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Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 7:1-12; 8:1-66
In this message we will continue to consider Solomon's building the temple of God with his own palaces.
Solomon built his palaces in association with God's dwelling (7:1-12).
Solomon's palaces were built with the same materials as those for the temple. This indicates that his palaces were on the same rank as God's dwelling. God's dwelling was for God to be worshipped by His people. Solomon's palaces were for him to administrate his government over the people. Solomon's government was the governmental administration of God over His people.
The fact that Solomon's palaces were built in association with God's dwelling indicates that God's government over His people should go along with His worship by His people.
In typology the king's palaces and God's temple were separate, whereas in the New Testament reality these two are one building. We, the New Testament believers, are on the one hand God's priests to serve, to worship, God and on the other hand God's kings to reign for God.
Chapter eight is concerned with the dedication of the temple.
Verses 1 through 11 show us that the tabernacle was merged with the temple.
The tabernacle was a portable precursor moving through the wilderness.
The temple was a consummation of God's building in typology built upon Mount Zion, a peak of Mount Moriah.
The glory of Jehovah filled the temple (cf. Exo. 40:34), bringing the God who is in the heavens to the earth and joining the earth to the heavens. This should be our situation today.
In Genesis 28 Jacob had a dream and he called that place Bethel, meaning "the house of God." There heaven came down to the earth and the earth was joined to heaven by the ladder which Jacob saw in his dream. This ladder was a type of Christ who, as the Son of Man, keeps heaven open to earth and joins earth to heaven (John 1:51). Today the heavenly God comes down to the earth and the earth is joined to God by the very Christ who dwells in us.
Solomon's blessing and declaration to the people were related to God's dwelling in the deep darkness and to God's promise to David that his son would build a house for God (1 Kings 8:12-21).
Verses 22 through 53 are a record of Solomon's prayer. My burden here is that we would see the intrinsic significance of this prayer. If we would apprehend the intrinsic significance of Solomon's prayer, we need spiritual wisdom and spiritual revelation.
In his prayer Solomon asked God to pay constant attention to the house he built for God (vv. 22-29).
Solomon supplicated God to hear from His dwelling place in the heavens the prayers offered to Him by His people toward this dwelling place of His on the earth that Solomon had prepared for God. Here we see that God has two dwelling places — one in the heavens and one on earth. Actually, these two are one, for they are the two ends of God's dwelling place. One end is in the heavens, and the other is on earth. Today, as believers in Christ, we are a particular people, a people who are in the heavens and on earth, on earth and in the heavens.
Solomon supplicated God to hear the prayers of his people in a very definite way, mentioning seven conditions concerning God's listening to the prayers of His elect. First, Solomon asked God to hear in judging His people, condemning the wicked and justifying the righteous (vv. 31-32). God exercises His ruling among His people according to His justice; that is, He condemns the wicked and justifies the righteous.
Solomon went on to ask God that when His people were defeated, He would hear their supplication from the heavens and bring them back to the land He gave to their fathers (vv. 33-34).
Solomon continued by praying that in drought God would forgive His people's sin and bring rain upon His land, which He had given to His people for an inheritance (vv. 35-36).
Next, Solomon prayed that during a time of famine and pestilence God would forgive and bring to each man according to all his ways (vv. 37-40).
Concerning the seeking Gentile stranger, Solomon prayed that God would act according to all that the foreigner would call upon Him for (vv. 41-43).
In verses 44 and 45 Solomon prayed that if God's people were sent into battle, God would hear their prayer and maintain their cause. For God to maintain the cause of His people means that He executes justice regarding their situation.
Solomon prayed even concerning the future captivity of God's people (vv. 46-53). He prayed that in the captivity of His people Jehovah would hear His people's prayer and maintain their cause when they would return to Him with all their heart and with all their soul and pray to Him toward the land that He had given to their fathers, toward the city that He had chosen, and toward the house that Solomon had built for His name, that they could be separated from all the peoples of the earth to be His inheritance.
