Vv.1-9
V. 1
6:38, it took Solomon seven years to build the temple.
7:1, it took him thirteen years to build his house.
9:1, after he finished the temple and his house, the Lord appeared
to him.
This means that he was only able to live in his beautiful house less than 20 years. Life is short. After all that work, only able to live in it seven years longer than it took to build it. Seems kind of foolish.
Moreover, the temple itself was only used for a very short time after Solomon's death. So the temple was only used for less than 40 years. Again, it seems like a terrible waste of money, but the Lord told them to do it. I believe this shows that all the wealth in the world is nothing to him; he can take it away as easily as he can give it, or give it as easily as he can take it away.
Evidently the Lord appeared to Solomon thirteen (at least) years after he dedicated the temple and make the beautiful prayer of chapter 8.
In 2 Chronicles 6:12, we see this answer again to his prayer of thirteen years earlier.
Let's look at the prayer in 2 Chronicles 6:12ff.
Solomon kneeled on the scaffold 4 ½ feet above the people, so all could see him in his public acknowledgement that he was God's servant, only administrating a kingdom not his own. (1 Chronicles 28:5.)
V. 14, that walk before thee with all their hearts: Solomon clearly knew what he had to do to keep God's hand upon him and the kingdom. This prayer was only about 7 years into his reign, and the Lord was still real and fresh in his mind.
This prayer in Chronicles is almost verbatum of the one in 1 Kings 8, except for a few things. The manin thing that stands out to me is the number of times here in Chronicles the word, term or phrase for the turn or return in used:
5 times, vv. 24, 26, 30, 37, 38. He refers to turning from their sin in their hearts evidenced by their actions, v. 30.
There was no doubt in Solomon's heart that Israel would be removed from the land for its sin, but he led them into sin anyway.
Notice v. 24
Shall return
And... confess thy name and PRAY
Then... HEAR and forgive
V. 26
PRAY, confess thy name
TURN from their sin
then HEAR and forgive
V. 30
PRAY
HEAR, forgive
according to all his ways (did he turn? If not, then his ways
did not change, no matter how loudly he wept and prayed before
the Lord.)
V. 37
TURN
PRAY
V. 38
RETURN
PRAY
then HEAR, maintain their cause, forgive.
Five times here, Solomon puts a condition upon God—HEARING and FORGIVING their sins, and that condition is TURNING because God only hears, forgives and delivers according to all his (the man's) ways, v. 30.
But we see the last one, God does not deliver from the hands of the enemy all the time. Knowing the idolatry in the hearts of His people, even in captivity, He left them in the hands of their enemies, but he did give compassion in the eyes of their captors, and He did maintain their cause. (1 Kings 8, 2 Chronicles 6:39.)
"Well, we can do as we please, and if we lose all , then all we have to do is repent and return to God, and He will restore it all."
No, He won't. The land of promise was lost because of sin, and it could not be regained, but they could still serve God as a captive nation, and God would bless them, but they could not undo the effects of sin.
Example:
I know a man who I never would have believed would fall. I lot
track of him for a while, and the next thing I knew, he had been
divorced and remarried.
Now, I believe God can forgive the sin of unjust divorce just like he can forgive the sin of curssing, lieing , cheating, &c. But as far as that person ever being able to repossess the promised land again (for him, a successful pastor of a large and growing church), I do not believe he can.
I believe he was carried out of it because of sin (the sin that led to the divorce), and once outside of the land, he can still turn to the Lord (I believe he has), and pray, and the Lord will (has) hear, and will maintain his cause, and give him compassion in the eyes of his captors. But as far as ever going back into the land, I do not see how he can. I do not see how he can ever be now what he could have been back there if he had turned before he was carried ouit of his promised land.
My personal observation on this: We will wait and see what God does, but it is for sure here in this prayer of Solomon, that HE KNEW in the last of the prayer that once they were carried ouit they would not return as a people, and they have not, no matter how much crying and weeping and repenting they do. They are out, and there is no longer a Hebrew people to return. Read Ezra, Nehemiah and even Esther. They became sastified as captives, as they settled down in the land of their captivity.
Enough were concerned, and prayed, for God to give them compassion in their captivity, and for them to return and rebuild. They rebuilt, however, as a captive nation. Enough did return to have a presence for Christ to come, but Rome destroyed what was left of them in AD 70, as their final judgement for the sin of killing the son. What is over there in Canaan now has no connection whatsoever to the Hebrew nation that Solomon reigned over. What is there now is simply a group of Gentiles who decided to follow the Jewish religious order.
