PROCLAMATION
“May The Lord our God be with us as He was with our ancestors;
may He never leave us nor forsake us.
May He turn our hearts to Him, to walk in obedience to Him and keep the
commands, decrees and laws He gave our ancestors.” 1 Kings 8:57-58 (NIV)
EXPLANATION
After all of the work on the temple was finished, King
Solomon had all of the things that his father David had dedicated, the silver
and gold and all the furnishings, brought into the temple. (1 Kings 7:51) Then he summoned all of the elders of Israel
to Jerusalem. When they had arrived, he
had to priests to bring the ark of The Lord and the tent and all of its
furnishings to the temple. (1 Kings 8:1-5)
When the priests withdrew from the temple, a cloud filled the temple of
The Lord. (1 Kings 8:10-11) Then Solomon
prayed for the people, (1 Kings 8:12-21) and he prayed a prayer of dedication for
the temple. (1 Kings 8:22-53) Solomon
then pronounced a blessing upon the people of God, (1 Kings 8:54-61) after which
he observed a festival with all of Israel and the celebration lasted fourteen
days. (1 Kings 8:65)
APPLICATION
We all need to understand that we need God’s help to
walk in His way. It is by His grace and
mercy that we make it through each day. Solomon’s
request that “The Lord God be with us as He was with our ancestors” was a great
blessing for us because we need God’s help.
Only He can turn our hearts from our worldly appetites to walking His
way and doing His will. Only He change
our hearts. He can harden our hearts, as
He did with Pharaoh, (Exodus 7:13, 9:12, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, and 14:8) or He
can turn us over to our reprobate minds, (Romans 1:28) or He can give us a new
heart and spirit. (Ezekiel 11:19) That
is why we should pray, as David prayed, that He will create within us a clean
heart and a right spirit which is focused in Him. (Psalm 51:10)
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