Word of Encouragement (02/12/2025)
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 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 and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. (2 Chron. 7:12–16)
What was God’s answer to Solomon’s prayer of dedication? “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice” (v. 12). If you recall, one of the last petitions of his prayer of dedication was this: “And now arise, O Lord God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might…” (v. 41). This was according to the promise God made in the wilderness: “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed” (Deut. 16:16). With this response, God affirmed that the place where Solomon built the temple was the place of His choice.
It was not that God just rubber-stamped Solomon’s choice of location. It was a place rich in historical significance. We read in 2 Chron. 3:1, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” First, we are told that it was on Mount Moriah where Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac (Gen. 22:2). It was also the place that he purchased from Ornan the Jebusite to build an alter and offer burnt offerings and peace offerings so he could avert the angel of death from killing more Jews (on account of David’s sinful project of taking a census). It was not that God was simply following Solomon’s lead as it were; rather, God had provided certain hints throughout redemptive history as to where the temple should be built.
It is also interesting that the Lord calls the temple “a house of sacrifice.” If you recall, Solomon’s prayer of dedication represents the temple mainly as a house of prayer—the place for the Jews (and foreigners, 2 Chron. 6:42) to direct their prayers. We can see why God did so from its historical background: it was where Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac and David offered burnt and peace offerings to stop God’s judgment on the Israelites.
By this designation, God showed the necessity of sacrifice for their prayers to be accepted. There was nothing magical about Solomon’s temple. Without the sacrifice to atone for the sins of the Israelites, they could not hope for God’s attention to their prayers. Of course, the temple (a house of sacrifice), the victims (the animals sacrificed), and the priests all pointed to Jesus Christ, in whom we have forgiveness and access to the throne of God’s grace. Instead of a place (which is impersonal and lifeless), we have God’s designated Person, through whom we come to God in prayer and in whom we have communion with God. Let us be humble (because we ourselves have no right) and bold (because we come in the powerful name of Jesus Christ), diligent and persistent in coming to God in prayer!