There is a price on sin. The people went their own way. God sent their enemies against them, and carried them off into captivity. (1 Chronicles 5:26, 1 Chronicles 6:15, Isaiah 10:5ff,)
Though the people repented, they still remained in captivity, and then even when they returned to the land, they did it under the authority of another nation.
2 Chronicles 7:3, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
God's mercy does not cannot undue the physical affects of sin.
Example: a drunkard—God's mercy can forgive him and clean up his life as many times as he is willing to obey Proverbs 28:13, 14, but there is a time when scorousses of the liver takes over as a natural result. The drunk can still find forgiveness and mercy from the Lord (70x7), but the Lord will not undo the liver problems. (Smoking, as with Jesse.)
Remember Danny Lynche's father-in-law's brother I visited in the hospital in Shreveport LA. He would seek grace and mercy from the lord. The lord would give him grace and mercy, but that did not solve the liver problem.
If the man will seek Gods' mercy and grace soon enough and stay right, he can stay in the land. He can continue to seek the mercy and grace, but after a while he will be removed form the land, and cannot go back, even though the Lord is still showing grace and mercy.
The mercy does endure forever (7:3), but there is a point where the natural results take over. We still have mercy, but the effects are there, and the land is lost. The liver disease sets in, and all that can be obtained now from the Lord is compassion in the eyes of the captors. Where is the point that the natural results take over?? I don't know.
2 Chronicles 7:3, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
The people knew that, but did they take advantage of this mercy?
2 Chronicles 7:11 and 1 Kings 9:1 are parallel passages, almost word for word. However, 2 Chronicles gives us more detail to the prayer's answer from the Lord.
(1 Kings 9:10, the building was a 20 year project, so evidently the Lord waited until he had all the building complete to appear to Solomon.)
After Solomon completed both houses, the Lord appeared to him by night, 7:12.
Note what the Lord told Solomon:
1) V. 13, which is 6:28-31 of Solomon's prayer:
A. Solomon says that when the pestilences come, His people need to return, and God will heal.
B. The Lord hear sais that when the pestilences come, if His people will return, He will heal.
We quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 regularly, but notice the passage is given to His people while they were still in the land. They were not yet in captivity to their enemies.
1) V. 19, which is 6:36-39 of Solomon's prayer.
A. Solomon says that when the people are carried off out of the land into captivity, they need to turn and pray, and God will give compassion in the eyes of their enemies, and maintain their cause in the in the eyes of their enemies.
B. The Lord here makes the same warning. To serve other gods and to worship them will result in being carried OUT OF THE LAND.
So there seems to be two types of sins here:
1. Just forgetting the Lord, and everyone doing his own thing
— what is right in his own eyes.
a. Results in pestilence and bugs.
b. Answer is to turn from sins, and seek His face. The land is
healed.
2. The other seems to be idolatry.
a. Result is plucked out of the land, and cast out of His sight.
b. Still need to turn from sin and seek His face. Compassion in
the eyes of the enemies.
Question: What is the difference today between 1 & 2?
Is sports an idol or simply doing one's own thing?
I might call to our attention here from both Kings and Chronicles that the threats of God are just as sure as the promises of God. We like to live in His promises of blessings, and we should, but we also need to pay attention to his threats.
Notice the end of Solomon's prayer. (1 Kings 8:51-53.) He reminds God that He brought them out of Egypt. He reminds God twice, vv. 51 & 53.
"God, you must answer this and protect us from our enemies because you brought us up out of Egypt."
Note God's answer, 9:9:
"If you don't do right, everyone will look and say, ‘So this is that people who God brought out of Egypt. Look at what He did to them because they turned from Him to serve other gods."
FOR US:
Sure, God redeemed us by His Son, Christ Jesus.
Sure, He brought us up out of bondage to sin.
Sure, He gave us victory after victory, promise after promise.
But, this does not except us from the results of sin.
"God, you had better not chastize me for my sin. What will the heathen say about You who is supposed to be such a loving God?"
God answer: "They will say, ‘Look at what happens to someone who turns from the Lord Who redeemed them.'"
1 Kings 9:10
I moved my hand written notes on "inflation" from here to 5:11. See my notes there.
V. 20, Here Solomon puts the captives among them to work doing the hard, manual labour.
V. 21, but these people were to have been completely destroyed. As long as God's people served God, they remained strong. When they turned to other gods, they lost their strength, and these captives took over.
V. 22, God's people put the captive people doing the hard work, and they remained the leaders, chiefs and the captains.
A man who does not have to invest hard work into something will take it for granted. Look at the vast wealth left by parents, and the children squander it away because it cost them nothing.