Unknown
Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
8:22-53 Solomon's Prayer. The ark of the covenant has arrived in the temple (vv. 1-13), and Solomon has addressed the people about the meaning of the event (vv. 14-21). He now turns to address God, reflecting on the nature of God's "dwelling" in the temple and offering a sevenfold petitionary prayer (each section involving a plea that God should "hear from heaven"; vv. 32, 34, 36, 39, 43, 45, 49) for those who will approach him in the temple. The prayer is important for understanding the books of Kings as a whole, for it places both the temple and the law in wider perspective. The temple is an important building, but God is not confined by a building and is certainly not dependent on it. He will survive even its destruction, and will hear his people's prayers when they go into exile. Likewise, obedience to the law is very important, but Solomon holds out hope for restoration, even when the people fail to obey.
8:24 In bringing the temple to completion, the Lord has kept the promise he declared to his servant David. Cf. 2 Sam. 7:13.
8:27-30 will God indeed dwell on the earth? Though God will dwell in the temple (vv. 10, 13; cf. note on 1 Sam. 4:3-4), it is not to be thought of as the only place where God is, but as a special place where his name is, a place toward which his eyes are open (1 Kings 8:29; cf. Isa. 66:1-3). The hearing of prayer is done in heaven (1 Kings 8:30), which is (if anywhere is) the dwelling place of God. Even then, however, God cannot be limited to any one place; he cannot, strictly speaking, dwell in even the highest heaven (v. 27). He cannot be confined by space.
8:31-32 If a man sins against his neighbor. This is the first of seven specific petitions concerning a legal case in which difficulties over evidence or witnesses make it impossible to resolve the case in any normal way (cf. 3:16-28). A priestly ritual is involved here (cf. Num. 4:11-31): God himself is invoked as judge to condemn the guilty and clear the righteous individual.
8:33-40 When your people Israel are defeated. The second, third, and fourth petitions concern defeat in battle, and subsequent exile from the land (vv. 33-34), drought (vv. 35-36), and assorted perils such as famine, pestilence, and siege (vv. 37-40). In each case the cause of the problem is sin, and the main requirement of the situation is forgiveness, although divine instruction is also requested (v. 36).
8:41-43 The fifth petition turns from Israelites to the foreigner who has heard of the Lord's great name, mighty hand, and outstretched arm (Deut. 4:34; 5:15) and prays toward the temple. Solomon desires that this person, too, would know answered prayer and that all the peoples of the earth should know God's name and fear him (cf. Isa. 2:1-5; 56:6-8; Luke 7:1-10).
8:44-45 If your people go out to battle. The sixth petition, like the second, is concerned with war, but this time the focus is not on defeat as a result of sin but on victory in God's cause (whatever way you shall send them). The army is envisaged as fighting to bring God's justice to the earth.
8:46-51 carried away captive. The seventh petition returns to the question of defeat and exile, the major concern of the prayer. If exile should take place, and if the people should repent and pray toward land, city, and temple (v. 48; cf. Dan. 6:10 for the practice), then God is asked to regard them once more as his people and maintain their cause (1 Kings 8:49; cf. v. 45). They are the Lord's heritage or inheritance, the people brought out of Egypt (v. 51; cf. Deut. 4:20); Solomon implicitly looks for a "second exodus," from a different land, to match the first one.
