Forming Faith Blog

Solomon and God’s House (1 Kings 5 & 8)

Posted on October 15 2024 by Gregory Rawn

Fulfilling the promise God made to his father David, Solomon built a house for God. It was not to house God (as if God needed a house); it was to direct the people to pray to the God of Israel.

A boy wearing a crown. King Solomon built the temple for God.
Photo by R. Fera on Pexels.com
King David to King Solomon

The assigned passage for last week focused on King David’s plan to build a house (temple) for God, and God’s counter-promises of a house (dynasty) for David and that God’s physical house would be built by David’s son. The rest of David’s life story as described in 2 Samuel was eventful and somewhat tragic, with a mountain of family drama and trauma. The Book of 1 Kings continues the story with David’s death and his choice of Solomon as his heir to the throne.

After David died, Solomon consolidated his reign, and we get the well-known story of God’s offer to Solomon of whatever he wanted and Solomon’s request for wisdom. Now we get to the king’s intention to build the temple (which throughout is referred to as God’s house).

God’s Promise, Solomon’s Plan

The narrative of the temple’s establishment (chapters 5-6, 8-9) begins with a conversation between King Hiram of Tyre (modern Lebanon) and Solomon in 1 Kings 5:1-5. Israel’s king expressed his intention to build a house for God. Hiram, incidentally, had an abundance of the resources that Solomon would soon need. This entire narrative is explicitly connected to God’s promises to David. Solomon claims the promise that David’s son would build the temple—and then he does. God made the house of David a promise, and Solomon plans to fulfill his portion of that.

God’s Presence, Solomon’s Prayer

The Narrative Lectionary thankfully skips over the tedious details of the temple’s construction. Today’s assigned reading also skips over the dedication of the temple as that will be covered next year. However, a significant event is missing this year: what happened after the priests placed the ark of the covenant in the new temple’s most holy place:

And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

1 Kings 8:10-11

Just like on Mount Sinai, God manifested in the temple. God demonstrated approval of this house with a sign of God’s presence.

After a brief speech to the assembled people, reminding them of God’s promise to David regarding the temple, Solomon gives a lengthy prayer. Our assigned reading gives us two snippets of this.

God’s House as a Gift

In some ways, the temple is a gift from God to the people. The temple provides a physical reminder of God’s presence, the place where God’s name dwells, and a place for worshippers to focus their prayers and sacrifices. [I wonder if the singularity of God’s house (versus the multiplicity of temples in other religions) is intended to represent or reinforce the singularity of God.]

Verse 27 offers a bit of a corrective or clarification:

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!”

1 Kings 8:27

While the temple is impressive, it does not limit God. God is greater than even the entire world with its limitless skies. Israel’s God is not small. God is not there and not here. The temple is not for God—something God needs—it is for the people.

God’s Purpose, Solomon’s Plea

While the entire idea of the temple’s establishment begins with people (David and Solomon), it is God’s purpose. We know this because the house of God is version 2.0, a replacement of the tabernacle that God commanded Moses and the people to build after giving them the Torah on Mount Sinai.

Solomon’s plea is that God would hear the prayers of the faithful who direct their prayer and worship to God’s house. In chapter 8:28-53, Solomon gives example after example of situations where people would pray to God. Each time, he requests that God hear their prayers and answer them.

This includes the prayers of foreigners (our last passage). Specifically, foreigners who have heard of God’s reputation (name) and come to pray. Next spring, we will see an example of this (though with the second temple) in the Ethiopian official who traveled to worship God.

God’s Promise, Presence, and Purpose for Us

The temple was a specifically Israelite/Jewish place. This temple that Solomon built was destroyed by the Babylonian army over 300 years later. The Jews that returned from exile in Babylon built a new temple in its place. But, while Jesus and his first followers were faithful Jews, Jesus’ movement did not involve the temple as central to their worship and identity.

God’s presence with us was first in the person of the incarnate Word, Jesus the Messiah. Then, after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, God’s presence was poured out onto all believers in the person of God the Holy Spirit. We are each temples of the Holy Spirit. God’s name dwells in us. This doesn’t mean that we should direct our prayers into ourselves (as to the Jerusalem temple) but that the God who is not bound even by the universe itself has been set loose in us to spread God’s name to foreigners (1 Kings 8:41-43).

The Temple and Our Churches

God’s gift of the Holy Spirit within each of us is not an invitation to individualism. We are still to gather together—to worship and work together—as the assembly (what the Greek for “church” means). The Church, the assembly of all believers throughout time and space, is the Body of Christ.

Our churches, while they have significant similarities to the Jewish temple (as a physical location where people gather to pray and worship), we must remember that they are different. There was only one temple at a time, while there are innumerable churches. Animal sacrifices, important to Israelite worship, only took place in the temple, and we would hope that there would be no blood spilled in our church buildings today. And God’s name does not dwell within our church buildings but in us and in our gathering together.

In God’s holy presence,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

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