UNROLL
Night after the dedication: the empty temple court under the stars, the great square bronze altar still glowing with deep red embers and sending up a slow column of pale smoke, the long, plain stone house with its two bronze pillars dark behind it.

The Book of

2 Chronicles 7

Fire falls, the people bow and sing, and that night God answers the king’s prayer with a promise for every generation.

22 verses≈ 5 min2 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 Moriah
  3. 6–7DedicationIf My people humble themselvesChapter 7
  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

Fire from Heaven

When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it.

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The temple court seen low from the pavement: row after row of Israelite men, women and children bowed with their faces to the stone, and beyond them the great square bronze altar ablaze and a bright white cloud resting over the long, plain stone house.

When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD:

“For He is good;

His loving devotion endures forever.”

Sacrifices of Dedication

Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.

Late morning on the roads out of Jerusalem: families stream home with laden donkeys, children run ahead, people sing, and an old man turns to look back at the temple on its hill among golden autumn hills.

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the good things that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

Question

Quick question

So many offerings were brought that Solomon set apart the middle of the courtyard.

Why did Solomon consecrate the middle of the courtyard?

The LORD’s Response to Solomon

Night on a flat palace roof in Jerusalem: Solomon sits awake alone on a low wooden bench beside a small clay oil lamp, his face turned toward the dark temple on its hill, under a calm, empty, starry sky.

When Solomon had finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace, successfully carrying out all that was in his heart to do for the house of the LORD and for his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

0:16

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Late spring in the hill country: a vast brown cloud of locusts sweeps low over terraced fields of ripening barley, the near stalks already stripped, while a farmer and his wife stand at the edge of their field watching, hands at their heads.

If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,

and 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, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. For I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.

Pray

Humble ourselves

Pray God’s words in verse 14 for yourself and your church first. Lord, humble me. Teach me to pray and to seek Your face, and show me the wicked ways I need to turn from. Thank You that You hear from heaven and forgive. Do this among Your people wherever they are, and begin with me. Amen.

Humble, pray, seek, turn

When troublecomesNo rain, locusts,plague · 13My peopleCalled by My name · 14HumblethemselvesRehoboam 12:6 ·Manasseh 33:12PrayAs Solomonprayed ·6:21Seek MyfaceAsa 15:2 ·Jehoshaphat20:3TurnFrom theirwicked ways· 14I will hear,forgive, healThe answer to 6:26–31· 14

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God answers Solomon’s prayer with four things His people do and three things He will do. Watch for these words through the rest of the book: the kings who humbled themselves and sought Him were heard.

And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’

But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

A gray morning long after: on the temple hill only a broad heap of tumbled, blackened limestone blocks and charred cedar beams, weeds in the cracks, while two travelers on the road below stop and stare, appalled.

And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

Reflect

For He is good

When the fire fell, the people bowed to the ground and gave thanks: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.” That song outlasted even the ruin God warned of; the exiles sang it again when they came home. Write down one way you have seen God’s goodness this week, and one way His love has lasted through a hard time.

You’ve experienced

2 Chronicles 7

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A verse to carry with you

and 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, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

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