1 Kings 8:27-50

They had Israel, a physical dwelling place, and the Spirit gave utterance to an elect group  of those who the people would listen to. 

We have Jesus, who dwells spiritually within us, and the Holy Spirit gives utterance to all who choose to believe in Him and who will listen. Our enemy roams the earth seeking to kill, steal and destroy those who believe in Christ.

His enemies were those of His own house…the religious right.He chose to give His life for us anyway. Praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Hebrew word used here for pleading, rinnah, indicates a strong raising of the voice that can be either a cry of fright or a cry of joy. In the ot, God threatens to turn Israel over to its enemies as punishment for abandoning His ways. This reflects a common ancient Near Eastern belief that the god of a nation protected his people so long as he was satisfied with them. There is not rain because they have sinned Indicates that Israel’s behavior determines the weather and fertility of the land. In the ancient Near East, deities had to commission or approve battles. Conquering armies in the ancient Near East commonly displaced the conquered by systematically sending them to other lands. Faithlife Bible.

The God of Scripture is infinite; all that He has made, vast as creation may be, finally has its limits. No mere building, no matter how wonderful, can be thought of as the dwelling place of God. Yet in His grace the Lord condescends to be viewed as having His dwelling among men. God’s dwelling in a temple prefigured the Incarnation when the Creator became man, born in a stable in Bethlehem.

Solomon’s first request asks for righteous judgment. In such situations where there was insufficient evidence to establish a charge, the accused was obliged to take an oath declaring his innocence.  Solomon’s second request asks for forgiveness of sin, where sin against God has caused Israel to be defeated. Solomon’s third and fourth requests deal with healing the land after distress or drought due to the people’s sin. The remedy in such cases of judgment is repentance and prayer for forgiveness, followed by renewed faithfulness to the standards of God’s covenant. Solomon’s fifth request deals with prayer by a foreigner. Unlike God’s people or resident aliens within the commonwealth of Israel, foreigners have no particular claim on the ear of God. But God’s people expected foreigners to be drawn to Him through the worship of His people. Solomon’s sixth and seventh requests concern matters relative to wartime situations. Battle was to be waged in accordance with divine directions and could be lost by disobedience. Believers must face all of life’s crucial encounters with trust in God and faithful adherence to the standards of His word. NKJ Bible.

1 Kings 8

27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! 28 Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: 29 that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. 30 And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive.

37 “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 38 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: 39 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), 40 that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

41 “Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake 42 (for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43 hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.

46 “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; 47 yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness’; 48 and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name: 49 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, 50 and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them.

Leviticus 26:40 | ‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

Deuteronomy 25:1 | “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

1 Samuel 12:23 | Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way.

Psalm 27:11 | Teach me Your way, O LORD,And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.

Psalm 102:15 | So the nations shall fear the name of the LORD,And all the kings of the earth Your glory.

Solomon stood before the altar—This position was in the court of the people, on a brazen scaffold erected for the occasion, fronting the altar of burnt offering, and surrounded by a mighty concourse of people. Assuming the attitude of a suppliant, kneeling and with uplifted hands, he performed the solemn act of consecration—an act remarkable, among other circumstances, for this, that it was done, not by the high priest or any member of the Aaronic family, but by the king in person, who might minister about, though not in, holy things.

This sublime prayer, which breathes sentiments of the loftiest piety blended with the deepest humility, naturally bore a reference to the national blessing and curse contained in the law—and the burden of it—after an ascription of praise to the Lord for the bestowment of the former, was an earnest supplication for deliverance from the latter. He specifies seven cases in which the merciful interposition of God would be required; and he earnestly bespeaks it on the condition of people praying towards that holy place. The blessing addressed to the people at the close is substantially a brief recapitulation of the preceding prayer. Commentary JFB.