in order to suit the needs or wishes of the reader. In the present instance,
‘the context of this narrative clearly relates the promise to “this place” (the temple in Jerusalem) and “their land” (Israel, the land of Solomon and the Israelites). Understandably many modern Christians yearn for it to be true of their land wherever they live in the modern world—and so they tend to ignore the fact that God’s promise that he will “hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” was about the only earthly land God’s people could ever claim as “theirs,” the Old Testament land of Israel. In the new covenant, God’s people have no earthly country that is “their land”—despite the tendency of some American Christians to think otherwise about the world. The country all believers now most truly belong to is a heavenly one (Heb 11:16).’
These words
‘take for granted a people who are both called by God’s name and possessed of a land; a passage not therefore to be applied thoughtlessly in our NT times.’ (NBC)
John Piper writes:
‘One of the texts most commonly cited in the hope for imminent revival is 2 Chronicles 7:14, “[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Mistaken uses of this verse lessen our confidence in the predictions some make concerning a coming revival.
First, in the original context where God speaks these words to Solomon, the term “my people” refers to the people of Israel, and therefore the term “their land” refers to a land that is really “theirs” in the sense of God’s giving it to them as a covenant blessing, namely, the land of Israel. But when we apply this text to our contemporary situation, “my people” would refer to the Christian Church who cannot say, in whatever country that they reside, that this country is “their land.” The church has no land, the way Israel had a land. The Christian Church is a pilgrim people. We are aliens and exiles (1 Peter 2:11). Therefore, the proper application of 2 Chronicles 7:14 would, perhaps, be that, if the church will humble herself and pray and seek God’s face and turn from her wicked ways, God will incline to heal the church. But it goes beyond what this text assures if we say that any country where the Christian church humbles herself will experience a Great Awakening.’
(A Hunger for God, p115f)
Croteau and Yates (Urban Legends of the Old Testament) agree that this text should not be applied thoughtlessly to any nation (they are thinking especially of the American nation) today. It is not a prescription for national flourishing. The words are addressed to Solomon and are in response to Solomon’s prayers. ‘My people, who are called by my name’ are the Israelites. We must not bypass the new covenant that God has made in Christ, and and the new people that he has established in Christ – the church.
‘God desires for all his people to humble themselves (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 3:8; 5:5 [citing Prov 3:34], 6). He also desires that we pray for our nation (1 Tim 2:1–4). But remember that the promise in 2 Chr 7:14 is “not a divine promise to Christians in the United States that God will fix our nation. We don’t have such a guarantee in Scripture.”’
Bargerhuff (The Most Misused Verses in the Bible) agrees:
‘Though the spiritual principles of humility, repentance, prayer, forgiveness, and healing are still relevant for us today, the binding promise of this passage was for another people in another time and another place. It is not a promise for any other nation besides the nation of Israel, those who could rightly be called “God’s people.”’