In the last of the seven conditions concerning God's listening to the prayers of His elect, three things are stressed (v. 48): the holy land, typifying Christ as God's allotted portion to the believers (Col. 1:12); the holy city, signifying the kingdom of God in Christ; and the holy temple, signifying God's house, the church, on the earth. These three things — the holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple — are the three crucial things regarding God's economy. During the Babylonian captivity Daniel prayed for the holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple three times a day by opening his window toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10). This indicates that God will listen to our prayer in the way that our prayer to God must be toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God's eternal economy.
The holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple are all types of Christ. Christ is our good land; Christ is our city, our kingdom; and Christ is the temple, God's dwelling place. Today, our prayers should be aimed at the holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple. This means that our prayers should be aimed at the interest of God, that is, at Christ and the church as God's interest on earth.
The spiritual significance of God's interest is Christ Himself. This indicates that no matter for whom we are praying, our prayer must be aimed at Christ as God's interest. We need to pray for the saints, but we should not aim our prayers at them. On the one hand we pray for them, but on the other hand we pray for them because of God's interest. If in our prayer we aim at the one for whom we pray, this will bring in the enemy's attack. This is a spiritual strategy in the spiritual warfare.
We need to remember that prayer involves three parties: we, God, and Satan. Sometimes when we pray for a certain person, Satan comes to attack him, and his situation becomes worse. The reason for this is that our interest is in that person, not in God's economy. No matter for whom we are praying, we should aim our prayer at God's Christ, who is God's interest in His economy.
To pray properly, we must pray to God in the name of the Lord Jesus (John 16:24), aiming at God's interest for His economy. By the expression "in the name of the Lord Jesus" I do not mean any traditional form of prayer. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray for the interest of God on earth, which is Christ as God's portion to us, as God's kingdom, and as God's dwelling place. Our prayer should be altogether for God's interest to fulfill God's economy.
Solomon's blessing to the people was that God would not forsake them nor abandon them but rather maintain the cause of His people as each day required, and that the people would have a perfect heart with Jehovah, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments as on that day (1 Kings 8:54-61).
In verse 59 Solomon said, "Let these words of mine, with which I made supplication to Jehovah, be near to Jehovah our God day and night to maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel as each day requires." Throughout the centuries God has maintained the cause of His people Israel, exercising His justice for them. When they were wrong with Him, He chastised them and disciplined them through the hands of the Gentile powers, including the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. But when these nations went too far in dealing with Israel, God maintained Israel's cause, punishing those who mistreated them.
Behind the physical realm there is the spiritual realm in which God governs the entire universe, executing justice for His people every day as each day requires. God does this for His elect, both for Israel and for the believers in Christ. When His elect make mistakes and offend Him, He will discipline them, using others as an instrument for chastening. At the same time, He maintains the cause of His elect by executing justice upon those who persecute them. For example, Hitler killed millions of Jews without a cause, but God came in to execute His justice over Hitler and to maintain the cause of Israel.
After Solomon blessed the people, he and the people offered a vast quantity of sacrifices as the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering to God (vv. 62-64). The burnt offering is for God's pleasure; the meal offering is for God's satisfaction; and the peace offering is for God and His people to be one in peace.
Solomon and the people held a feast for seven days and seven more days, fourteen days in all. Then he sent the people away, and the people blessed him as their king and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness which Jehovah had done to David and Israel His people (vv. 65-66).
Solomon typifies Christ (Matt. 12:42) in speaking God's word of wisdom (13:35) and in building the church as the temple of God (16:18; 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22), and the temple typifies Christ (Matt. 12:6) and the church as the unique building of God in the universe. These two — Christ and His Body, the church — are the center, the reality, and the goal of God's eternal economy.
Since Solomon and the temple built by him play the strongest roles in the history of Israel and occupy a wide realm in such a history, they are the strong evidence that the history of Israel concerns very much the fulfillment of God's eternal economy in the Old Testament in the way of typology. If our study of such a history is detached from the economy of God, our study will be a labor in vain. That Christ and the church are the centrality and universality of God's economy is universal in both the New Testament and the Old Testament. We need to see clearly that the books of history were written from the point of view of God's eternal economy concerning Christ and the church.
