UNROLL
First light in the temple court: silver trumpets laid in a row on white linen, bronze cymbals, small lyres and two upright harps waiting by a stone step, the altar’s thin smoke and the temple porch with its two bronze pillars behind.

The Book of

2 Chronicles 5

The ark comes home to its place, the singers lift one voice, and the cloud of glory fills the house.

14 verses≈ 3 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1SolomonWisdom asked at Gibeon
  2. 2–5The templeBuilt on Mount MoriahChapter 5
  3. 6–7DedicationIf My people humble themselves
  4. 8–9Solomon's gloryThe queen of Sheba
  5. 10–16DivisionRehoboam to Asa
  6. 17–20JehoshaphatThe battle is God's
  7. 21–24Dark yearsJehoram to Joash
  8. 25–28Proud kingsAmaziah to Ahaz
  9. 29–32HezekiahDoors opened, Passover kept
  10. 33–35Manasseh to JosiahMercy and the Book found
  11. 36Exile and returnMay he go up

The Ark Enters the Temple

So all the work that Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and all the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of God.

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At that time Solomon assembled in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David. So all the men of Israel came together to the king at the feast in the seventh month.

Reflect

Carried rightly

This time the ark went up on the shoulders of the Levites, as God had said, and not on a cart as on David’s first try (1 Chronicles 15:13). Is there something in your walk with God you have been carrying your own way? What would it look like to do it His way?

In the dim Most Holy Place, seen from low down inside the doorway, the gold ark rests on the floor with its two long poles running toward us, beneath the level, wall-to-wall wings of two great gold cherubim whose heads are lost in shadow.

Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its poles.

The poles of the ark extended far enough that their ends were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

0:35

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions.

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, all the Levitical singers—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps, and lyres, accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.

Question

Quick question

The priests set the ark in the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

What was inside the ark when it came to its place?

The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They lifted up their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.”

A bright white cloud pours out of the open doorway of the temple porch between the two bronze pillars and fills the house, while priests in white linen step back across the court, shading their eyes, and the singers stand still behind them.

And the temple, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud

so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

For the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

2 Chronicles 5:14

Pray

With one voice

The cloud came as the singers praised the LORD “with one voice.” Join the oldest song in this book: thank God that “He is good” and that “His loving devotion endures forever.” Then ask Him to make His presence known wherever His people praise Him together. Amen.

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2 Chronicles 5

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A verse to carry with you

The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They lifted up their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.” And the temple, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

2 Chronicles 5:13–14

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