Word of Encouragement (02/06/2025)
And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chron. 7:3)
When Solomon finished the prayer of dedication, fire came down from heaven and filled the temple with the glory of the Lord. This was what happened when Moses dedicated the tabernacle to the Lord at Mount Sinai. So awesome and overwhelming was the glory of the Lord that even Moses could not enter the tabernacle at the time. It was no surprise, then, that the priests could not enter the temple when the glory of the Lord filled it. When the people saw it, they bowed down with their faces to the ground and worshipped God. In doing so, they thanked the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
Why did they thank the Lord? This supernatural phenomenon showed that the Lord heard Solomon’s prayer. What a clear demonstration it was that the Lord came to His resting place and took His dwelling there just as Solomon prayed (6:41)! The people’s thanksgiving showed that they did not take this answer to prayer for granted. We can thank others out of politeness for a service duly rendered. But this was not an instance of politeness. God did not owe them any reply. The temple might have been an architectural marvel and beauty. But did it measure up to God’s glory? Should God feel obligated to accept it if it wasn’t for His gracious covenant with them?
There was no merit in Solomon’s prayer, either. No matter how elegant his words, how powerful his rhetoric, his prayer could not compel God to answer him. God is merciful and His ears are inclined to the needy and downtrodden. But He is also holy and just: as long as sin stands as a barrier between God and a man, no prayer of his can reach God’s ears and move His heart, however pathetic his situation (Isa. 59:1-2). They knew that the awesome display of God’s glory a favor they did not deserve. They could not help but cry out, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
In thanking God, they were not praising God for His goodness in a generic sense: they connected His goodness with His “steadfast love.” The Hebrew word for “steadfast love” is chesed, which is His covenant faithfulness. With Solomon, they acknowledged that the whole basis of all that they hope to receive from God was His gracious covenant with them and His faithfulness to the covenant.
What source of comfort and security this is! It may be uncomfortable to shift the basis of our security from ourselves to something outside of us. But how reliable are we? And if we have a rock as solid as God to rely on, we should be most eager to build our lives and confidence on Him! Seeing that God has kept His covenant by sending His Son to suffer and die for us and His Holy Spirit to dwell and work out His salvation in us, let us bow down in worship of God and thank Him. “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”