2 Chronicles 6 Commentary
“But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” Solomon’s understanding of the Creator God was quite advanced. He understood it wasn’t for mortals to provide accommodation for immortals.
An immortal that you feed, that you accommodate, or that you carry around isn’t worth the name!
When David had pressed the LORD God for the honor of building the LORD God a house, the LORD God had responded by telling David that the LORD God didn’t need accommodation. Instead, it was David who needed a house. This should be very interesting because David had just completed building his own palace!
A man remains homeless without the house that only the LORD God can provide. The street corner, a humble house in some suburb, a mansion here and there, a palace, an island, or even a yacht, how you want one of them to be a home! No. The LORD God says no. Only the LORD God can provide a real home for a man. I guess that is the essence of salvation. Every man knows it. We feel it. We understand it.
Solomon’s prayer is all about the LORD’s promise to David: to build David a lasting house. The promise hung on the condition of obedience. Nothing has changed. There is a house that the LORD has prepared for the saint. Possession of that house hangs on the condition of obedience.
The temple is erected, representing man’s attempt to accommodate the Creator God. The son that the LORD had said would build the temple has done it. Let the LORD answer prayer from this temple. This forms the core of Solomon’s petition.
Like David, Peter would offer to build the LORD a house on the Mountain of Transfiguration. The LORD didn’t even respond to Peter’s apparent mindless wish. When we look deep into our own lives and see the longing for the presence of the LORD, then we know Peter’s wish to build the LORD a tent wasn’t mindless at all. The temple, therefore, represented man’s need for God’s presence. We are empty without it.
But mortal man cannot build an environment in which the LORD God can live. Only the real son (Son) can build a house for the LORD. “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” Indeed, the LORD Jesus built the real temple at the cross.
The saint should look back at all these symbols here in the Old Testament and understand that they are the real temple of the Spirit. Let prayer be said from this temple. And let the LORD answer the prayer that the saint says, from within the Temple.
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